The Kursed, of course, was the one who had slain her. She'd had Malekith dead to rights. She had not known the origins of where the monster had come, but that it had been implanted in the dungeons made a certain amount of terrible sense. Freeing the prisoners - of course, the distraction, the one that Odin had told her was nothing to fear.

Frigga shook her head slightly, thinking. Then she saw Loki withdraw from her, saw the way he worried at his hand, and without scarcely a thought, she reached out to take his hand away from his mouth. "Don't," she said quietly. "There is no need for that between us."

She had said such things to him before, when he was younger and learning magics. She had not wanted him to give into fear and nervousness. She had not wanted him to feel as though he could not speak or think on his own.