Of course Loki doesn't accept this show as being merciful - it doesn't exactly help his chances of avoiding his fate, after all - but Thor knows not what else to do. There's a distant shout behind him, as if Odin is calling out, but there's a lack of guards rushing up to stop them.

Loki, clever as he is, can't go anywhere, can't hide, and Thor hates everything for that fact. Their terrible, too-short dance of their centuries of life has suddenly come to an end, has burnt itself out in the sudden heat of their hatred and betrayed trust.

Thor feels his ankle caught and the mud aiding in his sliding, but he plants his other foot all the firmer, rocks back away from it with a roar and has only a slight stumble to show for it. He lunges forward and isn't sure what guides his swinging arm more - a sense of terrible, chaining duty or the honest anger boiling in his chest over the cruelty of their sentences.

Because to kill Loki is killing a part of himself, something which Thor is still trying to not have to come to grips with.

Mjolnir curves in an arc that's headed for Loki's shoulder, intent on knocking him down.