yeah that's why i was frustrated by his absence the past few issues. I knew he was capable of healing himself up from worse than a broken arm. (I mean if he could put himself back together after Laufey ate him, this is nothing) It seemed logical that he would take the pieces of the cane, which he could probably use those to help Thor. It seemed likely that he was still in Asgard when they all got shunted off to Dimension Blood, so he was probably there. (but it was also possible he had teleported away back to Jotunheim or Midgard) Maybe it was even him that told Sif about Blake, hoping she and the others would be able to take care of it while he fixed himself up, (sure, he knew Blake had kicked his ass, but he had been taken by surprise, how would he have known Blake was a one man army?) And it seemed like he would probably have a part to play in the resolution, given how the story opened with his involvement. But that was all speculation and conjecture. While my guesses on what happened do seem to be paying off now, to have none of that actually shown, until now, was frustrating. I just wanted to know what had happened after the fight with Blake, rather than have to speculate on what was most likely.

I get the temptation to make his motivations here unclear, because a lot of readers still think of him as a bad guy. Just go read the intro text to that preview, where it says Strange will have to make a 'dark alliance' in reference to Loki, clearly taking the position that Loki is probably doing something bad here. But we have been doing the 'is he really trying to be good, or is this all a trick?' thing for YEARS now, and I am just kinda tired of it. If he's going to turn face, just go with it. I'm not saying he has to be a saint, and I get that the characters will be suspicious of him, just not play every appearance as 'is he here do do something good, or bad?' to the readers. Maybe tho, since this arc of Thor is selling really well and is so high profile, it's got the eyeballs of 100,000 readers on it just in North America, nevermind the rest of the world, if Loki comes through in the end, they'll have a harder time playing that game going forward.

And yeah, I think Loki is the only one who knows, unless he's told them. But if he has told them, as mentioned before, they may not believe him. Well, Ratatoskr knows, but i don't think she has a way to tell anyone else just now. Maybe once they get back to Asgard she can act as a go-between though.