It was too much a copy of Loki's oath to completely calm Loki's worries, but he supposed that the choice to swear on his head god at least fit Gabriel's pantheon. It would have to do.

"Not a bet," he repeated. "But a prank. I was visiting Czernobog, the American one, of course, and happened to find some sleeping pills in the bathroom. It seemed too good a chance for mischief to waste, so I drugged his drink expecting that he'd fall asleep and I could make off with his hammer in the meantime."

"But it didn't work out quite like that. Instead of just dropping into sleep he ... got confused, sort of delirious. I grabbed the hammer anyway and he threw all sorts of curses and ineffective half-formed spells at me."

"Or at least I thought it was all ineffective at the time, but then I got sick and no other god seemed to be able to lift the curse. I returned the hammer to old 'Bog of course, but it turned out he couldn't figure out exactly what he'd done either. He identified it as leukaemia, though, and suggested to try the human treatment."

He let himself drop onto his back and laughed up at the other Loki.

"So you see, it's very unlikely that you'd ever get it. I bet you don't even know any version of Czernobog, let alone had any plans of drugging him."