A Deal with Loki-Part 1

I was standing in the dark and speaking into the night. "Hello?" I was calling. "I came to take up your offer." The dark seemed to rustle at this. Then I realized that I was really in a dark cave. The dripping stalactites echoed unpleasantly, but my call didn't echo at all. My back prickled in fear.
I stepped forward. "Hello?" I called out again. Again, my call wouldn't echo. Then I heard the soft hiss of a gigantic snake. I stumbled backward as its big black reared forward with its fangs dripping unpleasantly. I stepped back clumsily as it drifted into my line of vision. It was inside a gigantic black pit that turned out to be right in front of my feet. My mouth dropped open in shock, but I clamped it shut tightly. If that snake hadn't come up just now, then I would have fallen right on top of it. I could guess how the snake would react to that.
I was just staring at the thing with my legs trembling when I heard a soft female voice. "Hello? Who's there?" The snake turned back down and headed for the voice. I rushed forward, expecting to see the snake turn on some poor lady. What I saw made me slip and I fell into the hole and nearly cracked my head on the bottom. That didn't faze me a bit. I just foolishly stumbled onto my feet. I didn't care that my head was dripping or that my clothes were not dirty and matted. Even the snake ceased to mean anything to me. I was too busy staring at the red haired girl who stood before me. She was gorgeous, no doubt about it. Her skin was flawless and her thick eyelashes curled softly over her green eyes.
She looked as delighted to see me as I was of her. She beamed sunnily at me. "Excellent! Perfect timing!" It was only then that I realized what she was doing. She was holding a gigantic bowl over a red haired man's face. The man was naked and lashed to a stone slab with what looked suspiciously like someone's small intestine. I absorbed the whole scene silently for a moment before I remembered the hot redhead. "Please," she pleaded. "What?" I asked stupidly. Whoops, I was too busy staring at the horrifying scene to pay attention to her. She was pretty patient though. She shifted her arms uncomfortably and nodded to another bowl that was next to her. This one was empty. "I need to go empty this bowl. Could you hold this bowl over my husband's face while I'm gone?" She looked at me pleading. That was all right with me. I needed to speak to that guy anyway. "Okay," I said holding out my hands.
Her face completely lit up. "Thank you, Thank you!" she gushed. "Yeah, yeah," I said dismissively. As soon as she left, I turned my attention to the man lashed to the rock slab. "Hey," I whispered, checking that she was gone. "Wake up!" The man didn't stir. "Wake up!" I hissed. God! This guy slept like one of the dead. I looked over my shoulder wondering how much time I had left. Then I had a brilliant idea. I moved the bowl and let the poison drip on his face. That woke him up.
He writhed and screamed. I almost regretted pouring it on him until he focused his eyes on me. "What are you doing you-AAAaaaagh!" Whoops, I splashed more poison on his face before he could spout whatever obscenity he was going to say. This went on for a while. He would attempt to curse and spit at me and my hands would slip. Finally after much writhing and groaning on his part he cried out "Stop! Stop! Stop!" The bowl righted itself. After a few moments of heavy breathing, he pulled himself together. "What are you doing here mortal?" he asked as insolently as possible. I clucked my tongue a bit. You never learn do you? I shifted my grip and he flinched. "Gah! Sorry! Uh, truce?" he offered.
I grinned. Perhaps I was being a bit too sadistic, but what can I say? It wasn't every day that you had a god at your mercy. "Actually there is something that I want," I said calmly. The god looked at me warily. "What?"
"Power," I said simply. The god stared at me. He laughed. "Is that what you want? You're pretty shameless, you know that right?" I couldn't help, but smile wryly at his sudden change of mood. "Don't people always ask for that?" I asked. He stopped laughing suddenly. His sudden change of mood unnerved me. Is he bipolar? I wondered. Oh, wait he's talking.
"-to be honest. No," he said heavily. He smiled musingly at me. "The smart humans ask for immortality or eternal youth. The kind humans usually ask for something stupid. Like love. I imagine they do that to make themselves feel good." He paused and looked pensive. I kept waiting. He continued speaking without looking at me. "On top of that, you have guts for asking me out of all the gods for help. Don't you know who I am boy? I am not here because I want to," he jerked a nod at our surroundings. I nodded sagely at this. "You're right."
There was a brief pause. Each of us was waiting for the other to speak. He finally broke the silence. "I'd also like to know why you want power above all things. You don't need the gods to attain power. Not really. There are other ways. Why don't you ask for eternal youth so you could have all the time you need in order to gather power?" I shook my head at this. "I don't want to live forever," I stated flatly. This silenced him.
I decided that I owed this god an explanation. "Life is fine, but it's not great. I just don't care for anything." I looked at him with dull eyes. "Life's not worth living for me." I stopped gathering my thoughts. He sensed that I wasn't done and kept silent. "But, before I die . . . There's something I have to do. I owe it to an old friend. However, I need power to achieve that task. I need power, but I don't have time to get it the old fashioned way. That's why I came to ask you for power, all of the other gods are too conservative to even consider giving a mere mortal power. They think I will use it for evil. However, you're different because you don't care as long as you can get a kick out of it," I finished. "Or at least have someone hold a bowl over your face while your wife is out," I added mischievously.
Now it was my turn to wait for him to speak. His brow furrowed pensively. Then he shocked me by throwing his head back to laugh out loud. He smiled slyly at me. "I like you, you remind me of myself. You're a sadist and a sly little brat to boot," he grinned. My back prickled. Maybe I shouldn't have sloshed the poison on his face. "-, but" He paused.
"You will have to pay a price. It's the least you can do." I nodded eagerly at this not knowing what he was planning. "If you want power," he continued. He stopped again. I learned forward eagerly to hear what he would say next. "You must eat that loaf of bread over there." I stared at him.
What?