What reasons would Loki have for not answering Hilgya's prayers sooner?

[Ionathus]

I got to wondering about this from another thread this morning: Hilgya had been "praying every night to learn the location of Thundershield, and last night Loki finally answered" so that she could help them stop Hel's scheme. But why did it take him so long?

This is just a discussion post, not a "gotcha" observation, because the obvious answer is that Loki is "in it for the lulz" and would do whatever amuses him the most. And gods aren't required to answer their followers' prayers - we see Thor admit to never answering Durkon either.

However, I like exploring hypotheticals, so let's spin some. What do people think? I have several ideas:

1. Answering prayers is tedious and he was too lazy to do it.
2. Clerics of Thor and Loki having a baby together is a really amusing thing to him (unlikely, given how the initial premise made him sick) and he wanted them both to live for maximum hilarity when they finally met.
3. For most of the time, Hilgya would've found Durkon amidst the entire Order, and probably gotten herself obliterated even if she successfully killed him, which would put Loki down 1 high-level cleric.
4. After Loki & Thor found out about D&H hooking up, and were subsequently horrified, they agreed not to mess with the other's cleric out of shared trauma.
5. Thor asked him directly to not mess with Durkon and Loki either obliged or got a quid pro quo.
6. Loki knew the meeting would end with Durkon proposing and then getting Fire Strike-d and that would be hilarious, so he was saving it for a rainy day like you or I might save a delicious cake or a nice bottle of scotch.
7. Loki had his Prayer Alert set on silent until the Godsmoot.
8. Loki has a soft spot for the Order.