I can think of reasons for all the bits you point out (if you're going to ask for something, ask for something BIG) but if it's jarring, it's jarring.

I, too, expected that Saiva would put up a fight for Loki. I read that there's little dialogue. Is there much sense of Saiva's motivation? For anything? For a woman so bent of survival, does she feel she'll do better alone? Otherwise, what percentage is there is killing off her helpers? And yet she cries about it.

I wonder how the story reads.