"Ilmarinen," Nyyri gasped, the glow on her rings fading as she stared at the dragon corpse in shock. Her brow furrowed, as if she could not believe that the beast her people had feared for so long was now dead at her feet. "Now I understand why the trees were afraid."

Blader's eyes, however, focused on the man standing beside the corpse. He returned the commander's gaze with intense dark eyes, his empty hands hanging loosely by his side. Dressed in dark brown and green tunics, a sword was strapped to his belt, several daggers hanging opposite it. The man had a tall, lanky build, with thick brown hair and ghostly pale skin. He had the same perpetually aware look that Wolfsted had.

"I see you're einherjar," the man said, his voice flavored by a very familiar accent. "I am Idrask Kyll, freelance hunter."

"Commander Thrym," Blader said warily, still holding his lowered sword. Idrask Kyll. Is he related to Wolfsted? "This is my squad."

"That's the Aldrian," Klora whispered, glancing at Wolfsted. "That's the Aldrian I was talking about, Kyll. Is that a common last name in Aldri? Is he related to you?"

Idrask, who had only smiled slightly on overhearing Klora begin to whisper, now straightened, eyes narrowing slightly. "Kyll?"

Blader glanced back, seeing Wolfsted had been standing behind Sodull and Yngvild, ducking his head down to hide his face. But at Idrask repeating his name, he looked up, his face hard and impassive. "Idrask."

The hunter stepped forward, grinning. "Would you look at it? Wolfsted Kyll, wearing the uniform and working for outlawry's nemesis! And fighting alongside a Thrym, of all people."

Wolfsted reluctantly stepped out from behind Sodull and Yngvild, speaking with forced cheerfulness. "What was I supposed to do when people like you have the market cornered on freelance hunting?"

Idrask laughed and clapped Wolfsted on the back before grasping his hand. "It has been too long, little brother."

"It has been long," Wolfsted conceded. "What are you doing here, Idrask?"

"Wait," Skalfi interrupted. "Wolfsted, is he your brother?"

"Yes," Idrask replied for him. "Brothers by blood, and brothers by hunt." He turned back to Wolfsted. "Last I returned to Aldri, they said you took up the talons. I never would have thought that of you, Wolf."

"Had to make a living somehow," Wolfsted said with a grin, lifting an eyebrow. But Blader could tell he still was wary of his brother. "The gods pay good for us to fight their wars. It's like freelancing, only with a long term contract."

"And a death sentence if you switch sides," Idrask remarked, lifting an eyebrow.

"I don't plan on doing that anytime soon," Wolfsted asserted calmly, his eyes narrowing slightly.

Idrask laughed. "I still think you should have taken up hunting."

"What are you doing here?" Wolfsted asked, ignoring Idrask's last comment.

"Scouting," Idrask replied, glancing down at the dragon's corpse. "General Utanlands hired me to scout out the rekkr camp, since Sampo was preventing Captain Mattr from effectively doing so. If I could destabilize the camp, then I was to do it. But they've already moved on. I was going to pick up their trail when I found the dragon here."

"Ilmarinen," Nyyri murmured.

Idrask nodded. "He's been dead for quite some time, it seems like. The blood has been drained from his corpse, which I found odd. There's nothing medicinal about dragon blood."

"Not medicinal," Blader said sharply. "Blood magic. Racarl did this." He glanced up and down the ravine. "We have to find him."

"Racarl's here?" Idrask inquired. "Wouldn't he be at the battle?"

"We tracked him here," Blader answered. "He fled after setting Meilikki on fire."

Idrask turned, sharp eyes scanning the ravine. "I haven't seen any sign of him, which I would have if he came this way."

"He's a sorcerer," Wolfsted pointed out. "He could have concealed himself from you."

Idrask scoffed. "Like there's any chance that ragtag sorcerer got past me."

Wolfsted scowled. "We've never seen the likes of this magic, Idrask –"

Idrask stepped closer to Wolfsted, his eyes narrowing. "Yes, I have, Wolf," he said in a low voice, humming with an angry undercurrent. He jabbed him in the chest. "Or have you forgotten?"

Wolfsted stiffened, scowling at his brother. The air was tense as he glanced at Blader, expression hard. "We need to check the ravine anyway."

Blader nodded, flicking his gaze back to Idrask, who still looked angry. Was he referring to the rune carved into Wolfsted's chest? "Form up," he ordered his squad. "Sig, take Nyyri, Leid, Koping, Nidr, and Akafi and head up the ravine. I'll take Trautt, Kyll, Merki, and Vekja. Nyyri, can you use your powers to either find out when we've found something or tell us when you've got something?"

"I can," Nyyri nodded gravely. "But first...." Trailing off, she stepped closer to Blader and touched his forehead, the rings on her fingers assuming their green glow for a moment as she did so. "This will make it easier."

Sig began to move up the ravine, the einherjar falling into step behind her as Nyyri took her position beside the Valkyrie. Skalfi and Vandri moved up to flank Blader, Sodull and Wolfsted positioning themselves behind him as they glanced down the ravine.

"I'll come with you," Idrask said. Wolfsted scowled but said nothing.

Blader glanced at him. The Aldrian's jaw was set in determination and he had already drawn his sword. He knew that to refuse to allow the hunter to come would not be received well and he wanted to get back to tracking Jorid before the sorcerer disappeared for good, if he hadn't already. He didn't have time to argue with Wolfsted's brother. "All right," he told Idrask. "But you obey my orders. You partner up with me."

Idrask looked back at the disgruntled Wolfsted and appeared about to say something, then refrained. He fell in beside Blader as Vandri shifted back to stand beside Skalfi, the einherjar passing the body of Ilmarinen.

Scuff marks disturbed the dirt, showing signs of the former rekkr encampment. Blader proceeded cautiously, adrenaline building up inside him. He could be so close to taking down Jorid, or he could be so far away.

But Jorid has his blood magic. He easily defeated us last time. What makes now any different?

Blader still had no answer to that.

He has magic, we have swords. How, in the long run, are we to defeat him or Tros without magic of our own?

Then he saw it.

Burrowed into the side of the cliff bordering the ravine was what appeared to be either a cave or a tunnel. Blader halted, indicating the hole to his einherjar. "There."

They nodded, faces grim, lifting their shields in front of them. Blader stepped forward, Idrask sticking by his side as they approached the hole. The earth around the entrance was full of deep, jagged claw marks, which marked the ground as well. Except those had been subdued, smoothed out a bit by flat scuff marks, while those surrounding the hole were still as clear and stark as day.

"So we're going in there?" Sodull voiced. "Perhaps it was Ilmarinen's cave. That would explain the claw marks."

Wolfsted peered into the dim cave. "Someone's been here recently." He crouched down, touching the scuffed earth. "Humans, too. Perhaps Racarl or some rekkr?"

Idrask nodded in agreement. "The claw marks on the ground have been muted by someone else passing in and out. With the dragon being dead for a while now, whoever it is would have had lots of time to find out what treasure the dragon was guarding."

"Treasure?" Vandri voiced. "Like in the old stories?"

Idrask flashed her a grin. "They aren't just stories, darling. Dragons always guard something. That is their only purpose in life, and they will die protecting their treasure." He made to move forward but then stopped and looked to Blader as Wolfsted, looking disgruntled, rolled his eyes. "Commander?"

"If Racarl might be in there, then we are going in," Blader told him. "Idrask, with me. Vandri and Skalfi, behind me. Sodull, Wolfsted, bring up the rear."

"Wolfsted should be up here," Idrask told Blader flatly.

Blader shot a cool look at the hunter. "Wolfsted is injured and so will bring up the rear."

Idrask glanced back at his brother. "Injured? Since when?"

"I am not injured," Wolfsted muttered, seeming to be torn between who to glare at, Idrask or Blader. "My leg has healed perfectly. I have no pain."

Blader ignored him. "My first order stands. Assume position and follow my lead."

The einherjar took their places, swords drawn and shields up. Idrask carried only a sword, his shield strapped to his back. "Shield," Blader said to Idrask.

"I'll be fine," Idrask replied.

"Take your shield," Blader repeated, more emphatically. "You're fighting alongside me, which means you carry your shield. Perhaps you'll be fine, but if you dodge something and it hits me instead due to your lack of a shield, I will not have any favorable words to say about you to the general. I will make sure you never see a military contract again."

Idrask forced a laugh, but looked sullen as he slung his shield down and strapped it to his arm. Wolfsted was grinning slightly as Blader stepped forward, into the cave.

The light was dim, but unlike other caves Blader had been in, it didn't lessen the further back one went. Rather, the light, a white, faintish glow, seemed to increase. Claw marks lined the walls and edges of the cave, which was wider and taller than it appeared from the outside, but the center pathway the einherjar walked on had been scuffed and smoothed by human boots.

"I don't see any treasure," Skalfi remarked in an undertone. "Just bones by the walls." She needed to the small piles of gnawed on stark white bones.

"The treasure will be in the back," Wolfsted said quietly. "It always is."

"Not in the Reenactment," Skalfi replied. "We found the gold before the dragon, remember?"

"But real dragons hide their gold away," Idrask interrupted. "You'd find the dragon first."

"The Reenactment was very real," Wolfsted said, irked. "We lost good people in there."

Idrask just looked back at him, his eyes narrowed slightly in skepticism. Blader held up his hand for silence, also annoyed with the hunter's condescension over their experiences in the Reenactment. Perhaps it had been manufactured, but Erik died there, gave himself for them in a very real scenario. Could you have done that? he wanted to demand of Wolfsted's brother. Could you give your life for someone else?

Focus.

In the back of the cave, the white light beckoned through a tunnel, the circumference the same as the entrance to the cave. Blader halted, focusing himself on the task ahead. Jorid may be ahead, through the tunnel, and he needed every bit of training and concentration he had in order to take him down.

Swiftly, he stepped forward, Idrask keeping pace with him as they moved through the tunnel, their sword blades pressed against the front of their shields. The tunnel was short, and Blader could see that it opened up into a chamber, larger than the cave they had left behind. The light seemed to be coming from this chamber.

Perhaps Ilmarinen keeps his treasure there, like Idrask and Wolfsted suggested.

Taking a deep breath, Blader forced himself to pause for a moment. He couldn't just rush into a battle with Jorid. He needed to be thinking clearly, not angrily.

Focus.

Resolutely, Blader moved quickly across the last couple feet of the tunnel, entering the chamber. Idrask stood beside him as Vandri and Skalfi moved left, Wolfsted and Sodull flanking them on the right. Then they stared at what the chamber held.

A massive root crawled across the ground, protruding from the far wall and arching through the air. It came to a tapered point in the center of the chamber, the tip touching the earth almost delicately. Across its gnarled surface near the tip, blood had been painted across the root, runes engraved into it. The white light was coming from the root itself.

Jorid must have used the dragon's blood for this.

What is he planning?

Blader had only seen roots similar to it twice, but he knew immediately what tree they belonged to.

"Yggdrasil's root," Sodull breathed, his eyes wide.

"Well, well, well," a familiar voice intoned, and Blader snapped around to face Jorid, standing over by the earthen wall, his arms splattered with blood. His eyes gleamed with amusement, the runes cut into his arms glowing with a low, ominous, crimson light. "I see you found me, Thrym. You couldn't just let me run away, could you? No, you always had to be the hero. Just like your grandfather, right?"

"Leave my grandfather out of this, Racarl," Blader said in a low voice. "This is between you and me."

Jorid laughed harshly. "Right. You and me. It was us, right, the only two willing to face death in a pointless effort to save our classmates. What a waste. They didn't deserve that. Njordesden didn't deserve us."

Blader forced himself not to charge. "No, Njordesden doesn't deserve the insult of being called your home."

Jorid's face darkened. "And it deserves the supposed honor of being called your home? Of being the Thryms' home? I've heard the stories. Njordesden was cursed the day your father and that king-damned Valkyrie moved there. You will see in time, I assure you. You knocked over one of my players in the Reenactment, Blader, but I will win the game."

"You will fall, like Dyr Gunar fell," Skalfi said quietly, her voice angry.

Jorid glanced at her, giving her a malicious smirk. "Skalfi Vekja. Blader's weakness. You were the pawn he was not willing to sacrifice, not even for his own life. Care to step on the game board again, to show your relative significance to him?"

Skalfi glared at him. "I didn't prove his weakness. I only showed his strength. Only someone like you could discount that."

"And what do you know about me?" Jorid whispered, his eyes gleaming. Behind him, Blader felt his einherjar shifting position slightly, longing to charge and kill him. He hoped they would restrain themselves, wait for his signal. He hoped Nyyri had sensed that they had found Jorid and was hurrying over with Sig and the rest of the einherjar. "You –"

Idrask lunged.

"No!" Blader shouted as Jorid leaned back slightly, a manic grin curling his lips as he crossed his arms, one forearm pressed into the crook of his other arm. The runes on his arms glowed dark crimson as Idrask was caught in the spell just as his sword blade swept down, the hunter blown backward into the Yggdrasil root. He crumpled to the ground with a soft moan.

Blader was already moving forward, hoping Nyyri had sensed them and would lead Sig and the others back to join them. He managed to strike Jorid on the shoulder with his sword as the sorcerer laughed at his triumph over Idrask, momentarily distracted. But with a snarl of pain, he now ducked away from Blader, blood dripping from the wound on his shoulder.

Sodull, Skalfi, Vandri, and Wolfsted fanned out to either side of Blader just as Jorid rapidly snapped his fingers several times in succession, drops of blood flying through the air, and a squad of rekkr shimmered into being, one for each snap. The rekkr lifted their swords and charged at the einherjar. Wolfsted, Sodull, and Vandri stepped forward to meet them, leaving Skalfi and Blader to face Jorid.

Jorid easily deflected their first blows, their blades either skidding off the blood on his forearms or being caught and pushed away. He hurled a spell at Skalfi, which she ducked, throwing herself into a slide and slashing at his legs. Jorid jumped over her blade only to be met by Blader's shield, which slammed into the side of his head and sent him reeling backward. As Blader and Skalfi, who had effortlessly come out of her slide onto her feet, advanced toward him, Jorid's manic smile darkened into an angry sneer.

Slipping his fingers through the blood stemming from his shoulder wound, Jorid inhaled and swiftly stepped forward, slamming his bloody fingers against Blader's shield with a startling slap, flinging him backwards with surprising power. Skalfi lunged but Jorid grabbed her sword, his fingers tight around the blade as he yanked it, sending her sprawling past him.

Blader slammed into the ground, the air knocked out of his lungs. Gasping for breath, he shoved himself up into a sitting position just as Jorid, who had turned to snarl down at Skalfi, was hit with a blast of green light.

He staggered back into the earthen wall as Sig practically flew across the chamber, a faint silvery light emanating from her skin. Nyyri was right beside her, her rings flashing green as they attacked Jorid, allowing Skalfi time to scramble to her feet, reassuming a defensive stance.

The rekkr Jorid had summoned had thinned but still fought desperately against Sodull, Wolfsted, and Vandri. Idrask lay slumped on the ground, unconscious from the initial spell. Raena, Yngvild, Klora, and Ohrein crossed the chamber, Raena, Ohrein, and Yngvild veering toward Sodull and Wolfsted as Klora advanced toward Jorid.

Jorid was battling furiously with the Valkyrie and the alfr, silver, green, and dark red magic flashing in the air and reflecting off blades. Blader clambered to his feet and moved toward Jorid, noting that the rekkr were beginning to fall more rapidly under the combined assault of six einherjar. However, due to their inexperience working together, he saw that several times an attack or parry was hindered due to another einherjar's position or movement, giving the rekkr a bit of breathing room in the battle.

Despite being pressed back by Sig and Nyyri, Jorid still managed to hold his own, their blades not managing to inflict any significant damage. But Blader could see Jorid was still cornered, without escape, and they would wear him out eventually. He was significantly outnumbered.

They had caught him.

By the look in his eyes, Jorid could see his predicament just as clearly as Blader could. Running his nails down his blood-covered forearm, Jorid thrust his hand out toward Sig and Nyyri and four runes exploded in the air amid the blood droplets, hurling both women backwards. Without pausing a moment, Jorid turned toward Skalfi and Klora and lunged.

Skalfi lifted her shield just as Klora stepped forward in front of her, slashing out with her sword. Jorid slammed his arm into the blade and knocked it aside, his fingers curling around her shoulders and yanking her toward him. Klora was spun around and then pressed against Jorid's chest, his fingers jabbing into her wrist and forcing her to drop her sword. Before she could react or Skalfi could move, he had his bloody fingers resting against her neck threateningly.

Instantly, Blader and Skalfi froze. He had no idea what Jorid was planning to do to Klora, or even what he could do with his magic. The remaining rekkr were almost defeated, and Yngvild and Ohrein had already stepped back, turning toward Jorid and Klora. Klora, meanwhile, was looking at Blader and Skalfi pleadingly, her eyes wide, but she said nothing. Despite her fear, she would not beg for her life from Jorid.

"So, I've got one of your einherjar," Jorid said tauntingly, looking at Blader. He scraped his fingers across Klora's neck, leaving thin white scratches in their wake. Then he walked his fingers back across her neck to their original place, leaving streaks of blood behind. "Want to see the only thing your soldiers are good for?"

Without another word, Jorid dug his fingers into Klora's neck and ripped her throat open with his bare hands.

Klora gagged and sank to the ground, her blood spilling down the front of her tunic and splashing over Jorid's skin. He laughed as he quickly raised his bloody fingers and painted a rune across his chest, touching his hand to his lips once before a whispered spell caused him to vanish, shimmering and disappearing like a downed rekkr.

Blader had already lunged forward, but his sword passed through empty air as Jorid disappeared, the rune remaining a moment longer before also fading away. All that was left behind was Klora's bloodied form, already on the road to death.

Skalfi dropped to her knees beside Klora as Nyyri leapt to her feet and hurried over, limping slightly. Her rings were already glowing as she gently touched the einherjar's forehead, but Blader could tell just from looking at Klora that there was nothing Nyyri's magic could do to save her.

"Klora Nidr, you fought valiantly," Blader whispered, crouching beside her. He gripped her hand in his, her blood warm and sticky against his skin. "You served Mjolnir and the High King worthily, and I am proud to have gotten the opportunity to serve beside you. I am sorry this had to happen. But you will have peace. And I will avenge you. You have my word."

Klora looked up at him, her eyes frightened, her neck covered in blood, and then she was gone.

Skalfi reached out and gently closed Klora's eyes, Nyyri sitting back on her heels. Blader glanced up, seeing that Wolfsted, Sodull, Raena, and Vandri had finished killing the rekkr, the last rune shimmering in the air. Sig, Ohrein, and Yngvild were standing back, watching, as Idrask slowly sat up, rubbing his head and looking annoyed. But his expression shifted when he saw them gathered around Klora's body.

I didn't even know her. Didn't get a chance to. She was killed before the entire squad even met.

"Racarl will pay," Ohrein rasped, his eyes angry and looking to be on the verge of tears. "Klora was the nicest person you'd ever meet."

"I second that," Raena said, nodding.

"Racarl will die," Blader corrected. "Not just pay. I will see him dead. Klora will be avenged."

"We will see him dead," Skalfi corrected quietly. "We are all Mjolnir. Your oath is ours. We stand with you."