“Shit… what is this?”

  The blade wasn’t anything like the broad Viking swords we knew. It was long and slightly curved. The hilt was wrapped in fine cord, and a thin silk ribbon—now soaked in blood—hung from the scabbard. Looked like an eastern weapon to me.

  The girl was still standing, pinned upright. Her torso rested over the back of the blade driven through her, arms hanging limp at her sides. Blood trickled down the steel—fresh. She couldn’t have been dead long. She was small, maybe seven or eight years old. Clothes torn, but no other wounds. Just… stabbed clean onto the tree. One strike. Instant kill.

  Who the hell murders a child like this?

  Was it that man from before?

  “J?rn…”

  “Huh? Oh—what is it?” Ailin’s voice snapped me back.

  “We should take her down and bury her,” Ailin whispered, tears sliding down her cheeks.

  I glanced around the eerie woods.

  If I died here, I’d hate to be left hanging like this too.

  “You’re right.”

  I wrapped my arm around her shoulders.

  “Come on. We’ll take her away from this cursed place.”

  “We’ll find a garden to bury her in, somewhere peaceful… Gods, this hurts so much.”

  “Yeah, a garden sounds perfect. Don’t worry, love, I’ll—”

  The girl vomited blood.

  Both Ailin and I jumped back—she screamed and fell to the ground. I staggered two steps away. I’d seen bodies twitch after death, sure… or maybe—

  “She’s alive?” Ailin gasped.

  We stepped closer, slower. Ailin whispered, “Hey… little one? Can you hear me?”

  “…Who…?”

  The girl pushed herself upward, hand bracing on the blade buried through her body.

  Gods.

  She wasn’t dead.

  “Get her down! J?rn!” Ailin cried, reaching for the weapon.

  “Stop! If you pull that blade out she’ll die instantly!” I grabbed her.

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  “M…mommy?”

  The girl blinked weakly, lips cracked and trembling. She searched the dark with desperate eyes.

  “Yes, sweetheart, I’m Mommy,” Ailin lied quickly, voice cracking. “Mommy’s here now. It’s okay.”

  Her eyes were green—glowing faintly in the shade.

  Beautiful eyes.

  Her skin pale, face delicate. She was a little beauty.

  For a second, I thought she was Alfar…

  But her ears were round.

  “Who… are you… old lady?”

  “I’m not old! I’m a big sister! Listen—just hang on, we’re going to—”

  “Ailin.”

  I placed my hand on her shoulder.

  “She’s done. We should give her mercy.”

  Ailin shoved me angrily.

  “J?rn, what the hell are you saying?! Look at her—she’s awake, she’s talking! We can save her!”

  I stared at the girl—breathing in ragged gasps, pinned to a tree. Her blood pooled beneath her feet.

  I pulled Ailin aside and whispered, “Listen. There’s no time. Look at the ground—she’s lost everything. She won’t last. You want to drag her to Romans? She’ll bleed out before we reach them.”

  Ailin looked from me to the girl, trembling.

  I continued: “Even if Romans believed us—which they won’t—they’d execute us first. And she’d die alone anyway.”

  Ailin shook her head violently, pacing.

  “No. No, no, she can make it! She wants to live! We cut the tree down, put her on the road, drag her to the Roman city—they have doctors—”

  I gripped her shoulders.

  “Hey! Think. We are close to home. We can’t waste everything on some dying stranger!”

  Ailin sobbed, voice shaking:

  “R-Roman towns have hospitals. We… we can save her…”

  “Ailin!”

  She ripped herself free and screamed at me:

  “I know! But why is that bad?! Maybe we should! We’re thieves—criminals—hated by everyone. We murder and rob. We abandoned our own people. This is who we are! Maybe this is our chance to mean something! Look at her!”

  I turned back to the girl.

  “You see her? She’s not like us. She’s innocent. She deserves more than we do! She deserves to live. Why won’t you let her live?”

  Her words hit harder than any Roman blade.

  I was a Viking bandit.

  I killed without guilt.

  Never cared who bled beneath me.

  But now…

  “Please, J?rn… save her…”

  Why?

  Why did Ailin cling to this girl like salvation?

  Because she believed saving one life might redeem two monsters like us?

  Or because she could never bear children, and saw this one chance to fill the void?

  Doesn’t matter.

  I loved her.

  If my love existed for anything—

  it was for this moment.

  “Yes,” I whispered. “Yes, Ailin. I’ll help. I love you—and I love this girl too.”

  Courage surged through my chest, and for a heartbeat, the world felt clear.

  I turned to Ailin, explaining the plan:

  “We’ll pull the knife out of the tree—

  but never out of her body.

  If it leaves her, she’ll bleed out instantly.

  We’ll lift girl and blade together into the wagon, pack the boxes around her to keep the steel from moving, and drive straight to the Romans.

  Understand?”

  Ailin nodded quickly.

  I knelt beside the girl.

  “Listen, little one. You stay alive. You die on us now, this all means nothing. You hear me?”

  “I… I’m cold…” she whispered.

  Shock. Blood loss.

  Ailin and I tore off our cloaks and wrapped her up.

  We prepared to move her—

  But a sudden wind blasted through the trees.

  Cold. Wrong.

  The air itself shifted.

  Warm sunlight faded behind clouds.

  Mist crept between trunks like spirits waking up.

  Within seconds, the forest turned dark again.

  And every instinct in me screamed—

  something was coming.