Halina was furious. Her brother had promised that he would only have two drinks, then come back. She hadn’t really expected him to keep that particular promise, but he’d also sworn that he wouldn’t get into a bar fight. Then the idiot had gotten himself killed!

She stormed through the streets towards the bar that Bjarke frequented, muttering imprecations and curses. Logically she knew that he was likely to respawn at the town’s Valkyrie crystal sometime in the next week or two. Emotionally, she wanted something else.

Revenge. An explanation. A fight.

Her mind tore her in different directions, but her feet resolutely brought her towards the bar. Her normally large and expressive honey-brown eyes were drawn to slits in her anger. Sol was barely peeking over the tops of the wall, the soft light of the Bifrost muting as the skies brightened. The streets were beginning to fill, but those few people already out cleared the street after a glimpse of Halina’s expression.

One member of the thinning crowd, heading home a little worse for drink, didn’t catch sight of her face in time. Instead he spotted her long blonde hair and petite frame. He staggered closer to her, going to drape an arm around her shoulder. He never made contact.

Without even looking his way, Halina’s hand snapped up to his wrist. She twisted and spun, flinging the man over her head. A loud crack echoed through the street as he struck the cobblestones on the other side of her, a pained gasp escaping him as all the air was expelled from his lungs.

Halina never looked back as her mutterings only increased in volume in tempo, and the street cleared out around her with alacrity.

Most people in the city focused on their professions, not their levels. They couldn’t hold a candle to an E-Tier warrior like herself.

She had already been angry when she had woken up to find that Bjarke had never come back home last night, but when his liferune had started pulsing red she’d felt a chill to her bones. When it had turned solid crimson and then the light faded completely, she’d been beside herself. The fool!

“Where are you off to so early, Halina?” shouted a neighbor who spotted her rushing down the street. When she paused and glared at him, he gulped. “Uh— nevermind me. Happy hunting!”

She marched off without acknowledging the man further.

A short few minutes later she arrived at The Sleeping Dragon, slamming through the doors as she entered. The place was mostly empty and entirely silent, something Halina had never seen before in all her years in Alaborg. It barely registered.

“What happened?” she hissed out, spearing Iuli with her gaze.

“Take a seat and I’ll tell you,” he said, his chipped jade eyes harder than the stone whose color they imitated. When she remained in the doorway, seething, he continued. “I won’t see your temper inflicted on my tavern, not after what happened this morning. Sit.”

Halina remained in the doorway before deflating slightly and trudging to the bar. “Sorry,” she apologized to Iuli in a low voice. He and his family had always treated her and Bjarke well. “I told him not to get in another bar fight. I warned him that I wouldn’t bail him out this time if he got arrested.”

“I know,” Iuli told her, taking one of her hands in his and squeezing to offer comfort. His other hand pulled a full mug of mead from behind the bar and placed it in front of her. “I’m sure he’ll be back in a week or two, and madder than a hornet when he pops out.”

“Right,” Halina snorted, marshalling herself as she pulled a long drink from the mead. “So, what happened?”

“An outsider came in this morning,” the tavern keeper began, relaying the situation that had resulted in her brother’s death. “Tall, broad-shouldered and good-natured, or so I thought until he picked a fight with Bjarke. He was laughing with my daughter over his breakfast right up until he picked your brother apart.”

“Of course,” Halina said with a sigh. Bjarke had been mooning over Maria for years. “Is she okay? I know how much she hates it when he gets possessive.”

“She’s pretty broken up about it,” the raven-haired man said with a sigh of his own, then quirked a corner of his mouth up. “I think she’s only now realized how much she cared for the boy. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them trying to sneak kisses behind my back when the boy respawns.”

Halina snorted, rolling her eyes at the follies of youth. She was only eighteen months older than Bjarke, but she’d been raising him alone since their parents had died on a dungeon run. One of the Aesir had apparently taken a shine to them, bringing them to Asgard to join their hall. Not that they had been particularly attentive parents even before that.

“He’s waiting for you,” Iuli said, drawing her from her parental woes. “Outside of town.”

“Who?” she asked, momentarily confused.

“Erland, the outsider from this morning,” he responded, a warning look present in his eyes now. “The usual suspects were with your brother when it happened. After he killed Bjarke, Ingegard told him you’d kill him.”

“She was right,” Halina said, beginning to rise from the bar as her earlier anger returned in a flash. Iuli stopped her with an outstretched hand. “He killed my brother, do you really expect me not to take it out of his hide?”

“Something’s off about that man,” Iuli told her, stone serious. “When Bjarke swung at him, he smiled like his greatest wish was coming true. There was… bloodlust… in that smile. I’ve never seen someone more eager to fight, including Berzerkers. He was a couple levels higher than Bjarke, but not an entire tier. He shouldn’t have been able to manhandle your brother like that, especially once he’d activated his skill.”

That shocked Halina enough to sit back down. Bjarke’s [Totemic Rage] was a bloodline trait from their father. It doubled Bjarke’s strength and agility for ten seconds after he used it. She’d assumed that he’d been unable to use it for some reason, not that he’d used it and still lost.

She stewed at the bar for a moment longer before draining the last of the mead in one gulp. “It doesn’t matter,” she told Iuli, eyes looking into the distance before shifting back to his face. “He killed Bjarke over a bar fight. If he was that much stronger than my brother, that just makes it even more heinous.”

Iuli sighed heavily, but nodded, collecting the mug. Just then the door behind the bar that led to the kitchen burst open, revealing Maria. Her eyes were puffy and bloodshot, but he expression was resolute.

“Kill him,” she told Halina. “Show him what it feels like to walk through Hel himself.”

Halina nodded at the girl, rising from the bar and striding out into the city. A moment later she poked her head back in. “Which gate?”

Baldr looked down at a viewing screen showing a series of concentric circles. One of the circles pulsed outwards from the central point, lighting up two green dots near the middle and hundreds of other white dots farther out. He let out a low growl. he grumbled to himself.

The two green dots were the boy’s parents, home on their farm. Baldr’s fingers slammed a series of keys harder than was strictly necessary.

In response to the Aesir’s typing, the screen zoomed in on the two dots representing the boys parents. A few keystrokes later a green infinity symbol appeared, wrapping around the two dots before spreading out in a line leading from them. Baldr allowed himself a grim smile, zooming the image back out and following the trail. It stretched over a thousand miles, resolving in a blinking red dot right outside Alaborg and it’s thousands of blinking white dots.

Baldr thought, swiftly typing out a few more commands. The screen resolved into a feed of Erland, currently reading while propped up against a rock. A scant moment later, the feed zoomed out again, now showing a young blonde woman yelling something at Erland. Intrigued, Baldr turned on his display’s sound and brought up her status.

“—killed Bjarke?” the woman’s voice came from her mouth on the screen just as if Baldr had been there in person.

“Guilty as charged,” Erland said with a smug smile, snapping his book closed. “Have you come to reward me for clearing the streets of Alaborg of such trash?”

“I’m his sister,” Halina shot back, her gaze growing hot and venom injecting into her tone. “You’ll be joining him shortly. Apologize when you get back and I won’t pursue this further.”

“Isn’t that a little backwards?” Erland shot back, his face sliding back into its perpetual grin. “Normally you’d ask me to apologize, before you killed me.”

“If I kill you first, I’ll know you mean it,” she replied, gaze flat and intent on the red-haired man across from her.

“Hahaha, ooh, I love that,” Erland responded, holding his sides as he had a hearty laugh over her response. “I’ll have to steal that for myself.”

Light streamed around Halina as she accessed her equipment, resolving into a bronze breastplate. It was swiftly joined by a broadsword and a large, if plain, tower shield. She provided no more witty rejoinders or taunts, darting across the space separating the two of them.

Baldr summoned a comfortable chair, kicking his legs up as the screen rose to hover in front of his eyes.