Baldr stared at his brother in shock. The girl who had called them was Loki’s daughter. A daughter no one seemed to know he had judging from the looks of shock on the faces of the others in the room. Asena’s loud tsk broke the heavy silence that had fallen.

“It looks like you’ve been outside,” she growled at the girl.

“I was,” Akira nodded.

“Are you insane?” Asena demanded.

“If I am, I blame the nuns,” Akira mumbled.

Asena huffed in reply but said nothing. She just went about cleaning the blood from Akira’s mutilated back. When the blood had been washed away, Baldr could clearly see the multitude of lash marks on her skin.

“How many?” he heard his father ask.

“Over 150 the first time,” Akira replied. “The second time I passed out at around 200 I think.”

“257.”

The figure was barely heard but the look on Loki’s face was enough to know he was the one who had given them the number.

“What?” Akira asked.

“It was 257 the first time,” Loki repeated a little louder.

“I wouldn’t know if you were right or not,” she pointed out. “I was unconscious by at least 150.”

“What about the second time?” No one knew who had asked the question but it was certainly something everyone was wondering.

“I lost count after 500,” Loki said looking away from everyone.

“Pappa?”

That one word broke his brother. Baldr watched as Loki fell to his knees at the bedside of his dying daughter and began to weep. He had never known his brother to cry, let alone weep. But here he was, weeping.

“The Mother Superior was so angry at you for the insult, for trying to get the prince away, and protecting that little girl that she just couldn’t stop herself,” he sobbed. “At first, I enjoyed watching her but when she hit 300 I stopped enjoying it. She was literally flaying you alive. I was glad that you fell unscious at 250 because she just kept going. If the Bishop hadn’t stopped her, I’m sure she would have killed you.”

“That I believe, except for the part about the Bishop. He was just as bad as her but his punishment was far worse than the cat’o’nine.”

“He was worried about the reputation of the school the convent ran.”

“I’m not surprised. As sadistic as he was, he cared about looking good to prosepective students and their parents.”

“Didn’t stop the Mother Superior from giving you 999 lashes on top of the 257 you had endured the day before.”

If the first figure had surprised them, the second left everyone dumbfounded. It was no wonder the girl had walked alongside death. How she had survived that trauma was nothing short of a miracle. It was no wonder some places looked to be cut to the bone. It was because they were.

Baldr stood and made his way to the bed where the girl, his niece he belatedly realized, lay unmoving.

“You have your father’s strength,” he told her quietly.

She turned her head to look at him and he was shocked by the intensity of her gaze. Her eyes flashed between hoary and azure much like Loki’s eyes flashed between chatruese and forest green. She seemed to be studying him.

“Baldr,” she greeted. “You helped my father see my mother one last time.”

He nodded mutely. Just how she could have known that he didn’t know.

“It allowed him to realize something important and gave him the only opportunity he would have until now to know me. He gave me my name, so I would always have a piece of him.”

She told him all of this quietly so only those close to her could hear.

“Thank you for giving him that.”

Her voice was weak and had begun to waver. He looked to Asena. The woman sighed deeply.

“Her back is ripped to shreds,” she began haltingly. “Many of the deeper wounds have become infected again it seems and now some of the wounds have frostbite around the edges. At this point, I fear I’m fighting a losing battle.”

At her words, the room fell deathly quiet.

“Did I not say that I was dying?” Akira’s quiet voice broke the morbid silence that had fallen around them.

All heads nodded at her question.

“I am not afraid of death. Death comes for us all some day.”

Baldr stared at his niece in utter shock. She was smiling in the face of death. The sound of sobbing had everyone turning towards the sound. It wasn’t Loki renewing his weeping. It was one of the young men who had burst through the door with Asena. Baldr thought Akira had called him Ehren. Baldr watched as the young man sank to his knees and sobbed brokenly, as if his heart was being ripped from his chest. It was then that Baldr knew that Ehren was deeply in love with his niece.