Lífdagar sits looking towards the beach. The elifs are taking the bodies of the dead and putting them on carts. Lífdagar has never seen them work at such a big scale, never seen so many of them together at the same time. They look eerie, with their long grey cloaks, their face obscured by the big hoods, pale masks covering their faces. They are the ones that lead the souls of the deceased to the afterlife, so they don’t get corrupted and turned into vengeful ghosts. They don’t talk, and the only part that can be seen of them are their hands, completely covered by runes.

“Daughter” Lífdagar turns towards the sound of her mother’s voice. She is standing behind her and moves to sit beside her.

“Are they done discussing?” Lífdagar asks. She left the meeting when she realised those men were not actually listening to anyone, and they weren’t discussing anything that concerned her. Ashild shakes her head.

“They all agree they won’t attack again until winter has passed, but they don’t agree on if they should leave their soldiers here, move them back, or stay for a few weeks and then leave.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Go back, there is no imminent danger, we will be back in spring with more soldiers.”

Lífdagar nods, she thought as much, now she only has to figure out what they will do.

“Come home with us” Ashild grabs Lífdagar’s hand. “To spend the winter.”

“I wish I could, the Council probably has plans for us.”

“You only obey them now?” Lífdagar looks at the soldiers around them, thankful that no one seems to be able to understand them. “Nothing important will happen in winter, the four of you should come with us. There is someone I want you to meet.”

“I will tell the others, see what they think.” Lífdagar concedes, her mother answers with a smile and a squeeze on her shoulder.

“Hey!” They turn to see Meira arriving in a half run. “The meeting is over and Rakan and Kóri want to spar, wanna come watch?”

Both Lífdagar and Ashild stand up to follow Meira. When they arrive, there is already an audience congregating around them. Meira and Lífdagar move between the people to the front.

“When you said sparing....” Lífdagar says.

Meira laughs. “In my defence, I will say that I thought it was going to be a spar, not wrestling”

The two boys are shirtless in front of each other, the distance between them disappears fast. Both boys are young, big and muscular but that is all they have in common. Pale skin moves against tanned skin, short black hair bumps into blond, long, braided one. Still, they seem equal, none of them seem to have an advantage.

“What were you talking about with your... mother?” Meira asks almost absent-mindedly. She keeps looking at the fight. Lífdagar looks for Kylem at the other side of the fight, the moment they make eye contact, she knows that he is listening.

“She wants us to go spent the winter to the north.” Lífdagar answers.

“Shouldn’t we go to the south? Escape the hard winter?”

“To actually escape winter we would have to go to Rakan’s home” Kylem’s voice comes to their minds.

“What did you answer?” Meira asks.

“I said I would speak with you. She says there is someone she wants us to meet.”

“Did she say that in a this is important way or in a I found someone I want you to marry way?”

“It sounded important.”

“Then we know our next stop.” Kylem says.

“Wait, shouldn’t we consult the Council and in case we are needed anywhere?” Meira intervenes.

“They can contact us if they need us.” Kylem replies. Meira doesn’t look convinced.

Rakan knocks Kóri to the ground then, and after a few seconds of pinning him there he jumps up with a triumphant shout and a big smile, people cheering around him. He helps Kóri up and hugs him.

Lífdagar cheers and claps with a big smile. “He was never able to beat my brother when we were younger.” She says with a big smile. Meira looks at her and then at the boys. Rakan sees them and jumps towards them to hug them both. Meira finally laughs and hugs him back.

At night they are in their tent, the wind has picked up and if blows hard between the tents. Thankfully they are warm inside, with the candles and brazier. Kylem is cleaning his chakrams sitting close to the brazier. Meira plops down next to him with a huff, taking off her boots and sighing in relief.

“I’m ready to sleep for 20 hours straight” she complains while massaging her feet “I am so not looking forward to start travelling to the mountains tomorrow.”

“We’ll travel in boats.” Lífdagar says.

“Bless the gods and your people.” Everything stays in silence for a while. Meira observes Kylem while he cleans. “Why did you do it?” she asks. Kylem looks to her for a second before he continues wiping.

“Do what”

“You were talking with Seoham, you could have fought with him, he was probably weak from having to hold the water up, you could have beat him.”

Kylem stops wiping, Meira sees how his hand flexes, he doesn’t say anything.

“He is one of us” Rakan answers.

“But he left, and he didn’t fuck off to be like a farmer somewhere, he is actively fighting against us” Meira argues. Kylem still doesn’t answer. “You don’t believe he wants to hurt us.” Meira realises.

“If he wanted to, he could have before.” Kylem finally answers “Like when he met you on the forest, he could have ended you then and there.”

“What’s his deal then?”

“That’s what I’m trying to find out”

“Be sure he doesn’t kill you in one of your talks” Meira says, Kylem ignores it completely. “It’s a bit creepy, his eyes. Have they always been like that?”

“As far as I’ve known him, yes.” Lífdagar answers to her. “But I think they look cool, the difference between the colours.”

“Yeah but doesn’t he give you the creeps when they turn black? It’s weird as fuck.”

“What do you mean?” Lífdagar asks, she looks truthly confused.

“Yes like when he tried to touch my light his eyes went black and today when we arrived and the guy was touching him too.” she looks at the others, all equally giving her confused looks. “I suppose it was a trick of the light or something.”

“It must have been.” Lífdagar says.

“Oh! Talking about eyes!” Rakan says abruptly “I’ve been trying to only turn my eyes to dragon, look!” his eyes change, now amber with slits for pupils that soon turn into big circles. Lífdagar laughs.

“Do they give you like better vision or something?” Meira asks.

“Not much but they look cool right?”