A few minutes later Erika was sitting underneath a cart.

It seemed even second botherer was one of the fastest of the pack, a few moments after driving him off a veritable swarm of annoyances had flocked to her. A tidal wave of thralls and third sons each and every one begging her to sell her honour to one of the clans in exchange for a handful of gems and hacksilver.

After shouting at a few and trying to shove through the rest Erika had run off into a side road and changed her skin. It was risky doing it there but Erika couldn’t deal with any more crowds.

She’d not really slowed down until she found the conveniently parked wagon outside of a tannery near the edge of the fur tier which had a good view of the temple of Magni, a huge squat building that grew like a mushroom from a stump out of the bottom of the inner face of the cities curtain wall.

Erika trotted through the surprisingly wide streets of the fur tier, she’d once heard it was a mandate from the jarl so his huscarls could move to the wall easier, she snaked around a few small crowds, a huge stagnant puddle, the runoff of a slaughterhouse and finally a row of slum housing before bursting out into the fresh air again.

Near the wall was kept officially clear, which meant only temporary stalls or those willing to pay massive bribes were allowed to set up there. The vast temples of the Aesir occupied most of the cleared ground acting as part community hall part barracks. Usually, it would be seeing a brisk trade but nothing more, most of the Gothi on call out to do rune work around the city and the rest ministering to anyone who needed it. But this wasn't usual, instead in the space around the temple were two great crowds, a central one near the stairs filled with armed and armoured figures, then a thin line of huscarls and beyond them a seething wave of people, so many they obscured the ground itself, each and every one of them clamouring to get in and bellow of their own importance to anyone within earshot.

Erika sighed and trotted forwards, weaving between legs and occasionally biting someone in the ankle, she made her way through the press and past one of the huscarls, apparently the jarl himself was helping maintain order in all this mess.

Moving through what had to be delvers and Silvermane employees Erika spotted Sigurn arguing with some weak chinned spare son of one of the Clans. Luckily for Erika the press helped with this next bit, reaching into her own mind she grabbed a bit of herself and jerked it. Nobody was looking down at the ground in this mess so to the people nearby it looked like a Vitki had just stood up out of nowhere well inside the barrier of soldiers.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Delvers were less deferential so Erika had to elbow her way over to Sigurn who had driven her target back to the edge of the square of people. As Erika got closer, she made out a handful of words.

“…keeping us from talking to…”

“…every right…”

“…Will hear of this!”

That last seemed to be the end of Sigurn’s patience as she lifted the feckless youth over her head with one hand on his throat before hurling him over the heads of the huscarls and out of sight. Taking a deep breath Sigurn sighed and seemed to slump, Erika wasn't sure if it was exhaustion or just no longer puffing herself up.

Drawing on her Odium Well again Erika pushed the exhaustion away and tapped Sigurn gently on the shoulder.

[Restorative Draft]

Sigurn jumped as the light of magick flowed across her, for a moment Erika realised she might have made a mistake and might be about to be mauled by a sagaborn bear but a heartbeat later her hackles seemed to settle and she turned and smiled at Erika, the Vitki couldn’t tell if it was fake or not.

“By Baldr! Erika?… I thought I’d have to come drag you in through the mob, how did you get in?”

Erik just pointed at her own mantle in silence and Sigurn seemed to take the hint, Vitki did as Vitki would. For a moment Sigurn looked at her with a critical eye then it passed like a loud over the sun and the sagaborn was all smiles again.

“Thanks for the spell kid, pretty nice of you.”

“I'm just trying to win my new bosses’ favour.” Said Erika bluntly drawing a deep genuine laugh from Sigurn. “That’ll do you good kid, glad to see you got here on time, lots of stuff to get ready. You didn’t run into too much trouble with this lot, did you?” With a dismissive gesture Sigurn indicated the entire heaving mass before them.

Erika laughed. “A little, I scared one off but more turned up, like flies on a carcass.”

Samar laughed and clapped a hand on Erika shoulder, artfully turning the gesture into a faint tug to draw her along and deeper into the crowd.

“Yeah, the Great Clans are like that, they want in on the expedition… well not really, they want in on what we find, not that they think we’ll find anything but they want in on the off chance.”

Erika nodded slowly as a thought occurred to her. “Uh… you guys put out flyers, right? Why didn’t any just join up.”

Sigurn barked a bearlike laugh. “Clever Vitki clever but simply answered, first they think we’ll all die so there isn't any point joining and second, me.”

“You?” Erika knew Sigurn as a folk hero sure but the Great Clans had gold ranks working for them or even marrying into them, Sigurn was strong but she couldn’t be that strong right?

Sigurn shrugged. “Don’t worry about it kid, just know I’ve got your back.”

Erika shrugged and moved on, she really hated politics and frankly wasn't interested in an explanation and they seemed to have arrived at their destination, there stood in the eye of the storm of delvers was Alvis carrying a stack of writing slates and waiting on by two apprentices. Sigurn walked up to him and whispered in his ear. A few moments later Sigurn came back still smiling and lead Erika into a space in the crowd before vanishing. A few heartbeats later she heard more than saw the huscarls move and force the clan thralls aside and found herself swept up in the motion as the crowd of delvers lurched forwards and away.