Harald’s party camps in a forest clearing, and Freya is unsettled by his silent, hooded thralls, who obey without question and seem wrong to her in ways she cannot fully explain. Steinunn cooks a miserable soup, so Freya goes to the riverbank to forage for roots and mushrooms, with Bjorn trailing her despite her protests. When Bjorn gently asks whether Freya is truly well after killing so many men, Freya answers with cruelty instead of honesty, insisting she does not regret her choices; Bjorn briefly catches her wrist, then lets her go, leaving their tension unresolved.

Back at camp, Freya improves the meal, but her attention fixes on Steinunn. The skald’s red shoes remind Freya of the clues that proved Steinunn had been Harald’s spy in the tunnels, had watched Freya and Bjorn, had passed messages through runes, and had warned Skade when Freya went to see her mother. Because Freya now links Steinunn’s betrayal to her mother’s death, Freya has to force herself not to attack her on the spot.

After supper, Harald asks Steinunn for a song while Bjorn leaves to bathe. Watching Bjorn, Freya thinks about Guthrum’s account of Harald saving Bjorn and Saga, and she fears learning the full truth because it might make Bjorn’s past lies feel understandable, leaving her with grief instead of anger. Steinunn sings of Baldur’s death and Hel’s refusal to release him, and the song drives Freya back to thoughts of the Islunders she condemned to Helheim. Because she believes no mortal should decide a warrior’s afterlife, Freya vows never to call on that power again.

Later, Freya notices Steinunn abandon her watch and slip into the woods with a lamp. Freya follows, driven by anger and a desire to make Steinunn suffer, but the pursuit ends at the ruins of a burned village marked by cairns, including a small one for a child. When Freya sees Steinunn sobbing over the graves, she realizes Steinunn has also lost family to violence. That grief does not erase Steinunn’s betrayals, but it stops Freya from taking revenge. Before Freya can leave, Bjorn seizes her from behind, muffles her cry, and carries her away so Steinunn will not discover her.

Once they are alone, Bjorn tells Freya he does not trust Harald’s new intentions. Bjorn believes Harald once wanted Freya dead because of prophecy, but now wants her alive because her Hel-gift could make her a weapon for Nordeland whenever desperation pushes her to use it. Freya argues that Harald might be trying to help her alter her fate, yet Bjorn warns that changing prophecy could make things worse, not better. When Bjorn begs Freya not to serve Harald, Freya reveals Ylva bound her by blood magic on her wedding night to serve no man outside Snorri’s bloodline, making service to Harald impossible. Bjorn is shocked and says he wishes he had known, but Freya rejects the comfort of that claim, tells him she stood alone before and will do so again, then returns to camp after hearing heavy wings overhead. At the edge of the firelight, Kaja is eating the rabbit Bjorn used to bribe her into silence.