Bjorn wakes in a filthy cell beneath Grindill, badly injured and chained. Tora, sitting outside the bars, gives him water and explains that Volund healed him only because Ylva insisted. When Bjorn asks what Harald has told everyone, Tora says Harald is spreading shifting lies but has convinced people that Freya used her power as Hel’s child to slaughter armies and that Bjorn helped her out of love, while Harald and Snorri supposedly stopped her and captured Bjorn.

Tora then reveals that she has known for over a year that Harald is Loki. Suspicious after Harald claimed to have visited Saga, Tora secretly went to Saga’s cabin and found it abandoned, proving Harald had lied. Tora told Skade, but Skade betrayed her to Harald. After that, Harald trapped Tora by appearing in the form of her lover, Tove, persuading Tora to swear binding blood-oaths of obedience and devotion before revealing his true face, leaving Tora magically compelled to love and serve him.

Hearing this, Bjorn is horrified both for Tora and for himself. Tora explains that Harald delights in making his victims understand how thoroughly he has manipulated them, and Bjorn realizes this cruelty explains Harald’s long deception of Snorri, Freya, and himself. Tora also reveals that Saga gave only one true prophecy about Freya uniting Skaland under whoever controlled her fate, and that Harald invented the rest to shape Bjorn’s choices and Freya’s fear of becoming a monster.

Bjorn is crushed by guilt because he now sees that he helped convince Freya that her destiny was monstrous, and he blames his own choices for the deaths on the strait. He asks Tora whether she can stop Skade from going after Freya, but Tora says she cannot because Harald has ordered her to keep Bjorn imprisoned even at the cost of her life. Tora tells Bjorn that if he kills her to escape, she will be grateful, because Harald’s magic has made her life unbearable.

The conversation shifts when Kaja, Guthrum’s merlin, flies to the opposite cell and then perches on Tora’s arm. Bjorn realizes Guthrum may still be alive, because the bird’s behavior seems purposeful rather than random. Refusing to surrender, Bjorn asks Tora to hand over Kaja, then speaks to the bird as if Guthrum can see through her eyes, saying he has a story to tell and that he needs Guthrum’s help.