Freya leads her draug from the trees toward Grindill, creating a terrifying spectacle of undead soldiers, torches, and crude war machines. She draws on the power of both goddesses to intimidate the fortress, but she is resolved that Hel’s magic will never again be used as a weapon against her own people.

At the walls, Freya confronts Skade, who taunts her about Bjorn’s possible torture and death. Freya answers with a threat of her own, and Skade correctly reads that Freya has come because surrender would not truly save Bjorn. When Skade fires a magic arrow, Freya catches it in her hand and overpowers Skade’s attempt to reclaim it, proving that she is still dangerous.

Using that moment, Freya orders Geir and the draug to begin the plan, launching smoldering pine boughs over Grindill’s walls to fill the fortress with smoke. But almost immediately Freya notices something is wrong: the warriors on the walls are not reacting to the attack. Instead, they are turned inward, arms slack, and even Skade stops resisting and seems lost in a trance.

Guthrum runs to Freya and urgently tells her to stop, explaining that Steinunn is singing and has everyone inside the fortress in thrall. That means the people within Grindill, including Kaja, are trapped in the smoke without awareness or defense. Guthrum then stiffens as his eyes turn yellow with his familiar’s sight, and although Freya orders Geir to halt the assault, she realizes too late that disaster has already begun when she sees flames flickering through the smoke.