Bjorn watches Freya sitting apart on the beach after drowning the Islunder captors with Hel’s curse, and he recognizes that saving the children has still driven her into a place of guilt and self-punishment. When Harald asks whether Volund should tend Freya, Bjorn says Freya will refuse help, knowing she clings to pain as atonement. As villagers reclaim surviving children from the beached drakkar, Bjorn also feels complicit in the day’s losses, because Nordeland had been left exposed while Harald pursued Bjorn’s failed ambitions.

Wanting to offer some small comfort, Bjorn helps pull the drakkar ashore and climbs aboard with the unclaimed children. He calls Kaja down from the sky and encourages the children to pet the bird, creating a gentler memory to interrupt their shock while survivors find homes for them. Afterward, Bjorn joins Harald, Tora, and Skade, and learns Harald fears escaped Islunders will carry word that Bjorn, the Firehand, has returned to Nordeland.

Because of that risk, Harald orders Skade to hunt down the survivors and silence them. Skade resists, claiming she should remain at Harald’s side and blaming Freya for the raid, arguing that Nordeland’s distraction over Freya invited disaster. Bjorn defends Freya, but Harald ends the dispute by dismissing Skade from the role at his right hand and sending her away under the guise of trusted vengeance. Bjorn reads Harald’s words as manipulation rather than affection, and when Harald says Skade’s fear makes her dangerous, Bjorn realizes Harald no longer trusts her.

Once Skade leaves, Bjorn notices broader fractures among Harald’s followers and becomes uneasy about how much has changed. He thanks Tora for stopping Arkyn from killing him, and their joking briefly returns, but Bjorn also feels the distance created by the battles they fought on opposite sides. Tora seems ready to tell Bjorn something important, yet Harald interrupts and orders her back to work; her stumbling movements make Bjorn suspect she is hurt or badly shaken.

Harald then orders an immediate departure for Hrafnheim with only his drakkar and enough Nameless to row up the Rimstrom, while Volund and the others remain to aid the wounded and bury the dead. As Bjorn looks out to sea, he spots a distant sail heading toward Skaland, which heightens his alarm. Harald says his mother’s prophecy has not changed, believes a dark cloud still hangs over Nordeland, and insists that Freya must speak to Saga before the storm fully descends.