Freya spends the day listening to members of Harald’s cabal explain how they came into his service. Their stories convince her that Harald has earned a fierce loyalty by rescuing them from abuse and exploitation, and she wonders whether she could ever feel the same devotion toward him. As preparations begin for a feast, Freya dresses with her father’s sword and Gyda’s seax and moves through the great hall under Tora’s watch, still uneasy because Bjorn has not appeared.

When Bjorn finally arrives, Freya feels relieved, but her thoughts remain tangled in their unresolved conflict. She wants Bjorn to take control of her oaths so she can oppose Snorri without being forced to obey him, yet Bjorn has refused. Freya resents his impracticality, even while recognizing that she does not truly want any man’s control; she simply sees no other acceptable way to fight Snorri without endangering others such as Ylva.

Freya stays to hear Steinunn perform, partly because she wants to understand how Harald shapes his people’s beliefs and partly because she is desperate to see whether Hel’s magic can be turned toward any good. Tora stuffs wool in her ears to avoid being caught in the skald’s visions, then explains that she needs to stay alert to protect Freya. As Steinunn sings, Freya watches a retelling of recent events that begins truthfully but quickly omits crucial details, including Tora’s lightning striking villagers after rebounding off Freya’s magic and Harald’s role in forcing Freya north.

The distortions continue through the battle with the Islunders. Steinunn presents Freya as willing, heroic, and protective while erasing her resistance, the terror surrounding the children, and Harald’s coercion. Freya realizes that a skald’s song can weaponize partial truth into a lie. When the performance ends, the hall erupts not in praise for Steinunn but for Freya, and Nordelanders thank her as the savior of their children. Their gratitude unsettles Freya because it clashes with how her own people treated her, yet it also gives her a fleeting sense that she might be capable of doing good.

That fragile moment ends when horns sound outside and the hall stiffens in alarm. Una panics and cries that the Skalanders have come for Freya, abruptly turning the feast into a looming threat and suggesting that the conflict Freya has been fearing may have reached Hrafnheim.