Freya walks through snowy Halsar toward her wedding ceremony, escorted by Ylva, enduring cold stares from the townspeople who see her as an insult to their beloved lady. Along the way, her friend Ingrid approaches with a sword, only to be seized by warriors who suspect a threat. Bjorn intervenes, ordering the warriors to release Ingrid and chiding Ylva for treating Freya like a child. In a brief private exchange, Ingrid thanks Freya for her sacrifice and presents her father's sword—not as a personal gift, but as the customary blade Freya must give Snorri at the wedding. Freya is stung to realize Ingrid and Geir are using this precious heirloom to curry favor with the jarl. She also discovers that Geir told Ingrid about her magic years ago. Ingrid frames Freya's marriage as a gift from the gods, which Bjorn later calls out as self-serving rationalization to ease Ingrid's own guilt. Freya feels deeply alone.

The wedding ceremony itself is brief and passionless. Freya and Snorri exchange blades—his gift to her a newly forged, unsharpened sword devoid of sentiment. Immediately after, Snorri addresses the crowd, revealing Freya as the prophesied shield maiden, child of Hlin, destined to unite Skaland against King Harald of Nordeland. He hands Freya a shield and she activates her magic, covering it in silver light. The crowd's hostility transforms into fervent support as Snorri promises them battle fame, wealth, and vengeance.

Ylva then performs the blood tattoo ritual, revealing herself as a volva—a witch who can wield runic magic. She draws runes in a circle around Freya and calls upon Hlin to either claim Freya or kill her. As Ylva cuts Freya's chest, the goddess's power erupts violently: Freya's blood spiders across her body, her chest tears open to reveal her beating heart, and she is lifted into the air. Bjorn shouts for Ylva to break the circle, but Ylva has already stumbled out of it in terror. Bjorn rushes in, and Freya collapses, her body restored with only a thin scar—and a vivid blood tattoo of a shield on her left hand. A second, unrecognizable tattoo is found on her scarred right palm, apparently incomplete.

Snorri interprets the violent vision—Freya being torn apart as though warred over—as a divine portent: if they don't take care, Freya will be destroyed. Drawing on the myth of Tyr sacrificing his arm to bind Fenrir, Snorri declares that Bjorn must be the one to protect Freya, calling it his destiny. Bjorn flatly refuses and storms away. Snorri insists Bjorn will come around, but Freya privately reflects that Bjorn is unfated, meaning the Norns' designs cannot bind him—his destiny is his own to choose.