The party descends the southern slope of Hammar by torchlight, with Freya struggling to focus on the dangerous path as memories of her passionate encounter with Bjorn flood her mind. She berates herself for taking things so far, believing Bjorn's physical response was involuntary and that she has shamed both of them, yet she cannot suppress her growing emotional attachment to him. At the base of the mountain, they reach the camp where Ragnar greets them. Snorri orders an immediate departure for Halsar. The skald Steinunn has just arrived and demands Freya's account. Bjorn tries to deflect, but Freya agrees to share her story. Bodil stays to listen, and Freya recounts the draug battles during their ride, carefully omitting private moments with Bjorn.

As night falls and the group rides on, Freya has a nightmare of Halsar burning, shadow warriors cutting down screaming people while she stands frozen atop the great hall. Bodil wakes her and they discuss fate, with Bodil challenging Freya's assumptions about the seer's prophecy and questioning whether Snorri can truly control fate when he cannot master his own. Bodil also reveals her longstanding friendship with Ylva. Freya dismisses Bodil's philosophical provocations as political maneuvering but is left unsettled.

Bjorn then rides alongside Freya and reveals what he asked the seer: whether the gods would tell him if he walked the path they wished for him—the same cryptic question whose answer Freya already heard. Before they can discuss further, the sound of galloping hooves and a woman's sob reach them. Freya races ahead and sees an orange glow on the horizon. Halsar has been burned to the ground by Jarl Gnut. The docks, homes, great hall, stores, and ships are destroyed. Bodies of defenders litter the ruins.

Survivors emerge from the forest—mostly women and children who escaped thanks to scouts' warnings and defenders who bought them time. Ylva reunites tearfully with her son Leif, who is wounded but alive. Freya discovers the healer Liv among the dead, killed defending her people despite her opposition to violence. Bjorn kneels beside Liv in grief and anger. Bodil offers to send supplies from Brekkur.

Snorri seizes the moment to rally his people, reframing the destruction as a gift: Halsar was always vulnerable, and now its weakness has been burned away. He declares they will not rebuild but instead march to war against Gnut, vowing that the next roof his people sleep under will be within the walls of Grindill, Gnut's stronghold. The crowd roars approval, swept up in his rhetoric. Freya is caught up in the fervor, but when she turns to Bjorn, he has silently slipped away.