Dawn breaks with Freya still in Bjorn's arms after their intimate night. Bodil notices their closeness but only teases Freya about her recovery. When Snorri arrives, Freya's frostbitten toes are revealed to be purple and painful. Bjorn argues she cannot fight, but Freya insists she will not delay the siege of Grindill for the sake of her toes, believing Eir may heal her if she proves herself in battle. Despite Bjorn's protests, Snorri tests Freya by ordering her to sprint to nearby trees, and she manages it despite excruciating pain. During the sprint, she discovers one of Snorri's warriors looting a dying hunter—a scout killed to prevent detection—and the reality that she is now the raider unsettles her deeply.

The assault begins. Bodil paints blue teardrops on Freya's face, invoking Hlin, while Snorri smears blood across Bjorn's face. The warriors carry a felled oak as a battering ram toward the fortress's east gate while a decoy force of Bodil's maidens attacks the south. Freya holds her magic in reserve as arrows and flaming pitch rain down. At Snorri's command, she calls on Hlin, shielding the ram bearers with silver light that repels boiling water poured from above. The ram strikes the gate repeatedly, but warriors fall to arrows and burns.

Freya stumbles over a corpse, her injured toes failing her, and her shield drops from formation. The gap in her magic exposes warriors to boiling water, and Bodil is struck by lightning from a hidden child of Thor stationed above the gate. Bodil falls with a blackened wound in her shoulder. Bjorn drags Freya away as the gate erupts in flame from the lightning. In desperation and fury, Freya tears free, grabs a fallen shield, and charges the child of Thor alone. She raises her magic shield and absorbs a direct lightning strike, which ricochets and destroys the gate and wall section, eliminating the child of Thor.

With the breach open, Snorri orders an attack. Consumed by bloodlust and grief over Bodil, Freya charges into the fortress, cutting down warriors in a killing frenzy. Bjorn follows, protecting her flanks without her awareness. She taunts Gnut, the enemy jarl, luring him out, but Bjorn kills Gnut with a thrown fiery axe before Freya can reach him—saving her from an ambush by hidden archers. Gnut's remaining warriors surrender.

Freya's rage collapses into guilt when she realizes her stumble caused Bodil's death and that Bodil had dropped her sword to catch Freya. Terrified Bodil died without a weapon and thus cannot enter Valhalla, Freya sprints back to the ruined gate. Among the charred bodies, she finds Bodil's remains, a single lock of silver hair unburned, and sees Bodil's skeletal hand still gripping her sword hilt—confirming she will reach Valhalla. Freya wraps the hair around her fingers and weeps. Bjorn finds her and offers comfort, reflecting that those with divine blood can alter fate's weave but must bear the full weight of every choice. Freya calls the blood of a god a curse rather than a gift. Bjorn warns that if she continues on this path under Snorri's control, it will destroy her, urging her to change her fate. Freya agrees but despairs that every attempt to change fate only makes things worse.