When Vector awoke to find their sled had come to a stop, he asked himself the question which over the last two days had almost become like a mantra.

  What comes next?

  His life of planning and carefully thought out actions had been overturned so fast, it was all he could do to keep up. There was a freedom in it though, and despite his mind’s attempts to rebel, to seek out order where none could be found, he understood deep down that this was exactly what he needed.

  The knowledge did little in the way of providing comfort, but that too was necessary.

  All of this, everything that was happening, it was out of his control.

  That didn't mean he was weak, or that he needed to just try harder. It meant he needed to accept the changes in both his situation, and in himself.

  As he had spoken to Xain the night before, Vector felt the walls he had spent so long crafting, reinforcing, and reinforcing again, begin to crumble.

  His power had always come from his array. From his ability to use the runes in ways thought impossible. He had worked hard to perpetuate this image for a simple reason: in his House, if he did not have power, he did not have value.

  Now though, in the face of banned runes, Matriarchs, daughters of God’s, and Loki only knew what other primal forces, to hold onto such views would only aid in hastening his own demise.

  The branch which cannot bend is destined to break.

  Which was not to say he was helpless. Far from it. He just needed to adapt.

  Squall’s presence alone opened a myriad of new possibilities.

  Admittedly his understanding of the current situation on Niflheim was lacking, but if anyone could lead them to Nidhogg, the Eldest Dragon’s last daughter was as good a bet as any.

  “We stopped?”

  Xain had moved to sleep with Fen at some point throughout their journey and Vector could not help a smile while he watched his friend work to untangle himself from the wolf as he sat up.

  “Indeed,” Vector replied, pushing aside a black curtain which covered the windows of their little cabin.

  Outside the large flakes of thickly falling snow made it impossible to see more than a few feet beyond where they sat. Even if he could though, Vector suspected there would be little else than more snow to greet them.

  “Where do you think we are?” Xain asked, as he finally freed his right arm from where it had been trapped by the massive wolf who, to his credit, barely cracked an eye as Xain struggled.

  “No idea,” Vector answered honestly.

  His sense of time within the bag had been completely distorted, so he could only guess at how long it had taken them to reach the shore. As it was no longer completely dark, he assumed the fabled white sun of Niflheim had recently risen, but that did little to aid in understanding how long they had been traveling for.

  A typical solar cycle on Niflheim lasted for 36 standard Midgardian hours, which meant a ‘day’ on Niflheim only comprised two thirds of a full rotation of their world. It was one of the more extreme variants within the realms, and without a point of reference for when they had left the shore side cove, there was no way for Vector to know how long they had been traveling for.

  If what they had seen at the ship could be trusted, it had been night when they fled the ferry, but even if the sun was only now just rising, at this time of the year that was little help in narrowing down the 15 hour window of darkness which covered the ice planet.

  On top of that, he had no idea where they had set out from. He was not even completely confident they had been by the ocean when Lilith had finally released them from her bag.

  There were just too many unknowns for him to hazard a guess, and even if he could, what good would it do?

  “Well, not like it matters,” Xain said, echoing Vector's own sentiments.

  “Fen,” he continued, nudging the wolf with his knee.

  “You hear anything?”

  “Grr,” the wolf growled sleepily.

  “Yeah, I know. I’m hungry too,” Xain said, and once again surprised Vector with the duo’s apparent ability to perfectly understand one another.

  “But I don't feel much like venturing out to hunt in a place we know nothing about.”

  “Hunt?” Vector asked.

  “Umm, yes?” Xain replied.

  “You… know how to hunt?”

  “You don’t?”

  “I… no. It was not something Asgard taught to those who held arrays. Had I taken root, I may have been tasked with the pursuit of runic beasts, but there are so few on Asgard now, such things are traditionally reserved for the nobles.”

  The look of disgust on both Xain and Fen’s face aptly represented Vector’s own feelings on the practice, and for a moment he was reminded how much his life had changed since meeting them.

  Instead of hunting runic creatures, he was now bonding with one.

  “Bow talked about that sometimes. Our dad had some strong feelings regarding the treatment of runic creatures. Well, he had strong feelings about a lot of things. But especially that.”

  “Anyway’s,” Xain continued, suddenly looking uncomfortable, a thing that happened any time he spoke about his father, “what do you think we should do?”

  “Huh?” Vector asked.

  “Well, we're a pack right? We should make decisions together. And from what we can tell, you know far more about… well, everything, than we do.”

  “I don’t…” Vector started, but trailed off. They were placing their trust in him. It was… odd. Good, but odd.

  “Right,” he said, nodding as a plan formed in his mind. “First thing we should do is figure out if we are alone. I doubt Lilith would have gone through so much trouble just to leave us in the tundra to die.”

  “We need to understand exactly what brought her and Squall to our aid, and how far that aid goes. But we also need to recognize that whatever brought them here, has to do with you. I see that makes you uncomfortable, and I will not press you on this until you are ready to speak of it, but as you said, we are a pack. And whatever comes now, we face it together.”

  …

  “You want me to do what?” Vector asked again.

  Xain had been glad to find that as Vector had surmised, Lilith and Squall had not abandoned them, but that feeling had been very short-lived.

  After exiting the sled, at which point Vector began to shake with cold before tapping his array, making Xain inwardly thank Bow for the clothes that blocked out what must be frigid temperatures, Fen had just been able to make out a second sled about 10 yards away.

  Xain, Fen, and Vector all had seen to reliving themselves before making their way to the black spec which, close as it was, would have been nearly impossible to reach without the wolf’s constant prodding.

  Their short trek, which should have taken no more than a minute or two, took nearly twenty as they trudged through the snow, waist deep powder and constant wind making every step a struggle.

  Even Fen, who like Xain was no stranger to snow, merely plodded though, forgoing his typical playful leaping and bounding in favor of slow methodical steps.

  When they finally reached the other sled, a two story vehicle that sat atop six skis and was easily four times the size of their own, Xain’s curiosity took over and his attention was quickly turned from the promised warmth inside toward understanding this foreign mode of transportation.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Extending from the back of the sled were two thick cables which, even in the multiple feet of snow, he could see spanned the distance between this sled and his own, binding the vehicles together. At the front, though it was impossible to pick out their white forms as they perfectly blended into the landscape, Xain could smell the pack of dogs who served as their chauffeurs.

  Xain glanced down at Fen and, upon seeing his own excitement at meeting the first animals not of their Realm mirrored in his wolfs eyes, started forward. However, before they could take two steps, the sled's door slammed open, and any hopes of making new friends died.

  “Get in here,” Lilith ordered as she stood, framed by the soft light of the cabin, and glowered down at them.

  Despite her demeanor, the cold, or the fact that he had yet to begin to process the avalanche of revelations from the previous night, Xain had not been able to help the sudden heat which rose to his face at the sight of her.

  You were smuggled off a ship, found out you may have a sister, met a dragon, and that's where your mind goes?

  His time with Bow had afforded absolutely zero opportunities to do anything which resembled dating; and honestly that had been just fine. Xain had rarely thought about it, and when he did, it was not for long.

  So why he suddenly found himself staring at the woman, his mind a complete blank, he could not begin to understand.

  The feeling was not mutual.

  Lilith had tersely beckoned them into the sled, wordlessly gestured for them to take a seat, waved a half hearted invitation to partake in the massive spread of meats, cheeses, and something Vector had called ice fruits, before finally explaining that Squall and her daughter were in the room above, and would not be joining them.

  The trio had taken this all in stride, eagerly filling plates, and eating in silence while they waited for Lilith to say more.

  When she did though, Xain had wished they had just stayed outside with the dogs.

  “The casualties from the explosion,” she had explained, “were determined to include Xain, Vector, Fen, Phayte, and Tim.”

  Without waiting for them to process this, she had gone on to say that the official report was yet to be released, and until it was, their deaths would not be finalized. However, the ferry would be docking in an hour at the harbor near where they now resided, so it would not be long until, aside from a select few, everyone else in the Ten Realms would consider them deceased.

  “They… they died?” Xain had asked, as he remembered how the Rooted from Hel had saved them.

  “That is complicated,” Lilith had said, but did not expand.

  Xain was familiar with death. It was part of his life. Hunting had played a role, but his true experience came from his dreams. He had long believed the nightly horrors were more than merely fictitious creations of his mind, and as Bow had never once denied this theory, he had come to accept it as true.

  He assumed it had to do with being a Husk, a peculiarity of how they came to be, but without another husk to ask, and afraid the truth may be something far worse, he had never tried to unravel the mystery further than was necessary.

  So while he was pained to learn of their deaths, it did not trigger a reaction like the mere thought of Fen dying had.

  Vector had similarly appeared troubled, but whatever growing up in House Asgard had done to him, Xain saw the man was quick to accept the news and move past it.

  However, when Lilith had then gone on to say that because of the situation, Asgard had offered to repay the newly incurred blood debt by giving her both the perpetrator and one other from the Asgardian group to do with as Hel deemed fit, and that she was tasking Vector to choose who the other Asgardian would be, that all changed.

  “Do I really have to say it again?” Lilith asked, almost bored.

  “Why? Why me?” Vector stuttered.

  “You know them. Honestly, I thought you would be grateful. I mean, of course you cannot choose Tor. Too many complications there. But from what I understand, the others were from relatively unimportant Asgardian Houses. So here is a chance for some… payback.”

  “The one, Prishel, was found to be responsible for the attack. As such, I have little choice in what happens to her. But for the one you chose, well, that's your choice too. Decide who it is, and what is to be done with them. By all accounts, they were awful to you. I can kill the one you decide alongside Prishel, or we can drop them in the tundra, or I really don't care. Whoever you chose, Asgard will wipe their hands of. No matter what you decide, no Realm will make a contract with them, and I doubt they will last long on their own.”

  “Prishel? Are you fucking kidding?” Vector asked, exasperated.

  “She can barely tap her array. That explosion was… it's just not possible.”

  “Agreed,” Lilith said. “The investigation mentions a relic was used, though it was similarly destroyed during the attack. Most likely, she was sent as a last ditch effort to get rid of the three of you, and was given a relic which she knew nothing about. I doubt she was ever supposed to survive the attack. But, she did. And here we are.”

  “Look,” Lilith continued, sitting forward. “The truth is, Asgard thinks it was a success. That is what matters. To them, sending her and another to die, well that is a small price for their revenge. And we want them to keep thinking that. The only reason this is happening at all is because two of mine were caught up in this mess. If it was just you three, Asgard may have had to pay for some ship repairs, but remember, you were destined for the Path. No one could have said a thing.”

  “But… we didn't die,” Vector said, weakly.

  “But they think you did, along with two of mine. And if they are going to continue to think that, this is what has to happen.”

  Bullshit.

  Some of what Lilith was saying was true, but not all of it. Additionally, she may work hard to come off as callous and uncaring, but Xain could see the truth of it. She was scared. She no more wanted to kill that girl than Vector wanted to make this choice.

  So, either she really didn't care about her Rooted, or something else was going on.

  Following his suspicions, Xain asked “Who was the healer?”

  “Freya,” Vector said without looking at him.

  “Her,” Xain said.

  “What? Why?” Vector asked, finally focusing on Xain.

  Instead of answering him, Xain turned to Lilith and asked, “Even if they think we are dead, what happens if someone sees us? I don't know what you and Squall have planned, but I doubt you are just going to hope no one notices us around Niflheim.”

  Lilith opened her mouth to speak, but decided against it as she closed it and sat back, her eyes narrowed as she watched him.

  “Right. Dying, it's not enough. That’s what Squall meant when she said it isn't over. I don't know what you two are thinking, but I’m guessing you have some way to hide us. I have no idea why either of you are helping, and from our brief meeting, it does not appear that it is out of the goodness of your hearts.”

  “Fine. I can deal with that. Keep your secrets. Im getting used to people knowing more about my own fucking life than me. However, in the brief time we have been together, and despite my memories of you, I do not believe you are so callous as to condemn someone to death merely because Asgard allowed it.”

  “In fact,” Xain continued, as he decided to just lay it all out.

  He wasn't good at this subterfuge bullshit, and honestly, he didn't want to be. But the truth had its own strength.

  Lilith had said her two Rooted had been determined to be casualties of the explosion, but her response when asked about it had hardly been confirmation. On top of that, the impression Xain had gotten was not of people who could be so easily killed.

  If what they had said was true, the three of them had prevented several other attempts on the group's life before the explosion, and if Xain had been able to make it out, well…

  “I don’t think Phayte and Tim died.”

  Lilith didn't show any outward reaction to this, but Xain could pick up on a slightly different scent from her, and it was one he was well acquainted with. Surprise.

  “And if that is the case, then the only reason you are executing this… Prishel, is to keep up the facade.”

  “Now, don't get me wrong here. If they had managed to kill Fen, I would not stop until I had hunted down every one of them. But if I’m right, then all that is going to come from her death is finishing what Asgard started in the first place.”

  “Is there a point you are trying to make, or do you still just lack any ability to regulate the flow of thoughts from coming out of your mouth?” Lilith asked cooly.

  Fen let out a little bark of laughter at this, and Xain couldn't help but smile.

  “You remember a lot about me,” he said.

  That seemed to hit a nerve, as when Lilith leaned forward her pale cheeks showed just the slightest hint of color. Before she could speak though, Xain continued “My point is, while I won't act as if I know anything about interrealm politics, even I see there is another option.”

  “And that is?” she asked, teeth gritted.

  “Bring them with us.”

  “What?” Lilith and Vector said at the same time.

  “I mean, Vector, tell me if I'm wrong here, but if they are as expendable as it seems, then life within the House couldn’t have been that great. What’s going to happen when they actually get to Asgard? If someone was so willing to toss me to the side, I doubt I would hold much fondness, let alone loyalty to them.”

  “It just seems like a needless waste to kill them, or kill one and abandon another. From what I have seen, you can't heal. And if our time on the ship is any indication, I'm going to get hurt. A lot.”

  “You think Bow would do something like that?” Lilith asked. Underneath her sharp tone though, Xain heard something else he couldn't place.

  “Honestly? I have no fucking idea what Bow would do. The man who raised me, well yeah. But that man also would have told me he had a daughter. He also would have never left her in the first place. So, maybe I don't know him at all.”

  It was a thought which had surfaced already, but saying the words aloud, Xain felt a stab in his stomach. Hiding the fact that he was an Ancient, not telling Xain anything about his rune, or that he was some pawn for the Norns, he had been able to accept that, even if he couldn't understand it.

  But to abandon his daughter, that was something else. If he could do that, then was it only an obligation that kept him from doing the same to him?

  You don't know what happened.

  “Look,” Xain said, shoving those thoughts to the side.

  He wasn’t entirely sure why he was pushing for this so hard. They had tried to kill him after all. But something about doing what Asgard wanted just felt… wrong.

  “I am obviously out of my depth. That has been made abundantly clear to me. I just don't see what killing them gets us.”

  “Besides,” he continued, not trying to hide his smile as he said “someone using the array of Death's Apothecary should have no problem in faking an execution or two.”

  The look of surprise on Lilith’s face was almost worth the slap which immediately followed. Almost