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“Just like old times,” Herrick commented, resting his hand on her thigh as if it was an instinct.

“I don’t know if you can call last week ‘old times’,” Maude said, a half-smile appearing on her face.

“Sure I can,” he said, urging the horse forward. “A lifetime has happened since then, minn eldr . You know how to keep a man on his toes. ”

Maude smiled at that.

“Yes, well, don’t expect it to get any easier now,” she commented.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he said in her ear, voice low.

Maude shivered.

“Down, beast,” she said, the humor leaking into her voice feeling foreign and awkward.

Ahead of her, their friends laughed at her comment. Herrick chuckled behind her as well, the vibrations pleasantly moving through her. Gunnar made a rude comment toward Herrick, who responded in kind, and quickly, they were all laughing.

Maude looked around this small group of people who had ripped her from her sheltered reality and showed her a way to achieve her goals, all while accepting her for her rough edges and sharp tongue.

They had become her friends. She would never admit to Gunnar out loud that he was right about her being able to have friends, but… perhaps he was right.

And maybe that meant there was something worth salvaging in her ragged soul of embers and ruin after all.

Time passed with the same blur of trees surrounding them before they finally moved into the harsh afternoon sun over a long valley that extended south past the point where both rivers met. Maude could spy the outline of a small town that must be Amsbrook.

They rode through the long valley flanked by the river they had used in their escape from the palace that morning in relative quiet, exhaustion weighing on the group from the long night.

Herrick had explained that while the river would’ve brought them to Amsbrook faster, the risk of being spotted by soldiers was too high if they were to remain hidden .

“These fields should be bursting with summer crops by now,” Herrick observed, eyeing the empty fields.

“These are farms?” Maude asked, noticing the ashen dirt and weeds.

“They were,” Herrick confirmed. “Mother had said this town had been struggling with their crops, but I had not realized it was so serious at the time.”

Herrick nudged their horse forward to catch up with Hakon.

“Hakon,” Herrick started, but his brother only nodded.

“I know,” Hakon said, scanning the empty fields. “Something is wrong.”

Another hour passed before Maude could really see the wall that lay around the town of Amsbrook.

The rooftops of the buildings were a deep red, and the white stone of the buildings were dirty and streaked with gray.

Maude’s sensitive nose picked up on a smell that was emitting from the town.

It was slight at first, but as Maude flicked her fingers to change the direction of the wind, they were assaulted by the full stench of decay coming from Amsbrook.

“Herrick,” Maude said, her voice low. “We should leave.”

“We need to find out what happened,” he said, motioning for everyone to get off their horses.

Their feet silently hit the ground. Gunnar ripped a cloth into long strips and handed them out to the group, motioning to tie it around their faces to block the foul smell of dead bodies.

Hakon pleaded with Eydis to stay behind, but she had only given him an angry look and pulled her staff from her back to wield with both hands, dagger at her hip.

Maude strung her bow quickly, nocking an arrow but holding it loosely in her fingers. She nodded to Herrick, and they all moved through the gates of Amsbrook.

As one, the group crept through the silent town, their footsteps echoing off the dingy structures.

Now and then, one of them would stop and open a door to search a house but found no sign of any people, dead or alive.

The smell that saturated every corner of this town grew the closer they got to the town square.

Liv turned the corner, her daggers poised in front of her strike and halted. Shock, unlike anything Maude had ever seen, crossed her face. Eyes wide, Liv turned to the group and motioned with one hand, lowering her weapons to her sides.

Nothing could have prepared Maude for the sight she would behold in the center of Amsbrook.

Strewn across the massive town square were the bodies of every man, woman, and child who lived in Amsbrook, their throats slashed open in one gaping slice.

Eydis brought a hand to her chest, her staff hanging loosely at her side now.

Hakon reached for her and turned her away from the gore.

Gunnar and Herrick shot each other a shocked look before they both walked toward the center of town.

The bodies were laid out in neat rows, each person with the relaxed face of slumber forever frozen in place, as if they had not struggled in death.

There was an intense energy feeding from the center of the town that she could not put her finger on.

Wary of this, Maude inspected the few faces she passed on the outskirts of the town square and saw that some of the bodies had been laid perpendicular to the others.

Maude analyzed the repeating pattern and realized they had been placed in a shape she recognized, repeating over and over again.

“Stop,” Maude called, hard and unyielding.

Gunnar and Herrick froze on the perimeter of the bodies, one step away from entering the square.

“Don’t cross the threshold into the square,” she warned.

“What’s going on, Maude?” Liv asked, having reached her side. She looked out into the square but did not seem to see the repeating pattern .

Without answering, Maude quickly made her way to the closest building and reached for the uneven white bricks that stuck out from the surface to climb her way up to the roof.

Liv, Gunnar, and Herrick followed her without question.

When Maude reached the rooftop, she walked to the edge that faced the town square and confirmed what she had suspected.

Her heart rate increased as the meaning of the pattern settled in her, feeling the threads of fate close around her throat. The scar that was carved through Maude’s face seemed to pulse in the presence of its mirrored shape, like it was welcoming the grotesque pattern into their world.

Herrick made it to her side first and looked over the square, finally understanding what she saw.

“Shit,” he breathed.

“Yes,” Maude replied, sorrow leaking into her voice.

Across the town square, the bodies of the Amsbrook residents had been laid out in the shape of the rune ansuz, the rune that appeared as a sign from the gods.

Two hundred years ago, the Elemental War began shortly after another small town on the outskirts of Logi was similarly massacred without a trace of who was responsible.

That was the last time this rune had appeared in their world until ten years ago when her father had taken a blade and dragged it roughly across her face.

When Maude was finally brave enough to inspect the fresh scar, she instantly recognized the jagged lines cutting through her eyebrow and cheek as the rune ansuz .

In the mirror, the rune was reversed, so she knew that she had been deceived and had no doubt that the deception was her father’s doing. From that day on, Maude trusted only herself.

Now, Maude stood on the rooftops of the empty town of Amsbrook with people she had just begun to trust, unable to ignore the irony of this rune appearing before her as she bore the same symbol forever etched into her flesh.

Gunnar and Liv caught up to them and finally took in the repeating rune.

“This is the work of Vidar,” Gunnar said, motioning to the slice on each person's throat.

“The god of vengeance?” Liv asked, looking at Gunnar.

He nodded solemnly.

“Vidar is sent by the Allfather when he feels we have strayed too far from the correct path,” Gunnar explained.

“This was why this rune, discovered before The Elemental War, launched the kingdoms into conflict. The Kingdom of Flame had found the rune burnt into the ground of the town square belonging to a town on the outskirts of Logi. They interpreted the sign as the Allfather being upset with the power imbalance between the Elven and humans. The Kingdom of Rivers had not agreed, stating the Elven were their allies, and this argument resulted in the war.”

Maude could only stare at the people lying in the center of the square as she half-listened to Gunnar’s explanation.

“It sounds like the Kingdom of Flame was looking for an excuse to start a war,” Liv scoffed, her anger radiating around the group.

“It doesn't matter why they are like this,” she bit out, cutting off whatever Gunnar was about to say. “We need to burn them. We can’t have a traditional funeral for them, so we’ll just have to burn them where they lie.”

They were silent. Maude looked up to see her friends, who were unsure of her words.

“What?” she asked, skin crawling with the wrongness of this place.

“The whole town will be lost,” Herrick said. “There will be no way to rebuild. ”

“I don't think you’ll want to rebuild here, Herrick,” she argued. “This is cursed land now. We shouldn’t be lingering here either.”

“They were our people, Maude,” Gunnar said, looking between her and Herrick.

“Then do right by them now and burn them. Give them a proper funeral. The only change is we can’t risk moving them onto the longboats, sending them downstream as they are carried to the afterlife,” she growled, her emotion beginning to spark within her.

“We have supplies to get us to Ljosa; we hunt when it runs out. We need to grab a longboat from down the shore and leave.”

They all looked at her and then at each other, coming to a silent decision.

Herrick spoke to her as Gunnar and Liv nodded and made their way back down the drain pipe attached to the building.

“We burn them,” he said, defeated. “And then we leave.”