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Bryn opened her eyes and looked at the ceiling while Revna poured water over her head.

“I didn’t want to do it,” Bryn whispered, broken. “But I saw no other option. He would have been killed anyway.”

She hadn’t seen another path for Sven. If their plan was to be successful, this man couldn’t survive.

Had this soldier gone to the King or the General, they would’ve slaughtered him to keep him quiet.

In the limited time they had, Bryn could not find a way to get him out of the palace to save his life.

Even if she had, these assassins were loyal to a fault, and he would have never stayed away for long.

He had to die. And his death chipped away another big part of Bryn’s soul.

“I wish you had told me,” Revna said quietly.

“You would have stopped me,” Bryn responded, trying to stand by her decision and failing .

“Maybe you needed to be stopped.”

“I needed to keep you and Maude safe,” Bryn said, voice small.

“You don’t have to destroy yourself to keep us safe, my love.”

Bryn had no response to that. When Revna had finished rinsing her hair, Bryn stood from the ice-cold water and wrapped her robe around herself, keeping her back to Revna.

The flame that burned within her normally warmed her up quickly enough, but the disgust she had for herself kept her flames at bay.

She needed to feel the cold that spread through her.

Bryn walked toward the previously full decanter on the bar in her room and poured another two finger widths of liquor into a clean glass.

Before Revna could stop her, she downed the entire glass, feeling the heat of the liquid burn all the way into the pit of her empty stomach before it spread to her limbs and numbed every muscle in its burning wake.

Revna removed the glass from her hand and placed it on the tabletop.

“You’ve had enough,” Revna said with a gentleness that Bryn did not deserve.

Revna guided her to the bed, sitting her down on the edge as she towel-dried Bryn’s hair. Bryn spied the perthro rune on her wrist again.

“Are you a seer?” Bryn asked, her head becoming fuzzy again.

Revna stiffened for a moment but continued with her task. “I could have been.”

“And now?”

“No, not anymore. The gods bless me with visions from time to time, but I don’t have the training to interpret them,” Revna sighed and sat next to Bryn. “I joined the army instead of finishing my training as a seer.”

Bryn, unable to keep herself upright any longer, lay back on her bed.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“For what?” Revna asked, positioning Bryn under the covers of her bed .

“For what my family has done to you.” Bryn turned over, looking at Revna solemnly. “For what my love has done to you.”

Bryn closed her eyes before she could see Revna’s reaction, falling into a deep sleep. Before she slipped into total oblivion, Bryn felt Revna settle behind her and pull Bryn into her soft body. Bryn could have sworn she heard her speak to her again but could not remember what it was later.

“I love you too.”

Bryn woke hours later, the moon still high in the sky, with Revna wrapped around her naked body. The memories from last night were hazy, but she remembered Revna getting her cleaned up before getting her into bed. Bryn turned over in Revna’s arms to face her lover.

Asleep, Revna’s face was relaxed and innocent.

Bryn thought she had never seen anyone so beautiful before.

Running a soft touch over Revna’s features, Bryn took in this solitary moment of quiet to observe the woman she loved.

Fear always kept her from telling Revna the truth about what she felt— that she valued their relationship beyond the sex and how Revna brought peace to her mind when nothing and no one else could.

Bryn observed the strong and delicate features that made Revna who she was: the harsh lines of her jaw that contrasted with her high cheekbones, her pointed nose, and her soft russet skin that seemed to glow in the lingering candlelight.

Revna’s hair was loose behind her, the shining black hair splayed out like a crown behind her.

In another life, Bryn would have made Revna her wife. In another life, she would have run away with her the moment she knew that Revna would be the only real love in her heart. But Bryn had not been dealt that life by the gods.

“ Minn raven,” Bryn whispered, running her fingers over Revna’s bare shoulder and back up to trace the perfect shape of her lips .

Revna opened her eyes, the light brown colors molten in the candlelight, and Bryn found herself unable to breathe.

Revna leaned in and closed the short distance between her and Bryn, their lips colliding in a slow burn that could melt away the rest of the world. Revna’s warm hand trailed down Bryn’s naked body and found its way in between Bryn’s legs, sinking deep into her core. Bryn moaned into Revna’s mouth.

An hour later, after they had each sated their lust for each other, Revna lay on top of Bryn, breathing heavily. Their sweat-slicked bodies stuck together as they each caught their breath.

“That was quite the wake-up call,” Revna laughed breathlessly.

Bryn grinned, stroking a hand up and down Revna’s spine. “I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

“I did,” Revna said, picking her head up to look at Bryn. “Thoroughly. But we have work to do.”

Revna extracted herself from Bryn’s hold, forcing her to sit up and see where Revna was going. Noticing that Revna had gone to her desk to find a clean sheet of paper and ink, Bryn’s wonderful mood plummeted.

“Work? This type of wake-up call does not include work,” Bryn whined as she fell back onto her pillows again.

“We don’t want your actions to go to waste, my love,” Revna said, bringing the paper and ink back to Bryn’s bed.

Bryn didn’t respond. The memories from the night before flashed through her mind again. The young assassin tied to a chair, his relief when she said she’d free him, and then the heat of his blood when she slit his throat.

Bryn turned onto her side, staring out the window that looked over Logi once more. The firelight of the night had started to die out, signaling the dawn of a new day being close .

“Bryn?” Revna said tentatively. She reached up to run her fingers through Bryn’s hair again, and Bryn shied away from the gentle touch. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t deserve your kindness, Revna.”

There was only silence before Revna pinched Bryn’s exposed arm.

“Ow!”

“Brynna Helvig, you cut the crap right now. You are not one to wallow in self-pity,” Revna said harshly, pulling Bryn over to face her.

“You made a difficult choice last night. It may not have been the choice that someone else may have gone with, but your choice came from logic and the kindness in your heart.”

Bryn stared at Revna, the use of her full name rocking her.

“Your father would have killed that assassin as soon as he gave up the information he had,” Revna continued, softer. “You did what you thought was right to spare him from a prolonged and painful end.”

Bryn’s eyes blurred.

“Carry him with you. Never forget his name. But do not ever think that you are the villain in this tale.”

Bryn nodded, swallowing her emotion and forbidding her tears from falling.

“We need to take the information he gave us and use it in the letter we will send to the King. Once I send it, you will need to draft your letter to Maude. Do you know what you will say yet?” Revna asked, pulling the ink out.

Bryn shook the night before from her mind and tried to remember what she had been reading in her mother’s journal last night.

“I think so, but I need to finish the last entry I read about,” Bryn said, reaching for the journal under her pillow. “It was the entry after my mother took Maude to her fate telling. ”

Reading about her sister's fate made her skin crawl. Fate tellings were meant to be kept secret from the child. Her parents had never told Bryn what Maude’s fate was, but Maude mentioned a few times that her fatemark was different from most.

“Okay,” Revna nodded. “I’ll start the letter from the assassin while you finish the entry.”

Bryn nodded, already diving back into where she had left off. The scratching sounds from Revna writing the assassin’s letter was the only other sound in the room besides the crackling fire.

Bryn remembered the most recent entry she had read when she discovered that her mother’s fate had been to take down the King of Flame.

She’d had to read that passage a few times before the truth finally settled in her.

The truth of why her mother, of all people, volunteered to be the spy for the Kingdom of Rivers, why she had been the obedient wife to get close to Helvig, had dawned on Bryn when she saw what her mother had written.

She felt like if she had known her mother's true self, she would’ve looked up to her more than she had during her short life.

Shame had swelled in her when she read about how strong their mother was, tainting every remaining memory she had of her.

Bryn had vowed to herself that she would finish what her mother started the more she read her journals.

Reading through the next entry, Bryn felt like she had been transported to that white sandy island they stood on in front of the Grand Soothsayer. She was unfamiliar with the ritual performed for the fate telling, but Bryn was fascinated.

Her mother had written:

The Grand Soothsayer sliced through the flesh of the sacrificial goat like soft butter, the ritual knife's sharp edge flashing in front of my eyes.

We were supposed to come alone with Maude, but Harald insisted on bringing an entire contingency of soldiers with us.

If the Grand Soothsayer had any qualms about it, they did not mention it to us.

The chanting of the other seers moved through me and heightened my senses. It felt as if the gods were standing among us as she began searching through the bowl containing the runes mixed with the sacrificial blood.

I had held my breath when she finally stopped and lifted the first rune, the sticky blood dripping down her fingers.

‘Uruz’, she had said.

Harald was pleased. Maude would become a force of nature. She would be strong. My own heart was overjoyed at the news. She would need to be strong to weather her father.

‘Hagalaz’ was next. Wrath and destruction. Harald had shouted with joy, his soldiers cheering with him. I was not so excited. I needed Maude to be strong, but I didn’t want rage to drive her. I hoped that her last rune would balance out the first two.

Bryn continued to read, trying to ignore the feeling of betrayal by reading about her sister's fate. The runes drawn for Maude had not been terribly surprising. Bryn had always known that Maude had a temper that could decimate a small village.

Revna occasionally stopped Bryn to ask for an opinion on the letter she was drafting for the King, and when she was finished, Revna had Bryn read the entire letter.

“I’m almost done with this entry. The reading is almost done, but I don’t think I’ve found anything useful here,” Bryn had begun to say but trailed off as she read about the last rune drawn for her sister.

I am to keep it secret from Harald and Maude. Even if the Grand Soothsayer had not warned me against this, I would have kept it from them anyway. I will not lose my daughter in the pursuit of his downfall .

Bryn’s heart threatened to beat out of her chest. She felt numb, her body becoming foreign to her.

“Bryn?”

“I need paper,” Bryn choked out, her throat suddenly as dry and unforgiving as the desert they lived in. “Now.”

Revna rushed to grab more paper while Bryn worked on steadying her hand enough to write. Bryn looked at the blank paper in front of her, mind racing.

“What did you find out? Bryn?” Revna asked, picking up the journal.

“She doesn’t know the whole truth,” she said quickly, ignoring Revna’s question. “She needs to know the whole truth. Our mother hid this from her, and I know Maude well enough to know she needs this information. It changes everything.”

Bryn began to write the letter to her sister.