The book wasn't from the tower.

It had taken Erika half a day just to figure that out and she’d only managed it by luck. The runes were a different dialect to… Erika realised she didn’t actually know what normal runes were called, she’d only ever heard them referred to as runes, nearly everyone wrote the same runes after all as that’s what the Aesir used… but this was a slight variation, she’d read about them in her mother’s library from ancient tablets, cultures that got cut off by Ragnarök and forgot the meaning of the runes bit by bit.

Anyway, that wasn't important, what was important was the galdraz… or spellbook as Bjorn insisted on calling it, she wasn't one of those weak sorcerers the damn Vracians used! No self-respecting vitki called them spells, they were galdr!... it was old sure but not as old as the tower, from somewhere in the southern mountains near the rim of the world, one of the empires that had flourished, after Ragnarök of course, all galdr was since Helsdottir had only discovered the vitki arts during the twilight and the burning…

Again distracted… Erika knew why her thoughts were chasing themselves around and around, even now she was getting thirsty, the soup had been delicious but it had been finished hours ago, now everyone was sat around pretending not to feel the hunger closing in, it would be days before it was bad of course but it was inevitable here, inside this damn tower, no foraging was even possible, no rain fell no animals roamed no planets grew, the tunnels below the rimed room had moss on the walls but all that was far away, behind an army of the dead.

So here she was sat, in the corner of a smoky room, watching men and women try to look tough as they slowly panicked, Bjorn was keeping things together well especially now that he was acting like a proper leader instead of foisting the job off on Erika, but she didn’t know how long that would last. Of course, they could leave and go scavenging but then what? They weren’t even sure if the draugr were still looking for them and if they weren’t… where would they find food? Unless they ran into another warg den there wouldn’t be any in an ancient sealed tower, and even the wargs hadn't had water barrels, in fact Erika wasn't sure how the wargs had been getting water…

She reached down and leafed through the silver tome for a moment then smiled a grim smile. Ah she thought as she found a well-used permanent rune of water on the back cover. Obviously, Erika couldn’t use it, a Gothi could leave traps and locks in the runes they carved and a Gothi of Loki? Probably more trap than rune knowing them and even if it wasn't it was useless without a Gothi of their own to retool the rune to accept commands from people other than Wargs and Erika couldn’t do that, like at all, vitki couldn’t interact with the runes the way that Gothi could, or even as well as normal people could, galdr was apart from the runes not a part.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Erika smiled at the witty turn of phrase then frowned as she realised, she might already be losing her mind to dehydration.

Luckily that probably wasn't what was happening and even if it was Erika would be the last to die, a dubious honour sure but an honour all the same, since she could heal herself through the thirst somewhat, it was a temporary fix of course, even more than healing magic was normally temporary but it would help.

Erika realised she was genuinely wondering which of her allies she might be willing to eat after they had torn each other apart with starvation madness, slapping her cheek as hard as she could Erika let the pain flood her veins with the white fire of adrenaline and force her mind to work properly.

If they were getting out of this they would need food and water, the best chance they had at finding those was quick and dirty scavenging runs, which might attract the draugr, which meant she needed to be at her best to fight them, which was why she was studying the damn book!

The galdraz sat there on her lap as she leafed through the pages again, idly noting which galdr were engraved within. A galdr, as in the saga that activated it, were very complex stories that spanned multiple pages, many of which that damn gothi warg had despoiled to carve its primitive loki worshiping runes. Erika reluctantly discarded every galdr that showed even the chance of damage to its saga, she didn’t have much time and she could only afford to bet on a sure thing.

The book was split into eight separate sections strangely enough, not the nine and one of the circles or the seven of the sections which corresponded to the seven part of the Sal (and therefor the seven types of galdr), the galdr within the pages were spread out seemingly without rhyme of reason although Erika was bright enough to realise that if an ancient master vitki had written this book then she probably did have a reason to lay it out like this, Erika just couldn’t find it.

Half of a galdr she recognised, the beginning of the Make Flame a first circle galdr used by Bane Bringers which she wouldn’t be able to even attempt to learn for many years, then it swung into a few pieces of a fifth circle galdr so complex it genuinely made Erika’s eyes water to look at it, constellations of runes and dots and shapes all twirling around each other to try to explain in the material world something that wasn't of it. In the end she gave up on understanding the damn book and just looked for 2nd circle Life Shaper galdr, she found three in the end. Skeletal Spike, Wicked Tail and Feral Fury all good galdr for sure but learning a galdr was… intense and difficult, Erika might not even be able to manage it but if she did then at best she would manage one.

Looking around at the silent solemn delvers Erika sighed and buckled down to study.