Enid tugged the fur cloak around herself and looked out over the bay. Then sun was sinking into the sea. Longboats were tugged up out of the water. Winter was in full swing here. She nodded and started walking towards the long house again.

“Mother what did you see?”

“We’re in Norway. Sun is setting straight out from the docks, so we are facing westish. That would make this the North Sea. England should be almost straight out from here. So, we’re on the western coast of northern Europe.”

“None of that means anything to me mom.”

“Basically, if we take one of these boats and go straight from here, we will get to where I was born.”

“Where is home from here?”

“Home? Home is south of here, probably almost directly”

Enid pointed in a direction.

“But it’s not home anymore, is part of what used to be Charlemagne’s empire. I’m guess he’s been dead for over a hundred years. Basically, where I come from, we call where our village was Bremen, and it’s in Germany.”

“So, we can’t go back?”

“We can go back, but there is nothing there for us Hazel. You need to understand, we have traveled into your future. You should have died almost seven hundred years ago maybe eight.”

“Can’t we just open another door and go back?”

“Hazel, that doorway was to another place…a place outside of all of this. But it is blocked. If we try again, we could end up separated or worse just gone. Lost between spaces. Like stuck forever in nowhere and everywhere.”

“Why…why would you risk such a thing?”

“I did not think I was risking anything, my sister did exactly what I did, and she got in and out. Lilith did it for literally tens of thousands of years I do not know why it is blocked to me. I’m kind of God’s personal assassin. I’ve never not been allowed inside.”

“What will you do now?”

“I’m probably going to try again; I have one more attempt with the blood father provided me in a crystal. If that doesn’t work…I don’t know.”

“Will you take me with you?”

“I am not going to abandon you here Hazel. I wanted to leave you in the past because its where you belonged you had family, friends, the pack. Here you have no one.”

“But what if me being with you is what stopped you from going in.”

“Then I will find a way to bring you with me, or I won’t go it is as simple as that.”

“But you were going to leave me behind before.”

Enid took a deep breath and took her daughters arms in hers. The pair were now in the black of night as the sun had set. Enid looked her in the eyes.

“I didn’t want to leave you behind Hazel, it has been me and you against the world for fifteen years. But I thought it would be selfish to drag you away from the time and place you know and stick you in a future where you don’t know the language, you don’t have the skills to survive, and you will be an outsider. Back home you had a family, you were accepted, you had men who would follow you into battle. You had the pack. You could have a life away from me, out of my shadow. Bringing you with me was…it was unthinkable even though I wanted to do nothing but. You’re here now and I’ll be damned if I’m going to leave you behind again. How the hell did you get past my father?”

“A spirit taught me how to hide in plain sight.”

“Of course. You know Ingrid warned me about you being sneaky.”

Hazel shrugged.

“I thought it would be useful for scouting out enemy positions.”

“It is and I can do something similar. Let’s go inside you must be freezing it has gotten very cold.”

Enid wrapped her arm around Hazel and leaned her head on her much taller daughter. They entered the Long House and were greeted by boisterous laughter and a lot of yelling as to men were chugging mead at the center. The roof had been patched already. Halvd saw them and motioned them over. Enid and Hazel approached.

“I had wondered where you had gotten off too.”

“I was trying to figure out where we were King Halvd.”

“Were you successful?”

“I was, England is south-west right?”

“Hah yes! I do not know why your insight surprises me.”

“Have you been raiding there recently?”

He shook his head.

“No, it is the dead of winter, it is too cold for the crossing.”

Enid nodded.

“I need to find out some more things, do you have any priests as slaves?”

“We do!”

Hazel kept looking at the drinking contest then back to the conversation.

“Mom, can I?”

“You can’t get drunk what is the point?”

“Please I want to beat them.”

“Fine go but if you feel sick all night because your stomach is too full, it is on you child.”

Hazel almost bounced and rushed over. She pulled out some gems and put them on the table. It was a few minutes before a new group started, they added coins and other valuables to the pile and the contest started. Halvd watched her go.

“I see your daughter is more of a man then woman.”

“She is plenty woman, she just likes the company of men more than her mother.”

“Join me.”

He motioned to a seat at his right.

“That is for your wife.”

“And she is dead, you are an honored guest, and I am short on tables, someone smashed some of them.”

Food was placed in front of Enid, though she didn’t need to eat she still could, and her body would use it during the day, so she ate, the food didn’t taste so good to her dead tongue, nor did the mead. She ate while Halvd watched the drinking contest intently. It took a good half an hour, but three men were on the ground and Hazel was two drinks past them. Another man put more money in the pot and started drinking. Hazel matched him drink for drink until he to fell down drunk. The whole long house was watching the drinking contest and money had been changing hands up until the last drunk fell, there were several boos. Hazel collected her winnings and there was a lot of laughing and pounding on backs and pranks played on the ones that passed out. Hazel was invited to sit with some of the men and their wives. Hazel glanced at Enid who nodded in response, Hazel at down and began eating.

“Ha, she has a stomach of iron, she seems to have made an impression.”

“Sometimes I wish she would make a different impression.”

Halvd laughed.

“I take it she has not been successful at finding a man?”

“She has, but he ended up fleeing the village.”

Halvd laughed so hard he held his side.

“I have not laughed so much since my wife…”

Enid held up her mug of mead.

“To your wife, may she sit at Odin’s table!”

He smiled and hit her mug and they both emptied them and slammed them down at near the same time. He looked at her mug then to Enid who shrugged.

“She might have gotten a few things from me.”

“Tell me, can she even get drunk?”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“I don’t know, we never had enough wine in the village to find out.”

He laughed and laughed his knee.

“How long will you stay?”

“How long do you want me to stay King Halvd?”

He swallowed the mead he was drinking, and it caught in his throat because it went down so fast. He coughed.

“Will you marry me?”

“Okay, not that long.”

“Will you share my bed?”

Enid nodded. She was a woman after all, and it had been sixteen years. He looked like he was about to fall out of his seat.

“My husband was an old man, I have needs.”

He grabbed her arm and tugged on it. Enid glanced at Hazel who was enjoying the company of the people around her, even if she could not understand them. They seemed to be getting on fine. She looked at Enid who pointed in at Halvd and towards the back and Hazel made gagging motions. Enid shook her head. Enid let Halvd lead her to his bed. He was hurriedly pulling off his tunic and breaches. Enid slipped out of her dress easily. He was sitting and staring at her chest then he quickly looked up at her face.

“You can stare at them now, it’s not rude. I hope you don’t spend too long though I have uses for that mouth of yours.”

The pair vanished under Halvd’s furs. The night was loud and pleasurable one for both. As was the morning after.

“A man could get lost in you. You know the right words to drive us mad.”

Enid laughed while holding her belly. Halvd looked at her and kissed her on the lips.

“How old are you truly?”

“Older than Rome, younger than the mountains.”

“And Hazel?”

“She’s fifteen, though if you go by her birth and when we are…hundreds of seasons.”

“How many children have you had?”

Enid began to count on her fingers.

“Twenty-five.”

“Twenty-five? From you alone?”

“Yes. I am a fertile woman.”

He laughed.

“Would you expect me to care for them?”

“No, they are all long dead.”

“It must be a hard thing to outlive your children and your husbands.”

“It is, but I wouldn’t change it.”

He rolled on his side wrapping his arm around her.

“You are unlike any woman I have met. You fight with the fury of Odin. Your prowess in bed rivals Freyja, next you will tell me you can call down the lightning of Thor and use the guile of Loki!”

“Find me a storm and I will show you Thor’s power.”

He laughed. Enid looked to the side meeting his eyes, she gave him her most serious I’m telling the truth look.

“You’re telling the truth.”

“I am a Valkyrie. I can use all of the gifts of the gods; They do not send their soldiers into battle with nothing.”

“Tell me of your battles.”

“I destroyed an entire Roman legion in an instant. Six thousand men. You can still find their bones today if you look. I was angered and, in my rage, I called down a storm of lightning on them. I was not…the woman I am today.”

“You do not seem proud of it.”

“I am not, destroying them in my rage it was a rash act. I should use the powers the gods grant me more wisely.”

“Did you get in trouble?”

“No but the forces of evil used it as an opportunity to slink in. And I was forced to slay them as penance for my act of anger.”

He nodded.

“When we raid, I try my best to not kill innocents. We want their goods, not their lives.”

“Can I speak to your priest today?”

“You may find it difficult he still doesn’t understand our language.”

“I know many languages.”

“Is that so? Maybe you can do what I had snatched the priest for. I wanted a scribe. But a scribe who can’t understand me is useless.”

“I can, if you’d like, though I suspect your priest understands you plainly, but he believes his God will save him, so he plays dumb.”

“Do you know much of his God?”

“More than I would like, he’s a fucking asshole.”

Halvd blinked at her language.

“You speak of this God as if his real.”

Enid rolled off him and groaned.

“He is, he is also powerful, enough so that even servants of Odin are at his whim.”

“Tell me what has he done to you that has made you so…angry with him. Perhaps we can string his priest up as punishment to him.”

“He won’t care, he only cares about his precious order, one priest, or even his entire church they are insects to him.”

“I heard he was a merciful God.”

“He can be if it suits his needs. I’ve been forced by him to do many things and who knows it could even be him that is baring me from returning home for some other purpose. Odin is nothing compared to the Christian God. The Christian God created everything. We exist at his whim, but he doesn’t care about us, only his precious ordered creation.”

“Perhaps we should be giving our fealty to this Christian God.”

“There is no point, Odin cares about you and your offerings. You do not see it, but he does. It was he who bound a great warrior from Valhalla to my blade. My husband when I was still a mortal. I destroyed the Christian God’s greatest enemy and all he did was steal my original blade from me, cost me my mortal mother and he seems to be baring me from getting home. Tell me which God should you follow the one who rewards you for the great deeds he demands of you, or the one who casts you aside when you are no longer useful?”

“What does Odin look like?”

“I don’t know what his true form looks like but whenever I have seen him, he was taller than your long house and wielded a great spear and wore a metal eye patch. On his shoulder was a Raven and to his left the Winter Wolf.”

“And the Christian God?”

“When he was a man, he looked like a man. No different than any man I’ve seen. When he is not a man, I think he has no form or if he has one, he is incomprehensible to us. A force like the wind or water. He communicates through…well they’re basically Valkyries only more powerful, they can alter…they can mold the world to their whims. But they can still be destroyed.”

He sat up and looked at her.

“You have destroyed one of these servants?”

“Yes, it was arrogant and underestimated me, as men often do. I blew it up from the inside then stabbed it in the face with my sword, I stole its power. I have had no further direct conflicts with them, so I suspect they fear me now.”

Halvd was staring at her intently.

“You speak the truth. Why do I feel as though you could kill me with a thought?”

“Because I can.”

“So, my men, you could have killed all of them with no effort?”

“I could kill most of your village before you blinked once.”

“How do you…how do you resist using such power?”

“How do you not slice an unarmed man’s skull with your axe?”

“I chose not to…it would be murder to kill an unarmed man.”

“To me all mortals are unarmed. Even a six thousand strong army of Romans.”

Halvd feel back and nodded. Understanding showing in his eyes.

“You are so strong why do you seek the company of mortal men? Are there not worthier mates in Asgard?”

“I seek love and comfort where I can, mortal men have passion.”

“And you say your blade carries the spirit of your first husband, what does he think of this?”

“He wishes for me to be happy, he can no longer provide for my needs. He is a cold blade and lacks the warmth or proper equipment to tend to a woman.”

Enid leaned forward and kiss Halvd again. She pushed him back down to the bedding.

“I feel like a young man again, a slave to my desires.”

The pair lost themselves in each other once again. He laughed and coughed. He was still breathing quickly from his exertions. Enid rolled over and kissed him.

“When does your daughter wake?”

“Not for a while yet.”

He tugged Enid close. Enid kissed him again.

“I need to go do something. I’ll come back.”

“Why can’t it wait?”

“Because I need to do it when everyone is still asleep, stay here, I’ll come back to your bed I promise.”

Enid blew him a kiss and moved to her room and pulled an Atlantean tablet out of her pack. She glanced at Hazel’s sleeping form. Her daughter was sleeping naked and hanging half off her bed. She was snoring loudly. Enid tugged some furs over Hazel and crept into Frida’s room. She held the tablet out and look at her through it. It identified a form of fungal infection that had swollen her vocal cords and there were growths. But it wasn’t the twentieth century so she would need to get creative. She continued her scan and saw signs the infection had spread. The girl’s lungs were lousy with the fungus. She was likely having asthmatic symptoms. She could heal the damage but then it would just come back because she needed to kill the fungus. She saw the heart was being attacked too. The girl seemed so healthy but given another year, or another infection she would die pretty quickly. Enid frowned and took the tablet back to her room and put it in her pack. She went back to Halvd’s room. And slid into bed with him. He stirred when he felt her lay her back next to him and wrap her arm around his stomach.

“What pulled you away?”

“I needed to do some magic to see about your daughter’s condition it is disturbing to witness so I wanted to do it when she was sleep and few eyes could see me.”

“Can you cure her?”

“I can repair the damage tomorrow night, but I cannot cure her condition. She is infested with a fungus that will just start attacking her again.”

“Is she in danger?”

“I am sorry, but yes, if we do not find a way to cure her, if she gets a case of the sniffles her body will start losing the battle and she will die, her heart will stop, or her lungs will fill up and she will drown as if she were in the ocean.”

He looked troubled now, of course he did she had just told him his daughter’s life was hanging by a thread.

“If I were in Asgard I would have the means to kill the fungus within days, but here…on Midgard, I know what I need to create a cure, but can I find it here? Especially in the winter.”

“Halva is a cunning woman; She has many concoctions.”

“I will look at what she has today. I need to have her storehouse to myself, and I will need you to keep everyone out of the long house one day and night.”

“The ailment she has could affected others if they are sickened or injured. It is probably growing somewhere so I need to kill it so it can no longer be a danger, if I cure her, it will just get back inside again if I don’t remove the source.”

“Is your daughter at risk?”

“No due to her heritage she is immune to such things.”

“And you are as well?”

“Which is why I need everyone out of the long house, when I kill this fungus growth it will send out spores and be more dangerous. I can remain here with my daughter but no one else must come inside for a day or so while we clear out the spores.”

“So, I could be infected?”

“Anyone who spends a lot of time here could be, I suspect it is back here, and not in the feast hall but still, we need to be sure.”

“Can you see it in me?”

Enid sighed softly and kissed the back of his neck.

“I will check, but it is cold when I’m not with you under the covers.”

He smiled. Enid rolled off the bed and back to her room she returned with her pack and pulled out the tablet again. She started scanning him he watched her with wide eyes. He would not understand what she was seeing the Atlantean script looked a lot like a runic language, because it was one, but not one that anyone would know how to read. The display was telling her that he had a lot of build up of plaque around his heart of common to people with his kind of diet and that he should be eating less red meat. She shrugged and put it back in her pack and leaned the pack against the bed.

“You have no signs of it.”

“What manner of thing was that?”

“Asgardian… I cannot explain it to you, but it can see what my eyes cannot.”

“Did you like what it saw?”

Enid laughed and snuggled up to him.

“It said you eat too much red meat and that you should stick with fish. Also, that you had sex recently.”

He wrapped his arm around her and pulled the blanket up and the lay there until they heard sounds of meal preparation begin in the long house.

“Would you like to see the priest?”

“He can wait, I want to ensure your daughter is cured and the threat is removed before I do anything else. Her life is more important than my needs.”

“I wish you would agree to marry me, with a mother like you I would not fear for her so much.”

“She will be fine. You are a good father.”

Enid touched his chest then pulled away and began to get dressed and slide her pack over her shoulder.

“I’m going to go see Halva.”