While most people dreaded the end of the vacation weekend and the beginning of the work week, Jess couldn't be more excited as her sister drove her back to the lodge to begin her first day at work.

The lodge was much quieter with only a handful of guests - mostly retirees. Kark hosted a short orientation for the three new employees: Jess, a boy around Jess' age, and a middle-ages blonde woman. After a tour of the grounds and answering some questions, he sent them off to begin their chores, including laundry, cleaning, manning the front desk, maintaining rental equipment, and prepping food in the kitchen.

None of the tasks were too hard, and some of them, like turning over a room and creating a clean fresh bed and shiny clean surfaces, were enjoyable. On her second day, Jess noticed she was assigned more work than her peers, and on her third day, she realized it was no accident. To further complicate her tasks, it wasn't uncommon for Kark to randomly disappear at times.

The first time Jess was assigned to prep the indoor pool, she had forgotten where the keys were to the backroom, so she went to find Kark. After thirty minutes of wondering the building, she found him emerging from the bathroom, looking a shade of green. Though he acted eager to help, Jess could see he was fighting a battle. She prodded him for a bit about taking a break, but after his third insistence of being completely fine, she had to let the manner drop.

As she worked, Jess kept one eye on Sigyn as much as she could, but it didn't reveal much. If she wasn't in her room or office, she hiking out into the woods, and not return until after dark. Maybe taking a peak inside her room would yield information if she ever had the chance to look.

She noticed Sigyn taking her usual trek out on the mountain as she went downstairs to help Kark in the kitchen. Before he noticed her, he was singing to himself in a low voice. Again, it was a language Jess couldn't recognize. She waited outside the kitchen until he was done to interrupt.

"That's a lovely song. What language is that in?"

Her smiled at her. "Thank you! It's Icelandic."

"Interesting? How long have you been studying Icelandic?"

Kark froze in the middle of organizing the cabinet. Because Jess had asked that question in perfect Icelandic, and he couldn't reply.

She gave him a sympathetic smile. "When we first moved here, I had a friend from Iceland."

"Fascinating! Where did you move from?"

Jess paused, knowing he was trying to change the subject. "The states." When Kark gave her a confused look, she clarified she meant The United States. It was odd, since most people in Norway understood where 'the states' where just fine. "Where are you and Sigyn from? Not Iceland, is it?"

Kark gave a strangled laugh. "Its a place very far away, you probably wouldn't know it."

"I mean...I'm not perfect at geography but I'd probably be able to follow."

Rather than answering right away, Kark focused on organizing the items in the cabinet, turning out labels and shuffling things back and forth in an attempt to look busy. The poor guy was practically sweating.

When he finally found words, he turned to Jess. "You know, Sigyn is a very private person, and she doesn't take kindly to people prying into her affairs. I'm telling you this because I like you - you've done good work here and I don't want to have to let you go."

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It was more so friendly advice than a threat, but Jess didn't like it. No reputable boss would fire their employee for asking too many questions.

The rest of the day, she gave Kark a break and didn't press for anymore information, but the matter wasn't done. If she wanted to know more, she was going to have to dig it up herself.

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The next morning after Jess was dropped off, she was in a hurry, but not to get to work. She knew Sigyn had left early on a hike, and Kark was busy in the supply shed. This might be her only chance to search the office.

On light toes, she stepped into the room and shut the door behind her. Aside from the grand view of the mountains, the office was a dull, frigid den devoid of personality. There were no bright colors, no family portraits set on the desk, not even books on the shelves that might reveal a reader's secret interests. The only decor in the room was wood, stone, animal furs, and antlers.

Sitting in the leather office chair, Jess opened Sigyn's laptop. To her surprise, the laptop was not password protected. Either Sigyn truly had nothing to hide, or she was an idiot. There were no files or folders stored on the computer, but there was a search history. Instead of anything hunting-related, they were journal articles and research papers about food preservatives, the effects of high sugar contents, and other contaminants. Jess remembered the conservation she had overheard last week. It sounded like she and Kark shared a food sensitivity. But why not go to a doctor instead of doing all this research?

With the food-related things, Sigyn had been searching for information regarding climate change. There was a page saved from a university explaining the effects of greenhouse gases, and another describing recent fluctuations in weather patterns. Jess couldn't make sense of it. She doubted Sigyn was a poacher and an environmentalists.

The next option was to search the desk drawers, where Jess found an array of fancy pens and a single leather-bound journal. She was about to open the cover when she hesitated. Was this going to far? She was always severely invading someone's privacy by snooping around their office. There was probably no evidence in the journal anyway. She had to take a peek.

She cracked open the journal to a random page - covered in blocks of runes. They reminded her of the Elder Fukarth runes from mythology, but not quite the same shapes. Thumbing through the book revealed pages and pages of this alien writing, occasionally separated by a cute little sketch.

Jess took a photo of a page. It served no purpose as evidence, but Jess wanted to find out on her own time what those symbols meant, or at least what language it was. She returned the journal to its drawer, careful to leave things exactly how she found them.

A spiral staircase next to the desk led up to Sigyn's room. She leaned closer to see up through the hole in the floor, but there was only darkness. Going into her bedroom was definitely a line Jess wanted to avoid crossing if she could. That meant the last place to check was the closet.

She opened the door and flipped on the switch. The metal of a hundred weapons gleamed in under the little light.

It was a small arsenal. Something straight out of a spy movie. All four walls, floor to ceiling, displayed various pistols, rifles, and shotguns.

And then there were the swords. From short hunting knives to medieval longswords, each one was different. Straight, traditional blades and ones curved with teeth. A few even twisted or had gaps designed to ensure enemies bled out.

Jess didn't know weapons well. She couldn't name the parts of a gun or the different kinds of swords. She didn't even know that the kind of bow Sigyn preferred to use on her hunting trips was called a recurve bow, but she could recognize it. Long limbs that gently arched back before curling forward at the tips, hence the name recurve bow. Many people owned these kinds of bows, but not many kept a quiver of hand-made arrows beside them with real bird feathers for fletching.

Jess took her time taking photos and videos of the closet. The evidence may not be absolute yet, but it was a good start.