Bjorn walked to the front of the ship on the morning of the third day of sailing since the battle with the prince, past Ruhak, who was taking a nap, and Cecile, who was rationing what food they had. Peng was manning the steerboard, keeping them on course northward.

He thought it odd that the Nikan man had so quickly integrated into being simply...part of the team. Not that it wasn’t also odd to just consider the five of them a team now. But when you were lacking hands in a desperate situation, you weren’t to complain about extra help.

Taya leaned against the front stern of the boat, looking out ahead of them.

Bjorn took a deep breath. Whatever the answer was to the question he was going to ask her, he’d have to take it in stride.

Bjorn sat on the edge of the planking on the other side of the keel, “So...do you have any experience with the Nikan?”

“Aside from three days ago and Peng, not really. Why do you ask?” The Sklaveni turned to face him.

“I...I don’t know if it’s safe to go home. I want to go back to Ascomarch. More than anything. But if these...princes are hunting us? I could endanger everyone by going back.” More than anything? Why did he say that? If he could go back, that’d be great, but he wasn’t set on it. The part of him that was still attached had just taken over.

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Train up your powers a bit and you could protect them. Hell, there might be some Shedim Masters among your people. But...if you really aren’t sure, it will be awhile before we can make it to the Northlands. I’d be happy to teach you a thing or two more.”

“That’d be appreciated.” Bjorn muttered.

“Why do you want to go home so bad anyways? Even before we left, I always used to see you stare somberly off into the night sky in the northward direction.” Taya pursed her lips.

Bjorn felt warmth arriving in his cheeks, “O-oh. It’s just...family and friends, you know? It’s home.”

Taya narrowed her eyes, “That’s like...a tenth of the truth. Maybe not even that.”

Bjorn blinked, “What?”

“I can tell you aren’t telling me everything. Not a good basis for the beginnings of a friendship. Spill.”

Bjorn stammered, unable to think up anything to say. Anything besides the truth. Or at least, all he was willing to tell, “Well-well, there’s some...unfinished business I have and-” 

Taya sighed, “Look, you don’t gotta tell exactly what happened, but for the gods’ sake, Bjorn, at least give me the gist.”

Bjorn fell silent, pursing his lips. “It’s...about a girl. Named Katla.”

“Who is she, your wife?” Taya asked. “Wifely...prospect?”

“N-no,” Bjorn said. “And frankly, I don’t think it’s your business. I’ve already told you all I care to say.”

Taya scoffed, “Well come on, now I’m invested. Making leading statements like ‘unfinished business’ and such.”

Bjorn cursed his skaldic affinity for storytelling.

“I...ugh, fine,” Bjorn grumbled, breaking eye contact with her. “Katla and I go way back. We Ascommani have an old tradition that states any warrior and any shield maiden can only ever go into battle with the other. A warrior and his shieldmaiden row together, fight together and camp together. She was my shieldmaiden and probably the best one I could have asked for.”

Taya furrowed her brow, “You take that many women into battle with you? I always imagined Ascommani as being more...masculine. No, not masculine. Just...I don’t know, it doesn’t fit with your culture’s image.”

Bjorn shrugged and let his chin rest on his open palm on the edge of the longship’s hull. “In some people’s images, we don’t have a culture. If a woman has a good axe-arm, who are we to deny her the glory of battle? Plus, we watch each other’s backs and make sure that we don’t end up doing something that we’ll regret.”

“Sounds romantic,” Taya grinned.

“Well, many pairs are husband and wife, but some pairs are brother and sister too,” Bjorn said. He scratched the back of his head. “But, er...yeah. I asked her to marry me.” Just saying it out loud sent pangs of regret and humiliation through him.

“And?” Taya asked, looking a bit too invested in this story for, well, any normal person’s taste.

“We, uh...we decided to stay friends,” Bjorn muttered.

“Oh. That must’ve hurt,” Taya said. Bjorn studied her expression. He couldn’t tell if she pitied him. He hated that. He didn’t want pity. He’d accepted the outcome.

“She got engaged to someone else. She probably thinks I’m dead at this point anyways.”

“Well, all the better to surprise her with your existence!” Taya exclaimed.

Bjorn hushed her aggressively and pointedly looked at Ruhak and the others, who weren’t paying attention, before continuing, “Could you not announce my personal shit to the world? And Ascommani aren’t exactly patient people. If she thinks I’m dead, I wouldn’t blame her if she moved on with her life and found another warrior. She would’ve had to find another partner to keep sailing. And it’s not like I disappeared on the best of terms either.”

Taya frowned, “That’s…a depressing end. I don’t like this story anymore.”

“Yeah. Neither do I. Which is why I don’t like to bring it up.” Bjorn said, turning to look ahead. He blinked, “Uh...is that land?”

Miles away, in front of them, was a small line on the horizon. The green on it answered his question for him.

Taya chuckled, “How convenient for you.”

“Land!” Bjorn shouted, stumbling to his feet, “Land! Everyone grab and oar! Peng, man the rudder!”

He moved to pull the sail up before grabbing an oar and helping row the ship.

As they approached the shore, Taya pointed to a gap in the rocks and sand among the distant forest, “That’s the mouth to the Loughal river. It’ll take us right to the heartland of my clan.”

Bjorn and his shipmates rowed the longship into the giant river before them, as silty and grey beaches led them into the thick, dense Sklaveni forests.

The songs of birds and chittering of animals filled the air. The further they sailed down the river, the further the trees seemed to reach over them. Soon, the trees had become massive, overshadowing the whole river with its canopy. An ambient hue of yellowish green light permeated through. While it was enough to see clearly, Bjorn never thought trees could grow so big.

“What the…”

Bjorn turned to look where Taya was staring. Their boat was approaching a clearing in the thick forest, the ground flat, wet, and brown, lacking any vegetation.

“Pull to the shore here.” Taya said.

“Bank portside!” Bjorn ordered, stopping his oar in the water and forcing the longship to turn.

The boat’s keel drove itself into the silt bank of the river, coming to a halt.

All that were aboard disembarked, Ruhak and Bjorn pulling the ship further onto land.

The area smelled of ash and smoke despite the wetness and mud that caked the ground. There was no plant life to absorb the water in the mud and sediment, unlike the vibrantly green floors of the rest of the forest.

Something was more foul seeped into the scent of the place as Bjorn got further from the riverbank. But it was hard to place amidst the evidence of fire.

There certainly was something here, considering all the lumber and planks half-buried in the mud.

“What is this place?” Cecile was the first to ask.

“Maybe I haven’t been home in awhile, but I could’ve sworn this was the place…”

“You don’t think-” Bjorn started.

“We probably stopped too early.” Taya muttered.

Bjorn glanced down, feeling something odd beneath his foot. Upon lifting it, he found a skull buried in the mud. He stifled a yelp. He looked around the area again. Though camouflaged by the dirt, he could see stone foundations dotting the clearing. The trees around it had black charring on them. And, while Bjorn wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, he thought he could see red stains among the black and grey ash.

His eyes widened as the sudden impetus shot through him to keep the horror that had clearly happened here from Taya.

To what end, idiot? She’ll just find out anyways.

“T...Taya.” Bjorn muttered.

“Hm?” the Sklaveni asked.

“You, er...you might want to see this.” Bjorn said.

Taya approached Bjorn and looked down at the skull. She left out a shaky breath.

“There’re foundations. And...blood, I think.” Bjorn continued softly.

She backed away, slipping on the mud and collapsing onto her behind. But she kept trying to distance herself from the evidence.

“No,” She hissed through gritted teeth, “No, no, no, no, no!”

Taya looked around her, surveying the burned patch of ground, her fingers gripping her dark hair and cursing in Sklaveni.

“I-it might just be someone who drowned in the river.” Bjorn quickly added, “We can’t know for sure if-”

Don’t!” Taya snapped as she staggered to her feet. Bjorn’s eyes drifted to the ground as he fell silent. “I-I-I just need to...I’m gonna...fuck. Fuck.!” Taya steadied herself against one of the stone foundations.

Shame filled Bjorn’s chest with tightness.

“Taya...I’m-” Ruhak started softly.

“Don’t you dare apologize. You might convince me to blame you for what happened here,” Taya said, malice poisoning her voice.

Taya started to meander about. Bjorn noticed more bodies, their remains mostly sunken into the ground.

“No…” Taya whispered.

Bjorn glanced up at the back of her green cloak as she collapsed to her knees.

He dared to step closer. He saw the body she was looking at. It had a very decorative necklace around its throat. Though, it was made of wood and clay. Not worth stealing.

“Mother,” she gasped, choking up.

Seeing the normally positive and confrontational Taya be so...horrified, was genuinely shocking to Bjorn. He didn’t know how to feel. It made him even more surprised by the fact that he found Taya’s despair at the death of her mother unusual.

Taya gritted her teeth before she let a sob out and grabbed her claymore off her back. She threw it across the clearing with a burst of violet energy and roar of impotent frustration. The sword wedged itself in a tree.

The sudden violent motion made Bjorn flinch. He didn’t really know what to do. He wanted to comfort and console her. But...was anything any of them could do enough to quell her pain? And if it wasn’t, should he still do anything?

She ground her teeth together, her fist quivering, “I’m gonna find who did this! And I’ll fucking...I’ll…” She forced herself to take a deep breath. “True Weakness is stagnation, Taya. Weakness is...gods dammit.”

Taya fell to her knees. Cecile dared to kneel next to her and attempt to comfort her without word. But Taya just stared, indifferent.

Bjorn decided to speak up and take his shot at trying to be there for her, but she cut him off before he could speak.

“The crows got to her before I could,” Taya muttered. “Nothing I can do about that now.”

“They didn’t even bother to conquer the place or loot it. They just slaughtered everyone and burned it to the ground,” Ruhak observed. “There’s a lot of singed wheat and evidence of compost.”

A voice whispered from the trees, “Taya…”

Bjorn snapped his gaze up to an elderly man who had suddenly emerged from the foliage, followed by thirty odd other men and women, all dressed in dark green cloaks like Taya’s.

Taya’s face fell, “Yaroslav…”

“You’ve returned...I’m sorry, young one.” the old man muttered, “We did all we could.”

“Who?” Taya asked, standing, her face contorted in rage, “Who did this? Who killed her?”

“Who else? You travel with one of them in your company.” the old man said.

Taya’s glare imposed such a force of hatred, Bjorn could feel it just from having it graze him on its way to look at Peng.

This was starting to become a pattern with the Nikan. To what end did they simply just kill everyone in sight?

Taya’s family and village had suffered the same fate Bjorn feared for his people. That was convincing enough. No matter what, he couldn’t go home.