"Why did my mother have this dagger?"
"It can't possibly work. Maude's killed tons of people with that dagger, and nothing out of the ordinary has happened."
Everyone except Gunnar and Aeric raised their voices with questions aimed at Maude and Hildr.
"Silence."
Hildr's voice boomed in the small space that quickly became hotter with the build of Maude's turmoil. Just as suddenly as they had spoken, everyone quieted again. Bryn could see from across the fire that her sister was just as confused and surprised as everyone else.
Though she had only heard the quick version of what happened in Ljosa, Bryn knew the rumors of thedalkr Helawell through Revna. A weapon crafted by Hela herself, one that would send anyone it slayed straight to her underworld. A weapon they thought they had retrieved at the cost of a friend and loved one to kill Helvig, only for it to be a ruse.
"Why did my mother have thedalkr Hela?" Maude asked, breaking the rooms silence.
"Because I gave it to her," Aeric replied calmly.
Maude turned to face her father as Bryn and Herrick both stiffened, ready to spring if they needed to stop her from clawing out her father's eyes. But her sister didn't move, the confusion and hurt on her face stopping Bryn from interfering.
"Why?" Herrick asked, probably knowing that Maude could not find her voice to ask herself. If Maude was grateful, she didn't show it. She only kept her gaze on the Shadow King.
"I was letting her walk out of the safety of my kingdom and into the arms of her enemy," Aeric said softly. "I couldn't let her do it unarmed. I did not know that it was thedalkr Hela— I found it in one of the libraries at the Midnight Palace. It seemed so ordinary, but the blade was sharp and sturdy. I felt as though the gods had gifted me an answer to my anxieties when the blade presented itself to me. I recognized it as soon as you appeared in Nida— I assume Sylvi discovered it's true identity in our time apart and gave it to you out of protection."
The truth spilled out of him, winding its way around them all as a sense of rightness followed in its path. The gods were tricky, their will unyielding. Maude seemed to have come to the same conclusion as her shoulders relaxed.
"So why did my mother give it to me? She told me to meet her that night so she could tell me about why she was gifting it to me, but that was the day—," Maude's words cut off in a strangled tone, her emotion overwhelming her.
Bryn spoke up then, finishing her sisters thought. "How did our mother know this was thedalkr Helaand why would she give it to Maude?"
"Sylvi discovered what the blade was while she was in Logi. She wrote to me after Maude's fate telling, asking about it but even then her questions were vague," Hildr answered. "Why she gave it to Maude has yet to be revealed, but all this time, thedalkr Helahas been burrowing its way into Maude's fate. It has her in its grasp now."
Has her in its grasp?Bryn thought, confusion coloring her features.What in Odin's name does that even mean?
Herrick moved closer to Maude. The man would try to meld with her skin if he could. After the ritual in the clearing, she would have thought that he would have been exhausted, but now that hisgalderhad returned, she could see that it actuallyenergized him. There had been a moment when he first saw Maude after the band had been removed where he was almost fearful of her. The hesitation on his part only lasted a moment before it disappeared, but Bryn had seen it.
She had seen how something still haunted her sister's partner.
"So why didn't the blade work when she would use it against someone?" Liv asked, breaking Bryn from her inspection of the General of Rivers.
The Elven's words seemed to roll over her skin pleasantly, her voice calling to Bryn's very being. She hated how they had left things on Midsommar's Eve. The things left unsaid, the actions that couldn't be taken back— they all plagued her now when she looked at Liv. Stealing this moment for herself, Bryn traced the Elven's features with her eyes, committing every detail to her memory.
"Because the dagger by itself is nothing more than a blade," Hildr explained, nodding to the seer. "It's one half of a whole entity."
Hildr turned to face Maude and Herrick as she spoke, her words hanging in the air. Her sister, who had started pacing, froze while the General watched closely from where he leaned against a far wall.
"There is another blade?" Maude asked, her features that had been smoothed into nothingness started to twist again.
The seer that had disappeared behind the curtained-off section of the cabin returned with a long bundle in their arms. They handed it to Hildr before exiting the cabin, leaving Hildr to reveal the other half of Hela's weapons. None of the rumors Bryn had heard spoke of two blades. She narrowed her eyes as Hildr began unwrapping the cloth from the second blade.
Maude peeled her eyes from the ground to watch as Hildr lifted a sword from the frail cloth that was wrapped around it, the metal the same dark grey and matte surface as her dagger. It absorbed light the same way her dagger did, but its presence was more foreboding than its smaller counterpart.
The sword was wide at its base, about the size of her palm, before it narrowed at the tip and had the same etchings as the dagger, except the runes on the sword ran up either side of the blade. The hilt was just as average and lacking in detail as thedagger— the leather wrapped around it was black and softly faded as if it had been gripped often.
"Thedalkr Helawill not work alone as it was designed to unless the wielder holds this sword as well," Hildr explained as she maneuvered the sword to rest on her open palms. "This isleifr Hela."
Aeric chuckled now. "The goddess of the underworld thought highly of herself."
"How so?" Hakon asked as he leaned back against the cot Dahlia was resting on.
The Elven healer had been out cold since the ritual to remove Herrick's iron band but must have woken in the last few minutes since she answered the Heir of River's question as she sat up on the cot and twisted to face them all.
