A few miles from Kuopio was a blacksmith known as Leif Þornsson. He and other Kuopians forged weapons to aid the imperial ground troops to combat Russian forces. However the battles became increasingly fought in the seas. The Swedish army instructed the men to return home since they would have no use outside of land.

"Hey Leif" one blacksmith asked "How long before we reach Kuopio?"

"Well considering the fact we're all riding horses and that Kallavesi Lake is visible from here." Leif said "It should take us an hour."

"Lets hope." The blacksmith said

Leif was wrong, it took them 58 minutes and 27 seconds but no one raised that issue. Upon reaching the city most of the men returned their respective homes. Leif on the other hand didn't even seem like he was going to make a decision.

"Hey Leif its freezing out here." One of the blacksmiths said "Aren't you going home?"

"Not yet" Leif said "I'm going to wonder off a bit."

"Suit yourself" The blacksmith carried on his own path

Leif walked around the city just looking at the ground. Something was deeply disturbing. The imperial army focused most of their forces in the South-East of Österland. If there were any troops that attacked Finland from the North-East then the Swedish army would be completely surrounded.

"Nah! Scrap it!" Leif thought "Surprise attacks from the North-East are down right impossible. I'm just overreacting."

Not to far way, was a man that observed Leif carefully. He noticed that Leif wore a Norwegian Bunad, as opposed to Finnish clothing. Something about Leif seemed to remind him of someone.

As Leif prepared to walk home. The man ran quickly and intercepted Leif's path.

"You?" The man said "Could it be? Are you Leif Þornsson?"

Leif quickly noticed that the man was wearing an imperial Danish uniform. The same uniform of the army that attacked Scania two years ago. Leif calmly got his right hand close to his back, where he had a firearm. He looked at the man with suspicion.

"I'm sorry" Leif said "have we met before?"

The man seemed genuinely surprised "Have you forgotten?" he asked "It's me, Søren!"

Leif didn't seem to remember "Søren…" he thought out loud "Oh! Søren!? You mean the same Søren that I grew up with while my father was temporarily stationed in Copenhagen!?"

"So you do remember!" Søren rejoiced "How long has it been; 12 years?"

"Approximately" Leif said "But more importantly why are you wearing that outfit? You're going to get yourself killed if the imperial army finds you!"

Søren was quiet for a few seconds "Well you see…" he tried to explain "Going to war was an obligation, so I deserted the army when I had the chance. But this uniform is all that I have left to keep me warm…"

Leif felt really bad about his old friend's situation "Hey, how about you spend the day at my house?" he suggested

"Oh I couldn't possibly!" Søren said "That would be very parasitical of me."

"Nonsense!" Leif said "We all need some support at one point. So come with me"

"Well if you say so" Søren accepted

Leif and Søren traveled to close to the edge of lake Kallavesi. Leif's home was among the few greatly close to the lake. Leif got in front of his house and got ready to open the door.

"It has been a while…" Leif said "A long while…"

He opened the door and got inside the house. A woman was present there, she came running up to Leif and hugged him by wrapping her arms around his back tightly. At the same time, Leif wrapped his hands around her back.

It almost looked like she was crying "I'm so glad you're back Leif!" The woman said

"So am I, Eleonora." Leif replied slowly

She kept her eyes closed "I was so scared" she said slowly "I…I thought that I almost lost you."

"Its okay" Leif said calmly "Its all over now…"

Upon finishing their hug, Eleonora noticed Søren, who seemed confused by everything he had seen so far.

"Leif…" Eleonora said "Who is that?"

"Oh where are my manners!" Leif turned to look at his comrade "Eleonora, this is my childhood friend, Søren."

"Oh, uh" Søren bowed using only his head "Søren Carlsen"

Eleonora bent her knee outward, used her hands to hold out her Scandinavian robes while lowering her head, in other words she curtseyed

"Eleonora Ruotsalainen." She said "I live with Leif."

"My god" she said "Look at you! You look thinner than a blade! Give me a minute."

Eleonora quickly left the room to attain a business of some sort.

Søren got close to Leif and whispered "She's not necessarily the biggest pair of asses or tits I've ever seen, but seems decent enough for a maid."

"That 'maid' would happen to be my wife…" Leif said in a disturbed tone

Søren gasped "Your wi-!? Oh my god, I…I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"You do realise that Eleonora just left this room to cook food for you, right?" Leif said "Because she easily understood that you haven't eaten in a long while."

Søren lowered his head "Man I feel like a complete dick right now. Look I'm sorry…I shouldn't judge people by their looks"

"You're just lucky that she didn't hear anything." Leif said

Elenora diced vegetables and started boiling pork and beef. Søren just observed her French braided hair and dark ocean blue-black robes, her clothing pattern seemed more North Germanic than Finnish.

After a while, Leif made Søren sit down by the kitchen table. Eleonora got a bowl, poured the recipe and served it to Søren. He, on the other hand, had never seen this type of food before.

"Its Lapskaus, a traditional Norwegian recipe." Eleonora reassured him "Don't be shy now, dig in."

For a second there, Søren thought that she was Swedish. But since she made Norwegian cuisine, its not possible for her to be a Swede. He started eating the stew, and since he hadn't eaten in days, it felt like a miracle.

"Its really good." Søren said

"Thank you." Eleonora replied gleefully

"Forgive me to ask" Søren said "But are you Norwegian?"

Eleonora laughed a little "Its very complex" Eleonora said "By birth, I'm Norwegian. By blood, I'm Swedish. By choice, I'm Finnish. You understand right?"

Upon hearing the word; Swedish, he instantly understood who the woman was. But he easily hid this behaviour

"Of course." He said smiling

After carefully looking at Søren, she noticed that he was wearing a Danish military uniform.

"Is… that a Danish vest?" Eleonora asked

"Hmm…? Oh! Don't worry about that." Søren said "I'm no longer one of Christian VII's men. I forge my own path"

Eleonora stayed quiet for a certain amount of time before speaking again "Well…Okay" she looked outside; it was getting dark "Oh dear I almost forgot!"

She told Leif that she would be out for a while; she then immediately left house. Søren was confused once again, he didn't know what wrong he did this time.

"Eleonora seemed …disturbed" Søren said Leif "Is there anything that I have done to wrong her?"

"No…" Leif said "Els …uh I mean, Eleonora really hates Danes ."

"What!?" Søren reacted "Why so?"

"If I tell you why" Leif asked "Will you promise to keep it a secret?"

"You have my word"

"It all began 10 years ago" Leif started explaining "A group of 12 Dano-Norwegian imperial guards abducted Eleonora from mainland Sweden and brought her to the city of Tromsø"

That sounded oddly familiar. As far as Søren could remember, his commander was once a member of the imperial guards in Tromsø

"For five years straight" Leif continued "Eleonora was chained, beaten, tortured… and more importantly brutally gang raped every single day."

Leif gave a long and detailed description of Eleonora's inconceivable rape session that lasted for more than 1600 days. Søren was extremely disturbed by hearing Eleonora's painfull life in prison. How could anyone have been so bestial with a woman?

"After my return to Tromsø, I helped Eleonora break free." Leif added "Those guards caught us red-handed and were about to kill us when miraculously, a group of people just seemed to come out of nowhere and helped us escape. Those imperial guards were later brought to justice and executed. Upon their executions, we learned that they were Danes. Since that faithful, she never saw Danes the same way again."

Søren lowered his head "Your wife's hatred is completely justified." He said

"However" Leif began "With someone like you, she's bound to change her perception. I'm sure of it."

"Yeah…" he said slowly, it was as if he didn't believe in what he was saying.

Leif and Søren ended the conversation. Immediately after that, Eleonora entered the house. Beside her was a small boy holding her hand. He had blue eyes, blonde hair and looked almost like Eleonora.

The boy noticed Leif "Pappa!" was the first thing he said. He ran towards and started hugging him.

"I missed you so much Pappa!" the boy said while hugging his father."

"Met too Ludvig!" Leif said "Me too!"

Søren was speechless. Not only was his friend married, but he was a father too. This made things even more complicated.

The boy noticed Soren "Pappa" the boy said "who's he?"

"This is Pappa's friend" Leif said "Say Hello"

"Hello, mister!" the boy said "Its nice too meet you! My name is Ludvig."

Ludvig pointed at Eleonora "That's my Mamma" he then directed his finger at Leif "And this is my Pappa!"

Soren grinned and waved his hand. Poor kid, so full of life, so innocent… Its to bad that he won't be able to live any of that for long

"So where was this little guy?" Søren asked

"Eleonora and I decided to enroll Ludvig in school" Leif said "The minimum age is seven but Ludvig is five. Early education is always a bonus."

Leif and Søren discussed about many things with the hours to come. Once night had fell, Søren prepared to leave.

"I thank you for your hospitality" Søren "But I'm afraid, its time for my departure."

"Its been nice seeing again, old friend"

"Who knows?" Eleonora said "Someday we will meet again."

"You can count on that…" Søren said

Søren gave one last goodbye to his newly rediscovered friends before leaving their house. Eleonora and Leif watched as the man vanished from their sights.

"Something's not right about him" Leif said "What do you think Elsa?"

"I don't trust that Dane, if he knows who I am…" Eleonora said "I fear for the people of the village…and us"

"Don't say that Elsa! Søren is a good man." Leif said "But the empire's current situation makes all of them a suspect... Let's just hope I'm wrong at that aspect."

Søren travelled as far away from the city as he could. He felt guilty lying to his friend about deserting the army and taking advantage of their hospitality.

"That woman…She's definitely the Swede we're looking for" he thought to himself "But this journey…must we really kill her?"

"What seems to be the problem Søren?" a man asked

Søren was startled and to see Andor. He had thought that the Dano-Norwegian deserters were still struggling at entering the Österland.

"How in the Hell did you get here?" Søren asked "And more importantly, where is everyone else."

"It took us a long while, but we have arrived." Andor said "Everyone else is camping not too far away. Anyway, did you find the woman?"

Søren thought carefully. If he were to tell Andor of the Elsa's presence, then she's as good as dead. If he were to lie, all of this would mean nothing.

"I saw many women." Søren said "However I don't reckon seeing anyone fitting her description." That was safer than telling the truth.

"Hmm…" Andor thought "They say that a festival will occur in a few days. By the time it occurs, we hunt for her."

"Why don't we just attack now?" Søren tried stalling

"In a few days, most of the Swedish Empire's soldiers will be by the sea." Andor said "It'll be the perfect time to strike, because no one will help them. Get ready, we attack in three days."

As Andor left to the camps. Søren looked down to the ground, knowing that he will the one responsible for taking the lives of others.