Chapter 18: Asgeir VIII

April 1789

I sat bolt upright on my cot. The muffled shrieks of a gull outside told me we should be close to the harbour. Anything other than the nightmares I had had that night would be reassuring. Dreams of faces long dead, or ones I thought I had forgotten. Or wished I had.

The nightmares were the least I deserved. Even after the torture. Even after what I had lost at Sript.

Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I swung my legs down to the floor of the brig. Every muscle in my body still stung with intensity. I ran my hands over my face, noticing the prominent gap in my fingers on my left hand.

I opened my mouth. "Uuuuhhh…" I rasped.

Alright. Talking was still out of the question.

Troy snorted, and turned over in his cot, a few feet away. Rabbit was also fast asleep, taking the floor at the foot of his brother's bed. The bandages that had been wrapped around his head were still red from all the blood that had spurted from his empty eye sockets. His screams were still ringing loudly through my ears.

I slowly limped up the stairs, feeling the stinging shoot through my body with every beat of my heart. Pushing my heavy body up the stairs took so much effort from me, I nearly fell down in tears when I reached the top.

Gibbs was waiting for me on deck, offering a hand up as I climbed up through the hatch.

"Alright, lad?"

I shook my head, pointing at my throat.

"Still no peep? Ah, that'll pass."

He beckoned me over as we came to the middle of the deck. Henrik was hoisting a basket up to the crow's nest.

"Alonso'll hoist the colors as soon as I give the signal." He explained. "I reckon it'll be safer for us to remain at anchor instead of docking."

Returning to Corona was a rougher trip than we had expected. Hans had sent his whole armada around the Isle of Sript to bombard us with every cannon they could shoot, and we had only just managed to escape after cutting through a blizzard around the Northern edge. I could still feel the rocking of the ship as Rabbit and I held Troy down while the doctor worked on him.

Gibbs glanced over at the aftcastle, where I saw Anna and Kristoff speaking. Much less intensely than I had last seen them, that was for certain.

Henrik extended his spyglass and looked out across the harbour. We had changed the sails and covered the Fury's nameplate to look like a different ship, but now we had to send the signal out to another ship that we were who they were waiting for.

Our captain looked up to the crow's nest. "Fly them high!"

A lone figure up in the crow's nest pulled hard on the rope, exchanging the Coronian flag with the Norse Vegvisir. The eight arms of the compass reached across a deep green field as it snapped in the breeze of the Bay of Lanterns.

Almost immediately a black ship with green sails slid out of the port. It was flying a flag identical to ours.

Anna waved at me. "Connor! They're coming!"

Jerred ran out from the bow of the ship where I hadn't seen him.

"That's definitely him." He told me.

Henrik turned on our newcomer. "We're not meeting with him this close to the city. If his crew speaks naval signals, we'll give him one to meet us an hour from now as we sail out of the city limits."

Jerred nodded. "Fair enough. Sam works as secretively as I try to be. He'll understand."

I remained silent, looking out at the bay at the ship that was now following us as the Fury opened her sails and began to glide out of the bay, into what could be our longest trek Northwards.

Every part of my body was in horrible shape, but I hadn't received such a large injury as Troy, who was lying back on the cot before us. Rabbit had brought the doctor of the ship down to the brig with us when we had managed to get settled in after our escape.

Troy turned his face to us. "Hey, brother! The fuck are we?"

Rabbit looked uneasily to me. "Troy, what do you remember?"

His older brother sat up a bit, rubbing his chin. His ring finger was also missing like us and Zar, but he didn't seem to notice. He didn't seem to notice anything that had happened to him, playing it off like he had just stubbed his toe.

"We got dragged to our cells, didn't we? And then there was this... maniac with a knife?"

Rabbit looked at the doctor. "What's with him?"

"He's in shock." The doctor said grimly. "I've seen injuries only half as bad as this. People think they can just walk this kind of thing off until their mind fully realizes exactly what happened."

My adoptive brothers had been tortured just like I had, and now the joker was lying in front of us, blindfold across his face.

"Tell me the news, Doc! Will I ever tango again?"

Rabbit turned to me. "Asgeir, we're going to have to break it to him sooner or later."

I opened my mouth. "Uhhhhhhh…"

The doctor held his hand up. "Try not to talk, sir. You might not be able to for several weeks at least."

Troy turned to me. "Wait… Asgeir's here?"

Rabbit looked down at him. "Yeah, brother. He's here with us. We managed to escape Sript after all. They broke us out."

"That's fantastic!" He yelled. "So is someone going to take the blindfold off my face now? I've seriously had it for way too long!"

The doctor glanced at us. "Well… break it to him as slow as you can."

Troy didn't seem to notice as Rabbit reached down, and unwrapped the scarf off his eyes.

His eyelids had been badly torn out, several pieces hanging by mere threads. There was nothing left of even the whites of his eyes. Only blood, pus, and two empty craters.

Troy's smile didn't waver. "Well, go on! Take it off!"

"Brother…"

"Is it dark? Hold up a light!"

Wordlessly, I took the lantern in the room off the sconce on the wall, and held it to his face.

"Is it there?"

"Troy… it's right in front of your face."

Troy's smile deflated a bit as he chuckled. "But… I can't see it."

"We know, son." The doctor said.

A whole minute passed in silence. Troy kept laughing in disbelief, but then it all hit him as he began to scream.

"MY EEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYEEEEEEEESSS! I CAN'T SEE! WHAT THE FUCK?! MY EYES!"

Troy began to buck and thrash in the cot. Rabbit and I grabbed his arms as the doctor began to shout out orders to us. I quickly handed the lantern over to him as we tried to calm Troy down. Not that he could hear us. He kept screaming and thrashing like a demon, kicking harder than the wildest bronco ever.

The doctor opened the little door of the lantern and took out a candle. What would have to happen next would hurt Troy. Badly.

He thrashed even harder than I thought possible, shrieking like a banshee with a bullhorn. And after that, he was silent. Just like me, he didn't speak for the rest of the time that he was conscious. Rabbit grimly took a clean bandage and wrapped it around his brother's head, covering his eyes, but leaving his hair uncovered. Troy didn't protest. He left his brother to finish the job.

We let our distance go for another two hours to be safe before dropping anchor. The Fury stopped right close to a small cove, leaving room for the Vegvisir to follow behind and come up beside the ship.

The captain of the ship who could only be Jerred's friend jumped right aboard when he saw our rescuer. He happily embraced him. He was a black man around my age, hair shaved really close to his head and even minimal facial hair. A silver hammer charm swung from his neck in his open navy blue vest. His dress was more like an average deckhand than a captain, and I wondered if it was to help him blend in with his crew, who I noticed were all colored men.

"Thank the Allfather!" He cried. "I wasn't sure you were coming out alive!"

"I promised, didn't I?" Jerred replied. "Not just you but… to him, too."

Sam's smile disappeared. "So... we're going back, are we?"

"Yes. He's demanded I bring him home." Jerred pointed to me. "And he owes me after saving his arse from Hans."

"We're going to be covering our asses from Hans for a long time, it seems." Sam pulled a sheet from his pocket. I didn't need to check it to know in my heart it was a wanted poster.

"The reward is significant for your head, Mister Swortssen." Sam said. "But lucky for you, Hans' laws have made it impossible for a man like me to find work in Arendelle. I can't forgive him for that shit." He ripped the poster in half to demonstrate his point.

Henrik held his hand out to Sam. "Henrik Brovold. Captain of the Aboleth's Fury, this fine vessel you stand on, Sam, and-"

"Former Admiral under Queen Elsa of Arendelle." Sam's smile disappeared but he didn't change his stance. "Hans dismissed you from his kingdom too, eh? Even after all the efforts you made to stop smuggling through Arendelle."

"Well…" Henrik gave his chuckle. "There's no room for loyalty to old blood in his new world. You know of our plans?"

Sam shrugged. "I think I know enough. Asgeir here is our last hope for Arendelle?"

I prayed to whatever god lived above us that that was not true. I was the last person to bring Arendelle back. But the look I gave Henrik told me that this was not the time to tell him about our important passengers.

"Asgeir… and a few others. We had a rough encounter in the Southern Isles and Jerred here tells us our best hope for a place to hide while Hans looks for us is with you two."

"My crew and I know the way to the village," Sam said. He turned back to the ship and gave a yell in a foreign language. Southern by the sound of it. "Never met Jerred's master by face, though. I hear that's how he likes to keep it."

That didn't sound good. If Jerred was the only one who had ever seen his master, and now it fell to me to meet this elusive man, then it could end very well or very badly. Nothing I would want to roll the dice on after the week we had had.

Henrik led us into the cabin, where Elsa and Zar were waiting. My brother was using a crutch propped under his arm, leaning heavily on it. Elsa on the other hand was disguised with the Clover, reckoning that we would have to get a feel for Sam and his people before letting them in on the secret.

"How far North of a journey are we looking at?" Henrik said.

Sam looked down at the map. We were still a measurable distance within the borders of Corona, and the blockade around Molrum would ensure we would have to take a long trip away from the coast before going North.

The dark-skinned man shook his head. "We'll be going way off this map before we reach the village, Captain Henrik." He said. "With the kind of winds we'll need to sail on, the direction we'll need to travel and the distance, we'll be looking at least a month on the open seas before we reach our destination."

Henrik cursed as I looked at the map. The northern edge of the charts stopped at three hundred leagues North of Arendelle's castle town. I hadn't been that far North in… what felt like a lifetime. I must have been a child. And even then we would have to keep going North for however much longer. At least a month at sea…

Sam waved to his crew on the deck of his ship. "While we waited, I managed to get a small job lugging some cargo out of Corona and back. Enough to feed both ships for the trip North." He turned to me. "You're lucky we're reaching summer."

Lucky. I spent the last few months feeling anything but.

Henrik brough the Fury back down to Corona to have his men tow the Advantage behind the ship. We didn't know if we would be returning to Corona anytime soon, and we could only pay the man keeping the ship safe for us for another month. It would have served us all better to take the ship North too, even if it was wrecked beyond sailing.

We reached open water before too long. The seas churned more violently and the wind ripped harder, but Gibbs steered the ship due Northwest for what we reckoned would be at least a week. We couldn't steer back to the Arendelle coast until we reached Burtagard, the last known settlement within Arendelle's North.

Troy spent his time in the brig with Rabbit. What little time my conscience could allow to spend with him, he tried weakly to make jokes about how he'd keep his eye on me, but it did neither of us any good. His days as an Assassin might as well have been over.

One day Anna and I were playing dice down in the brig with the brothers. Troy didn't play, but he did listen. Fifteen minutes into the game, a knock came from the door.

Anna opened the door to a short blanche figure with a long orange nose.

"Anna? The men outside are kinda mean. Can I come in?"

Anna smiled. "Of course you can, Olaf. We're just playing dice here."

Rabbit couldn't help but stare at the snowman who sat down between him and his brother, holding out his twig arms.

"Hi! I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs!"

Rabbit shook his twig of a hand and attempted a smile. "Hi. I'm Rabbit, that's my brother Troy, and we… we like-"

"Stuff." Troy laughed. "We like stuff. Heard a lot about you, Olaf."

The snowman looked up at Troy, then leaned towards Anna.

"Why does he wear a blindfold?" He whispered, a little too loudly. "Does he have trouble sleeping?"

"Oh! Olaf, um…" Anna shifted awkwardly in her seat.

"Yeah, Frosty." Troy found himself laughing again. "I'm a bad sleeper, but when I do, I snore like a bear."

Anna beamed as Troy reached out blindly, then gave Olaf a reassuring pat.

In between rounds, we told the brothers as much as we could about what happened in the other world. They had missed thirty whole years of my life, yet I had been frozen in time with them in another way. That story was for another time, though. They had yet to know about the Night of Shattered Sight.

"Breaking Ingrid's curse seemed to do it for the town," Anna said. "But we couldn't waste any more time. We used the magic beans Asgeir had and came back, but something had clearly gone wrong."

Rabbit laughed grimly. "By that time, we were likely already getting settled into Sript."

Anna shook her head. "It was worse than that. Kristoff and I were in Storybrooke for not even three days. But when we got here, three months had passed."

"Well, fuck me." Troy groaned. "Now we know why you guys took your sweet arse time helping us."

Anna sighed. "Troy, I'm so sorry you-"

"Forget it." He muttered. "Rabbit and I failed you just as much, Your Highness. As far as we knew, the Assassins were long gone and we had no reason to wear our hoods anymore. We forgive you only on the condition that you forgive us."

I admired Troy's resolve at least. Anna threw her arms around him as he returned the embrace. Olaf threw his arms around them too.

"It was bad for me too! They locked me in a little metal crate and left me in the snow! It was freezing!"

Troy scoffed as they pulled the group hug apart. "Cold? For a snowman?"

Anna smiled. "Olaf's not like most other snowmen." She sighed. "He's a springtime sort of snowman."

"Well, alright then."

As they pulled apart, Rabbit glanced at me.

"Asgeir, what about George? Zar said something about him being in that town, running drugs? You know Troy and I would have loved a piece of his cake."

Gods. I forgot all about him. That tyrant king, who was the reason Troy and Rabbit never knew their parents, spending all their childhoods down in salt mines as slaves. Seemed fitting they had been sent to one in Sript. Fitting, yet in a sick sort of way.

I opened my mouth, but still no words came out. When I gave up on saying it, I signed it by running my finger over my throat.

Rabbit's eyes widened. "What? He's dead?"

Troy sat up, facing me with his bandaged sockets aimed right at me. "Seriously?"

I nodded.

"And… was it you who…?"

I shook my head. I only wished it was me.

"Who then?" Rabbit asked.

"Well, does it really fucking matter?" Troy asked. "The wanker is gone. World is short one less Templar and an arsehole king at that."

I suppose so. I only hoped that Troy and Rabbit wouldn't use this absence of a target to turn all their rage on Grant. Or if they did, that they would not suffer the same fate as I did on my blood stained path to my own revenge.

Revenge. It drove us Assassins much more than we realized. My whole family was filled with people driven to revenge. Shay Cormac, my ancestor betrayed by the false Assassins of the colonies and driven by the need for vengeance on them. He couldn't forgive them for hurting the hundreds of innocent people in Portugal or New York.

My grandfather, Norik Cormac. He had his share of evil when he had to see his friend Cora turn her back on him for the Templars, and hunt down King Xavier to finish the mission that took so long of his life. Even then, he never stopped hunting Cora after that. The last the Assassins heard of him, he went east to Misthaven to find her and kill her once and for all.

And my father. Daniel Cormac. Head cut off in front of me when I was six by the hands of King Agdar, Grand Master of the Templars of Arendelle at the height of his power. The worst bit of my blood I had to deal with, was knowing my mother and her husband had done everything in their power to wipe me from the face of this Earth.

The door to our cabin creaked open. The disheveled face of Jerred peeked in.

"Zar said you were down here?"

I nodded around the room. We had taken a break in the rolling of the dice, but we were still in the middle of something. That, and Jerred hadn't really seen Olaf before, judging on his expression.

"I can, uh… come back later?"

Anna stood up. "No, Jerred. I want to ask you since you're here."

Jerred stood up straighter as he slid through the ajar door. "Yes, Milady?"

"Your tattoo. I feel like I've seen something like it before in the books I've read."

Jerred looked down at his left arm. The tattoos ran up the whole length of his arm in what looked like truly random slash marks.

"Maybe not everything on my arm." He took a seat on the footlocker at the bed. "I had a man in Corona add to my real Mark to cover it up. It's the best way I could have thought to hide my tattoo in plain sight."

"Why?" Troy asked.

"Because it's not a symbol anyone in Arendelle or the Southern Isles would allow to be displayed so prominently. And I hate wearing gloves."

He stretched his fingers on his left hand as he held it out to us, but with his right hand he covered his wrist. With some of the slashes on his arm covered, I could see a slightly different mark right on the back of Jerred's hand. It almost looked like an X, with a few other slashes, and a prominent dot right in the center.

"I had a mission to fulfill years back." He said. "The shadow that visited me, a boy with eyes as black as the darkness he lived in, grabbed my hand and burned this symbol into it. What little information I could find about the boy, he exists as a demon according to the Abbey, the Southern Isles' dominant religion. I could have turned away from such abilities, but I was just one boy against at least a dozen." He shuddered. I wondered if he had ever told this story to anyone.

"And so you have this magic now?" Anna asked. "What can you do?"

"Teleport short distances, stop or slow time, possess people…" Jerred shook his head. "There's a lot more I can do, but the toll it takes on my body can be too much. If I use my abilities too much I begin to cough blood. I can only reckon pushing it too far and I'll-"

Die.

All magic came with a price. I saw Jerred cut those men down without blinking in less than a second. Of course such a useful gift would threaten his very life if he used it too much.

Anna looked uneasy since asking her question. She reached over and gave a hand to him as he shuddered. I knew his type. What I was going through right now, he had been going through for years. No wonder he was drinking the whiskey reserves dry.

He looked over at Troy and sighed. "I'm sorry I didn't come fast enough. My abilities only let me cut through the blizzard so quickly."

Why did Grant even do that to Troy?

"He thought he was being funny when he put the blade on Troy's face." Rabbit said, as if reading my mind. "Said he was tired of all the snide remarks from him and asked me if the heightened hearing ran in the family."

Troy turned to him. He obviously didn't remember this, as his jaw slacked open as though he was hearing this for the first time.

"I think he was going to cut your ears off at first, Troy." He said. "Then he changed his mind as fast as he stuck the blade in your-" he stopped himself.

Troy lowered his face. "So… he took my eyes to see if my ears work better."

"That'd be my guess." Rabbit muttered. "That, or maybe because he just felt like it. Either way, you and I both know what we'll have to do."

The spark. The spark I saw began to light the fire that burned in my brother's gaze. I would bet if Troy still had eyes, that fire would be burning too. They'd do whatever they could to even the score with Grant. Whatever it took.

I felt my stomach lurch. Settling the score was something I would not approve so strongly about. Not anymore. But what right did I have to tell Troy and Rabbit off? They knew nothing of the hell I went through, but I did so much to deserve that hell too.

The dreams started not long after we left Corona. A whole fortnight of sailing for our lives to escape Hans' ships, I couldn't sleep at all from all the pain I was in, and the endless cannon fire as we shot as hard as we could back at those monsters. But when sleep finally came to me, it was the furthest thing from restful.

Splinters of old memories flitted in and out of my mind, but that night came a memory I hadn't thought about in years.

My face was inches above hard-packed earth, looking through a spyglass that had been handed to me.

"What does it look like down there?" A woman's voice said.

I counted quickly. "At least three dozen sellswords," I reported. "All armed well, and it looks like they were paid well. That hag really doesn't want visitors."

"That hag is my stepmother, Asgeir." The woman said. "And she may be our best lead on finding Regina."

I glanced over at the woman. Her golden hair was pulled back into a bun to hide under her roughspun cloak, so we could hide in the village that day. Thomas was too well known to be travelling with his new bride, but I pointed out that since I looked so different from him, travelling with Cindy would make her look much less likely to be the princess.

"There's a number of other places we could check with people closer to Regina who'll have the information we can use." I pointed out. "What makes you so sure we can get Tremaine to rat her out, Cindy?"

Cindy wasn't actually her real name. It was Ella. But I was the only one who never spitefully used her dreaded nickname, only my own version of it. So she allowed me to use it, merely out of habit.

She shook her head. "Nothing, really. But this is personal, isn't it?"

I drew my rifle. "It's all personal." I agreed. "Very personal."

I had scoped the house. I knew the guard movements, and Cindy knew the layout of her stepmother's estate. Three miles down the road, we had our small squadron of troops ready to take the estate when we cleared it out. We were ready to go forward with the plan.

"No unnecessary killings, Asgeir." She reminded me as we edged through the hedges.

Reports of people who had seen me in battle against Regina's forces said I lived up to my name in every possible way. I had already gotten chewed out by Snow and David, but I wasn't about to ease off of them. Regina didn't play by the same rules they did, and the day they would finally admit that would be the day we'd win this war.

I sighed and unloaded the clip from my rifle with my poison darts. I quickly switched it with the sleep darts and pulled the bolt back.

"Only one dies tonight."

The first two at the gates didn't get the chance to react as I quickly shot them. Cindy hurried behind me as we slipped through the gap in the gates and dove into a bush around the corner.

From the walls of the estate, I could make out a big gap. At least twenty feet from the doors to the side entrance. It was meant for servants and guards, and it was likely the only place we could have a chance of getting into the place without alerting too many people.

I silently gestured to Cindy to wait. Then I holstered my rifle, and crept forwards, keeping low to the ground,

The lanterns in their sconces from either side of the door cast an eerie glow over the entrance. The whole estate was lit up as such. From behind the door came a much brighter light, likely from a large hearth or more than enough lights.

Opening the door, I saw a guard standing right in front of me, sword held at the ready.

Our eyes met as I straightened up.

"Okay…" I sighed.

The guard lunged forwards, and with a grunt, plunged his sword right into my chest. I groaned with pain, and then extended my blades and slashed them both through his face in a giant X.

Groaning, I pulled the sword right out of my chest and beckoned Cindy forwards. She came into the entrance looking down with shock at the guard as I felt the wound in my chest close right up.

"He-"

"Was waiting for us," I said. "It's safe to assume Tremaine knows we're coming and has every entrance guarded."

"Asgeir-"

"We've gone this far, Cindy." I looked down at him and shook my head. "Not like he even stood a chance against me."

Cindy didn't seem comforted by that as she looked at the hole in my top. She silently looked to me for instructions.

I looked around. The room we had entered into was a sort of barracks. The guard waiting for us was the only one, so I reckoned that Tremaine had more waiting at the other entrances. This fool was unlucky.

I grabbed a sword from the rack off the wall and held it out to Cindy, blade in my hands.

"Tell me you know how to use one."

Cindy gazed at me with fear. "Of course I do! I don't want to, though!"

"Want is sometimes the exact opposite of need. And right now, you need to be armed if we plan on getting out of here."

Cindy's hand hovered over the handle as she reached out for the weapon. I hastily shoved it into her hands, and then spun on my heel to head to the next room.

What became apparent to me immediately was that nearly every guard was stationed at an entrance to the main estate building. Which meant that the building itself was almost completely unguarded. I silently wondered if Tremaine was just that stupid as we climbed the servant's stairs.

"Where should we start?" I asked.

"We don't need to start anywhere." Cindy said. "I already know Tremaine will be in her study."

I gazed at Cindy as she hurried up the steps right past me, and led the way.

The estate was admittedly large, but a lack of care could be spotted if you paid close enough attention. Floorboards creaked, and there was enough dust to write a whole novel in. Cindy had left behind her old life as a slave for the hag at least six months ago, and it appeared that Tremaine hadn't bothered hiring new servants. But of course she had enough money to pay for guards and weapons to arm them with. Was it from her treasury, or a loan from Regina?

Cindy suddenly stopped, and waved me forwards. A set of double doors were directly to our right, where I could see light coming from behind. Holding my hand out, I gave the door a slight push, feeling it give a little under my weight. Then I turned to her, and held up three fingers.

One…

Two…

Three!

I shoved my foot out and smashed it right into the door. Splinters flew in every direction as we burst through into the brightly lit study.

I saw two guards directly in front of me who had their swords drawn. They jumped with a start and swung right at me, but I flicked my wrists, and shot my Rope Blades right out, one each in their eyes as they tried and failed to get their attackers.

One other guard was right at the desk beside a woman sitting there, but suddenly I saw her grab something from the tabletop, and point it right at Cindy.

"NO!" I cried.

It was too late. Tremaine's wrinkled hand tensed as she pulled the trigger back on a flintlock pistol that fired right at Cindy. She fell backwards, clutching her arm. I yelled with rage, pulled my right Rope Blade out of the guard, and then swung it right at the guard beside her. The silver blur ran right over his neck from ten feet away, and blood spurted out of his wound as he fell to his knees.

Tremaine stood up, gun still smoking.

"Don't!" I snapped, raising my own with my free hand as the blade zipped back into the bracer.

Cindy quickly stood up, still clutching her arm.

"You alright?" I called.

"Ugh… yeah…" Cindy looked down. "I think she just grazed me."

Figured. Old fool probably never handled a gun until this moment, thinking it would be a cakewalk to just shoot at some target across the room on her first try.

"Cinderella…" The old woman snarled.

"Stepmother." She replied, approaching.

Tremaine still had the gun raised, even though we knew she had no shot loaded. And if she tried, I'd get a shot off much more lethal than what she tried.

"Where's Regina, stepmother?" Cindy asked, slowly coming forwards. She winced with the pain of her wound coursing through.

I stepped forwards more aggressively. "She's not going to answer if you ask nicely, Cindy." I said. "You ask her like this."

I unloaded my shot right into the desk she stood at, mere inches from her chest. Tremaine jumped in alarm, and dropped her pistol.

"Tell us where Regina is, and I might make it quick." I snapped.

Tremaine looked at me, and then at Cindy. "Is this the sort of company you keep with, Cinderella?" She sneered. "Killers and cutthroats. I know all about this man and the things he does to Regina's soldiers."

Cindy glanced at me, but kept her demeanor. "At least he doesn't enslave people."

Tremaine's sneer almost deepened as she laughed. "Enslave? I gave you a home. I could have thrown you out to starve and freeze."

"I did starve and freeze while I was here!" Cindy snapped. "What home I had when my father was still alive was stolen from me by you and your daughters."

I stomped forwards and turned the desk over as Tremaine backed away in shock.

"You're in no position to talk back, you old hag!" I snarled. "And I'm not in a forgiving mood right now."

Tremaine began to tremble as I drew one of my cutlasses, and pointed it at her.

"Where. Is. Regi-na." I put a wall of emphasis behind the last syllable.

"Is this about my stepdaughter, boy?" She glared at me. "Or about this?"

She flashed her left hand at me, and then I spotted it. Right on her finger, the silver grooved ring with a red cross.

My fingers itched. I knew in my heart that Tremaine was a Templar all along, but now I had proof of it standing right in front of me.

"Like I was foolish enough not to realize the infamous White Reaper is an Assassin." She sneered. "You might as well kill me right now, boy. If I rat on my Queen, I'm dead no matter what."

I felt my legs push me forwards as I put the point of my cutlass right at Tremaine's throat.

"Asgeir…" Cindy moaned.

The lady's eyes didn't waver in green cruelty as she gazed into my own. She was empty inside, willing to give her own life for the cause she belonged to. I'd have admired that about her, if in that moment I felt something so familiar about her gaze.

I'd seen a look from her eyes before. But it came not from green eyes, but from cracked ice blue ones…

I felt my blood begin to boil as I took another step forwards, pushing the cutlass into her throat, ever so slightly.

"Asgeir!" Cindy cried.

Tremaine was now up against a bookshelf, some ornate bookend falling from behind her along with two or three books, clattering to the floor.

"What does it matter to you, Ella?" I snapped. "This whore ruined your life because your father wasn't around anymore to stop her."

"But she should still face justice!"

I kept my cutlass raised to Tremaine's throat. Sweat began to trickle from her brow. Then blood from her neck, in a slightly smaller trickle. I couldn't remember how long I stood there, daring her to give me an excuse to end it.

I couldn't tell you what made me drop my sword. Maybe it was Ella's mercy. Maybe it was how Tremaine showed her loyalty to Regina. Or maybe it was just knowing how deep down, I could only kill her once. One death, and she'd stop suffering. Something I never wanted on anyone I had faced these last few years was to end their suffering completely.

Cindy was left with the sword I had given her, as I ran out of the study, going to find the bell to ring for our reinforcements. Soon enough, the estate would belong to Snow and to David.

Another fortnight passed before we reached a safer stretch of Arendelle's coast, and could begin to follow the path North. When Henrik had the crew do a ration check, it turned out we had just enough to reach Burtagard before needing to restock.

I use the term 'village' to describe Burtagard, but it was really only a small market, and a few houses. Three small fishing boats were frozen in the water and tied up to the docks as we dropped anchor, and rowed into town.

Henrik, Sam and I were the only members of the crew who we allowed to come to shore. It would not be safe for Anna or Elsa to come ashore, no matter where we were. Plus, this was only a resupply. We needed to minimize the time people would see us in case Hans' men managed to find us this far north.

At the stand for the market, a red-haired man with a wild beard greeted us with a grunt.

"Greetings, friend." Sam said. "Any recent catches available?"

The red haired man glanced at me, and then pulled a basket from under the table. It held at least a dozen fish, though I couldn't tell what kind. They all seemed to be the same, with sleek silver scales.

"How much?" Sam asked.

The man blinked. "Sytti Vytropi."

I groaned, and spilled out a pile of gold pieces onto the table. It was a lot, but I reckoned there wasn't much business running around here.

Henrik didn't take the gold back. He stared hard at the vendor, and spoke. "This much gold to ensure you forget this ever happened.

The man blinked again at our captain, and then nodded. "Ja. Ingenting."

On that note, I hoisted the basket up, and began carrying it back down to the boat.

Sam ran a hand over a chain on his neck as he looked up at the mountains, so tall and close to us as Burtagard's very buildings came so close to touching the bases of the cliffs. The chain on his neck held the charm of a hammer with its head pointed downwards.

I recognized the charm, but could not say anything.

Sam smiled as he saw my gaze. "The gods of this world may not be the ones of my homeland, but they have smiled on me for daring to sail so far North. I hope to be worthy of entering the great hall when my time comes. Feast with the Valiant Dead."

Sam most certainly wasn't from this part of the world. I had never before seen a colored man dare the cruel frosts of Arendelle, but if he did, then at least he took comfort in thinking someone was looking out for him. Even if it was the big idiot with the hammer.

The fish would last us another three weeks on the water, Jerred said. He and Sam knew the route that we were taking, now that we were on Arendelle's coast. The cold air bit at us as hard as it did in Sript, but everyone kept the ships sailing up North. We passed deep fjords and tall mountains. One especially challenging part of the trek was when we reached a narrow point in the coastal run, with cliffs on a small island to our left, and to our right to the mainland. They almost seemed to kiss hundreds of feet above us as we rowed the ship forwards, pushing against the slow current with no wind.

An especially dark morning, Troy was out on the deck trying to walk without his sight, when Anna called out.

"Look there!"

She was pointing at a site I hadn't seen before. Stones seemed to be leaning against a large boulder, some obvious pattern to them. It was a strange sight to be seeing, since Burtagard was the last bastion before whatever village we were heading to.

Jerred seemed to recognize what she was pointing to. "I passed this on my way south! We're on the right track."

"What is it?" Anna asked.

"I didn't bother to check it out." He said. "I couldn't read the runes."

My sister grinned. "Maybe I can! Let's check it out!"

The shoreline was close enough that we didn't need the rowboat to get closer. Jerred helped me, Anna and Kristoff climb down as the crew agreed to stop for a break.

Kristoff kept pace with me as Jerred and Anna ran forwards to check the site out.

"I heard a lot from Zar and Elsa bout what happened to you, Asgeir. I'm sorry."

I could only look at my future brother-in-law as he spoke. I hoped that was enough for him.

"We've spent months running and hiding from Hans and his cronies, and then we ran right at them." He said. "I guess I just…" He sighed. "I know what'll happen to my family if Hans finds their home. What has happened if he found them already."

Fuck… I never thought about that. I had had such a complicated history with the rock trolls, knowing their memory magic screwed my family over twice before. But they were still the people who helped raise Kristoff and Sven when there was no one else.

"You went into that hellhole to get Sven and Olaf. That's worth something to me at least." He held his hand out to me.

I silently took it, and gave Kristoff one single shake. I wasn't a fool. I had seen his absence of trust with me and the Assassins since we returned. This was a good start at least.

Anna came right back as we came closer to the stone sight. Jerred was still looking at the stones, but Anna was smiling.

"Something good?" Kristoff asked.

"I hope so." She said. "I can read the big runes, and a few of the small phrases."

She pointed at the stones. I counted nine of them, eight going around in a large circle around the ninth, they each had a large rune in a circle near the top, and smaller runes with phrases on them.

Kristoff pointed at the one at the far left. "I've seen that one before." He said, his eyes lighting up. "That rune represents the trolls and the giants! Grand Pabbie showed it to me!"

"The rune of Jötunheim!" Anna cried. "And the rest of these runes represent the Nine Realms!"

Jerred took a notebook out of his satchel and began scribbling furiously as Anna ran between the stones.

"This one is our realm!" She pointed at a rune that looked like a diamond cracked in half, right at the center of the monument. "Midgard. Center of the World Tree and home of humans.

She continued down the circle of stones. "That's the rune of Alfheim, where the light elves come from.

"Svartalfheim… that's where the dwarves come from. Brök and Eitri were the smiths who made Mjölnir, Thor's hammer!

She pointed at a diamond shaped rune, unbroken. "Vanaheim, where the Vanir gods come from. Freya and Frey were my favourite as a girl!

"Helheim, where the goddess Hela judges the unworthy dead who don't enter Valhalla."

I never heard of Hela before. She sounded like someone I'd know well, though.

"I thought she ruled over Niflheim, like you told me?" Kristoff asked.

Anna smiled. "And I didn't think you were interested!" She grinned. "Well, depending on who you ask, Hela rules over a realm of her own, or her castle lies in Niflheim, the realm of ice and frost." She looked around at the snow around us. "We might not be that far off from that place if we keep going North."

She kept going up the line of stones, coming to the last two. An ornate rune that almost looked like a large M, and a big X.

"Muspelheim, and Asgard." Anna said.

Jerred looked up at the stones. "Asgard is where the gods all live."

"That's right." Anna said, but she wasn't looking at the Asgard stone. She was focused on the Muspelheim one.

Something in her eyes bothered her, and Kristoff could see it too. He looked down at his fiance, and held her hands.

"Anna? What's wrong?"

Anna went forwards and placed her hand on the runes written below the Muspelheim rune. She began to read it aloud.

"From the south comes Surtr. With blazing firebrand, the sun of the war god shines from his sword." She stopped reading aloud, but moved down the runes until she came to another phrase. "The sun grows dark. The Earth sinks into the sea. The bright stars from heaven vanish. Fire rages, Heat blazes, And high flames play 'gainst heaven itself."

She stepped away as Jerred stopped writing in his book.

"Let me guess." He said. "Ragnarök."

Anna nodded. "These are parts of the Prose Edda." She said. "Whoever carved these made them as testaments to the Norse pantheon, and the twilight of the gods."

A bell rang from the ship. I looked behind to see the tiny figure of Gibbs waving at us to come back.

"C'mon, Anna." Kristoff said. "Let's not get distracted."

My little sister still could not take her eyes off the large M, carved into the stone above. But she quietly swallowed, and turned on her heel to catch up with the rest of us.

The nightmares didn't get easier. Quite the contrary. That night I had my worst one yet.

The sad man was unconscious as he sat before me, chained to the chair I had hastily put him into. I sat at the table I had set up, everything I had stolen from the hardware store scattered around me,

"Wake up." I said.

Nothing.

"Wake. Up." I snapped.

Glass grunted, and then his eyes snapped open as he stared up at me. Terrified didn't begin to describe how he looked as he began to scream.

Silently, I walked right up, and stabbed him in the leg.

"I said wake up, Glass. Not scream."

Glass winced with pain as he stared up at me, and sobbed quietly.

"Better." I walked back to my spot at the table, and faced him again.

"You know who I am, don't you, Glass?"

Glass sobbed, but nodded. "Asgeir Swortssen. Master Assassin and brother of Elsa of Arendelle."

"Then you know why I brought you here, don't you?"

"I can't possibly begin to underst-"

"Shut the fuck up." I snarled. "You aren't weaseling your way out of this, Glass. Tell me why you're here."

Glass attempted to look up at me, but the pain of the knife in his leg could only allow him to look up to my chest.

"I… I served Queen Regina loyally. You hunted her supporters down ruthlessly and efficiently."

I sighed, and stood up, turning around. The tools were all laid out in front of me to use with how I chose. I grabbed the drill and pulled the trigger, loud whirring coming out.

"No. No! NO!" Glass yelled. "Please! Please don't!"

I didn't blink. I didn't flinch. I took the drill and jammed it into the leg I didn't stab, and turned it on.

The screeching was like nails on a chalkboard. From the little piece of shit I was drilling, it was music to my ears.

When I felt like stopping, I pulled the drill out, and took it and the knife out.

"You're on borrowed time now, Glass." I whispered. "I'd answer honestly in the next five seconds if you have plans on going out as painless as possible. Tell me. Why you. Are here."

Glass was sobbing even harder, and I could smell the piss leaking out of him. I grabbed the scruff of his collar and forced him to look me in the eye.

"Five. Four-"

"Ingrid. The Snow Queen, yes?" He gasped. "She has powers like the girl Elsa. And you have a bone to pick with her, yes?"

I let go of him. "Keep talking."

"I… I helped her. She released me from my prison and-"

"And now this town is doomed because of you."

Glass looked fearfully up at me. "What?"

I walked over, and took bolt cutters from the table. Walking right around to behind Glass in the chair, I cut one of his arms free of the chains.

"Oh thank god… Thank- AAAAAARGH!"

As soon as his arm was free, I took it over my knee and snapped it in half. Glass rocked back and forth in pain so much, he rocked the chair to its side on the floor.

"You had a choice, Glass. You chose wrong. You couldn't wait for Regina to let you out of your stupid curse, so you gave the freak exactly what it needs to destroy this town and everyone in it. You're a fucking traitor."

"Noo! I'm not a traitor! Regina is!"

I jumped on top of Glass, and grabbed his free hand. "Hold the fuck still." I snarled.

Within two minutes, all five of his fingers were free of the prison of his hand, and were now scattered on the floor in a growing pool of blood. I couldn't tell at this point if he was screaming louder, steadily, or slightly quieter. All I knew was that I was enjoying this.

As he squirmed, cried and sobbed, I straightened the chair right side up again, and then went back to the table, grabbing the clear jug.

"You just couldn't wait any longer, could you? Had to get right the fuck out of your prison because you had something to go to. Well, I'm not waiting anymore, either."

I slashed the jug right open, and dumped it on the arm I didn't wound. Glass was still screaming in pain, wishing that it would end. It only got much worse as the liquid ate through his shirt sleeve, and then his skin. Unfortunately for him, we'd do this for as long as I felt like it. And I could do this all night.

"You know, there is one thing that's bugging me though." I said as he continued to shriek. "The cunt gets you to do some of its work and leads Elsa and Emma into a trap, and then it lets you just walk out of there? Did it even know what would happen if I found you?"

Glass didn't answer my question. I don't even think he could hear me over his screams. Hell, I could barely hear myself think over all of it.

"Yeah… I reckon it knew exactly what would happen if I found you. And it didn't care. You've served your purpose."

I put mere inches between me and Glass's face as I said the last thing I would ever say aloud to him. "I'm almost done here, you useless sack of shit."

What followed was pure hell for the little rat. What I did to him was everything I planned on doing to Ingrid for what it did to me. By cursing me, it kept me alive to suffer for the unforgivable crime of being born the son of its treacherous sister and my father, the White Reaper.

His broken body was now lying on the ground in front of me. Bloodied. Shattered. Almost completely erased.

I took the jerry can I had put on the table, and emptied it all over his dead carcass. A dirty napkin from Cormac's, the pub we were hiding in, was just the fuel I needed to start the fire on him. I took my lighter out, and held it to the napkin.

"Come out here, Asgeir!" I heard over a megaphone. "We know you have Glass in there! Bring him out and we can get what we need from him together!"

I got what I needed from him already. I needed his soul, to pay for the souls that his actions would cost once Ingrid cast the curse. I dropped the flaming napkin onto his body, and without a second's hesitation, I ran.

I bolted upright in bed. Gasping in horror, I turned over in my cot and listened.

The waves of the ocean lapped against the wall of the cabin me and the brothers were sleeping in. Troy was still snoring in the corner. Come to think of it, he always snored.

I wiped my eyes as I sat up from my cot. The nightmare I had was not one I was proud of by any stretch of the imagination. Sidney Glass did indeed betray the town for his freedom, but for that, he did not deserve what I gave him. He deserved a quicker, less painful death. One I denied him.

The deck was quiet when I climbed the stairs and came up to the wheel. It was Gibbs, steering the ship alone as the Fury chopped through quiet waters. It was now as cold as Sript, with him bundled from head to toe, watching that his hands did not freeze against the wheel of the ship. New icicles had formed on the lines above, and one dropped and shattered against the wood of the ship on the far side as I came up. The sky was still quite dark, but I could feel dawn approaching.

"Asgeir m'boy." He chuckled as I came up. "What brings you above decks at this hour?"

I said nothing. I still couldn't. Not like that was any different.

"We could be looking at easy sailing for the rest of our way North."

The Vegvisir was right ahead of us, leading the way for us all the way. Even with it being as cold as it was, I was surprised Gibbs didn't fall asleep at the wheel. The Fury was sliding through the ice cold waters like a pair of scissors on paper.

My old friend glimpsed at me. "I reckon when we reach our destination, we bury Matthew, eh?"

I had tried hard not to think about that. While Zar and I had fought like hell to get the brothers out of Sript, I had refused to leave Matthew behind. We had to backtrack and go back to the barracks where Matthew had been shot, and find his body. Hans hadn't even bothered having his men haul the poor soul away, leaving him in the pool of his own blood. I couldn't leave him behind. Not in a place like that. Not after all I had done to him.

Zar came up from below decks a while later. He was still clumsily hobbling about with his crutch for his leg. He sat down by the wheel while Gibbs watched the mountains to our right begin to show shape with the sun beginning to rise.

"Dawn." Zar murmured.

"I wouldn't be too excited, Mister Cortez." Gibbs said. "We passed the Nifl Boundary yesterday afternoon. We're reaching the Land of the Lowest Sun as the sailors call it."

Zar looked out at the shores we were passing. Small sheets of ice broke up easily under the hull of our ship, but we were not nearly prepared enough for a whole sheet to break through.

"Does it ever stop snowing up here?" He asked.

"Two months out of the year, if we're lucky." He said. "But that's only what I've heard the bravest souls say. Who knows how far North Jerred's master is?"

I looked uneasily at the next fjord we were coming up to. The cliffs of stone were turning more and more to cliffs of ice, and I could feel the cold rising even harder as I saw our path ahead, into a narrow passage in the ice.

By midday, the sun was still not fully in the sky. The whole crew was outside, trying to stay as warm as possible with the hard work we were going through, but it was no use. The sun was positioned as such, it felt like it would be setting before it was finished rising.

Anna shivered as we settled in Henrik's cabin. Jerred was outside, waiting for signs from the Vegivisir that we were close to his village.

"We go from one cold edge of the world to another in less than two months." Rory groaned. "Must be a good reason fer our sufferin'"

Red shook her head. "If there is, I reckon we all have yet to find it."

My throat still felt stitched right up. I felt so useless not being able to give any words of encouragement or comfort to the crew. Down another member with Matthew, and four of us tortured beyond belief. Troy and Rabbit had spoken with their friends from the prison, but so far they had kept their distance from us. I reckoned they were just happy to get away from that hellhole.

Zar was writing stuff down to add to the ledger we were keeping on the Templars. The portrait he had drawn of Lord Thayer was quite accurate, down to the jagged scar over his eye.

"A guy like that's not going to stop." Zar said. "Hopefully this place will buy us all the time we have to prepare for when he finds us."

When. Not if.

Suddenly, we heard a sharp whistle from outside the cabin. Jerred burst through the doors.

"We're here."

The coastal route we had taken now ended in a cove shaped in a massive U that faced us cutting directly westwards. Snow blew loudly all around us as the sun was taking a low position in the sky over the darkened shells of buildings that stood before us on the seaside hill. What building I could see appeared to be uninhabitable at the least.

No one from our group planned on staying on the ship, so Henrik and Gibbs agreed to mind the ship while the rest of us came ashore.

I silently rowed with the rest of the Assassins while Elsa and Anna sat in the boat, minding some of our luggage. Olaf sat with them, shivering yet trying to make the lot of us laugh. Most of us were more focused on the ghost town ahead. The shores ahead were rocky and snowy, and certainly not the kind of place anyone would want to set up a village.

I couldn't tell the others thanks to my still-dysfunctional voice, but there was something I was feeling as I looked up at the village. Familiarity. Had I seen this place before? There was something that was tugging at the back of my head as the boat hit the shore, and we piled out.

I stretched my arms as the others pulled the boat up the shore. Jerred stood beside me as I looked about.

"My master and mistress will be waiting for us, Asgeir." He said.

The marked man led us forwards up the dirt path from the beach. To our immediate left was a small fishing hut with traps rusted beyond repair, exposed to the cold and the salt air without use in what looked like hundreds of years.

A snowed out farm was up on our right about a hundred yards past. Jerred pointed to the large house at the top of the hill, three hundred yards away. "There." He said. "He'll be waiting there."

As we passed the farm, I saw the half demolished remains of what looked like a tavern, with one whole side of its building wide open. Inside, I could see some of the furniture was at least right side up.

"Everyone needs a home." Jerred said as he came up beside me. "This is mine while my master and mistress live at the longhouse.

"Manor" was the word I was about to use, but then I saw how the home almost took the shape of a Norse longhouse as we came closer. It clearly had more than one floor, but it was wider than it was deep or tall. I could spot a light on in a window on the second floor.

BANG

A spot in the snow right in front of me suddenly burst, and I was on the ground. Jerred appeared in front of me, and grabbed my hand.

"What the fuck?!" Zar cried, falling behind an overturned wagon on the side of the road. His crutch got thrown to the side as he fell down, and it was now out of his reach.

"Sniper!" Rory yelled out. "Take cover!"

The whole lot of us scattered, running into the adjacent buildings and bushes. Olaf didn't seem to notice, and kept walking forwards, chuckling as he did so. "Wow, this place looks spooky!" He said,his big toothy grin on his face. "Seems like this place needs some TLC. And also tender, loving care!"

BANG

The next shot hit the snowman right in the chest, and he toppled right over in the snow beside us. The snowballs that made his whole body fell apart.

"Ow!" He cried, head separated from his body..

"Olaf!" Anna screamed. "Are you okay?!"

His arms were still attached to his body, and he picked up his own head. "Yeah! I'm alright! Who's lighting off fireworks at us?"

I looked up at Jerred in alarm. He seemed to sense what I was thinking, and shook his head.

"He wouldn't shoot at me, or us!" He cried. "I'll run ahead!"

His form vanished instantly as I saw his hand glow, and zap away. I instinctively felt my hand clench the open air where his hand once was.

I wasn't waiting for answers. I had to get the angle on whoever was shooting at us. It was clear it was coming from the window with the light on.

Terej and Torren were a few feet from me, hiding behind a bush with snow covered on it.

I raised my two fingers, and gestured for them to leave cover.

"Are you crazy, Mentor?!" Our youngest member cried.

I shook my head, and tried to say "just do it!", but all that came out was "uuuuuuuurrr."

Terej cracked his knuckles. "Get ready to run, kid." He growled.

The two of them immediately jumped out of the bush, and took off, running directly parallel to the house; much harder to hit a target going sideways than directly towards you.

BANG

The sniper took the bait, and took their next shot at the two of them. I took my chance to get up, crouch down, and run for the next house, up on my right.

Elsa threw a blast of ice towards the house, and it hit it with a loud crash. She and her sister stayed in cover as I ducked into the house, and looked for a way through.

More destroyed or overturned furniture was in this house, with a window leading into a group of bushes directly behind it. As I slipped out the window, I could see a snowed out field leave at least fifty feet to the main house with no place to hide behind or under.

Jerred suddenly appeared in the middle of that field, his twin bladed knife in his hand.

"MASTER!" He yelled. "Stop shooting! I've brought him!"

BANG

Jerred had already vanished before the bullet hit the ground where he had been. I couldn't see where he ended up, so I took my chance to run. If the sniper had a musket, like I suspected, then he would need a minute to reload before being able to shoot again. One and done, the downside of any big gun like that.

The sun was beginning to peek over the treetops, casting a deep orange glow over the field of snow right ahead of me. I sprinted through the deep pockets of white powder, leaving deep carves in the field. Snow was kicking up and swirling around me as I dove for the side of the house, taking cover under the edge of the roof.

By the time I reached the house, the next shot from the sniper had still not gone off. Either the shooter was out of ammo, or he was waiting for an opportunity.

I looked back where I had come from. I couldn't see anyone else in the group, so they must have wisely been hiding. Another beam of ice came from behind one of the houses, so at least Elsa and Anna were behind cover. It struck the house hard, shaking the very foundation it stood on.

I edged along the house, until I climbed up onto the front porch, coming up to the door. Drawing my scythe, I extended it and felt the blade come out as I raised it, getting ready to strike the door inwards.

The door suddenly swung out, and a fist struck me right in the face. I tumbled backwards and fell down three steps into the snow.

"Master!"

Jerred appeared behind me as a lone figure stepped out of the house, rifle pointed right at my face.

"Who in all of Helheim are you?" He snarled in a voice like ashes.

Jerred lowered his knife, blades dissolving into the winter air. "Master… It's me. Jerred…"

I looked up at the man before me as he kept slowly advancing on us. His rifle was still raised, but his eyes were locked with mine as I tried to sit up.

"Don't."

Jerred whispered down at me. "I don't know what's going on. Please, believe me."

I strangely did believe Jerred. The man before me looked old enough to forget what day it was, let alone what he had his manservant go through to have me come so far for him.

The man then held his rifle up at the others, who were coming up right behind me. "Don't come any closer!" He snarled.

"You don't have enough bullets for the lot of us, mate!" Rory cried.

The old man cocked it, clicking loudly in the cold air. "Think I can't take you unarmed? You'd be surprised."

I took my chance. Shoving my elbows against the ground, I launched my body up, and dove for the man. He was impossibly light as I threw my body against his, and brought him down onto the steps of his porch. I grabbed his arm and forced it against his neck as I raised my other hand, and extended my blade.

"Asgeir!" I heard Anna cry.

The old man coughed as he looked up into my eyes. They were dark as night. "Assassin?" He wheezed.

I kept my arm raised, but said nothing. I couldn't.

He looked past me, at the lot of us. "You all... *hurk* Assassins?"

We locked eyes again, but this time, there was something else I saw.

"Hurr…" He coughed again, blood spewing out. "... Asgeir?"

I raised my eyebrow, and nodded. He knew me… but I didn't know him.

He gave a tip of his neck to his hand. "Look… Reaper…"

His hand I had pinned to his neck had tattoos. Much darker than Jerred's somehow, they colored in his hand to make it look like a skeleton's.

He and I locked eyes again, and his expression relaxed. With his other hand, he pulled his sleeve all the way back.

His whole arm was covered with one tattoo. Among the deep wrinkles and loose old skin, it was a skeleton's arm that slowly zoomed out, until around his upper forearm it showed a figure. A snarling reaper with a torn white hood.

A White Reaper.

We locked eyes again. This man was older than any I had ever seen before.

It couldn't be…

"Drop it, boy."

I looked up, and saw another figure before me. A woman who appeared to be just as old as the man underneath me. She had her own pistol raised up at me, and filled up the whole doorway with the anger I saw in her.

Jerred spoke up. "Mistress, I did what he asked me to do!"

"And brought more than just Asgeir Cormac, I see."

I looked at her. I definitely felt a familiarity with her.

"You wear the hoods of our Creed." She said, "Prove yourselves to be a friend, and release my husband."

"Asgeir." I heard Anna say. "Who is he? Who are they?"

I let my arm off of the old man's neck, and he slowly got up. The old woman put aside her rifle and handed the man a cane, carved with a skull in the head.

"I apologize for the cold welcome." He groaned. "Jerred took too long, and I thought he was dead. I didn't recognize him."

"Big surprise there." He muttered back.

"I heard that, boy!" The old woman snapped.

"Varina." The old man shot back at her. "Take it easy on him. I reckon he's had a very long trip trying to find my grandson."

Anna gasped. "Grandson?"

Keif coughed. "It can't be! It's him!"

The old man leaned against his cane as he attempted to stand up straight. "Welcome, Assassins, to the village of Yurness. I am Norik Cormac."

A fire crackled in the hearth before us as Jerred came around with cups. Norik sat uneasily in his chair before us as the rest of us sat around, either on splintered chairs, or the floor when we ran out. The parlor inside the longhouse looked like it had been built with great care, but not maintained for years and years. Dust covered everything, and moths fluttered here and there in the warmer corners of the room.

My grandmother, Varina, stood behind him. What memories had been magically given to me of Norik, this woman looked nothing like how she used to. The years had been very cruel to these people.

Norik sat silently for very long, never taking his eyes off me. I tried hard not to look at him, eyeing instead the amber liquid that steamed from my cup.

"What is this?" Anna asked as Jerred handed her.

"Mead." He said. "Great while heated up, but it's not to my taste."

"That's for certain." Varina snapped.

Jerred spun around, glaring at his mistress. He opened his mouth, but Norik raised a hand.

"Enough, Jerred." He groaned. "Bad enough we had to go several months without you. Now you and Rina have to go at each other's throats again. But I can see that it was not in vain. You brought my grandson home."

Home. Some home. This building was quite impressive, but "upkeep" didn't appear to be in their dictionary, just looking at the state of everything. And every other building outside looked uninhabitable, to be kind.

Elsa cleared her throat, placing her warm mead on the floor beside her chair; the only table in the room was in the corner, missing two legs.

"Master… Norik. I'm Queen Elsa of Arendelle-"

Norik gave her a smile. Maybe he meant it to look welcoming, but he looked like a skeleton as he did so. "Your Majesty, it is an honor. I have been waiting for you. For all of you. After all this time in exile, now it could be that the tide changes for the better for us."

Elsa shifted uneasily. She clearly was unsettled by Norik as well as I. My grandfather's snow white hair and closely trimmed beard did nothing to make him look less like a zombie. He shouldn't be alive. How was he alive?

He chuckled. "I apologize for my appearance, but we have never had visitors. And I doubt any work could be done on this beautiful face."

Elsa gave a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Yes, well, might I say that you do look much more… alive than I would have expected. Asgeir…" She glanced at me, but I remained silent. I was still trying to speak, but no words were coming out. "He never said you were still alive."

"Nor would he have any cause to believe otherwise." He replied. "We have never met. By all Assassin records, I have been dead for years."

The man that now sat before me was certainly alive, but almost as though it was not by choice. He looked so old, he should have died of natural causes years ago. But he looked like he was just… carrying on.

Norik sighed. "It is a long story. One that I was not prepared to tell so many people. Jerred bringing so many up here is unexpected. But welcome. Other than us, this town has not seen a living soul in… a long time."

He ran his tattooed hand over his beard. Black ink covered it, but not nearly as dark as Jerred's Mark.

He eyed me again. "Nothing to say, Asgeir? I would settle for even a hug for your old man's old man."

Anna stood up. "I'm sorry, Mister Norik. But Asgeir hasn't spoken in almost a month. Not since Sript."

He raised a torn eyebrow. "Sript? The prison isle? What happened there?"

My head sunk low as I coughed. A cold breeze cut through the drafty parlor.

Jerred lowered the tray of drinks. "Master, I bided my time, but Hans got to him first."

Zar hefted his stump over his good leg. "They tortured us. Hans, and his lunatic brother Grant."

Norik gazed at the stump. At Troy's bloody bandages over his face, and then at me. His own face fell as he realized why I wasn't talking.

"By Odin… I would have thought Hans would kill all of you if he had the chance."

"So did we." Zar replied. "But it seems he wanted to prolong our suffering as much as possible. This is as personal as it gets."

Norik shook his head. "I know what that is like. Truly, I do. I should have died a long time ago, but someone meant to make my path to the grave as long and painful as possible."

The others didn't know. I could see on all their faces they didn't know who or why. But I had a feeling. I had seen fragments of Norik's life when he was my age. I knew who could hate him that much. Because the feeling was very mutual.

Elsa straightened her skirt as she got up. "Master Norik, we don't have anything to offer or pay you with."

He held his wrinkled hand up. "Your Majesty, I would be honored to host you where I can. Food is scarce, but the months should be warming up soon. We have needed the extra hands for ages. If you and the rest of the group are prepared to work, we can provide you the place to hide you certainly need." He stood up, giving Elsa a firm shake of the hand. "Yurness has helped me, Varina and Jerred hide for years. You can be sure Hans will never find you here." Hobbling over to me, my grandfather placed his hand on my shoulder. "When you are ready, Grandson, we must speak. I trust you have quite the story to tell me."

Elsa said something to the group, but I couldn't hear her. As the others got from their seats and filed out of the longhouse towards the ship, beginning the unloading, Norik kept his hand on my shoulder as I gazed into his eyes. Half dead, dug from the grave he looked, but in his eyes, I could see something I hadn't seen for years. He had the same smile as my father.

The lot of us took up residence all over the town. Elsa and Anna were permitted guest rooms in the longhouse. Norik offered one to me, but I silently refused when I realized there were only two. Norik may have wanted me here, but it was Elsa and Anna who deserved whatever comforts we could find here. It looked to me like we wouldn't be getting any for a long time.

Jerred took me down to the tavern he lived in. While the members of the ship's crew that came ashore were setting up their tents, or draping tarps to cover up the broken windows of the various buildings they would live in, Jerred didn't so much as shiver as he brushed snow off his abandoned cot. The window beside his bed, like many of the others in town, was shattered.

Opening his satchel, he pulled a large bottle of dark liquid.

"Didn't want to give the mistress another reason to snarl at me." He said, breaking off the top, and taking a swig.

I didn't reply. I felt something coming clear at the back of my throat, but I still was quiet.

Jerred walked into the corner of the tavern beside the bar, and grabbed several small pieces of wood. Some of them looked like ordinary logs, but others were pieces of broken furniture. He carried them over to a firepit in the center of the tavern, right below a chimney.

Pouring the dark liquid on the logs, Jerred piled them up carefully, and then pulled out a box of matches. I sat by, waiting for the heat to come.

Jerred sighed as he opened it. "Last match. Next thing to borrow from the Master when I come begging."

Silently, I pulled out my lighter, and handed it to him. Jerred looked down at it, and then at me.

"The fuck is this?" He asked.

I rolled my eyes, realizing that Jerred couldn't have known what a lighter was. One of a few inventions for the Land Without Magic we brought here. I flicked it open and lit it.

Jerred stared with amazement as he took the lighter, and lowered it to the wood. The soaked logs lit up, and within minutes we had a fire burning.

As the warmth of the fire spread to what corners of the taproom it could reach, Rabbit and Troy came up. The brothers kept their arms locked so Rabbit could guide Troy to the right spot.

"Watch your step." He muttered as the two of them came in.

"Didn't want the ship?" Jerred asked, taking a drink.

"Had enough of choppy waves and heaving over the side." Troy replied. "Bad enough I've gotta do it while waving my hands in front of me, no clue where to walk. No, if we're staying here, I'm staying on dry land."

"We'll think of something to help you see, Troy." Rabbit replied. "This fight can't be over for us."

Troy nodded, turning to his brother. It was almost as though he was still looking where he could, but he had no eyes to look with. "It's not going to. We promised."

Rabbit guided his brother to the two empty sides of the firepit as the four of us sat on the ground, letting the warmth come up over us.

Jerred passed his bottle around, letting us all drink from it; It was whiskey. We drank it in silence, just listening to the wind outside as it began to snow more, the sun sinking behind the trees. We could barely see it all day, and now night was upon us. I wondered how long it would be before we'd be able to see warmer days again.

Troy glared into the fire, narrowing his empty eye sockets as though, if he concentrated hard enough, he could see that fire again.

"Let's get even."

It came so suddenly from him. No breath before he said it, no waiting if anyone else would speak. He just kept his sightless gaze on that fire, listening to it crackle as he said it out loud.

"Troy?"

"They didn't mean to kill us, Rabbit. They meant to hurt us. Break us to make sure we didn't have the strength to fight back if it ever comes to war."

"So what? You want to pry Grant's eyes out with a spoon? That's not what we do, Troy." Rabbit said. "We're gonna fight hard, but we can't sink to his level. If we do anything to them, we'll-"

"Obliterate them."

Troy fell backwards in his seat. Rabbit jumped up, and Jerred gazed at me in awe. I felt my heart flutter as the words came out.

I didn't miss a beat. "This is not a fight like Ezio and the Borgia for Italy, with a winner and a loser." I whispered. "This is the fight where we wipe the Templars off the face of this world. They're the ones who brought this chaos to this world with Shay and the others starting the Order in Arendelle. We destroy their name. We kill every last one of them, and we make sure we burn the stump they leave behind so they never ever return. Grant said they mean to obliterate us. Let's see how he likes it."

I got up, groaning with pain as I looked down at Troy and Rabbit, and then at Jerred.

"You told me following me was exactly what you are here to do. Do you still think that, after Sript?"

Jerred clenched his tattooed fist as he took another drink of whiskey. "Of course. Tell me what oaths to make. Give me one of those hoods. You need soldiers, and I got nowhere else to go. Let's kill them all."

There were no cheers from the four of us. No celebratory toasts. We would be stuck here for a while, but we would make the most of it.

War was coming. And we had work to do.

End Sequence 3: Obliteration

A/N: I've been looking forward to this stage of the story for a long, long time. Things have kicked into high gear for Asgeir and the Assassins, and open war will be upon us before long. And the Final battle, Ragnarok.