"Has she always been missing it?"
"No. It's there when she's awake. When she speaks, it is there. I can see it in those moments, but now?" He shrugged. "Gone. She can be awake and her body completely empty as well. I've never seen anything like it, but I feel the ancestors telling me to put her soul back where it belongs. She needs to anchor it inside her body or who knows what monster could take an empty shell like this and use it."
Ragnar's fingers flicked at his shoulders, peeling off the bad energy he must have felt swell around him at Gunnar's words. In truth, even Gunnar felt it.
The forest was heavy with the truth of what could be if they didn't help her. There were many things, even here, that would love to slip into her body. There were many spirits, demons, creatures that didn't have a name, all of them seeking a body that had been denied to them for centuries on end. It was trulyterrifying to even think about what could happen to a woman like her.
Gunnar nodded. "So you see why she comes with us. I will not allow someone like this to bring about ruin to our people."
His brother was already nodding along with him. "She comes. But she is your responsibility."
"Understood."
Ragnar patted his shoulder forcefully and then stood. "We are going to be here for a little while yet. The scouts went up ahead to make sure our path is clear, and then we will continue into Trollveggen. I'll see to her leg when we arrive."
It was better than he could have asked for. Ragnar was under no obligation to heal a human like her. They could let her heal naturally. Magic was finite, and for the great healer of Trollveggen to even offer his magic for someone who wasn't dying was perhaps a great waste of energy.
Gunnar was just grateful that Ragnar would even offer. Their relationship was good, but tense, since they had lost Bjorn. Neither of them could deny the other anything, though. They were bound together, soul-tied, for all the years that they had fought together, argued, trained. Killed when they were required to do so.
Gunnar turned his attention to the woman at his feet. He didn't even know her name, he realized. She hadn't ever told him. All she'd done so far was stare up at him with her dreamy expression that was somehow endearing and also frightening.
What did she see when she wandered like this? What realm did she enter, and was it safe for her?
He leaned a little closer, carding his claws through her white-blonde hair to untangle some of the knots that had grown wild in their frantic run from the city. "I promise to keep you safe," he murmured. "You no longer have to fear who is coming for you. This is my vow, fair lady."
He didn't know why he wanted to make the vow, or how he would even keep it. But he knew it was important. Almost as though he could feel the hand of the ancestors pressing down on his shoulders, guiding his words.
She was important enough to make the vow. She was worthy of it.
Then those blue eyes blinked open to stare up at him. He thought perhaps she would recognize him, but all he saw was fear.
"Please don't hurt me," she whispered, the words so quiet he almost didn't hear them. "I'll be good. I promise. I'm very good at following orders. Just let me... let me live. For a little while longer."
What an odd thing to say. She should have recognized him. She should have known that if he... he...
"You met me before," he reminded her. "In the labyrinth. They gave you to me and I let you sleep. That's all I wish for you now, fair lady. Rest so that we might travel faster."
Something passed in front of her gaze. Not quite a shadow, but almost a hint of a soul returning. Like she hadn’t quite been herself when she’d woken, not really in her body, and now she firmly was.
"Fair lady," she repeated. "You called me that before."
"I did."
"The troll with the wild hair. That was you."
Wild hair? He rather thought his hair was nice. He'd been known throughout his life for having nice hair.
Clearing his throat, he reached out a hand for her to take so he could help her up. "We don't have long to rest here. Soldiers follow us, and the only safe place is the mountain."
Her fear returned once more. "The mountain? You mean... you mean the troll mountain?"
"That's exactly where we have to go. It's the only safe place from the men who trapped both of us." He wiggled his claws, hoping she would get the hint. He could already see the others were gathering what meager supplies they had stolen along the way. "We have to get going or we'll fall behind. And trust me, we don't want to fall behind."
He watched a war happen within her. She looked at his hand, and he could see the distaste in her gaze. She didn't want to touch him, but he wasn't sure that emotion was coming from a place of being frightened of trolls.
Oh, she certainly didn't like his people. She glanced at all the other trolls, the ones who were far more terrifying than he was, and shrank into herself. She was not comfortable here. Not in the slightest. But he was a monster she knew. A monster who had not yet hurt her, and still she wouldn't touch him.
"Is it because I'm a troll?" He couldn't help but ask.
