"So you succeeded to stay alive this morning, didn't you? I'd have bet on you coming back home on your knees, with your face punched, puppy!" Eirik giggled.

Before Dag could answer, Gridd took his place: "He's a terrible fighter. But he uses his head more than others. Dag objected to Arne's orders, and he listened to him, changing the rules. I think the boy is a quick learner".

Dag was incredulous.

The girl that didn't even talk to him was now defending him making him realize that maybe she was not so emotionless as he imagined.

"Did he objected? About what? Wasn't today the pledge day?" Stein asked, sipping a cup of mead.

"I switched my turn with a girl because I didn't want her to be watched naked by everybody… you know, the Berserkr's chief forced us to put off our shirts, to mark us with a scorching rod… even if she will be a warrior, she's just a little girl by now, It wasn't fair" Dag answered, thinking back at that moment.

"Well, this is not a typical Viking behavior but… you did a good thing, I think that girl will remember your kindness. Do you like her, right?" replied Stein, talking with his mouth full, eating the mushroom soup that Asa put on the table.

"N…No! I just thought that was wrong! I…I don't like her!" Dag blushed.

After those words, everyone who sat at the table started laughing quietly.

"There's nothing wrong with this, Dag" Asa reassured him, smiling and placing a portion of soup before him, trying to minimize his embarrassment.

When the dinner was over, Asa and Stein walked to the bedroom, leaving its door open and Gridd got back in the house, after filling the bucket at the well and started washing the dishes.

In the meanwhile, Dag looked around, not knowing what to do. 

His gaze fell again on the second room's door, but this time it was closed.

"Can I help you somehow?" he asked Gridd, trying to be helpful somehow.

"No, you can go to sleep" she answered, with her usual cold tone, making Dag feel sad.

After understanding his step-sister didn't want to have anything to do with him yet, he looked back at the table, noticing that Eirik wasn't there, guessing he probably was somewhere outside, looking after the animals.

Without saying anything else, Dag went to the bedroom and as soon as his cheek touched the straw-pillow, he fell asleep.

…

"Hey…hey Dag, wake up!"

Somebody was calling him and shaking his shoulder.

"Get up, come!" that voice continued, persistently.

He slowly opened his eyes, finding out that Gridd was there, staring at him with her big eyes, that glowed in the darkness of the room. 

Despite being still drowsy, he stood up on his feet and walked with her outside the bedroom.

"What's happening? Did…did I do something wrong?" he asked, yawning and thinking about it.

"No, you didn't. I saw how you looked at the door before" she replied, turning to him.

"The door? Which one?" Dag gulped, quickly recovering from sleep and pretending not to know anything. 

"Do you think I'm an idiot? 'That' door, the closed one. Don't you wanna know what's behind?" Gridd asked, already knowing the answer.

"Y…yes, of course. Why not…" he answered, surprised at that question.

They walked to the door when she picked a key from her nightdress' pocket and opened its lock, revealing the content of the room.

In front of them, it was completely dark. 

The moonlight that reflected on the main room's floor, barely enlightened a corner of the inside.

A rudimentary window had been tightened with wooden beams, preventing everything but a thin breath of air to pass through.

While Dag was narrowing his eyes, attempting to give a sense to those dark shapes, Gridd pulled him in, grabbing his shirt's sleeve.

When both of them were inside, she closed the door back.

"Gridd, I can't see anything!" Dag whispered as she crouched next to the door, searching for something on the floor.

She found a candle and lit it using a matchstick, finally showing what was before them, inside of that eerie place.

On the wall in front of the door, a suit of armor reflected the candlelight. 

It was composed of two leather boots with their metal tips and a pair of black leather trousers with two blue drapes on the front side and a bigger one on the back. 

On each of them, the drawing of a hammer.

They were followed by a sleeveless breastplate, with the same big symbol engraved on its center and an iron helm at the top.

Dag paid attention to the helm's details: one of its sides was completely broken as hit by a heavy a weapon. 

Two big ram horns twisted from the top to the side and also one of them was cracked.

"Whose armor was this? It's men-sized… did it belong to Stein? I thought he had always been a lumberjack" Dag said in a low voice, breaking the silence and trying to figure out the origin of that warrior equipment.

"No, it wasn't his. Dag, there is something you should now, nobody knows it, except me and my mother. But… there's something in me that pushes me to tell you and… well, I trust my senses… I couldn't sleep, submerged in my thoughts" Gridd confessed, looking down.

"What are you talking about? You can trust me, I swear!" he asked, full of curiosity.

"Stein is not my real father… my mother used to be married before meeting him. She lost her husband in a battle against the Lies Of Loki, an evil Clan coming from the west of Hevnen, the city where she lived when she was a famous Shieldmaiden" she continued, staring at the horned helm.

Dag kept on listening, out of words.

"His name was Brann. He was one of the greatest warriors of Skjold, owner of the emblem n°6… he died fighting and when he fell without life on the ground, somebody stole the emblem from his body".

"Oh Gridd, I'm so sorry…" Dag answered, struck by a sudden empathy towards her sister, that seemed surprisingly fragile.

"Was the emblem this hammer painted on his armor?" he continued.

"No, this hammer is the mark of his Clan, the Hammers Of Thor. The emblem was a silver rabbit's foot" Gridd replied.

Dag nodded, looking at the floor, try to picture the scene.

"After that day, my mother, Asa, called 'the Deadly Swallow', decided to abandon her warrior life. She pretended to be a farmer, and she discovered herself pregnant after a month from my father's death. She set here after meeting Stein… nowadays, he and Eirik are convinced that this armor belonged to my grandfather".

"Why have you never told them these things?" Dag asked, watching her in the eye.

"My mother's wish was to start a new life, from the beginning. If Stein and Eirik would know the truth, something among them could change, and I never wanted to let this happen" she concluded, breathing deeply.

Next to the armor, resting on the wall and supported by an iron rod, Dag saw a chest, in the darkest side of the room.

"What's inside of that?" he asked again, taking advantage of Gridd's moment of weakness, during which she would have told him everything he wanted to know.

She pulled another key from her pocket and opened the chest.