Steel striking against steel rang through the air. Dying people screamed and cried out. Northmen fought Northmen and Kattegat burned. The bay was full of burning ships and the air was thick with the scents of fire and blood. And throughout all of the chaos, I was able to see a handful of ships sailing away. The sun was impossibly setting directly down the middle of the opening for the bay, shedding a blinding burst of sunlight on the torn apart Kattegat, haloing the handful of ships that were escaping. And then a flash of light and the ships were gone and the sea turned as red as blood and rose, swallowing the city into the depths-

I gasped and fell straight out of bed, landing with a hard thump on the ground. "Augusta?" Ivar asked groggily, dragging himself to my side of the bed to peer down at me. "What happened?"

I rubbed my bumped head and looked up at Ivar for a moment before sitting up and meeting his gaze. "Do you know of any infighting that might be happening? I had a vision." I remained kneeling on the floor beside our bed as I recounted the vision to him. By the end of it, Ivar was frowning.

"Northmen fight each other all the time." Ivar reminded me. "You know that."

"There's a difference between territory skirmishes and trying to take over a city, Ivar." I said dryly. "Whoever will attack wants to drive people out. Which it looked like they'll do, given those ships sailing off." I frowned. "I don't understand the sun though. The sun doesn't set between the mountains. I need to see what I can figure out."

Ivar nodded and rolled back over as I got up and quickly got dressed. I kissed Ivar before leaving and managed to sneak out of the Great Hall without running into anyone. A building had been built off the side of the Great Hall, and it held all of my Seer supplies and it was where I performed any duties that were demanded of a Seer.

There was a combination of herbs and powders that would give me specific results, and I quickly threw a cheesecloth sack of herbs into the small hearth and the smoke filled the room with a sickly sweet smell. I sat cross legged in front of the hearth and breathed deeply with my eyes closed, waiting. When the ground below me shifted, I opened my eyes and found myself in a completely different place.

There were many earls who weren't fond of Ivar or Kattegat. The city had become a powerhouse of trade and power and there were small coastal cities that resented that. Small wars weren't uncommon for Kattegat, but that dream had been very realistic and far worse than any previous war Kattegat had been involved in.

But those earls weren't my main concern. My main concern had to have done some kind of measures to keep himself hidden from me.

I hadn't known what had happened to Bjorn for years now. If I tried to find him, I would just find a gray haze surrounding me. The same went for Bjorn's sons Erik or Refil. And when I tried searching for Torvi or Guthrum, my dark skinned Valkyrie acquaintance had appeared and informed me that both Torvi and Guthrum were dead.

Wherever Bjorn was, I assumed Halfdan must be with him. I had been able to track Halfdan for nearly a year and then the same gray haze covered him as well. I had no idea what could keep people hidden from my searches, and I had no clue how to experiment and check if it was an herb or a spell or even a blessing from a god. I had no idea and Bjorn was lost to me for almost ten years now.

I thought about Vestfold and King Harald. The king had a few sons now and had never been shy about his desire for Kattegat in order to become king. When I just got the gray void again, I jerked myself out of it and hissed, "Shit."

Why would Finehair just now start shielding himself from a Seer's vision? I got up and fanned the smoke, blowing it out of the window until the room was mostly clear. After that, I wandered around Kattegat until I found who I was looking for.

"Hvitserk." I said. My friend looked over from where he was helping bring in a longship and walked over, scratching absentmindedly at the dark beard that had grown on his face a couple of years ago.

Hvitserk was around thirty eight years old now, and he was starting to look it. He had wrinkles next to the corner of his eyes and his dark brown beard was getting longer. The only reason it wasn't so long now was because his two year old daughter Iona had a habit of grabbing onto beards and yanking on them until there were tiny patches of bare skin throughout the beard. Ubbe had learned the hard way when he had held Iona for the first time.

Hvitserk listened carefully when I explained what was going on with the gray void and when I finished he was frowning hard. "You think Bjorn and Halfdan could be with Finehair?" I nodded and Hvitserk frowned even deeper, a dimple appearing between his brows. "I mean, it's possible. Bjorn has been missing for…" He drifted off, and sighed. "If Bjorn and Halfdan both went to Finehair, then there's only one thing they want."

We both glanced around the docks of Kattegat and I was struck for a moment how many lives would be upturned by a large war.

There really wasn't a way to figure out what Finehair was doing, or what he was possibly planning. Maybe he had figured out the void by himself, but there was something in my head that made me think that they were all together.

Hvitserk scratched his beard again. "What about Astrid? She's still married to Finehair, right?"

My eyes widened and I smiled brightly at Hvitserk. "You're a genius, Hvitserk."

"Thank you!" He called after me as I rushed off to my Seer's room. Hvitserk was always helpful to talk to; usually he could see obvious answers faster than I could.

I repeated my steps of filling the room with smoke, and this time I thought of Astrid. When I opened my eyes, I was in the Great Hall of Vestfold, and Astrid was sitting on a throne looking bored.

What was her life like now? I remembered pitying Astrid when we first met, just by seeing the amount of dislike she seemed to have for her husband. I followed Astrid's pale gaze and saw that she was watching a young woman play with a toddler aged boy on the floor. The young woman kept glancing up at Astrid; she looked nervous.

"Mother!" I looked to the front of the hall and saw a very large man around the same age as Bjomolf and Ragnvald enter the hall. He practically stepped over the woman on the ground and the toddler and he knelt before Astrid.

"What is it Eric?" Astrid asked in a bored sounding voice.

"Father needs more bodies." Eric said in an odd gravely voice that didn't match his age. "He asks that you send out the call for more warriors to volunteer."

Astrid smirked oh so slightly. "If I keep pressuring them for volunteers, it won't really be getting volunteers, now will it?"

Eric narrowed his eyes at his mother and sneered remarkably like his father. "Do not act this way, Mother. You know-"

But what Astrid knew, I wouldn't find out. All of a sudden, the gray void swooped in and the scene was lost to me. I groaned out loud and re-entered my room, clearing out the smoke again and more frustrated than before. Finehair must have entered the room and the entire scene was gone.

"Hela take this damned void." I grumbled furiously. I exited my room again; there was one person who could talk to me about Astrid. Had Astrid had a child with Finehair? The last time I had seen Astrid hadn't painted a happy picture.

Margrethe was in her garden, her pale hair tied up with a headscarf and a basket full of herbs and turnips beside her. "Margrethe!" I shouted. She flinched as I rushed to the garden fence and asked my question. "Did Astrid have a son with Finehair while you were both in Vestfold together?"

Margrethe looked vaguely surprised but she faced me and cleared her throat. "Well yes, she was. She bore Eric about a month before I bore Ragnvald. She knew before they left but hadn't told him yet. He came home to a screaming babe. How did you know?"

"I saw it." I said. "Is he truly Harald's son?"

Margrethe blinked. "As far as I know. I don't believe Astrid would even have had someone to be with. What's happening to Astrid and Eric?"

I chewed on the inside of my cheek for a moment. "I believe Finehair is planning something. When I looked to Astrid, I saw her son and they were talking about getting more volunteers to become warriors. They could be raising an army."

"But why now?" Margrethe asked the question I'd been struggling with for the entire day.

I shrugged. "Maybe he's tired of waiting for Ivar to die? It's been over fifteen years since he went back home. I can't imagine he'd give up on controlling Kattegat without a fight."

"He'd need a lot of warriors to successfully take Kattegat." Margrethe pointed out. "I don't think Vestfold has the men to do it."

I drummed my fingers on the fence dividing us, trying to think of what to do next. "I can barely see over there." I said thoughtfully. "If I can't see without it getting blocked out every second from Finehair or the others then what's the point?"

Margrethe's green eyes went hard for a moment. "Runa. If there is something threatening my children, I would hope you'd do everything within your power to help protect them."

"I would never put your children in harm's way on purpose." I said. "But getting blocked out is worse than not knowing anything at all." I glanced behind her to the empty looking house. "Where are your children anyway?"

"Supposedly they're training with Thorgest and Bjomolf with archery." Margrethe said dryly. She frowned and looked genuinely troubled for a moment. "I know they want to be warriors and true Vikings but, there's a part of me that wants to keep them far from battle for as long as I can."

I smiled sympathetically at her. "I feel the same way about Bjomolf. And Iorek."

"Will Iorek be able to…" She began to ask but drifted off. I sighed heavily and shrugged.

"I honestly have no idea." I admitted. "Unless someone wants to teach him a special way of fighting where he won't have to hear anything on a battlefield." There was a long moment in which we both pondered the future and worried about our children and what was in their futures. After a moment, I sighed. "I'll call a family meeting to discuss this vision problem further. I can only try and see as much as I can before telling Ivar and the others anything."

Margrethe looked like she was in pain. "Ubbe told me that the next time he sails for battle, he'll be taking both Ragnvald and Jorunn with him. If this comes to a real war-" She cut herself off and glared into the distance, furious at herself for the tears that clouded her eyes.

When had we become older women terrified of war? I wondered this for a moment before reaching out and holding Margrethe's hand, squeezing it gently before letting go. I promised Margrethe I'd come get her for the meeting and began my way back up the Great Hall, racking my brain for more possible ways I could spy on Finehair and know what he was planning.

A sudden caw coming from my right made me freeze and I turned to see a very large raven perched on a fence post and watching me with beady eyes. I held the raven's gaze for a moment and smiled softly. "I don't suppose you have any news to share, Muninn?"

The raven cawed again and flapped his wings once. I hummed slightly. "I'll leave some spare corn for you to have as soon as I get home." With that, I began walking again, but now I could hear the raven flying from post to post, eagerly anticipating the promised corn.

There wasn't much time between feeding Muninn the raven and continuing to try and watch over Vestfold before the Frankish party was at the Great Hall. I entered the building, smelling heavily of herbs and oils to find the Galleren and Siraj already eating at the table with my family. I made pleasant conversation with the Frankish guests and secretly prayed to Odin for this dinner to go by fast so that I could call in the rest of the family and explain everything I had figured out.

"Are you alright, Queen Runa?" Siraj asked suddenly towards the end of the dinner. "You seem quite distracted."

I gave the eastern man a friendly smile. "I am simply tired. Thank you for asking." From beneath the table, I felt Ivar's hand grip at my knee, silently asking what was really wrong.

Thyri straightened in her seat. "Mother has been communicating with the gods all day. She often says Odin doesn't let her pick their meeting times and places."

"You've spoken to Odin?" Galleren asked, sounding very surprised. From beside him, Siraj looked very interested. Thyri looked at the two young men's faces and nodded with pride.

"Mother is Odin's chosen Seer." Thyri explained. "If there is something he thinks she should know, he comes personally to tell her. It's how she speaks your language; Odin granted her the ability to understand languages and speak them."

The lie that Thyri had been raised on came to her naturally. Augusta of Wessex was dead, I thought bitterly, there was no need for my children to know their Saxon roots. Iorek sat across from his sister and watched her speak with a hard frown. I turned to the two young men from Frankia with a slight smirk on my face.

"Thyri has been gifted with the gift of foresight." I pointed out. "Perhaps Odin thought it best for the pair of us to look after Kattegat together."

Siraj looked down to Thyri. "That's quite amazing. Have you ever had a vision that...perplexed you?"

Thyri flushed under his dark gaze and narrowed her eyes, thinking hard. "I did have a dream a couple of nights ago. I had just fallen asleep, and right when the dream was over, it was the middle of the morning."

"That's how sleeping works, Thyri." Bjomolf said dryly.

She shot her old brother a heated look and sniffed. "It wasn't a normal dream, Bjomolf. I was standing on the shore of the bay and it was autumn, given the look of the trees farther up the shore."

Bjomolf snorted. "And what did these trees do exactly?" Galleren and Siraj were both watching Thyri with extreme interest. I caught Ivar's eye and we were both frowning, able to recognize the symptoms of a proper vision by now.

Thyri seemed to forget that she had an audience. She shuddered. There was a great wind coming from beyond the mountains, so hard that several leaves from the leaves were blown right off the trees and across the bay. But then other leaves...it was like something had set them on fire. The leaves left behind were burned to crisps."

There was a pause and Galleren beamed at Thyri. "That sounds fascinating! I wonder what it could mean." As he said it, Thyri flinched slightly, as if coming out of a trance.

It wasn't until after the Frankish company left to go back to their quarters that I pulled Thyri aside to ask her about her dream. "What else was there? Was Kattegat burning as well?"

Thyri shook her head, looking nervous again. "I don't remember what Kattegat looked like, Mother. But I do remember another detail about the leaves. Not all of them burned. They simply stayed stuck to the branches."

A/N: So the world got even more chaotic. I've been keeping busy with doing schoolwork, working from home, playing Animal Crossing, and working on this story along with a few other stories. On the bright side my friend is making an Aetheling playlist so I'll let y'all know about that next update I get out. Stay safe out there and thank you for reading. :)

- Katie