Vragi betrays Freya's secret to Jarl Snorri, who forces her to reveal her powers as the prophesied shield maiden.

Snorri reveals a prophecy that the shield maiden will unite Skaland under whoever controls her fate.

Freya kills Vragi with Bjorn's fire axe after he threatens to marry Ingrid, badly burning her hand.

Snorri and Freya marry in a hurried ceremony, and Ylva's blood ritual marks Freya as Hlin's chosen vessel.

Ylva stops Snorri from consummating the marriage and instead binds Freya to Snorri with a blood oath.

Jarl Gnut's raiders attack Halsar with the goal of killing Freya before Snorri can use her power.

Freya and Bjorn swim through freezing water and set Gnut's ships on fire, forcing his army to retreat.

Snorri announces plans to travel to Fjalltindr to build a jarl alliance against King Harald of Nordeland.

Freya and Bjorn fight their way through the cursed undead draug guarding the tunnels beneath the mountain.

Freya makes the sacrifice at Fjalltindr and the gods appear before the crowd, calling her child of two bloods.

The group races back to Halsar only to find it completely burned to the ground by Jarl Gnut.

Freya trips and drops her protective shield during the siege of Grindill, and a lightning bolt kills Bodil.

Consumed by rage over Bodil's death, Freya destroys Grindill's gate and fights savagely while Bjorn kills Gnut.

Harald's army attacks Grindill and refuses to stop; Freya tries to throw herself off a cliff to end the war.

Freya curses Harald's warriors to Helheim with black roots; Bjorn admits his true loyalty has always been to Nordeland.

Freya's secret identity as the prophesied shield maiden is exposed, forcing her into a marriage with Jarl Snorri and binding her to his ambition to rule Skaland. She survives a raid by Jarl Gnut on Halsar and earns her first battle victory alongside Bjorn before journeying to the sacred temple of Fjalltindr, where the gods themselves acknowledge her power. When Halsar is destroyed in her absence, Freya leads a brutal siege on Gnut's fortress that ends in victory but leaves her horrified by her own capacity for violence. Desperate rulers continue to battle over her, and Harald's army eventually forces Freya to a breaking point at Grindill's walls. Freya and Bjorn stage their deaths to escape, but the plan unravels when Bjorn's hidden loyalty to Nordeland is exposed.

The central story of Freya's rise as the prophesied shield maiden.

Freya meets the handsome stranger Bjorn on the beach before learning he is Snorri's son and heir.

Snorri breaks Geir's leg as punishment for hiding Freya's identity, despite agreeing to spare him a worse fate.

The healer Liv treats Freya's severe burn with a narcotic salve that loosens her inhibitions and tongue about Bjorn.

Freya meets Steinunn, a skald and child of Bragi, whose battle ballads can transport listeners into the story itself.

During the funeral pyres for Halsar's fallen, Freya sees a mysterious hooded spectral figure that vanishes on the beach.

After the raid on Halsar, Snorri formally orders Bjorn to train Freya to fight and remain by her side.

Bjorn kills the captured spy Ragnhild before she can send a vision to King Harald revealing Freya's location.

Freya and Bjorn disguise themselves as temple attendants to slip past Jarl Sten's warriors blocking the gate to Fjalltindr.

Jarl Bodil arrives at Fjalltindr and pledges her allegiance to the shield maiden herself rather than to Snorri.

Snorri argues to stay and destroy Harald at Fjalltindr; Freya speaks up and convinces the group to return home.

Steinunn performs her ballad about Freya's deeds for the assembled warriors, causing Freya to pass out from the ordeal.

Freya nearly freezes to death on the mountain trek to Grindill; Bjorn holds her through the night to keep her alive.

After the battle at Grindill, Geir and Ingrid arrive; Freya and Geir argue bitterly before Bjorn assaults Geir.

The spectral figure leads Freya to a tree where someone has carved runic symbols recording Snorri's battle plans for a spy.

Freya wakes up bound on a ship sailing toward Nordeland after Steinunn knocks her unconscious with smoke.

Freya's world expands as she meets Bjorn for the first time on the beach, encounters the healer Liv and the skald Steinunn, and begins navigating the complex politics of Snorri's household. After surviving Gnut's raid with Bjorn's help, she begins formal combat training while learning about the many enemies gathering against Snorri's ambition. The journey to Fjalltindr is marked by ambushes and a dangerous passage through cursed tunnels, where Freya also finds a powerful new ally in Jarl Bodil. A spy's runic message near camp raises suspicions about a traitor in their midst, and Freya must balance her growing feelings for Bjorn against the catastrophic cost of acting on them. The story closes with Freya awakening bound on a ship bound for Nordeland, her future entirely uncertain.

The supporting moments and relationships that shape Freya's journey.

Snorri threatens Geir's life to compel Freya to agree to marry him and serve as his shield maiden.

Freya agrees to marry Snorri to keep Geir safe, choosing her family's survival over her own freedom.

Ylva threatens to torture Freya's loved ones and bury her alive if she ever betrays Snorri's household.

The spectral figure appears to Freya alone and warns she must make a sacrifice at Fjalltindr or her life will be cut short.

Freya learns that Bjorn spent years as King Harald's captive after being abducted and that his mother Saga was killed.

Bjorn reveals that the seer who made the shield maiden prophecy was his own mother Saga, who died for knowing it.

Freya spies on a secret meeting at Fjalltindr and becomes convinced that Ylva is plotting with King Harald against Bjorn.

Bjorn secretly visits a seer at Fjalltindr whose cryptic warning about an untended hearth reveals Halsar may be under attack.

Freya and Bjorn share a passionate kiss near camp, but Freya ends it and demands he stay away from her.

With battle against Grindill looming, Freya decides to act on her desire for Bjorn so she will have no regrets.

Bjorn asks Freya to abandon Skaland and flee with him forever; she refuses, citing her duty to family and people.

Kelda reveals that another goddess was involved before Hlin at Freya's conception, and she suspects it was Loki in disguise.

A warrior kills Kelda with an arrow; Freya blames Ylva for revealing her location and races back to kill her.

Bjorn reveals that Saga is alive, that Snorri tried to kill her, and that King Harald has protected them both.

Freya declares she is done being controlled and resolves to sail to Nordeland to start shaping her own fate.

Freya's journey is defined by a series of impossible choices and devastating revelations that repeatedly test her sense of identity and autonomy. She is coerced into marriage with Snorri to protect her brother, bound by a blood oath under threat of her family's torture, and warned by a spectral figure that her very life depends on following a prescribed path. Key truths emerge about Bjorn's captivity and complicated loyalties, a suspected traitor within Snorri's household, and her mother's lifelong selfishness in sacrificing Freya's freedom for comfort. After Kelda is killed and Bjorn's true allegiance is exposed, everything Freya thought she understood about the people closest to her is shattered. Yet these betrayals finally free her to stop choosing others over herself and to claim ownership of her own fate.