Saga's dream that night started very differently from what she was used to. There was no danger in sight in the dream.

A woman in a white dress, a woman who looked like her with raven hair, grey eyes, and a petite frame, sat on the grass. The woman looked, in fact, almost identical to her, except that the woman had a sharper nose.

She was around Saga's age, but the way she held herself made her seem more mature. There was much more certainty in her.

Next to the woman, a boy sat. He had brown hair and eyes, and something about the boy was familiar to Saga, though she didn't know what.

"Thank you for your promise," the woman told the boy.

"Of course! She'll deserve the world," the boy answered as if the promise he had made was something obvious.

Then the dream changed. Mist covered the woman and the boy, and when the mist dispersed, the scene was very different.

Saga saw herself standing in a place filled with tents. The area had a few buildings around the edges of a wall, but all the constructions were ruins. They had crumbled with big gaps where stone ought to have been.

A hand took hold of hers, and looking up she saw Kai.

"We need to hide!" he shouted at her and together they ran. But then the earth trembled under their feet. It trembled enough for their hands to disconnect.

Saga fell to the ground as shadows rose all around them. Shadows in the shapes of different animals.

Wraiths.

She watched as Kai drew his sword and fought the monsters. But no matter how hard he fought, new appeared. They cut into his skin, causing blood to drip from his body. His movements went from composed and precise to desperate, and even in the dream, Saga felt her magic heat her fingers, and how it spread until the sparkling energy mixed with dread was all she felt in her body.

Sweat dripped down her forehead as she awoke while her body felt as cold as if the bed was made of ice and snow.

A nightmare, she tried to tell herself. A normal nightmare. Though she knew it wasn't. At some point in the future, she and Kai would be in that ruined city and wraiths would attack them. Too many of them for Kai to deal with.

But it could have just been a nightmare. It didn't need to mean anything.

It didn't need to mean Kai would get hurt, and possibly worse, protecting her.

She stayed laying in bed until she thought she had convinced herself of that. Until her heart rate had calmed and the sweat had stopped forming. Until she didn't feel frozen but somewhat warm instead under the blanket. She then got up and rang for Erna to come.

As she ate breakfast, she wondered what she would do with the day. Erna had told her, Viggo had cancelled her meeting with the merchant, and though Saga felt well enough to have the meeting, and even more guilty about spending a day doing nothing, she knew she couldn't defy Viggo's orders so blatantly. He was her husband, after all.

But she needed something to do with the day, something to make herself feel productive. She knew that resting the whole day alone with her thoughts and the still present headache wouldn't do her any good.

The dream surfaced to her mind again. Kai bleeding from cuts.

He was such a sweet boy. So warm and full of life. So innocent. And she knew he was well. But the image of him hurt wouldn't leave her mind.

She called for Erna again to have her help her getting dressed, having decided what to do with her day.

"The Lord said you ought to rest," Erna pointed out with worry simmering in her eyes.

"I will only go to the training grounds to watch the knights for a bit. Nothing taxing," Saga smiled at her.

"It's cold and windy out today. Are you certain that is a good idea, milady?" the other woman frowned.

"I'm certain."

Erna still hesitated, but helped Saga getting dressed for going outside anyway. She insisted Saga wore a warm jacket and a scarf, though.

Walking toward the training grounds, Saga wasn't sure it was the best thing to do, remembering how her magic had reacted the last time she had been there. But that fear wasn't enough to stop her. The need to see Kai well and smiling was more powerful.

The wind blew all around her, making her hair dance in the air. The cold made each breath prickle a bit, and it intensified her headache. It covered her whole head. Pressed like a too small hat on her skull, while it also felt like something pushed on the inside, trying to penetrate bone and skin to escape from her.

There were only a handful of people in the training grounds, and the only ones she recognised by name were Astrid, Kai, and Evind. Out of the rest, she knew one of them was also a knight like Astrid while the others were squires as well. The squires stood in pairs and practised moves Astrid and the other knight showed them. It was a much calmer type of training than the previous one she had witnessed, focused on correcting techniques instead of proving strengths.

Saga sighed in relief realising that. What they were doing didn't look frightening in any way. There was no type of danger for her magic to react to.

Kai caught her eyes almost immediately. He stopped what he was doing to smile at her, and Saga felt the last bit of dread from her dream ebb. He was well and happy, as she had known he would be.

Evind, who he was practising with, took Kai's moment of distraction to try to hit his sword against Kai's legs, undoubtedly to make him fall. But Kai reacted in time, and stopped the sword, followed by trying to do the same to Evind.

"This isn't a playground, boys," Astrid berated them, and both squires hung their heads and mumbled apologies. But as Kai raised his again, he looked over at Saga with a brilliant smile and a wink. A soft giggle escaped her lips.

She continued to watch them, and though she knew nothing about fighting, she got the feeling that Kai was exaggerating everything he did. They were supposed to simply follow and train the moves Astrid and the other knight showed, but he continuously made more complicated movements. And after every time he did, he would look over at her. She smiled as their eyes met again and again, and every smile seemed to make Kai's next movement more complicated.

"The rest of you, take a break while we let sir Show-off get something to really show off about," Astrid announced when Saga had been there for quite a while. Astrid looked straight at Kai as she spoke, who looked puzzled back.

"Show off? Me?"

"Yes, boy. You're acting as if you're performing a dance on stage, not training. So fight me so you get to show a proper performance," Astrid smirked at Kai.

Saga bit down hard as her nails dug into her skin on the opposite hands. What she had witnessed had been fine, but watching Kai fight... And fight someone who seemed as formidable as Astrid...

Nausea rose in Saga, and she knew she ought to leave.

But then Kai turned to her again, gave her a softer, shyer smile, and she couldn't leave. Not when she knew the boy wanted her to stay and watch.

"We stop when you land a blow," Astrid said before they began.

Saga understood what Kare had meant during her first dinner at Sinkbek when he had claimed Astrid cheated watching the friendly fight. The female knight changed what hand she held her sword in with fluid motions, making where the next strike would land unpredictable. She also fought with her whole body in a way Saga knew knights rarely did, kicking, punching, and shoving if she saw it fit. Most knights would think that was disgraceful and taking away from the nobility of swordsmanship. But it was clear Astrid simply used everything she had to her advantage.

Kai kept up with her well enough, though it was clear Astrid had the upper hand through it all. He managed to block most of her blows, but a sword would occasionally land at his side, or a kick would make him stumble before he found his footing again.

Saga felt her anxiety rise. Bubbling inside of her like water in a pot. Just tiny and few bubbles at first, but the longer the fight went on, the bigger and more in numbers the bubbles grew.

And her magic was at her fingertips. The air around her was cold, but the magic made her hands as warm as the boiling anxiety in her. She grabbed hold of the stone wall in front of her. Sparks from her hands contrasted against the grey stone.

"Lady Saga, are you alright?" Erna asked, who had remained at her side.

Saga nodded. "I'm fine."

Though she was quite the opposite. What happened before her mixed with the memories of the dream. Kai wasn't all well anymore, but getting hurt; the wounds from the dream carved themselves onto his skin in Saga's mind.

The warmth spread, and she knew she needed to get out of there. Knew she was a danger to everyone present, and becoming a bigger threat for every moment she stayed.

But she couldn't tear her eyes off Kai, as if he would crumble as soon as he left her line of vision.

Then his eyes locked onto hers.

The warmth of the magic stopped. It disappeared as the ice of Kai's eyes hit her, and like it had the last time, her mind saw her father as she looked at Kai. She felt the pain across her back, felt her skin being torn open, and echoes of his words shouted in her head.

You're useless.

You're evil.

You only know how to destroy.

You're cursed.

You killed your mother.

"Lady Saga?" she heard Erna's worried voice behind her, but Saga was like a statue in the face of her fears.

Kai turned away from her, and said something she couldn't hear to Astrid. The fight between them stopped, and he looked back at her. The ice was gone from him. The open sky looked at her.

It was Kai looking at her. Not her father. Her father was far, far from there. She was safe. He wouldn't harm her ever again.

That knowledge penetrated some of her fears, enough that she managed to turn away from the training grounds.

"I'm not feeling well," she mumbled to Erna, and took a step to head back inside.

Her anxiety was like a whole ocean boiling inside of her.

She took another step.

The headache was a cane being struck against her skull time and time again.

She took a third step.

Her fear was cold and unrelenting, pulling her down into a lake of ice.

She took a fourth step.

Her body felt weak, trembling with everything inside of her.

She tried to take a fifth step.

Her vision blurred. Stars danced where she looked. Then it became black as her body couldn't hold her up anymore.

She didn't fall into unconsciousness, though. She fell into dreams. Blood and screams and monsters harming humans. Houses crumbling. Thunder roaring. Death spreading.

And in the midst of it all, a voice whispered to her. A voice as silky as it was dangerous.

"Saga of the house of Sejd. I'm looking forward to making your acquaintance."