Helga Wulf Slayer's Arc

Chapter 5 of 5

Helga followed Sylvara deeper into the forest, away from the hovel of bones and mud. The trees pressed close on both sides, their branches blocking out the moon. Sylvara moved without sound, her pale skin catching what little light filtered through the canopy. She stopped at a clearing where the ground dipped into shadow, then turned to face Helga. "The slaver lord's name is Vorak," she said. "He keeps the vault beneath his largest tent, guarded day and night. You cannot fight your way in." Helga's hand tightened on the dagger at her belt. "Then how?" Sylvara pulled the wedding band from her pocket and held it up between them. The symbol on its surface gleamed even in the dark. "Vorak collects more than weapons. He collects secrets. I will tell him I have information about an ancient elven cache in the ruins. He will let us into his tent to hear it. Once inside, you take the sword while I keep him occupied." She dropped the ring into Helga's palm. "This proves I knew your father. It proves you are his daughter. Vorak respects bloodlines. He will believe you came to bargain for your father's blade." Helga stared at the ring, its intricate design marking it as something her father had valued enough to give away. "Why help me?" she asked. "You could take the sword yourself." Sylvara's expression did not change. "Because you are my daughter, and I have already failed you once. I will not fail you again." The words settled between them like stones. Helga turned the ring over in her hand, feeling its weight. The two men who fled her father were dead. The sword had a keeper. And the creature standing before her had just offered the only path forward that did not end in chains or death. Helga slipped the ring onto her finger. It fit. "Three days north," she said. Sylvara nodded once, then turned and began walking. Helga followed, the dagger cold against her hip and the ring warm against her skin. She had come into the forest hunting ghosts. She was leaving with a guide who knew the way to her father's sword and a plan that might actually work. The hunt had not ended. It had only become something she could no longer do alone.