I was lightning before the thunder [Freyja]

Tóra was sitting at home, sitting at the kitchen table with a few plants spread out around her. She's running her finger over each of them in turn, reciting their names and uses and where they can be found, when there's a knock at the door. It startles her out of her reverie, and she's just about to get up when she hears Sofie answering it. She sits back down into her chair, going back to her studying, when she hears something that makes her blood run cold. A voice that she doesn't recognize, but its flat and emotionless, and telling Sofie that Halfdan the Black wants to see her. She immediately creeps toward the door on quiet feet, peeking around the corner to see who was there, just in time to hear the man tell Sofie to get herself together because she was coming with him. Tóra takes note of the man, his long brown hair and the sword strapped across his back, fixing his appearance in her mind's eye so she can describe him to Freyja. She watches as Sofie follows the man, and gives them a full minute before she slips out the back door of the house, thanking the gods that her father was a smart enough man to give their house two exits.

Her heart is pounding in her chest, heavy with panic, and she immediately takes off in a swift run toward the docks. Freyja will know what to do. Tóra is reassured by the small knife bouncing against her hip and by the knowledge that she could maybe stab a man in the kidney if it comes down to it. Hopefully she won't have to, though. Tóra may not be very strong, but she's light and quick and sort of enjoys running, so she makes it to the docks without having to stop and walk. Immediately she spots the bright gold of Freyja's hair against the iron-gray of the sea and the dull brown of the boats, and she nearly barrels into her because she's going too quickly to stop. She reaches out her hands and grasps Freyja's shoulders, her grip tight and her blue eyes wide and afraid. She's panting but she gets the words out immediately despite the burning in her lungs. "Sofie. A man came and took her to Halfdan. I don't know why and I don't know who he was, but he had a brown hair and a sword with an orange stone on the handle. He didn't say why, they left just a few minutes ago."

She realizes she's still gripping Freyja's shoulders and she lets go, stepping back to give her sister time to process what she's just said. Her breathing is starting to even out, and she's starting to wonder what they're going to do. The things she's heard about Halfdan don't make her feel good about the fact that Sofie is probably in his presence now, and although the man that came to get her didn't look unfriendly, if he served Halfdan he probably wasn't very nice. She did have some hope, though. She knew Freyja was friends with a Viking that Halfdan respected from her days training as a shield maiden, so maybe he could do something to help them help Sofie.

Tóra is immediately reassured by Freyja, by her easy confidence that Haskell won't let anything happen to Sofie. She knows the name even though she doesn't know the man. She knows he's friends with Freyja, and that he's the radningar and he trains all the younger warriors. He knows Sofie then, too, and hopefully she hasn't pranked him lately, because if Sofie is on her way Halfdan, she needs all the friends she can get. Her breathing is starting to steady now that she's no longer running, and she knows she did the right thing by coming to find Freyja immediately. Her bright eyes flick over to Freyja's apprentice, and with a shock she notes that this is Henrik's brother. She files that away to process later, right now she has bigger problems to face.

She takes off in a light jog after Freyja, heading back in the direction she just came from, but she guesses they probably aren't going home. What would be the point? The problem isn't at home, the problem is in the great hall and his name is Halfdan. At her sister's question, she thinks as she jogs, sorting back through the conversations she's had with Sofie, trying to remember any useful bits from the conversation she'd overheard between her sister and Haskell. After a few moments of silence, she finally shakes her head. "I have no idea, she doesn't talk to me about stuff like that. Maybe Visna will know?"

Cold fear is running its fingers up and down her spine, but she's doing her best not to give in to it. She's spent her whole life being treated like a baby, and she's ready to prove to her sisters that she's as strong as they are. She gives little outward indication of her fear, other than her clammy hands and too-wide eyes. She can't help Sofie if she gives in to panic.

Tóra isn't surprised when Freyja suggests she go find Visna and their mother and head to Johan's, but it definitely wasn't something she was hoping for. She knew Freyja wanted to keep them all safe and that the best way to do that was to get them somewhere out of the way, somewhere people wouldn't immediately think to look for them, and somewhere that had a person who could protect them. Johan's house met all of those criteria, but still Tóra didn't like it, and she shakes her head immediately. "No. Wherever you're going, you can't go there alone. And don't say you won't be alone because Sofie will be there, right now, being with Sofie is worse than being alone." There's a stubborn set to her jaw, but when Freyja speaks again she knows it's a fight she's going to lose.

She looks up at her sister anyway, her blue eyes hard and certain. "Who else do you want me to send to you? I won't go because I won't be any good if it comes to a fight. I can send someone to back you up, though. Johan? Hakon? Rúna?" She shakes her head again, her blue eyes hard as they survey her sister. "You can't go alone."

It isn't in Tóra's nature to argue with Freyja, and when she presents a plan that sounds perfectly logical, Tóra is immediately calmed before she starts thinking too much. The problem is, though, that she can see the flaw in Freyja's plan. She knows in her bones that whatever is happening with Sofie isn't simply nothing. She knows it's something bad. She saw the man who came to collect her sister, heard the dead tone in his voice, and the memory of it sends chills down her back. But she trusts Freyja, and she trusts that unlike Sofie, Freyja isn't going to do something stupid. She knows Freyja will probably be alright, but she also knows that Freyja will, in fact, storm the great hall if Sofie is in grave danger.

And she hates the thought of Freyja facing that alone, but she knows that right now what her sister needs isn't someone to argue with her. What she needs is someone to keep the others safe so she can focus on the problem at hand, and at least Tóra can do that for her. She can't help her in a fight and she doesn't want help, so the most Tóra can do is keep her sisters and their mother contained to Johan's house, where they have someone to protect them. The look she gives her sister makes it clear that she doesn't like or agree with the plan, but that she trusts Freyja anyway. "Fine. I'll go get Mother and Visna and we'll go to Johan's." She wants to glare at her sister, to make the extent of her discomfort with this plan clear, but she can't. Instead she only grabs Freyja's shoulder and gives it a quick squeeze. "Be careful." She would tell her to be safe, but how safe would she really be around Halfdan? She gives her sister one last glance before taking off running in the direction of their mother's shop.