That was easier said than done, firstly nobody knew why they were stuck here in the first place. Was it just the stone that sealed them in? or would the same dragging magick pull them back again if they left? On top of that the miles and miles of savage snow filled terrain in all directions, the lack of maps, the lack of carts, it all added up to a nearly inescapable situation.

  Erika thought about it in the morning as she sat with Kara Hammerfall, her new(ish) lover and companion in arms, who was currently combing Erika's hair with a wooden brush and a bowl of rune cleaned water. Erika usually washed her hair herself obviously and found the action meditative but she had discovered that having a lover do it was far more enjoyable, occasionally warm water fell on her shoulders and dripped onto the wooden floor of her carriage home.

  The smell of breakfast along with the soothing pressure on her hair combined to nearly make her fall asleep again but she kept focusing on the problem at hand even as Kara began binding her hair into a braid entirely of her own volition.

  Erika remembered what Sigurn had said most of all “The other group leaders say they found a door two levels down but it’s surrounded by wargs, they fought through them and managed to get out for a while, but then they got sucked up into the sky again and ended up back here.”

  Even if the lower door could be taken and held against the wargs it wouldn't matter, Erika had spoken to the three surviving scouts who managed to escape and each said it was exactly like the first time, when their entire caravans got brought in, just pulled upwards at incredible speed and landing in a huge empty room. The same one they all mentioned, it seemed that whatever put you in the empty rooms remembered where you’d been put first or perhaps it chose which room based on a criteria that they continued to meet? regardless it meant that Erika refused to go outside and check since she would presumably be dropped back at the room she had arrived in, the one overrun by Wargs.

  “I thought the Wargs were all killed?” Gunhilda asked from her spot by the door, the rest of Kara’s little party had also moved into the surviving caravans of the expedition, probably because they were the party of the lover of the Vitki which sounded like a torturous chain of logic but really wasn't.

  Regardless the two shared the caravan nextdoor to Erika’s own and had proved to be excellent neighbours, Gunhilda did all of Erikas cooking now (and carefully checked the ingredients in case anyone was trying to poison her) while Reidar had started cleaning up around her caravan without even being asked and had even helped add a layer of waste wood under her floor to keep the stone chill out.

  Pushing aside her distraction Erika answered. “We got all we could see but that's never enough with Wargs, there's always more.”

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  “They move back in fast, multiple tribes which pressure each other and expand the moment they can.” Kara added finishing up her gently treatment of Erika's hair, with a smile she tapped her lover on the shoulder who grinned back before adjusting her tunic to cover her shoulders again then with a flourish she stood up and walked over to the stand in the corner and swept off her robe of office, safely ensconced in the colourful fabric again Erika felt ready.

  “Right… What should we do?”

  It's a pity that she didn't have a plan.

  Ok that could be dealt with, just focus on the problems, lay them out and fix them, then keep going.

  “Ok let's examine the facts, this is a tower that was raised from before the twilight of the gods, we are stuck in aforementioned tower, the way we are stuck is powerful air or transportation magic, the tower is filled with wargs and apparently one of the expeditions brought a loki cultist in with them as well, that about it” Erika said slowly trying to fix the problem in her head.

  “Don't forget we’re here at all to loot or steal a secret but incredibly valuable hidden treasure in the depths of the tower for the richest woman in the world.” Kara added with a wide smile, still fussing over Erika's hair.

  “We don’t know it's in the depths, might be at the top right?” Reidar added.

  “We don't know what it is at all, it might be something huge or something tiny, it could be up or down, regardless any speculation about the treasure is pointless at the moment.” Erika said, not unkindly.

  Reidar didn't seem to care about that; he just shrugged and nodded conceding the point.

  “I think the main problem is the magic, regardless of the wargs or the treasure we can't leave as long as it lasts, since it lasted all these ages it must be runes, a galdr would have faded by now… so.” Erika turned to look at Gunhilda who was stuffing a small bun of unleavened bread into her mouth, she stared back at the vitki then pointed at herself.

  “Yes… as the only one able to carve the runes here I want to know from you, what could do this?”

  Gunhilda shook her head and tried to speak. “Mululum…” swallowed and then spoke properly. “Ah yeah i was trying to say we don't use the same stuff, the primordial runes from before ragnarok are different to the ones we use today, the old stuff worked different.”

  Erika sighed but nodded. “Ok… but any guess? Would it need to be on the top of the tower to see the area?”

  Gunhilda brightened up. “Oh oh no it wouldn't, you use a rune boundary to target an area like this but it would be big.”

  “How big.” Reidar asked interestedly.

  Gunhilda shrugged. “Huge, enormous, gigantic, all of these corridors and even lasthope as well are too small, jotun sized.”

  Reidar smiled and leant forwards. “I was talking with some of the scouts earlier, the ones from the same camp that found the way out, they complained about still being sent to explore even though we have a door but one of them mentioned that the tower gets wider the lower it gets.”

  The entire group paused for a moment and thought deeply, then Erika grinned and clapped her hands. “Ok then… the runes keeping us here are at the bottom of the tower.”

  Gunhilda nodded but seemed thoughtful still. “Probably yeah… but old rune lore like that, it would do weird stuff to the area around it Erika, like make the distances break and buckle… so just thinking here but… if i was hiding some super expensive treasure somewhere, I’d hide it down there.”

  Erika beamed, finally a plan.