I blink in disbelief as I lie on the ground, bleeding. She rides slowly across the plain, astride a wondrous creature. She herself, daughter of Odin, shines with the beauty of the Aesir.

She stops above us, as though considering. So, is my end worthy of Valhalla, after all? Or is she here for Hagen? Be as it may. In this moment of stillness in time I am content with beholding her otherwordly splendour.

I never really knew the love of a woman. I am betrothed to a kinswoman of Atli's I have never seen. And all the women who briefly flitted through my short life never left any mark upon my soul. I used to think with a smile that it was because I compared them to my mother the swan-maiden. No - all my life I wished for a woman like this, beautiful in armour, a lover and a comrade, to fight by her side for our future together.

Now I know it. And I know that it will never be. But it is enough that I have seen her. If it is my fate to die now, so be it.