Some days have passed now, and my body has healed almost perfectly. I still wear a sling on my left arm, the only outward reminder of my Rhine adventure. It is almost time for me to leave this place and go back to my people at Bern, bringing a new goodwill with Wulder's Northern people. But something keeps turning in my mind. A name, a memory. Something about which I cannot stay silent - if I did, my conscience would one day regret it. And if I set in motion events larger than I expect? Well... is it not what I have done all my life?...

As I wander through the halls of Ydalir, I meet Wulder standing by a window, looking out at the mist-wreathed yew forests and some patches of sun on the rolling meadows, vying with the clouds for possession of the tender grass. His gaze is lost in some remote, melancholy thought, but he lifts his head as I approach. We are alone.

"My lord," I greet him, with a nod, and then, recklessly: "Who is Hildegyth?"

Wulder goes pale, then flushed with rage or some other emotion. He could strike me down at that moment. I lift my right hand in a peaceful gesture.

"I have not been prying into your secrets somehow, which I am sure are kept safe," I hasten to add. "And *you* have not been unguarded. No more than a man is unguarded when the name of a deity escapes his lips while praying for relief from his sorrow. And another happens to be nearby, in the land between sleep and wakefulness."

I lower my gaze and smile. "I could think I had dreamed it, like so many bizarre things I have seen and heard while I lay here on the brink of death and you came to check on me. But I happen to know a Lady Hildegyth. I met her while my people were allied with Atli's Huns. She was a most noble woman, respected by everybody, and looked on me as a brother in times of need. I think she is still alive - still with them, possibly."

Wulder is staring at me as though I was evoking a ghost before his eyes. "And still remembering," I add. My smile fades. "I have never known that kind of love. So it is painful to me when I see it go to waste for another. If you want to win her back... I could help you."