The wind carried the smell of pine and iron from blood.
Einar crouched behind a fallen log with his rifle pressed against the bark. His breathing was slow and steady at thirty-two beats per minute. The target was a grey-uniformed soldier standing guard at the village gate. The man was young, nineteen maybe, with trembling hands.
'Neither did Aslak.'
Einar's finger moved to the trigger, and his left hand rose to touch the scar on his jaw. 'One more.'
He squeezed.
[CRACK]
The man dropped without a sound or scream, just the thud of his body hitting snow.
[SYSTEM: TARGET ELIMINATED]
[PLAYING LAST MEMORY...]
Einar's vision changed. He stood in a small stone house with a fire in the hearth. A woman was kneading bread. A little girl tugged at a soldier's sleeve.
"Papa, when are you coming home?"
The soldier knelt. "Soon, Liisa. I promise."
The girl smiled.
The vision ended.
Einar opened his eyes. His hands were steady. His breathing was even. He reloaded with a [click] and whispered, "Thirteen left."
From his position on the ridge, he could see the whole village. Black smoke rose from three buildings. Bodies lay scattered near the well. Aslak was among them. He had been trying to pull children out of a burning house when a sword took him in the back. Einar had watched from a hundred meters away.
The first kill had come with a memory: a son waiting at a train station, holding a sign that read "WELCOME HOME, FATHER." The man never arrived. Einar had vomited behind a bush.
Now he counted. Twenty-three grey uniforms had entered the village. He had killed eight. Fifteen left. Plus the leader—a mage in dark robes who was now dragging Astrid's father toward the village square.
Einar adjusted his scope. The mage was old with a white beard stained red, shouting about "old blood" and "sacrifice." The man's hand was wrapped around Vetri Soukka's throat. Vetri was gasping, his face purple.
Einar touched his jaw scar. 'One more.'
[SYSTEM: TARGET ACQUIRED]
Distance: 847 meters.
Wind: 6 km/h, variable.
Fatal zone: 73%.
'Not enough. Closer.'
Einar slithered through the snow with his white coat blending into the terrain, keeping the ridge between him and the village. After two minutes, he reached a boulder with a clear sightline. He touched his scar again. 'One more.'
[SYSTEM: TARGET ACQUIRED]
Distance: 512 meters.
Wind: 5 km/h, steady.
Fatal zone: 91%.
The mage was still shouting. Vetri's eyes were rolling back.
'Now.'
[CRACK]
The mage's head snapped sideways. He crumpled. Vetri dropped, coughing.
[SYSTEM: TARGET ELIMINATED]
[PLAYING LAST MEMORY...]
Darkness. A cold stone chamber with a glowing blue crystal floating in the center. The mage was kneeling before it, whispering.
"Forgive me, Frostheart. The northern blood is stubborn. But I will bring you more. I swear it. Just give me a little more time."
The crystal pulsed brighter. The mage's eyes glowed blue. Then the memory ended.
Einar reloaded with a [click]. "Twelve left."
He tucked the information away. Fifteen men left. He could hear them shouting below, searching for the source of the shots, spreading out and moving into the forest.
'Good. Easier to pick off.'
He slid a new round into the chamber. His pulse was forty.
The first searcher came into view—a broad man with an axe. Einar touched his scar. [CRACK] The man fell.
[SYSTEM: TARGET ELIMINATED]
[PLAYING LAST MEMORY...]
A woman laughing. A wedding ring. The words "I'll be back."
[END]
Einar reloaded. "Eleven left."
A second searcher ran toward the sound. Einar waited until he was within fifty meters before shooting him in the chest.
[SYSTEM: TARGET ELIMINATED]
[PLAYING LAST MEMORY...]
A child's drawing of a stick-figure family with the words "For Daddy" scrawled in crayon.
[END]
"Ten left."
He moved deeper into the forest. The snow muffled his steps. The grey uniforms were panicking, shouting at each other and firing blindly into the trees.
A third man stepped out from behind a pine. Einar touched his scar. He squeezed the trigger.
[CLICK]
The rifle did not fire.
Einar's eyes went to the bolt. A stuck casing. He yanked the bolt back, slammed it forward, and reacquired the target. The soldier was turning, rifle raised.
'Now.'
[CRACK]
The man's chest erupted. He fell backward.
[SYSTEM: TARGET ELIMINATED]
[PLAYING LAST MEMORY...]
An old man teaching a boy to fish. "Be patient, son. The fish will come."
[END]
"Nine left."
Einar ejected the jammed casing with his fingernail. His hands did not shake.
From the tree line, a soldier emerged at a sprint, heading toward the village gate. He was faster than the others. Einar tracked him through the scope.
[SYSTEM: TARGET ACQUIRED]
Distance: 310 meters.
Wind: gusting.
Fatal zone: 64%.
Einar touched his scar. 'One more.'
The soldier ducked behind a cart. Einar shifted his aim to the gap beneath the cart's axle. The soldier's boot appeared for one second.
Einar fired.
[CRACK]
The soldier's leg buckled. He fell, dragged himself behind the cart, and pulled out a horn.
Einar chambered another round. 'No.'
He fired through the wooden slats of the cart. The soldier's head snapped back. The horn fell into the snow.
[SYSTEM: TARGET ELIMINATED]
[PLAYING LAST MEMORY...]
A teenage boy's voice: "I'm going to be a hero, Ma. Just wait."
[END]
"Eight left."
The remaining soldiers grouped together near the village gate. Einar circled around and found a position in a tree, then waited.
Twenty minutes passed. One of the men stepped away behind a cart.
Einar touched his scar. [CRACK] The man fell.
[SYSTEM: TARGET ELIMINATED]
[PLAYING LAST MEMORY...]
A woman standing in a field of wheat, shading her eyes to see someone approaching.
[END]
"Seven left."
The last four survivors ran. Einar let them go.
He climbed down and walked toward the village. His legs were stiff from the cold, but he didn't feel it. The system had numbed his sense of cold.
At the gate, he found Astrid kneeling beside her father. Vetri was awake, coughing blood into the snow. His eyes found Einar.
"Boy."
Einar knelt. "Don't talk."
"Shut up." Vetri's voice was a rasp. "I'm old. I know when it's time." He gripped Einar's wrist with a weak hand. "You... you killed them all?"
"Yes."
"Good." Vetri smiled, a bloody smile. "I knew you would. Always knew you weren't..." He coughed, and blood dripped down his chin. "You weren't human, boy. Don't pretend now."
His hand went limp.
Einar looked at the old man's face. His throat tightened until air moved through a straw. The pressure behind his eyes built into a dull ache that spread across his forehead. He opened his mouth but no sound came. He closed it. His jaw muscles locked.
[SYSTEM: HUMANITY LEVEL: 94%]
[WARNING: EMOTIONAL SUPPRESSION ACTIVE]
[RECOMMENDATION: RESTORE BASELINE]
Einar stood. Astrid was crying. She looked at him.
"Einar—"
He walked away.
He found a quiet spot behind the blacksmith's shed and sat down in the snow with his rifle across his knees. He counted the rounds left in his pocket. Six. He touched his scar. 'One more.'
From the village, he could hear people calling names, crying, and praying while the fire still burned. He didn't move.
After a long time, he heard heavy boots approaching. A man's voice came from above.
"You the one who saved them?"
Einar looked up at a scarred man in a grey-green coat. Captain Torben, from the Frostwatch.
"I'm not here to arrest you," Torben said. "I'm here to recruit you."
Einar said nothing.
Torben crouched. "I've seen war. I've seen what it does. You have the look of a man who's already dead inside. That's useful. But it's also a curse." He stood. "Come to Jarnheim. We need killers like you."
He turned and walked away.
Einar looked at his hands. They were steady and cold. The system hummed in his skull.
[NEW MISSION: SURVIVE THE WAR]
'Survive,' he thought. 'Is that what I'm doing?'
He picked up his rifle and followed Torben.
Twenty-three bodies lay in the snow behind him. Sixteen shots. Six left in his pocket. He touched his scar. 'One more.'
And somewhere in the mountains, a blue crystal pulsed.
The pulse traveled through stone and soil. It reached the village well, and the water rippled. Deep underground, the frost began to move.