Honeymoon Viking-style

13.

"What?" Elsa said, surprised. "How?"

"We were looking at it from the opposite point of view. Instead of looking for a connection with the past, we had to look for a connection with the present."

"Anna!" Of course!"

"That's it." Astrid turned to face the wall of the Ahtohallan. "I've been going back in time and I've managed to find the moment when the spirit contacted your sister."

Pictures on the wall showed Anna in her room, sitting on the floor and hugging her knees. Elsa felt her heart contract a little.

"From here on, it's almost impossible for me to track it down and see where or who it's in."

"Don't worry," Elsa replied without taking her eyes off Anna. "I can see it."

There it was, as before, that black aura surrounding her sister.

"Let's get down to business," Elsa said, looking away from her and tying her hair into a discreet ponytail. "Let's go back in history as much as we can to see if we find something to help us fight it. If you lose sight of it or are not sure where it has gotten, let me know so I can help you find that bastard again."

Astrid smiled at her and Fury moved to the Viking's side without missing a beat. Surprisingly, the dragon was the best dealing with the Ahtohallan.

"Hold on a little longer, Hiccup," Astrid told herself, feeling that they were finally moving forward.

* * *

"Alright, let's put it all together and see if we can make any sense of this," Astrid said, rubbing her forehead.

The three of them had dedicated themselves to pulling the thread of the present, going deeper and deeper into the past. They had been tracking the spirit through history, but still had not found a clear timeline, since it was difficult to know exactly when each fragment found was.

With a gesture from the Viking woman, the images swirled on the wall and showed a girl of about ten years old, with silver hair, trying to stop a large adult in a strange uniform as he crossed without difficulty through a market full of people.

"No Please! It was not his fault! Punish me instead!"

The adult got rid of the girl with a slap without even stopping and this made them able to see him dragging another boy by her arm, a little older than her and with the same hair color as hers. The boy was trying desperately to get away from that huge hand, without succeeding.

"Ayn! Get out of here!" The boy yelled at the girl, who had been thrown on the ground.

"No!" She got up, with an effort, and trudged toward him again. "You are my brother! And it was my fault!"

The man dragged the boy to an elevated area in the middle of the street. There, another man dressed in the same uniform, although much less large than the first, was sitting waiting for them.

"What do we have here?"

"A petty thief."

"No Please! My sister and I are hungry! And it was only an apple! Please! Piety!"

"I will go for the saber," said the man, rising quietly and ignoring the crying of the child.

People were beginning to gather around them. Ayn slipped between the legs of the crowd until she reached the front row, where she watched in horror as the burly man forced her brother to stretch his arm on top of some kind of wooden block.

"Evest!" She screamed, putting her hands to her mouth, but her scream was drowned out by the noise of the crowd.

The other man appeared with a saber in hand and, ignoring everything else, approached the boy, who was still crying and imploring.