“Wrong wrong wrong! How can you be so wrong, old temple, probably Odin, very dangerous… all the dead gods are!” Katlin, the alf Gothi, snarled at Erika her high pitch and energetic voice the only sound to be heard apart from the creaking of carts and chuffing of the droogs.

“It seems all your growth went to your ears not your brain!” Shot back Erika flailing from the box of her caravan at the droog mounted alf beside her. “Silvermane isn't sending this lot half way across the realm for trinkets! They must be after something unique, powerful! A relic! Which precludes Odin since everyone knows where his artifacts ended up.”

Katlin glared up at Erika who returned it eagerly, the windswept plains were finally ending, in the distance was the deep green of the Wald, the first primordial forest of Midgard, beyond which the Fimbulwinter waited like a wolf at the gate.

“I’ll let you talk when it comes to magick vitki but Baldr the Beautiful is the patron of history and culture and I have access to the temple archives which YOU DON’T! It’s a temple to Odin with the...”

“Traditional style yes I know, but it isn't going to be a temple-fortress of Odin, the migration of the southern kingdoms northwards in the aftermath of Ragnarök would have swept through that area and they would have settled an established temple to a major god, its one of the minor ones… maybe the daughter of Sol?”

Katlin sucked air in through her nose with a whistling sound. “Naïve Naïve vitki! I thought your kind clever? This was before mass production of runecraft so the site will not be reinforced, it would have collapsed after the flood and been unusable to refugees, fool!”

Erika sighed, then a nasty look crept across her face. “As stimulating as this is neither of us can be proved right unless we see.” Said Erika casting a pointed glance at Alvis’ back.

Tathra followed her eyes and then nodded. “…hmmm, conceded, full agreement vikti.”

Alvis must have felt their eyes because he half turned to look at them, with his long nose and patricians features he always put Erika in mind of a bird of prey ready to swoop.

“Is something the matter?” He asked languidly.

“We were just wondering when you plan to tell us what we are after exactly,” Erika replied smoothly. “Or failing that why you hired two scholars when you didn’t need them?”

Alvis signed. “We are after a temple that has recently been rediscovered, we presume like all such temples that it is stuffed with relics and treasures of the World that Was, we do not have any specific purpose beyond that.” He said it quickly like the flick of a snake’s tail, Erika nearly believed him. “And for your information I didn’t hire two scholars, I hired a gothi and a vitki, your magick and runes are what I'm after, rest assured all the required scholastic work and referencing has already been completed by employees of the Silvermane syndicate.”

Alvis didn’t need to say Who I trust more but the unspoken words practically echoed.

“Ouch.” Muttered Erika as Alvis turned away.

Katlin sniggered into her chest and shook her head her long ears swaying madly. “We’ll have to keep debating for the current time, yes?”

“Oh yes.” Said Erika eagerly.

Sat next to her on the box of the caravan Helga sighed deeply.