Its night time in Hrafholm the streets were silent except for the crunch of boots and the occasional rattle of metal scraps moved by the wind. Brynhild walked in front with her humming a tune that didn't belong in a city of the dead. Runa followed at her side, they are looking for the source of the signal Rúna have just sensed, well at least Rúna is the one looking for it Brynhild is just tagging along.
The city was nothing but bones now. An entire rows of homes had fallen inward on themselves. Old taverns had been boarded up decades ago, their wooden fronts warped and splitting.
Rúna slows down the faint signal they have been tracking is a lot stronger here. But she still don't understand
"Faster we're through this, the better," She says.
Brynhild looked at her with that same flirty eyes and says "You always sound like you've got a stick up your ass, Runa. Loosen up. It's just a dead city."
Runa didn't reply. She is to focused on what her sensors are telling her than to pay Brynhild any mind.
They walked for another block before stopping in front of a massive building. Its façade loomed like the ribcage of some fallen beast, its upper floors gutted, its blackened glass windows fractured into jagged webs. What remained of its elegant looking logo is faded but readable and it reads.
STEINN & DOTTIR AUTOMATONS
The "S" at the beginning of "Steinn" was broken clean in half, and a raven perched on its jagged edge, eyeing the two women with suspicion. The sign creaked faintly in the wind, as though the building itself was trying to sigh.
Brynhild looked at the logo "Well that seems to have been a fancy company back in its day"
Runa didn't answer right away. She stood there because she rembers what the company was during its heyday. But that is not the only reason why she is frozen.
The signal was strongest here. Now she understands why she could not make sense of the signals her sensors have been giving her all day.
Runa clenched her fists. "Here. It's all coming from here."
Brynhild raised an eyebrow. "What is?"
"The Draugr signal we have been looking for it is coming from here." "Oh so you think they are in this old building?" Brynhild asks "No" Rúna reply "They are coming from underneath the building "
Brynhild watches with curiosity "So you mean that are all chilling in the basement, and why the hell would they do that."
Runa turned her eyes back to the broken building, the words of its sign dragging up memories she preferred buried. "Steinn & Dottir," she said slowly, almost bitterly. "This is where it started. Sixty-five years ago, they sold robots to households, to shops, to factories. Service units. Assistants. Workers. Most were simple things. But…" She hesitated before continuing, her voice dropping lower. "It was also where my kind were first manufactured."
Brynhild blinked. "Wait. You mean—"
"Yes. I was built here."
For the first time since they had entered Hrafnholm, Brynhild become serious.
Runa continued, staring hard at the broken glass of the company sign. "I am one of the original Type-Ø Service Units. We were… different. We where made to be house hold helpers, sometimes household sometimes factory service assistants.
"Yet here you are," Brynhild muttered.
"When the Draugr turned on humans I and many others were remade with new high tech components in other to help fight of the Draugr. This is because I am an older model and I am not connected to the central intelligence Tryrakos that controlled the Draugr who went rogue. "
Brynhild gave a low whistle. "So you've been fighting longer than anyone I know."
Runa shook her head. "It doesn't matter. I was never accepted. To humans, I am still just a machine. To machines, I am a traitor. I have no people, no kin. Only function."
They stood in silence for a long moment until Brynhild says. "Well, that explains why you're so uptight all the time."
Runa shot her a look, but Brynhild's grin widened again.
Runa pressed her hand against her temple. The signals were clawing at her senses harder than before, at least she could map them now, at least vaguely.
"There are too many," she said. "The swarm beneath this building is enormous. Tens of thousands, maybe more. All dormant. All waiting."
Brynhild asks "If they are that many how and why are they just sitting in this ruin
"I don't know" Rúna says "But if they awaken,will be drowned in iron, we need to alert the others. "
Her hand was trembling slightly, though she tried to hide it. The image in her mind of an army of Draugr bursting from beneath the city, flooding the streets, consuming everything—it was too real to ignore.
Brynhild sighs "Thats my problem with you, you are always thinking about survival. Never about discovery."
"We have already made the discovery any more is suicide " Runa snapped.
Brynhild was quiet for a moment. Then the corners of her lips curled upward, and that familiar wild grin returned. Her eyes gleamed with something restless and mischievous.
Her thoughts drifted, "Oh what a world, what a life" she says to herself. In her previous life everything us boring and tasteless he fantasized about women all day long but go no one, everyone called him a piece of shit a pervert, he buried himself in porn magazine which will later be the end of him, literally
But now? Now she was Brynhild Eiríksdóttir. Strong. Beautiful. Unashamed. She had the body of a maiden and the spirit of a warrior, and for the first time, she could indulge in every reckless impulse she had ever denied herself.
Her inner voice was smug, shameless:
"I get to masturbate every day, flirt with whoever I want, stare at every nude curve I like. I get to enjoy life. I get to charge headfirst into danger just because I feel like it. And if something tries to kill me, I cut it down. This is living. This is mine."
Brynhild chuckled to herself and turned back to Runa. "We can retreat later. Right now…" she pointed it at the building. "…I want to see what they're hiding down there."
Runa stared at her in disbelief. "You're you mad?"
"Oh you bet I am" Brynhild said with a grin.
Runa's sensors screamed warnings at her, but Brynhild's body language was relaxed, almost playful. The contrast made Runa's circuits burn with frustration.
"This is madness," Runa said sharply. "You don't understand what you're walking into. There are tens of thousands of Draugr below us. You'll doom us both."
Brynhild chuckled and swung her spear casually, the motion graceful, careless. "You worry too much. Always calculating, always cautious. Life's more fun when you dive in headfirst."
Runa stepped in front of her, blocking the path. "No. We are leaving. Now."
Brynhild laughed, brushing past her with ease. "Don't pout, little one. You'll thank me when I uncover something exciting."
Runa's fists tightened. She wanted to drag Brynhild away by force, but she knew it was useless. Brynhild was stronger, faster, more reckless than logic could bind.
"Brynhild," Runa said, her voice sharper now, almost pleading. "Listen to me. This isn't about curiosity. It's about survival. If those machines awaken—"
"Then we'll kill them," Brynhild interrupted with a grin.
Runa's circuits screamed in frustration.
Before Runa could argue again, Brynhild shoved open the crumbling doors of Steinn & Dottir Automatons.
The hinges shrieked as dust spilled from the broken ceiling, and the air inside was stale with age. They stepped into the long showroom.
The room was dark, lit only by thin shafts of light from shattered windows. Rows of broken machines stood like forgotten corpses. Some were humanoid, their frames rusted and collapsed. Others were boxy service drones, their casings cracked, their limbs torn off. All of them stood silent, lifeless—but something about their posture felt wrong. It felt as though they were watching.
Runa froze, every signal in her skull burning red-hot. The hum had turned into a roar. The swarm wasn't just beneath them—it was awake enough to know they were here.
"What Brynhild there are thousands of them under here."