Chapter 1
The waves sloshed rhythmically against the long line of stones that formed the outer wall of the basin, shielding it from the rest of the ocean. Stones that broke the surface of the water like monstrous teeth from a primordial gum. That is where the effigy appeared.
That night, Aslák Freyrsen was standing at the shore with his wife, Hilda Marensdatter. The biting, salty wind beating at their faces, as they confirmed the whispers of their neighbours to be true.
“Again…?” Hilda’s voice rang through the howling wind, her words muffled by the thick, woven headscarf protecting her face from the sand. Before she could finish her thought, her husband put his arm around her, both to comfort her and further shield her small, stout figure from the elements.
“I will go into town tomorrow,” he said after a few moments of silence, “Vala Aulis will know what to do.” Hilda nodded solemnly. She did not want to admit it in front of her husband, but the visage of the idol made her sick to her stomach.
It’s long hair was violently moving in the wind, matted heavy from salt crystals and water. It was heavy enough on the scalp of the torn-up face, that the thrashing movements only kept driving the wooden pale deeper into the soft, decaying meat that was exposed on the underside of the upper jaw. Hilda thought, that something must have been done to secure the horrible face from sliding down the pole and into the water, but if it was an unseen nail or dark magic, she couldn’t say. The only thing she knew was, that this thing had appeared on her family grounds, and something needed to be done about it, before history repeated itself.
