Buried deep within the mountain of Rúnhallr resides a mineral of great value known as valdrsten. Mining this rich resource releases a deadly fluid, an infectious gray humor which transforms drowning victims into a plague of sea-draugr. These monstrously altered men and women threaten to swallow Reidun, the city in Rúnhallr’s shadow responsible for the release of the sickly gray ooze. As the sea-draugr drown the populace to spread their vile essence, the grotesque host grows into a veritable army-- but one bent on more than the mere destruction of those who unleashed them.Meanwhile, a Valkyrie named Hildr visits four dying warriors of Reidun, challenging each about their internal shortcomings. But Hildr’s ultimate intentions are just as hidden as that of the sea-draugr, the threat of which she claims complete ignorance.

Through Hildr’s visitations, the theatrical trappings of the universe are slowly revealed, leading some warriors to question the very nature of their existence-- for what self-determination could each possess if their words and deeds are preordained and scripted? Could the struggles of their hearts simply be didactic entertainment for other beings, creatures neither gods nor mortals, but something partway between? And are these beings yet players of another sort in still other narratives, each tale unfolding, couched within another and another and-- ?

Hildr first visits Einarr-- an old, devoted defender of Reidun. The Valkyrie knows Einarr abandoned his daughter Kára, leaving her in the care of strangers, but can Hildr root out the reasons for this estrangement-- and bring father and daughter together again in reconciliation?

Hildr then visits Widsith, an old woman climbing Rúnhallr her entire life, seeking its summit for the fabled cure of the sea-draugr, a cure which legend deposited at the mountain’s impossible peak. With her own poisoned body fighting her, Widsith battles wits with the gangly tormentor known as Kollr, a twisted creature living alone in a cave haunted with storied shadows.

Then Hildr visits Aegir, a warrior lost at sea, recently sent from Reidun to intercept the city’s human enemies, suspected of using the sea-draugr as weapons. Hildr finds the starving Aegir huddling in a longship, on the verge of surrendering to bitterness and fear, unwilling to share the last of his food. Will the Valkyrie aid or hinder Aegir as he is unknowingly drawn toward serving the sea-draugr’s purpose?

Hildr’s final visitation finds the shield-maiden Nótt lost in a foggy wood, moments following her marriage to the warrior Dágr. As a mysterious adversary pours lies into Dágr’s ears, travelling elsewhere in the same woods, the new couple’s resolve is tested and, ultimately, their very faith in love itself. But Nótt passes to Hildr the great myth of the sea-draugr’s origins, and if she can stir empathy in the cold death-maiden’s heart, it could very well change the course of Reidun’s fate-- and expose Hildr’s connection to the revelation of not one but many worlds.