The hooves of the imperial cavalry churned the frost-bitten soil of Jutland into mud.

Winter's breath still clung to the land, but banners snapped above the ranks of the Holy Roman Army, the black eagle on gold, fluttering against a sky the color of iron.

At the head rode Conrad, Emperor of the Romans, armored in steel chased with silver, his crown resting over a helm of blackened mail.

His eyes, narrow and cold, scanned the horizon where the Danish border towns lay quiet.

"Their gates will not hold," murmured Count Ernst of Swabia, spurring his horse closer.

"Too many men bled out with Cnut in England. Svein spends what remains across the sea. Denmark lies bare."

Conrad's lips twitched in something not quite a smile.

"Bare, yes," he said, "but not yet broken. A cornered beast will bite. That is why we strike now, before it remembers its teeth."

Behind them, the infantry slogged in ordered columns, spearmen with kettle helms and long shields, crossbowmen trundling carts of bolts, the heavy knights riding two abreast, lances upright like a forest of ash poles.

Priests walked among them, chanting litanies that rolled over the army like low thunder.

The first Danish hamlet came into view at dusk: low timber houses, smoke rising thinly from a handful of chimneys.

No warriors lined the palisade. No horns sounded warning.

The gates swung wide at their approach, villagers falling to their knees in the snow.

"See how quickly they yield," Ernst said with satisfaction.

Conrad did not dismount.

He studied the kneeling Danes, their heads bowed, their children clutching ragged cloaks.

His voice, when it came, carried easily through the ranks.

"Tell them this: the Empire does not come as wolf, but as shepherd. Those who bow to Aachen will keep their fields and hearths. Those who defy us will know the sword."

A priest translated, and the villagers wept, pressing their foreheads to the earth.

The imperial banners advanced again, deeper into Jutland.

That night, by the fire, Conrad unrolled the map of the north. His finger traced from Schleswig to Ribe, then up to the fjords beyond.

"Every mile we march," he said to his captains, "Svein bleeds more. He fights Duncan in England. He cannot be here. By the time he returns, there will be no Denmark to claim."

He looked up, his gaze hard as the iron crown that glinted in the firelight.

"This is no raid. This is no plunder. This is the harvest of empire. When the cross flies over Hedeby, the North Sea will be ours."

And as the fires burned in the camps across southern Jutland, the imperial host pressed forward, step by grinding step, into the heart of a kingdom too scattered to resist.

---

The wind off the Channel carried the stink of churned mud and blood.

Svein's banners whipped above the field, the red cross of St. Olaf stitched into blue, snapping defiantly as ranks of Norse spearmen braced their shields.

Across the rise, the Scots had formed in a long line, red lions snarling from their standards.

Horns blew from their flanks, deep and braying, and the ground shivered beneath the tramp of armored men.

Svein stood tall at the fore, helm crowned with a gilt circlet, mail bright in the morning sun. Though young, his bearing was iron.

He lifted his sword and his voice carried over the crash of waves and the thunder of drums.

"Men of Norway! Sons of Denmark! Look upon them, traitors to Christ, sworn to a pagan wolf! Their king wears a stolen crown bought in blood. Today we strike them down and cleanse this isle of its shame!"

A roar answered him, shield rims hammering against one another, the sound rolling like storm-surf across the plain.

His captains raised their axes, their eyes bright with fervor.

At his side, Jarl Håkon leaned close.

"They are many, my king. But their line is stretched. If we hold firm, their flanks will waver."

Svein nodded once.

"Then we break them there. Archers forward, let the wrath of God fall with every shaft."

The first volley hissed skyward, blackening the sun, and fell like rain upon the Scottish line.

Men staggered, shields split, horses screamed. Yet the lions came on.

Duncan's host surged across the field, pikes leveled, Highland war-cries shrieking, the two lines crashed together with a sound like the snapping of worlds.

Shields splintered. Spears drove home. The Norse wall bent but did not break.

Svein himself waded into the melee, his blade cleaving through mail and bone, his voice rising above the tumult.

"For Christ and for Cnut!" he bellowed. "Drive them into the mud!"

Around him, his huscarls fought like madmen, axes biting deep, banners swaying but never falling.

The Scots pressed hard, but the Norse countercharge thundered down the slope, hacking into their flanks.

For a heartbeat, it seemed the lions would scatter.

But Duncan's cavalry rallied on the wings, lances couched, driving their horses into the Norse line with brutal weight.

Men toppled, shields crushed beneath hooves, the shieldwall straining near to breaking.

Still Svein fought, his sword arm unyielding, his young face set in grim defiance.

The battle raged without quarter, the field a cauldron of blood and faith, neither side yielding.

And all the while, far across the sea, Conrad's banners were already flying over the southern gates of Denmark, Svein's birthright slipping from his grasp even as he carved his name into England's soil.

Little did any of them know, there was only one who could profit from such ruin.

While kings bled each other for crowns and emperors sharpened their knives, a wolf in the north wrote letters in a steady hand.

His words crossed the Baltic with Armodr's seal, bound for Jomsborg and the courts of the Wends.

Not to plunder. Not to raid.

But to bind.

To forge a league of pagans strong enough to defy Christendom's coming storm.

And only time would tell if such an alliance could be built from the Chaos the White Wolf had sown.

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