For Karya, blending in with a group of blacksmiths wasn't difficult.
What was difficult, by contrast, was subtly prying information about the passage from their mouths.
Quite a few craftsmen had heard something or other about "the passage from Jotunheim to Druna," but ninety-nine percent of it was drunken talk they'd heard in taverns.
Very few had actually seen the passage because of their work.
When asking around, Karya had to carefully separate fact from fiction.
Fortunately, these craftsmen had no sense of secrecy. A single cup of wine was enough to make them share everything they believed to be accurate. All Karya had to do was take his time and ask everyone with a northern accent.
By putting all their answers together, he believed he'd find the truth.
Karya was searching for the passage to Jotunheim.
Meanwhile, in the Freljord, the allied army's front line continued its steady advance east.
Though they'd discovered Jotunheim's ice fortress, the allied army clearly hadn't decided to change its plans. After Karya set out, Lux and Ashe continued to personally lead their troops from one tribe to the next, "paying them a visit."
For the tribes receiving these visits, this was probably the most difficult choice they'd ever faced.
Since ancient times, the tribes of the eastern Freljord had followed the Frostguard Tribe's lead.
But now the allied army was at their gates, and the Frostguard Tribe could offer little support. Though the Frostguard Priests had done much for the tribes in the past, that clearly wasn't enough to make a Warmother gamble her entire tribe's fate.
Of course, few tribes openly switched sides.
Most leaned toward the position that "if the allied army is willing to leave our hunting grounds untouched, we can clear the way and provide guides"—in other words,