Hrollaug the Walker, now dubbed Duke Robert I of the Tartarean Normans, a vassal and earl of the Tartarean Kingdom of Ellaria, had gathered an army of Frankish Christian warriors of mixed descent. Hrollaug had married a Tartarean princess, who had refused to marry the Iskjerne Viking savage unless he turned from his heathen ways, learned to speak French, and convert to Christianity, something which Duke Rollo surprisingly consented to. This would alienate him from his Iskjerne Viking fellowmen, but it also brought him great power and wealth, and his influence in Iskjerne Bay remained strong. He was, after all, the son of Sigurd Hring, the greatest king the Iskjerne Vikings had ever known.
But Robert I of Ellaria was not there to just recruit new heads for his growing Norman army. He had vowed to restore Iskjerne Bay to its former glory. He was there to take the throne, and remodel the kingdom according to his own strategy. This would not sit well with Hrafn-Floki and his leidang, for they had not risked their lives at sea to watch the Iskjerne Kingdom fall into Norman hands. The kingdom was split between both jarls, with Robert I, the former Vikingr prince, gaining the upper hand as more and more people flocked to his side.
During the midst of this political chaos, the ambitious King Harald Fairhair had also risen to prominence. While the bulk of the Vikings seemed more eager to join Rollo, the greatest and most powerful people among them had decided to support King Harald instead. This included Queen Lagertha, the former wife and widow of Ragnar Lothbrok, who was now married to King Harald, and Lagertha's sons Bjorn Ironside, and Ubbe Ragnarsson were now devoted to their cause, preferring a Norse pagan ruler over a Norman monotheistic one. King Harald would consult with Duke Rollo and discuss business, attempting to persuade him back to his corner. They shared drinks together and engaged in civil conversation, but Rollo refused to join the pagans.
Afterwards, the Norwegian king would meet up with Floki at the burial mounds, where he had been silently weeping by himself at the gravesite of his young deceased daughter. Harald Finehair would glance over the burial mounds, taking note of the presence of the Argosians who had come to collect their own dead and take them back to their homeland. Indeed, it seemed that Iskjerne Bay was not at all the place it had once been. Harald placed his hand on Floki's shoulder and consulted him, sympathizing with his loss. But his true purpose for reaching out to Floki was to inform him of Rollo's intentions in hopes of bringing Floki and his leidang to the other side. King Harald knew that Hrafn-Floki would be more apt to join the Norse pagan Vikings, and with his help, he was hoping to establish a large enough army to expel the foreigners from the kingdom, both Norman and Argosian alike.
"I don't want to stay here anymore, King Harald, this is no longer my home," Floki said, gazing up at him. Harald Finehair would scoff a smirk, glancing around them again before looking back down at him.
"Where will you go?" Finehair asked him, his voice overtoned by a deep Norwegian accent. Floki chuckled, wept, wiped his nose on his shirt sleeve and stood up, looking at him with black eyeliner trailing down his cheeks.
"I want to go there," Floki said, pointing up at one of the moons of Gaia with his index finger. King Harald would glance up at Colossa, the small red glowing moon, before quirking a brow in confusion just as King Harald's brother Halfdan "the Black" Halfdansson approached them, accompanied by Erik "the Red" Thorvaldsson from the mead hall.
"And how will you get there, Floki? We have no boats that can fly. We have no technology, everything has been destroyed or stolen." King Harald reminded him. But Floki just giggled, looking around cautiously before showing him the small transparent milky white sunstone in his pocket.
"I don't need boats that can fly, King Harald, I have the gods, and I have this" Floki smiled, placing the small sunstone crystal back into his pocket. It was the easily overlooked sunstone that Sigurd Hring and his predecessors had once used to locate the sun on cloudy days, and which did not have the same magical abilities as the pinkish purple crystals which had enabled the Empyrean Norsemen to fly their ships, but it was apparent that Floki knew something that the others did not as he chuckled lightly, looking at the ground as if lost in his thoughts.
"So that's it then. You're just going to leave on some dangerous god-fearing quest for the moon. You plan to go alone on this journey?" Harald asked, a hint of obvious doubt in his voice, beginning to think that Hrafn-Floki was starting to lose his mind and his wits over the loss of his daughter. Floki always was a bit overly superstitious and crazy in his way of thinking. But suddenly, Harald's brother stepped forward.
"Nay, he's not alone..." Halfdan Halfdansson said with a pause, looking at his brother King Harald before turning and nodding to Floki. "I will go with you," Halfdan the Black said confidently. At that moment, Erik Thorvaldsson would also step forward, nodding his head in affirmation.
"Aye... I will go too," Erik the Red followed, stepping beside Hrafn-Floki before looking at King Harald with a bold expression on his face. Harald Finehair would snicker a brief laugh before looking at his own brother, then nodding quietly. What could he say or do to stop them? They were all freemen after all, and in their hearts, Harald, Halfdan, Hrafn-Floki and Erik knew that Iskjerne Bay could only have one king. There was no need for any of them to fight, especially since all of them were Norse pagans, related in some way or another with a common enemy.
That evening, Hrafn-Floki and his small leidang would get ready to leave again. They were accompanied by Halfdan Halfdansson, Erik Thorvaldsson and Hrafn-Floki's loyal wife Helga, along with a small crew of Iskjerne Vikings as they packed their bags and prepared to set sail, heading for the Crystal Nexus of Gaia, the only other place that Floki knew of that could take him to Colossa, or anywhere else his accomplices wanted to go from there.