Hallbjorn paused and was unsure where to begin. He was not sure he wanted to tell her everything.<br/><br/>"I fought in a war between two demon kingdoms. I sold my sword to both, switching sides when one offered me more pay than the other. In the end, I was on the losing side, and in revenge for what the winners perceived as disloyalty, they cursed me. In a magical sense, as well as a mundane manner." The blond man clarified for Kara. They had said terrible things to him, but they had also wrought magic upon him to make suffer for changing sides five times during the course of the war. Though he had always made clear that his loyalty was only to gold, and that whoever offered the most would have command of his might. "This curse made me feel the anguish of all of the loved ones of those I killed in that war.<br/><br/>"The curse would be lifted when a primordial demon king was slain by my hand. A primordial is an especially powerful member of its kind, often among the very first of their kind. Its defeat was considered impossible. But after searching for many years, I found that there was a sword that could kill this demon king if it was brought to bear against him. And I spent many years searching for it. My search was discovered by those who cursed me, and they sought to take the sword from me and destroy it. I turned to Helgi for aid - I bid him to trace to a place only he knew and keep the blade secret. Then I went to end those who hunted me.<br/><br/>"When I returned to Helgi, he had found his Bride. While I was away, he was visited by a soothsayer who offered to reveal the name and location of Helgi's Bride in exchange for the sword. Perhaps if I had told Helgi the nature of the sword and what purpose I intended to turn it to, he might have chosen differently. I merely told him it was important to me. Or perhaps not. You read in the book how the vampires are walking dead until their Bride brings them back to life? It is not difficult to see how a piece of metal counted for so little in the face of finding a Bride." Hallbjorn told Kara. He understood the choice that Helgi made. To exchange a sharp piece of metal for the one being in all creation that could bring him back to life must have seemed like a bargain. "He reasoned that if I had found the sword once, I could do so again.<br/><br/>"But I did not search. I resolved to fight the demon king with my own strength. It was a foolish choice. It was easy to venture to the hell realm that demon king resided in - I simply paid a witch to fashion for me a portal to where I wished to go and the matter was done." He glanced at her. "Surely you have read C.S. Lewis? There are many other realms than this Earth, female, linked to it as Narnia was written to be linked to Earth. And like Narnia, in some the passage of time is different. There are portals that occur naturally, and portals that can be fashioned to travel between them. Some are so indistinct from this Earth that you could not tell the difference, but others are much harsher and inhospitable to life." Hence the descriptor hell realm. "Some are large and others are small.<br/><br/>"At best I was able to fight the demon king to a point where our injuries incapacitated us both. And by dawn in that place we rose again to fight anew. I say that I spent a hundred years thus . . . but it was a hundred year here. In that realm, in the state I was in . . . I easily lost track of days and could not mark the passage of time." The implication being that Hallbjorn could be older than he told her he was, and could have spent longer locked in unending combat with a primordial demon king because he had no reliable way to keep track of time.<br/><br/>"My escape came at the hands of Nix, the Ever-Knowing. She brought the sword to me, and with it I at last killed my enemy permanently." Hallbjorn at last reached the end of that story. "And because of that, I have done her bidding ever since. Her inconsistent lucidity has meant that she infrequently called upon me, but always I answered her call. As when she set me to guard you."