There are moments when the sky does something inexplicable. The clouds had been heavy since morning, the landscape flat and without contrast, and then this break, this ray of light that fell exactly there, on that slope, for a few seconds. Everything else in shadow.

Just that one point of light, precise as a finger placed on a map. You don’t necessarily believe in much out there. But you understand why people had gods.

Lapland, winter raid, 2026.