(no subject)

[athelstanthescribe]

In spite of what Ragnar had told him about the empty pen being set aside for the nine humans who would be chosen, in spite of the nagging something at the back of his mind, Athelstan wasn't having an entirely bad time at Uppsala.

(The mushrooms may have helped with that, and so did Thyri, though her words afterwards (Don't you understand? I have to.) only made the nagging louder, a feeling that something was going on that everyone knew about except him.)

And then he went to the temple, and he learned the truth.

You are here to be sacrificed to the gods.

The door turns, just for a moment, into the arch leading out of a soaring stone hall. There's a man standing in the distance, stock still, looking in the direction of the door, but much closer is Athelstan, fleeing the building.

He comes to a halt in the bar, looking lost and betrayed, holding tightly to the cross at his wrist, and shaking just a little as the adrenaline leaves him.

Comments

[penderwydd]

Sitting at a near table is Tegid. He looked up from the harp he was tuning when Athelstan came in. That look on the other man's face concerned him. Tegid stood and went to him.

"What is wrong, Athelstan?" he asked extending a hand to the man's arm.

[athelstanthescribe]

"I..." He looks up at Tegid. "I was to be one of the nine. And he knew all along, they all did."

[penderwydd]

Tegid's face hardened, "That is grave news indeed, friend."

Ragnar was a good master, but this was crossing a line, that Tegid would never have crossed.

"Come," he said making to lead him to the table. Maybe some warm broth, or that tea that he has found here might help to calm Athelstan's nerves.

[athelstanthescribe]

"I don't think the priests will accept it", he says numbly, letting Tegid lead him to a chair. "The one I spoke to seemed to want the sacrifice to come of his own free will, and have given his heart to their gods."

[penderwydd]

"Then, possibly, you are spared," said Tegid who then ordered a bowl of broth and that tea that many here drank, "I know that if we were to sacrifice a man, he would have to volunteer."

Beat.

"But we have not had to do that in several generations, and we are a long lived people," he said, "You still hold to your god then?"

The order arrived and Tegid offered the cup of hot broth to Athelstan.

[athelstanthescribe]

He wraps his hands around the cup with the slightest smile of thanks.

"Yes. Though sometimes I can hear theirs too... I didn't know what the priest was really asking, until he said it straight out. And then without thinking, I reached for this", his little cross, "and he saw it."

[penderwydd]

Tegid nodded, and said nothing, trying to encourage Athelstan to speak. It was part of his function in society after all.

[athelstanthescribe]

"And then I ran away", he says a touch wryly.

[penderwydd]

"Sometimes," said Tegid with s sigh, "Running away is the best course of action."

He offered Athelstan a slight smile. Tegid found the idea of someone he knew, and was beginning to consider more than just an acquaintance, being sacrificed disturbing.

[lt_blade]

A night of drinking and hiding out, Sonya didn't follow Athelstan into the building as kept watch outside. Drinking aside, she stayed away from the mushrooms, not trusting herself with all that was going on, and seeing her friend stumble as he did, she was glad she didn't.

That morning though, she saw him leave and follow him, herself still in the norse dress provided by bar. Appearing in Milliways was only partially a surprise on her part.

"Athelstan..what happened?" She just avoided bumping into him.

[athelstanthescribe]

"He brought me there", he says, voice distant but not because of her, "to give me to them."

[lt_blade]

She frowned, wondering who 'them' was? He couldn't have meant the priests, though Sonya saw him going back inside the temple with a cloaked man. Sure, he was warming to the Norse gods, but that wasn't enough to just 'give him to them'.

Sonya noticed more that he was looking a little pale, carefully easing him into a chair then finding one for herself. "Who's..them...?"

She stopped thinking back to the animals she saw for their ceremony. Blood sacrifices were common enough for most religions as a way of giving thanks, yet.. "One of the pens was empty." Did they mean for him to take one of those spots?"

[athelstanthescribe]

"You noticed that." He nods. "Ragnar told me on the day we arrived that nine men would stand there. But not kept there as the animals are, until the time came."

[lt_blade]

"That many animals, was hard not to." The empty pen next to all of them, she hardly thought it was because the animals there didn't make it. "He meant to have you as a sacrifice.."

Alright, different times or not, Sonya still felt herself getting a little sick inside. "That was why you were told to follow the cloaked guy into the temple?"

[athelstanthescribe]

"To find out if I was a fit sacrifice. Yes." He smiles very slightly, not amused. "I should think the answer will be no."

[lt_blade]

She couldn't say she was amused either. "That was why you stormed off." Speaking of which, she went and ordered him some ginger tea, almost going for coffee, but thought better of it when she figured his nerves appeared shot enough as it is. "Would it have been easier if you'd known? I don't know what was more ballsy of him, trying to pull you in as a sacrifice, or him not telling you in the first place."

Traditionally, weren't the victims supposed to be willing? That wasn't the same as 'not knowing-of course, she knew that some modern cults didn't really count willing victims. "And we're going to have to go back to that."

She wasn't sure she could face it after the tournament, but after that sort of blow, she knew he'd need the support.

[athelstanthescribe]

"If they reject me", he says softly, "a replacement will have to be found. There must be nine, that much I know. And I would have preferred to know, rather than these days where everyone else knew but me."

[equal_of_any_man]

Olivier sees his brother come in and rushes to his side. "My brother, what has happened? Are you well?"

[athelstanthescribe]

"Quite well", Athelstan assures him, "in body. And, I think, likely to remain so now. But I have... learned something... about Ragnar Lothbrok."

[equal_of_any_man]

Olivier takes his brother's hand and guides him to a chair, ordering him a beaker of fortifying tea. "May I ask what you have learned?"

[athelstanthescribe]

"What he would do for a son."

He sits, hands wrapped around the beaker when it arrives.

[equal_of_any_man]

Olivier nod for him to go on, giving his brother room to tell the tale in his own way.

[athelstanthescribe]

"He brought me to Uppsala", he says very quietly, "at their festival, to give me to his gods. And everyone knew."

[equal_of_any_man]

Olivier's jaw tightens. "To give you to his gods... as a sacrifice." His hand goes to his hip, to the sword he isn't carrying.

[athelstanthescribe]

"It isn't going to happen", Athelstan says tiredly, seeing that. "Whatever Ragnar might have planned, the priests don't want me. One of them was questioning me, to determine if I was a willing sacrifice and a believer in their religion, and saw this."

He lifts his hand, with the cross barely concealed in his sleeve.