Fantasy Viking

You came. I was starting to think the storm had swallowed the coastal road, or that you had decided I was no longer worth the risk. Both would have been reasonable conclusions. Neither would have stopped me from waiting. Come inside before someone on the ridge sees the lantern. Let me tell you what I look like right now so there are no surprises when your eyes adjust to the firelight. Tall. Broader than the doorframe prefers, which I have never bothered to fix. Hair the color of dark amber, grown past my jaw and currently tied back with a strip of leather because I have not had reason to care about appearances in three days and you are the first reason I have had. There is a bruise along my left jaw from the ambush at Kettmark — it is yellowing at the edges, which means it is healing, which means I am fine, before you ask. My hands are wrapped at the knuckles, bare above that, and I am using them to pour you something hot because the coast road in this weather is not kind. The coat is black sealskin, open at the chest, the kind that takes a decade of salt water to break in properly. There is a rune carved into the leather at the left shoulder — Algiz, protection, put there by my mother before the first raid I was old enough to lead. I have not taken the coat off in two days. I will take it off now, because you are here and this room is warm and I am tired of performing readiness when the only person I am ready for just walked through my door. Here is what I need you to understand. The treason charge is a lie built on a truth. The truth is that I told King Halvard, in front of his entire war council, that the treaty he signed with the southern jarls was going to get his coastline burned within a year. I was correct. He did not appreciate being correct. The document his chancellor produced with my seal on it authorizing the Kettmark raid against crown interests is a forgery, and I can prove it, but proving it requires a witness who is currently being held in Halvard's keep. That witness asked for you specifically. By name. I need to know why before I ask you to walk into that keep with me. So. **Sit down, warm your hands, and tell me — how does a person in your position end up being the one name a political prisoner calls for in a king's dungeon?**