- Eivor: I just want to get a feel for how the bow handles.
- Aoife: That's sure.
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Blood Bond
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Blood Bond was a virtual representation of one of Eivor Varinsdottir's genetic memories, relived by Layla Hassan through the Portable Animus HR-8.5.
Description
Eivor arrived in Dublin, Ireland with Azar to meet her long lost cousin, Bárid mac Ímair.
Dialogue
Eivor and Azar climb off Eivor's longship and onto the Dublin's docks.
- Azar: Your crew can find lodging here. Come. Let us find Bárid.
As Azar and Eivor walked further along, Bárid came to meet them at the docks.
- Bárid: Eivor! Blood of my blood. Look at you! You have Aunt Rosta's cheekbones.
- Eivor: And you! The seven-year old lives in you still.
- Bárid: It has been a long stretch since we pelted old Ganfrid with apple cores.
- Eivor: He never forgave us for that.
- Bárid: And Sigurd and the clan? How goes it all?
- Eivor: There's much to tell you, Bárid, but let me breathe your Irish air.
Azar walked into their conversation.
- Azar: Thank you for keeping my ports from being set ablaze in my abscene.
- Bárid: "My ports?" Yes, Old Man, I can rule my city even without you here. Eivor, you arrive in good time. I'm hosting a feast in honor of my son, Sichfrith. He is seventeen today.
- Eivor: A seventeen-year-old son.
- Bárid: And rather a difficult boy at that. Come, there's much to show on the way to my castle.
- Eivor: A kingship, a son, and a castle! Truly, you have a fine life, Bárid.
- Azar: Castle? It is a wooden house. Finely crafted to be sure, but in Shiraz, it would be home to a middling rug merchant.
- Eivor: Lead me to your rug merchant's wooden hovel, Bárid.
Eivor, Bárid, and Azar started to walk to the King's Hall.
- Bárid: Just look at her docks! Wee babe of a city, but the biggest port in all Ireland.
- Azar: You cannot appreciate Irish air without enduring the stench of our docks.
- Bárid: It's upon the strength of this port I plan to secure my kingship.
- Eivor: Azar told me that your throne may not be entirely steady.
- Bárid: King Flann needs some persuading is all. Dublin's vast trade web will bring wealth to all Ireland. If Flann can be made to see that, my kingship and that of my children's children will be safe.
- Azar: I cannot guarantee your throne but a vast trading web is within my power.
- Bárid: No one else I'd trust my commerce to, Old Man.
- Eivor: You let him call you that?
- Azar: I call him worse things.
The group stopped at Azar's market shop.
- Azar: This is where I leave you.
- Bárid: Don't miss the banquet!
- Azar: I'll be there shortly.
Bárid and Eivor kept walking to the hall. Soon, someone called Bárid's attention.
- Aoife: Bárid! My mighty king!
- Bárid: Aoife! This is my cousin Eivor. Show her the bow I had you make for her.
The cousins stopped at the blacksmith's workshop.
- Eivor: This is for me? The craftsmanship is beautiful.
- Aoife: Me best work. Give 'er a try. Hit the targets before the sand runs out. Think you can get them all?
- Eivor: Of course I will. Stand ready to be astonished.
- Aoife: Aren't you the confident one? Sure, I'll be embarrassed for you if you shat on the eggs.
- Eivor: Watch my arrows fly.
- Aoife: I certainly will. Go!
The arrow challenge started.
- Bárid made a compliment if Eivor was shooting well.
- Bárid: Damn good shot!
- Eivor: It is a very nice bow. Thank you, Bárid.
- Bárid: Steps off a boat after a long sea voyage and shoots like a master!
- Eivor: The bow needs tuning. But it is a very thoughtful gift.
- Bárid: You had a long sea voyage. Haven't got your land legs yet.
Eivor gained the Norse Gael Bow as the cousins went uphill to the hall.
- Eivor: Well done, cousin. Wait, is that a house of God?
- Bárid: Aye, Christ's own church. Ireland mostly Christian now and so is Dublin. Many Norse chew the wafer.
- Eivor: You make a place for them.
- Bárid: Them? I, myself, have a place in Christ's house as I do in the house of Thor. So long as a god has my back, he has my altar.
Eivor and Bárid walk into Kilchrist.
- Bárid: I've built this city up from rubble. Twenty years ago, us Vikings were beaten. The Irish took revenge and sacked Dublin.
- Eivor: Azar told me it is a Viking city.
- Bárid: Norse founded it and I nursed it back to health. When I became king, I was king of a mud pit.
Eivor and Bárid arrived at the stairs towards the hall.
- Bárid: There, up ahead. My home. My only regret is that my mother and my wife aren't here to greet you. They've gone to pilgrimage to the mountains just now. The waters there improve Mother's health. I am left to discipline my wayward son.
- Eivor: And to host a banquet!
- Bárid: Which should be already underway.
The cousins arrived at King's Hall.
- Irish Woman 1: Upp Bárid! Fo dia! (Greetings!)
Eivor and Bárid entered the feast.
- Irish Woman 2: (laughter)
- Irish Man 1: (laughter)
- Bárid: Here we are! Please, go enjoy yourself. I must have a word with my son. Come meet him before the night's out.
- Eivor may have spoken with Azar.
- Eivor: Azar, I was not sure if I would see you here.
- Azar: Why is that?
- Eivor: I thought you'd rather take stock of your wares than placidly observe caterwauling Vikings.
- Bárid: And you? You would rather spend time with this gossiping auntie?
- Eivor: I like to greet everyone at parties.
- Azar: There is no shortage of amusements. Enjoy yourself.
- Eivor: I know few people here, and of them, I know you are the one who is always ready with a sweet anecdote.
- Azar: I do have some information you may find interesting. Sichfrith's stomach doesn't agree with cheese. Had an accident about it last week. The embarrassing, bed-changing kind.
- Eivor: He shat himself?
- Azar: Mortifying for a lad of that age. The kind of thing that would devastate him in front of his comrades. If one needed ammunition.
- Eivor: Thank you, Azar. Your company is always enlightening.
- Eivor may have spoken with a fellow party-goer.
- Irish Man 2: Aye, you Bárid's cousin? It's a grand do, isn't it?
- Eivor: Hej. Enjoying yourself?
- Irish Man 2: It's great craic (fun)! 'Tis a fine thing to celebrate Future King Sichfrith.
- Eivor: I'm curious, how do you feel Bárid has done as king?
- Irish Man 2: Oh, he's done a lovely job, he has. Likes to throw feasts, invites us common folk! More host than king perhaps, but he's a fine man, and the city has never been busier!
- Eivor: Can I ask, what is your life like in this city?
- Irish Man 2: Well, there's a fair amount of work, isn't there? Hauling crates, shoveling muck. I'm a tanner, meself. Long days stripping hides and dousing 'em in cow piss. You can probably smell the stench!
- Eivor: I can!
- Eivor: Enjoy the feast, friend.
- Irish Man 2: You as well.
Eivor headed towards Bárid and Sichfrith.
- Bárid: Enough with your willfulness. It is past time to put away childish things.
- Sichfrith: What do you expect, Father? That I follow your example? The example of a pack mule?
Eivor came into the conversation.
- Bárid: Sichfrith! I expect my son to act like a future king! Not roll in the muck!
- Sichfrith: So Flann can take you on as his farting court jester?
- Bárid: Think with your head and not your arse! Flann can assure my throne, which will one day be yours.
- Sichfrith: That makes you the arse!
- Bárid: Enough!
Bárid looked around at the audience among them and saw Eivor.
- Bárid: Eivor. My son, Sichfrith. I'm sorry, I ... I must clear my head. Could you speak to the boy?
Bárid walked away as Eivor walked towards Sichfrith.
- Eivor: I was looking forward to meeting my cousin's son.
- Sichfrith: So, you're the cousin who Da speaks so fondly of. Is this old fool reduced to importing Vikings now?
- Eivor: In Norway, you'd be knocked to the ground by now.
- Sichfrith: Come on then, if you've any guts worth respecting!
- Eivor: Fine, whelp.
- Sichfrith: You won't land a single punch!
- Eivor: Only shitbirds mock their father under his own roof.
- Sichfrith: Right, because the cousin who just arrived has the authority over how I speak in my own home.
- Eivor: In Norway, you'd be knocked to the ground by now.
- Sichfrith: Come on then, if you've any guts worth respecting!
- Eivor: Fine, whelp.
- Sichfrith: You won't land a single punch!
- Bárid: A lot of shit coming from that mouth. Word is you have trouble controlling it out the other end too.
A fist-fight ensued between Eivor and Sichfrith.
- Sichfrith: I guess I owe you thanks for not beating me bloody.
- Eivor: I am not here to quarrel with you, Sichfrith.
- Sichfrith: That's an empty victory. You clearly lost on purpose.
- Eivor: You made a rash challenge. No point embarrassing you in front of your father's people.
- Sichfrith: Da speaks so highly of you, I wanted to see if you lived up to the stories.
- Eivor: Does anyone?
- Eivor: You're unhappy with how your father rules?
- Sichfrith: Da has the makings of a fine king, but ... he chooses to play the unctuous merchant instead.
- Eivor: A visit to Norway might do a young Vikingr like you some good.
- Sichfrith: I'd love to go with Da. Maybe the homeland would rekindle his warrior spirit. Give Dublin a fair and fearsome king.
- Eivor: I've lost track of your father. Any idea where he might be?
- Sichfrith: He wanted to clear his head. That means he's visiting grandfather's grave. Da has a chat with him almost every day.
- Eivor: Bárid can commune with the dead?
- Sichfrith: Ha! No. His conversations are all one-sided. The grave sits at the top of the hill.
- Bárid: I will find him. Thank you, Sichfrith.
Eivor started to leave as Sichfrith stood up immediately.
- Sichfrith: Eivor! Teach me how to hit like that sometime?
Eivor nodded as Sichfrith nodded in agreement. Eivor traveled to Gortknaw to find Bárid, kneeling, on top of its hill.
- Eivor: Bárid.
Bárid was sniffling at a grave.
- Eivor: Why so uneasy?
Bárid stood up and sighed.
- Bárid: Ah ... A king must forever be on guard. When I'm upset or uncertain, I come here to seek my father's spirit.
- Eivor: I didn't even ask after him. Somehow I knew he'd...
- Bárid: Some years ago. He was destined to die in battle, and he did.
- Eivor: He sits with Odin now. My family owes yours a solemn debt.
- Bárid: That winter your family came to stay with us ... I remember your birth, screaming like a warrior.
- Eivor: The plague year, no one would take us in. No one but your mother and father. I owe your family my life.
- Bárid: And what a life we had! I've fond memories of you and I slipping out to hunt—
- Eivor: —in dead of night! Stars in the sky, moonlight on snow...
Time passed as Eivor and Bárid caught up with each other.
- Eivor: ... and that's how I got that scar.
- Bárid: I do feel bad about that. What about the one on your cheek?
Something was rustling in the bushes as Eivor caught notice of it.
- Eivor: This? A caution from the gods about my vanity.
- Bárid: Come, if we tell all our stories, we'll be here a week.
Bárid thought he heard something.
- Eivor: Do you see something?
Bárid sheathed his blade and then unsheathed it.
- Bárid: My imagination run amok. But, let us away.
As Bárid and Eivor started walk down the stairs, a mysterious, unnoticed creature growled from the bushes.
- Bárid: Funny how the slightest noise sets a fellow on edge.
- Eivor: By Thor's hammer, Bárid. I could sleep a week.
- Bárid: Not as spry as the old days, eh? When we'd search the night in hopes of catching a will o' the wisp.
- Eivor: Did we catch one? I have a memory of catching one.
As the cousins came down the last steps, Eivor and Bárid were ambushed by two men and their Irish bloodhound.
- Norse Warrior 1: Bárid mac Ímair! Give yourself up!
- Bárid: What? Back!
- Norse Warrior 1: Grab him! Bind his hands!
- Eivor: Who are these men?
- Norse Warrior 1: Damn you bastards!
Eivor and Bárid fought and killed the ambushers.
- Eivor: Who were they?
- Bárid: My asencsion to the throne has not been without contest. The previous king's son, Thorstein is resentful.
- Eivor: You told me nothing of this.
- Bárid: You are my guest. I am not going to burden you with petty concerns.
- Eivor: Petty concerns? I now know why you've been anxious all evening.
- Bárid: Aye, 'tis worrying. He's never been so bold before.
- Eivor: He sees you as a usurper to his throne?
- Bárid: Perhaps. But he doesn't seem he wants to take it. He content himself by stealing and smuggling with his band of ruffians. It's petty Viking raiding, but it puts me in a bad light with Flann, that's certain.
Eivor and Bárid walked back to his castle and neared its stairs.
- Bárid: Keep a sharp watch. Brigands rove the streets tonight.
- Irish Soldier 1: You can be sure of me, my king.
Eivor and Bárid walked into the King's Hall, where Azar was still drinking.
- Azar: What? You know I am always the last to leave a party. What is wrong?
Bárid walked by as Eivor spoke with Azar
- Eivor: We were ambushed by Thorstein's men. Rivals I was not made aware of.
Eivor and Azar walked towards Bárid, who sat down on his throne.
- Azar: Small wonder why King Flann does not embrace you, Bárid. You cannot keep control of Vikings in your own city.
- Bárid: Thorstein makes me look like more of an arse than I do on my own.
- Eivor: I see. It is the High King's disfavor that makes this shameful. My cousin, I will take care of Thorstein.
- Bárid: No, I do not want to drag you into this sorry mess. Perhaps he'll accept silver to lie low.
- Eivor: For a week or two. But then he'll be back and back again. I can remove this blot once and for all.
- Bárid: Eivor, this is not your fight.
- Azar: For any and all of your gods' sakes, Bárid, let Eivor help you.
- Eivor: As of this moment, Bárid, my arm is yours. Whatever is needed to bring Flann's smile upon you, I will do.
- Bárid: Eivor, I've never been so happy.
- Eivor: Your family saved mine those years ago. A fitting reply would be to secure your throne. I will start with Thorstein.
- Azar: It happens that Sichfrith may know something. He once ran with Thorstein's gang.
- Bárid: Sadly true. Seek him tomorrow in the marketplace. After a night of carousing, he likes to recuperate there.
- Eivor: We will begin to forge a bond with High King Flann on rise of sun.
Eivor slept after the meeting and woke up the next day.
- Eivor: Bárid said Sichfrith would be at the marketplace. I need to learn more about Thorstein.
Outcome
Eivor met her long lost cousin King Bárid and was introduced his son Sichfrith. Eivor later offered to help Bárid deal with Thorstein and the Viking issues plaguing his kingdom.