- Eivor: I did only what I agreed to, Aelfred. If your crown now weighs heavy, I would gladly take it from you.
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Plucking the Quill
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Plucking the Quill was a virtual representation of one of Eivor Varinsdottir's genetic memories, relived by Layla Hassan through the Portable Animus HR-8.5.
Description
After assassinating The Gallows, Eivor went to the Nun's Minster to report to Goodwin and then start her search for The Quill.
Dialogue
After The Gallows' assassination, Eivor headed back to Goodwin at the Nun's Minster. There, Eivor caught sight of King Aelfred talking with a young Anglo-Saxon girl, who appeared at the town square execution and one of The Quill's spies.
- King Aelfred: A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. Does Magister Bata not teach you the scriptures?
- Anglo-Saxon Girl 1: Magister Bata is a horse's dangles.
The young girl then ran off as Eivor walked towards Aelfred and Goodwin.
- King Aelfred: And here is the axe I used to swat a fly.
- Eivor: You have ventured from your burrow.
- King Aelfred: And you have plunged my city into chaos. I had hoped you would use the lessons of your subtler gods.
- Eivor: We have no subtle gods.
- Goodwin: If The Gallows is truly dead, perhaps we can allow cautious revelry?
- Eivor: Sweep your own hearth, Aelfred, if you do not like my broom.
- Eivor: It may be I should take my Danegeld now. Leave you to the snakes that remain?
King Aelfred sighed and responded as he walked off and then kneeled.
- King Aelfred: Forgive my outburst. God sowed in me a passion, but English prose is an instrument long out of tune.
- Goodwin: We all want better for our people, don't we, Eivor? Yours and ours?
Eivor nodded yes and looked to Aelfred.
- Eivor: The Quill remains. What do we know?
- King Aelfred: The decay of learning has been gentle in Wessex. We enjoy the office of wise men, but we have neglected the study of wisdom.
- Goodwin: The Quill preys on this lapse.
- Eivor: Did you discover more from the writings I found?
- Goodwin: I did. The Quill is calling the children of Wincestre to arms. Now we know why so many children scurry through the streets. Feral and untutored.
- Eivor: I can talk to some, see where they lead me.
- Goodwin: Good. Find me at the ale-house when you're done. And try not to scare the piss from any of them.
- Eivor: We Norse are the monsters of your Saxon mother's bedtime tales. I promise nothing.
As Aelfred and Goodwin left the minster, Eivor noticed the little girl from before, hiding.
- Eivor: I see you, child. Come.
- Anglo-Saxon Girl 1: The bad reeve, Selwyn. I saw you punish him in the square.
- Eivor: He hurt many people.
The young girl began to cry.
- Eivor: Yes. He hurt my mother to death, then took her good luck charm. Perhaps you found it? A little carved tree? It is all I have to remember her by.
- Eivor: Such a sad story. Take this. Perhaps it will keep you off the streets and out of trouble.
- Eivor: I found no charm, lucky or otherwise.
- Anglo-Saxon Girl 1: A bit of silver then? For my troubles.
- Eivor: It wouldn't have the same value, would it?
- Eivor: You ugly Dane! May God curse you with boils on your face!
The young girl ran off from the minster as Eivor looked at Selwyn's Order medallion.
- Eivor: Spry little mouse. Will you lead me to your Quill?
Eivor then tailed the girl, who ran into an area filled children loitering about. Eivor then questioned a boy, who was stealing among the townsfolk.
- Eivor: You there, little cutpurse.
- Anglo-Saxon Boy 1: Keep your beak out, nosey. I'm starving!
Eivor then caught sight of a crying boy being interrogated by a soldier.
- Anglo-Saxon Boy 2: Get off me, you oaf.
- Anglo-Saxon Soldier 1: Stop struggling and give back the apple.
- Anglo-Saxon Boy 2: Apple? I didn't scrobble nothing. Get your fat hands off me, cow-breath!
Eivor then got rid of the guard and talked to the boy.
- Eivor: Stealing apples, eh?
- Anglo-Saxon Boy 2: Fruit don't feed a growing boy. Do you have any chicken?
- Eivor: I don't. But maybe you can tell me what you know of The Quill?
- Anglo-Saxon Boy 2: The Quill? God blind me, you're brave! Find Aelwyn and Wigbert. They see everything.
Eivor then headed to two children near a haystack. A boy and a girl set fire to the haystack as two guards arrived.
- Anglo-Saxon Soldier 2: God's beard! You'll set Wincestre ablaze!
- Aelwyn: Roly-poly mutton man, you can't catch me!
Aelwny ran away as one of the guards chased after her. Then, Wigbert ran away as the other guard sighed and went after him.
- Anglo-Saxon Soldier 2: God help me, I'd rather be shoveling dung in Malvern again.
Eivor went after Aelwyn, who led Eivor near a house with a water mill and ditched the guard. Aelwyn was just standing and tossing a ball up and down.
- Aelwyn: You again. You should mind your own beeswax.
- Eivor: Aelwyn, is it? You wield fire like a flaming Jotnar.
- Aelwyn: It was burning when I found it. Hot days like this, things just go whoosh!
Wigbert arrived to the same location.
- Aelwyn: Well?
Wigbert then noticed Eivor, shocked at her presence, and took a step back.
- Aelwyn: Oi! Wigbert, you great moon-calf!
Aelwyn then noticed two thugs walking towards her and Wigbert.
- Female Anglo-Saxon Thug 1: Hand it over, Aelwyn! We saw your little shadow take it.
Eivor then walked in front of the children and the thug.
- Female Anglo-Saxon Thug 1: What you looking at?
- Eivor: I'm not sure, looks like an old lady's been rolling in shit with all the other ugly sows. A hog in a dress maybe?
This led to Eivor fighting and killing the two thugs.
- Eivor: How about I pay you to scuttle off to the tavern and drink yourself senseless?
- Female Anglo-Saxon Thug 1: Deal. Better than running around after you grubby urchins.
- Eivor: Turn around, walk away, and you keep your insides, inside.
- Female Anglo-Saxon Thug 1: Alright, alright. No harm meant. Stay out of trouble you grubmite.
Eivor then spoke again with Aelwyn.
- Aelwyn: Ha! That showed them!
- Eivor: Trouble seems to follow you.
- Aelwyn: And I wriggle out of it like a slippery eel. Why are you following me?
- Eivor: What is so important that you risk his little neck for it?
- Aelwyn: Keep your sticky beak out of our business.
- Aelwyn: Whose business? The Quill's?
- Eivor: I'm looking for The Quill. So I am asking you, his little worker bees.
- Eivor: Setting fires, stealing things is a fearful day's work. Aren't you supposed to be in lessons?
- Aelwyn: You don't need book learning when you're street shrewd. That gets you real places.
- Eivor: Or gets you noticed, by The Quill for example. Does he pay you well to do his dirty work?
- Aelwyn: Us? Working for The Quill? Shows what you know.
- Eivor: Is that so?
- Aelwyn: I am innocent as a lamb.
- Aelwyn: They were The Quill's thugs, and you killed them. Wouldn't want to be in your boots.
- Aelwyn: They were The Quill's ninnypops. Smart stuff to throw coin at them, they will be too squiffed to bother you now.
- Aelwyn: Those were The Quill's meatmops, and you sent them scurrying off with their tails between their legs.
- Eivor: It sounds like you owe me your life.
- Aelwyn: This one's brave and strong. Might be able to help us.
- Eivor: So you're not working for The Quill?
- Aelwyn: We steal to stay alive and out of The Quill's clutches.
- Eivor: But you know where I can find him.
- Aelwyn: They come up from the sewers like rats.
Aelwyn then looked to Wigbert.
- Aelwyn: Go on, give her what you took. Maybe she can save us?
Wigbert walked up to Eivor and gave her the key he stole.
- Aelwyn: Good luck, Dane. Try not to get maimed and all that.
As she left the children, Eivor uncovered the location and true identity of The Quill, Hilda. Eivor then headed towards a secret passage towards the underground sewers of Wincestre. Along the entrance of this passage, Eivor found a bunch of children loitering in the sewers. Eivor then talked to one of them.
- Anglo-Saxon Girl 2: I'm going to marry King Aelfred, and he's going to whisk me away from this toil. I like the pretty things, but Magister Bata says stealing is wrong.
Eivor then talked to a child sitting on the ground.
- Anglo-Saxon Girl 3: Everyone died and left me alone on the streets.
Eivor then spoke with a child with his knees to his chest.
- Anglo-Saxon Boy 3: I didn't get nothin' today.
Eivor then found and spoke with a child away from the rest.
- Anglo-Saxon Boy 4: There's never enough food. I'm always starving.
Eivor then found her way through the sewers and saw an empty corridor. Diving into a little sewer stream, Eivor climbed out and walked to the empty table in the corridor. Eivor looked around and saw nothing but food on the table. Suddenly, Eivor looked up to hear Aelwyn.
- Aelwyn: That's her! Dimwit Dane! Dimwit Dane! Didn't guess The Quill's a she!
- Hilda: Now, now, Aelwyn. Few have the wit that you and I possess. Most see the world in simpler terms, where we are the weaker sex.
- Eivor: A brood mare who preys on innocents, and you brag about strength.
- Hilda: How little you know. Defend your mistress!
Eivor turned around to fend off the ambush as Hilda readied her crossbow at Eivor.
- When attacked, Hilda started to pray.
- Hilda: Ealhferth, may your roof shield me.
Eivor fought against Hilda's guards and killed them. Then, Eivor fought and assassinated Hilda. In the Memory Corridor, Hilda, standing around shadows of her "saved" children, spoke aloud and then sat, as a ghostly Odin and Eivor walked towards her.
- Hilda: Come child. Whisper what you've learned, and Mother will give you a treat.
- Eivor: Coward. Using children to spy and steal for your Order.
Hilda, holding a quill to her face, responded. Hilda walked toward one running child and smiled.
- Hilda: To educate them!
Hilda then walked toward one running child and smiled.
- Hilda: Give me a child until he is seven, and I will give you the man ... or woman.
Hilda then stood up.
- Hilda: But what use are letters when a child can only write his name in pig shit? Or wisdom in a woman when she cannot wield it beyond her hearth?
Hilda then looked fondly at a shadowy representation of Aelwyn.
- Hilda: I taught little Aelwyn so much more, saved her from a life less worthy. She will find enlightenment in The Order, just as I did.
Hilda turned towards Eivor.
- Hilda: If I could save them all, I would.
Eivor then walked towards her as these children ran off.
- Eivor: But you can't. You've corrupted too many to save too few.
The children seemingly disappeared. Hilda then shouted back at Eivor.
- Hilda: My Order is the only way forward. It can quench our thirst for knowledge, if only Aelfred's slave-faith is defeated.
Hilda then whispered in Eivor's ear.
- Hilda: And what would you sacrifice for infinite knowledge?
Odin walked beside Eivor and stated his opinion and question.
- Odin: An immeasurable gift. Why refuse it?
Hilda then walked back, with these children behind her as Eivor responded.
- Eivor: Not their innocence.
All the shadows of children disappeared as Hilda turned her head and closed her eyes intensely. Seeing no children, Hilda responded to Eivor.
- Hilda: A pity.
Hilda then held a quill to her neck.
- Hilda: Non requiescet in pace.
Hilda slit her throat with her quill and then her spirit immediately vanished. After Hilda vanished, her Order medallion immediately fell as Eivor went to pick it up. After her death, Eivor reminded herself.
- Eivor: Goodwin said to meet him at an ale-house nearby.
Outcome
Eivor found and assassinated The Quill, thus ending her exploitation of children as spies and thieves, in Wincestre. Eivor then headed back to Goodwin to report the news.
Gallery
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Eivor confering with King Aelfred and Reeve Goodwin about The Quill
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Aelwyn and Wigbert are caught, setting a haystack on fire
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Eivor questioning Aelwyn and Wigbert about The Quill
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Aelwyn and Hilda Looking Down at Eivor
