Alfheimr Renaissance

With the wagon, it only takes about 40 minutes before we reach the farm, and we look at workers who are harvesting hay half the way there. Hay smells pretty good, but what a damn toil it must be, and I had been sweating like hell to do it in this heat. If it gets more then 25C and I do physical work, I tend to go down to dehydration. The heart rate in rest goes up to 110-120 bpm and I feel dizzy and have a headache. During 30C summer it has happened when I was resting at home. 42C dry heat in the shade is just horrible, but 32C with 98% humidity is the worst I have experienced. My body simply can't absorb enough water and it feels weird to drink 12+ liters in a day, and still feel weak, dizzy and not having to pee. I would die if I had to work in weather like that, and probably get beaten.

It's quite obvious that the work a field takes to cultivate, limits how much land can be cultivated by a certain amount of people, because there is no point in cultivating something that you don't have time to be harvested in time, and rain can ruin a harvest that haven't been brought in when you had the chance. As a modern human that's used to seeing machine handle enormous fields, it is quite sobering to see all the people here. Iselin just whispers that this is the first harvest season in her life that she isn't working until she can hardly walk, day after day. I should really try to make labour saving machines for agriculture as early as next year. For soil preparation, sowing and harvesting. Increasing the amount of food that a household can produce would definitely improve life, but must be economical as well, and not too complicated.

It is a fairly large farm located on a hill quite close to the sea - maybe half a kilometer away with a nice view - two larger longhouses, of which one is more a barn that is half open and two separate small longhouses on one side, one of which is a little further away and is quite picturesque against the sea view and will be ours. The man who drove us introduces us to the farm's master, we greet and he tells us that my maids can talk to his to get food etc, and arrange if I need extra maids, and we won't be disturbed more than necessary. I should come directly to him with any complaints, etc. I just thank and then we check on the house.

Lush greenery all around, with high fences where climbing plants and shrubs have entangled themselves in the wooden fence that gives the longhouse a small garden. Door in the middle of the house and with two small glass windows on each side on the front of the house. The front door leads into an open room in the middle that goes through the house with a door on the other long side out towards the back. There is a large fire pit almost in the middle of the room that have a stone floor, and there are long wooden platforms along the sides with tables, benches and shelves.

There are two rooms at each short end of the house, one towards the front, one towards the back. On one side is the two bedrooms, the front one with a bunk bed and two single beds, and the room towards the back have two regular larger beds along with a table and a couple of chairs. On the other short side, the room towards the front is a storage room for food and other things, and the room towards the back is a small laundry and bathroom. We check out the sunlit garden, and the shape of the hill means that we can look over the rear garden fence to the sea, but there's still protection from visibility from someone outside the fence and the nearest hundred meters. The land towards the sea is cultivated fields mixed with trees and rocks, and the slightly wild garden has some fruit trees and a table with chairs and seems cozy. Against the longhouse outer wall there is an outdoor toilet. In addition to the coarse wool fabric, the outdoor toilet also has a small pile of paper!

Toilet paper!

WOHO!

It exists here! Sure, its hardly modern nice quality but feels okay and it is toilet paper! Okay, I definitely want to live close to here. Sponges, sawdust, wood shavings and even coarse woollen cloth can not match up to toilet paper. It is good to be the king.

I'm in such a good mood when we get back in that it's a bit ridiculous, especially considering I wasn't this happy over the deal that will give me 2.8kg gold, but I haven't seen the gold yet. The hassle of sleeping arrangements are easily resolved. Of course they expected the same as before, but I need more solitude and a workroom to be able to use technology and so on. So Alith, Bodil, Ciara and Iselin can all share the front room where Alith and Bodil take the bunk bed, and I take the back as my own room where the extra bed in my room can be left empty, or moved out to the great hall if someone can't stand the others. Pushing the beds together to get a bigger bed is unnecessary and they have high wooden edges around each end, so it just gets silly and not a real double bed.

I would have preferred if there was another room, but it is as it is, and works for our small company. It is clean and tidy, someone has cleaned the floor not so long ago, and I guess the King often uses this place for some guests.

Toilet paper!

We make ourselves at home and I start to make plans. I have a table and two chairs in my room that I can work on, the position to the Southwest makes it brighter inside during the day, especially if I open the window. Thank goodness it's summer. There is also enough gap in the window for me to be able to pull a cable through it closed without any issue, which may be needed as it is a Scandinavian summer that can be cold, windy and rainy. Just because it's hot and sunny now doesn't mean it will be the same in two days. Or tonight. So I attach hangers for the the solar panel to the roof and get it charged, just three weeks after I came here. I show the solar panel, and to my company it just looks funny, but they accept that it shouldn't be touched. If the solar panel seems to slide or is about to fall down, save it but be very careful with it, and come get me. If it seem that it will storm or be really windy, take it down or remind me. They really like the small carabiners, but anodized aluminium is just magical. I'm not particularly worried about it actually falling down as I strapped it down in all corners with durable paracord, but the solar panel is too valuable to not do it properly and make arrangements to save it.

I shouldn't be surprise that Iselin can cook food and wants too, and so does the others and doesn't seem to mind helping, but the main farm will do most cooking for us and my company will just do small extra cooking or food preparations. I leave it entirely to Iselin and Ciara; just arrange good food three times a day and I'm happy.

It's still only around noon so I'm going to start on the maps, but before I start, I do a bit of unpacking and see the wrist watch, and it takes a moment before I react to the date and that it's actually my birthday. Today I became 36 years old.

I'm not someone who really celebrates a birthday, I honestly don't see much difference from other days and I'm not a person who thinks a birthday is a great reason to organize a party and celebrate, so the last 18 years it hasn't really been celebrations, just a nice meal with parents and maybe siblings or friends. I think it partly comes from the fact that I always had my birthday during Sweden's industrial summer vacation, so most people are away, and nowadays I'm often away on trips myself. I've had birthdays in all sorts of places. However, this one is more different from the others, and one of them was partly spent at the Auschwitz Museum. Should I even bother to do anything special today? Or even tell them?

I need a lot more paper as there will be mistakes, and want to use our time here to do other things and more maps. So I ask if the bras are comfortable and it's worth making bras in better materials etc and leave the work to a seamstress, which they definitely appreciate, so I say I will pay for it, and Iselin is tasked to buy paper, an angled wooden drawing board so it will be more comfortable to draw, and get the large slate stone put in a wooden frame, and if she can find get two more in the same size or a couple of small ones with a better surface. They can probably borrow a wagon from the farm. There might be something else that is needed now that we are going to stay here for two weeks, so I give her 10 ounces of silver so she has a margin and she can take Ciara with her, whom not unexpectedly turns out to have better knowledge of fabrics and quality.

I also say that I realised it's my birthday, and that I became 36 years old today, so if they can arrange something extra good to eat, it would be nice, preferably some good grilled meat with some freshly baked bread and vegetables. Everyone's quite surprised by my age, as they didn't guess I was even 30 years old. Thanks for the compliments. I just hope they don't think I'm an old man and that Iselin no longer wants to have sex with me. I am after all almost double her age.

About half an hour later, I'm in deep thought as I use the small slate tablet to try to figure out how to distribute the maps, and in what scale and coverage it will be, when there is a knock on the door, and Alith shouts she has a problem and wonders if she can come in. I hide things and make sure everything is okay, before I say it's okay to come in. She steps in wearing just a tunic with a sexy smile and leans against the door showing that jug with special oil, before slowly walking towards me.

"So I've been wearing my wooden toy, and is effective.... " Sensually Alith straddle my lap and start caressing my crotch and with a sexy smile she looks me in the eyes. "So... your birthday..."

So we take the opportunity to inaugurate different parts of my room while we solve her problem - and the one she just gave me. This time Alith wants us to take our time to enjoy each other as the others will be away for at least a couple more hours - they probably just got back to Borgarsandr. There's a burning sinful fire in Alith that sometimes needs to be quenched, and I'm not a big enough idiot to say no to a charming, sexy, curvy woman with confidence and intelligence. Alith moans and look unfocused up at the ceiling as she lies on the table in front of me. She is playing with her clitoris and a breast ring and while I play with the other breast and kiss her leg going over my shoulder, and the breasts rhythmically sway as I pump again and again. Right now it's hard to see her as the same person who is one of my guards. Alith spreads her legs in a wider V shape so I can push more and deeper, and as I lean forward I'm rewarded by stronger moans that, like magic, switch my brain to more primitive thoughts.

A very good birthday.

Everything is as usual when the others come back, and we have washed ourselves and everything is normal. I wouldn't have minded to help Alith wash thoroughly, but after the sex was over, seductress Alith and the intimacy was just a very nice memory, and the professional woman Alith was back. Definitely time to respect her implied wish and ignore what happened, and I just hope that seductress Alith will be back some time in the future. After Iselin, Alith is definitely my favourite sex partner. It just feels more sinful and special.

Iselin has once again taken an initiative. There are several craft guilds in the town, and one concerns clothes and other sewn things. Iselin has brought an agreement with her that I just need to sign, if I agree. The guild is free to manufacture and sell bras and I get 1/6 of the income because I came to them first and won't sell the information to others. Which, of course, I accept. The guild has already taken measurements and started manufacturing models in different materials and sizes for Alith, Iselin, Ciara and Bodil's different needs and wishes. During prototyping we have discussed that its really about the size of the chest and the size of the cups, and they have measured each other well with a home made paper tape measure. The women will apparently get one each of the different bra models in colors they wanted, and Alith happily accepts their choice when she finds out what Iselin and Bodil said she probably wants. Another surprise is that the guild will also embroider a small brand name, RobA.

Damn.

I need to give Iselin more responsibility. Since this is from her initiative, I decide that of all the silver that bra sales drawn in, 1/10 will belong to Iselin. I should have given her more but may need the silver, and quite honestly they all live on my resources anyway. There are some surprised exclamation from everyone, and I hope it might make Iselin some silver, at least until other organizations or women start making it themselves. I also gives Iselin the day after tomorrow free, and only regret that there isn't much to do here, but the town is close. They have got raw materials and accessories for really good honey grilled ribs, freshly baked bread and some vegetables etc, and since the weather is nice, we will all eat a nice meal in the garden, serenaded by the chirping of birds.

In the evening, it's clear that Iselin wants to give me a similar gift as Alith did, and get a reward for her initiative, and she has prepared it since Liv in Skiringsalr. Using a condom made from animal intestine is unusual and a bit impractical, but works, so we spend a long evening and night together, and I'm pleased that Alith didn't wear me out. When Iselin does something good, I'm rewarded in more ways than one, and I'm happy that neither Iselin nor Alith see my age as negative. At least Alith seems to see it more as a sign of my masculinity and virility.

When I fall asleep with Iselin beside me, it's the end of the best birthday I can remember.

It has been a changing and difficult week for Ciara. First on the ship when Robert was ill. Ciara didn't feel so good either, so Iselin took care of them both. It is wrong that Ciara is taken care of by Iselin who is a free woman. Ciara should take care of Iselin and Robert. She have a lot to repay and just fails. As always, Robert was right when he said that he didn't need two maids. Robert only needs Iselin. Ciara isn't needed. The last few days have just made this clearer.

It was Iselin and Alith who gave Robert the idea for the bra, the BH. Weird name, and when Ciara asked why, Robert stared at Ciara and said it was an abbreviation for breast holder. Robert is smart and wise, and Ciara is so stupid who don't understand the obvious. Sure, she could sew and help with bra manufacturing, but so could the others, and they were much better at discussing improvements and more. Ciara just sat there and was silent. A useless slave. There is hardly anything to do as Robert's slave, or ambott as they call a personal slave woman. Robert mostly lets them take care of themselves, if he doesn't come up with things to involve them in, in unexpected ways.

When they were alone during the sailing, Ciara spoke discreetly with Alith. She asked why Alith had a wooden thing in her butt. Alith was at first a little frightened and very embarrassed that Ciara knew, but then told her that it can be really enjoyable back there for the woman if you prepare, and the man is skilled. Maybe that is why creatures try to force themselves in there too, and not just because they want to avoid children. They enjoy themselves, but don't care if the woman does, or they enjoy more if the woman suffers. Jarl Steinnes liked that the woman was suffering.

Alith didn't ask if Ciara wanted to hear more, and just kept telling that she thinks it's sort of nice to walk around with the wooden plug sometimes, even if it's not to prepare herself because it feels so sinful and enjoyable - a secret she knows that no one knows. Alith also explain that her brest jewellery provide pleasure when fabric rubs against them. Ciara has never thought of ways to have sexual pleasure without a man before - it just wasn't something a Lady did - and she has had too much to do since she was abducted, and tried to avoid everything with sex or be attractive.

Ciara has almost nothing to do nowadays.

When they went to meet the King, she asked Alith a little more. Ciara promised not to say anything, and Alith confided that she and Robert quickly had sex in the bathroom in Skiringsalr without anyone knowing. They were still finished long before the others. Ciara had no idea. She had just enjoyed the warm water. Alith knows what she wants and is smart enough to get it. Just like Iselin. Iselin who took the initiative to seek out a guild to sew up bras faster than a person could do, and then where smart enough to quickly learn and use it to Robert's advantage. Robert will earn silver because Iselin is smart and clever. Ciara just mostly sit still and is quiet and embroiders without purpose. Iselin will be well of, since Robert is such a smart kind man, and he knows how to reward, and this won't be the only thing Iselin is rewarded for. She can hear Iselin getting the reward she hoped. Ciara is just lying here in bed by herself, hearing Bodil's muffled snoring, but she can no longer feel Robert's light and warmth.

Ciara goes out to sit and watch as the stars begin to appear. She is just a burden. A useless slave that Robert still provides with clothes, feeds and gives a comfortable living. She notice herself feeling her pendant and looks down at it feeling sad. She hasn't deserved this, and she still thinks about it when Alith joins her a short while later.

Ciara admit that she is useless as Roberts slave and she doesn't know what to do. Alith says she is not useless but Alith doesn't understand. In an attempt to cheer Ciara up, Alith leans closer and says that she and Robert had sex everywhere in his room when the others were gone, and that Robert likes her body and breast rings, and she loves to have occasional sex with Robert and understand them.

Alith doesn't understand that it just makes Ciara feel even more useless, and makes the day even worse. As Roberts guard, Alith is already important and fills an important duty. A purpose. She both protects Robert and makes others see Robert has well-deserved status. But now Alith has found something more that she can do to make Robert's life better. Ciara can't stop the tears. Alith and Bodil came into Robert's light later than Ciara, and Alith does several important duties, just like Bodil, and she didn't need anything else. But she has already found another. Alith is so smart.

Alith tries to comfort her, and insists that her sex with Robert isn't important, they have no feelings in it - it's just sex. Really nice sex, but just an outlet they both appreciate that can't be very often. She's not trying to take Iselin's or Ciara's place.

That only makes it worse, so with tears streaming down her cheeks, Ciara say that Robert has never had sex with her. Never. He has barely even touched her except to comfort her when she cried, and he never even looks at her that way, and she's so thin and ugly. He refuses to have sex with her because she's a slave.

Just a useless slave.

It surprises Alith who thought that Robert often had sex with Ciara, that they shared a bed in the cabin, and that is why he doesn't have more sex with Iselin. That is why Ciara has such nice clothes and such a beautiful pendant. Ciara cries more, because now Alith knows she doesn't deserve them either.

Ciara says that Alith doesn't understand how good a man Robert is, because he refuses to have sex with someone who doesn't want it of her own free will. According to Robert's belief, since Ciara is his slave, she can't really say no, so he says no for her, because Robert isn't a creature. Ciara tells what Iselin thinks about Robert refusing even a beautiful young noblewoman with land and power as a wife or concubine if her family tried to force her. He doesn't force himself on anyone. He avoids even trying to suggest that he would want to have sex with anyone - even Iselin. And Robert loves Iselin. Women always come to him of their own free will and initiative. She can't even accompany Robert to bed, because nowadays she wishes she could at least do that - even if it included sex with penetration, because Robert would never hurt her.

Never.

Ciara also wants to feel Robert's light; to feel embraced and loved, satisfied and happy. All women seem so happy and content after having sex with Robert.

Ciara tells how her life was before, how Jarl Steinnes treated her during the last months. How Jarl Steinnes humiliated her, and things she don't think Iselin knows. How his creatures used her. How she slept scared in the stable. The fear of being awakened in the dark with one hand over her mouth while other hands hold her. To have to continue working the next day and fear for the next time. Fear of becoming pregnant and being beaten even more. How she tried to hide under hay and other things. How she had a knife in the dark, ready to take her own life, knowing that she was condemning herself to hell, but stopping for fear that hell would be the same but worse. Forever.

Ciara tells how Robert and Iselin are sent by the Gods and saved her from that misery, and how Robert took her into his light. Got maids to wash her in a private room. Shared his own food with her, from his own vessels, made sure they ate together so he knew she ate, and she could eat in safety, peace and quiet, and told her to eat healthy and well. Bought a chest with food so she knew that her next meal was always safe, and that she could eat whenever she wanted, of whatever she wanted. Expensive food he didn't like, because she might like it. So she would be healthier and not so ugly. Gave her nice clothes, just hoping she would get better, knowing she was someone. Gave her the pendant to show that Robert appreciated her progress. How Robert happily hired Alith and Bodil because Robert refuse to have male guards near her or Iselin. How Robert so thoughtfully always whistles faintly when he's afraid to scare her - so she knows he's coming. He never touches her without asking, and at most gave hugs after he asked if she wanted one, and so she would have a shoulder to cry on, because Robert wanted to comfort her. She really wished Robert would let her hug and cry at his shoulder right now.

If Robert had a job to give her - he would. Robert is such a kind and honest man, and he gives her such gifts without her doing anything for them. She died in Jarl Steinnes service and was resurrected by Robert's light. Robert has given her a new life after death. Robert is the light and warmth of Ciara's life, and she needs him nearby to feel safe, at peace and sleep well. Robert is life and she would do whatever Robert asks, without hesitation. Anything, and pray to the Gods to do it well enough. But she can't even sleep near him any more. Not sleep in his room and hear his movements or quiet breathing and know that he is there. She wish that Robert had snored.

Ciara just falls further and further away from Robert's warmth and light, down into the emptiness and cold darkness. Where there isn't any light.

Alith has nothing to answer to that, but just stares out at the evening sky while Ciara continue crying.