After the death of her lover, Agatha goes on a journey of penance, which becomes both harrowing and transformative; meeting both monsters and new friends, and discovering love along the way.
Note: This is actually a completed story, but I have to re...
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I am on a boat of some sort, the sky a vivid azure above me. My head in my lover's lap. One of his arms is coiled around me, whilst the hand of the other strokes my hair. I smile, feeling so loved, safe, and seeped in a wellspring of peace. The boat rocks gently, and small birds glide in the blue above. I can hear the slosh of the water against the boat.
He speaks to me – I cannot remember what he says, but I crane my head back so that I may look into his eyes, and he's so beautiful as he smiles down at me.
Something touches my ankle, something living, but there are only the two of us on the boat. I jolt, and the world turns to darkness.
I am awake in a dark place which rocks from side to side about me. A sense of forlorn loss slips over me like surf over a beach. I miss him so.
My eyes adjust, and I dare to sit up. I am wrapped in furs, laid on a bench of some sort. I realise that I am in the back of a roofed cart. Something huge sits hunched at the end of the bench.
It shifts, sensing my movement. "Don't be alarmed, lady." It says, a male voice, as deep and hollow as the heart of a mountain.
My heart jumps like a jack rabbit — where is the coffin?
I sit upright and begin to search about me, my panic subsiding as I half-see, half-feel it on the bench on the other side of the cart. My sigh of relief is audible.
"Where am I?" I croak.
"Among friends. We found you passed out, laying over that," the shadow of an arm, as thick as a tree trunk, indicated the coffin. "We have been wondering why a lady would be alone in the road with a coffin, half naked and whipped."
"Who are you?"
"I am Thorvald, son of Thorstein. We are traveling to sell our wares at the Summer Fayre. What is your name, Lady?"
"Agatha. I'm from the village of Draugagjártangar. I was their healer once."
"And now?"
"The man in that casket is my betrothed. He had an illness. In my arrogance, I thought I could cure him, but instead I killed him. Now I must take his coffin to Solsidor and bury him. I'm not allowed to use any transport for the journey."
"Hmm." He scratched his head, perhaps pondering my tale. "We cannot take you back to where we found you, but we are not heading for Solsidor either, so you are no closer... So you must drag this by foot? Why?"
"Penance. The Village would not acknowledge my sin, and so it was agreed that I would forgive myself if I performed this penance."
"And the whipping? Was that part of this penance too?"
Was it? I was silent, thinking this over for a while. "No. Our Priest said it was, but the truth is that it excites him to watch women crying in pain. He took advantage of my guilt to fulfil his own desires."
