To New Victories

prologue

There were very few people that know there is anything past the dwelling of Floki the boat builder and some of those simply think that the one who lives beyond Floki  is still on his land. To anyone who asks , she will tell. The land is hers as it had been taken by her mother. 

Her mother was still carrying her in her belly when she killed her husband. He was an abusive man with no regard for his family's health. Her actions however left her alone in the woods. She knew Floki and Helga well, but she also knew that Helga could not go through another birth whether hers or not. 

So, she waited. She waited until she was almost too pregnant to travel, then she went to her oldest friend. Lagretha had come to power and being her mother's oldest friend having lived on a neighboring farm. Who better to midwife a first child than an old friend and mother.

She gave birth to a daughter, a daughter that she swore would never be in the situation that she herself had been. She called her daughter a gift from the gods and considered the circumstances of her birth to be a new beginning, a victory that they had won together. The daughter was named as Signe, new victory.

When the mother and daughter duo returned to Kattegat they received news from Helga and Floki that Queen Auslaug had given birth to yet another son. This son was not the picture of health that every mother hopes to see when her child is born. Due to his deformity he was named Ivar the Boneless.

As Signe grew she would spend her time going between her home, Floki's, and the town. For a child she did not allow herself much of a childhood, when she went from place to place she was there to work, she would help her mother with fishing, hunting, weaving. When she was with Floki she would have him teach her runes and help Helga around the house as she did her mother. Signe did not spend as much time in the town as she did elsewhere, she only went  when there was shopping or trading to be done or of course for gatherings. 

It was also where she would go on the rare occasion that her mother made her take the day off and Helga would refuse her help.

On these days Signe would wander the muddy streets, sometimes stopping to watch the other children play. What was unapparent to her was that the queen had taken notice of those day that Signe spent watching rather than joining in play with the other children.

It reminded her of her precious Ivar.

Queen Auslaug made this child her business, there were very few children that interested her, even among her own. The similarities between this girl that she did not know and her crippled son almost worried her.

On a day that the queen had not seen Signe she went out into the woods, past where Floki lived to Signe's home. Her soft knock on the door drew both Signe and her mother from their weaving. 

"I am sorry for intruding, but I would like to offer your daughter work in my home."

"Signe?"

The queen started to answer, when Signe herself came to the door, "Yes, Mother?"

"Would you like to work for the queen in her house?"

"Doesn't she have slaves for that."

The queen smiled at the girl's quick tongue, "Yes Signe, I do, but you would have a special job."

"What kind of special job?"

"You would look after of my youngest son, Ivar."

"I do not want a husband to take care of when I am older, why would I want one now"

"You would not have to care for him, like you said I have slaves to so that without pay. All you would have to do, my dear, is sit with him. You see my Ivar cannot play like the other children and I have seen you in town, you do not play but you watch. What I am offering is to pay you to sit with him and watch rather than both of you doing it by yourself."

"I will try it for one day and then I will decide."

Of all the similarities that Auslaug thought she saw the only one was that neither Signe nor Ivar played. Ivar so wanted to play but was unable, whereas Signe was completely able but unwilling. It angered Ivar to no end. So, he left her to watch on her own as he attempted to play. It was that day that Ivar had his first kill.