Freelands

IX. REVOLUTION

3. The Calm Before the Storm [Part 1]

Near Icelands

A chilling, cold, winter breeze goes through the window, inside Freyria's Hail's cabin in the Windship with destination... her homeland - The Icelands-. The sudden change of temprature wakes Freyria up from her deep sleep, she raises up from her bed in shivers and rushes to close the full open window. As she closes it, she takes a look outside and with joy sees ice on the surface of the water which the ship breaks upon its sail and forces it to the side. Freyria sees the cracked parts of ice that are left behind from the ship's passage.

Freyria goes to the dressing table of tha cabin and looks her elder self, exhausted from all this journey she had. The horrible form of herself ever so slightly saddens Freyria and makes her realize how time has passed. As she slowly combs her half-blonde and half-white hair, she thinks that she will have to live as widow, from now on, for the rest of her life.  Although she knew more or less the atrocities her husband has commited through his life, he paradoxicly was always the most caring with her, he always brought her the most luxurious of jewels and dresses from around the Freelands and not only. Most of them were bought with blood money, money claimed from the slavetrades of the Boar, but Freyria always wanted to look on Lance's kind offer, rather than how he got the money, for the best of her peace of mind.

Freyria finishes combing her hair, she then sees a thick woolen coat hanging from the cabin's door. She grabs it and wears, feeling the warm and soft fox fur embrace her body over the thin clothes she wears from Hierydor. The door is opened by her and the sun hits her right in the eyes accompanied by a harshly cold breeze that almost immediately neutralizes any last warmth her cabin had.

She starts walking to the deck of the infamous Windship which sails at full speed at that moment. Sailors work continuously around the ship, making adjustments to the numerous sails the ship holds and taking care of spotting and avoiding dangerous bodies of ice that might damage the ship's hull.

Freyria gets to the bridge, she can vaguely see the Icelands in the horizon, her mind is now filled in happiness seeing again the greystone mountains of Icelands with their snowy peaks, peak again behind the capital of the Icelands, Avion, where Vera Magister's palace is located.

"Good Morning, Miss Hail!" A voice can be heard from far behind telling her. It's Scipio who is walking towards her at the bridge of the ship.

"Hope you had a comfortable sleep at the ship's cabin!" He says as he stands next to her. His curved blade is inside his golden case. It still had some visible stains of blood from Frederick Coshaq on the handle that could hardly go away as hard as he tried Scipio to clean it away last night.

"It was really comfortable, I have to say, Scipio. I had a long time to sleep that well." Freyria answers in a more or less serious tone, she just doesn't feel Scipio as a man she can trust very much. But his friendly behavior towards her doesn't go unnoticed by her.

"I'm glad to hear you liked your stay on my ship, miss Freyria! It's truly my honour." Scipio says.

"I also have to truly congratulate your strength, Miss Freyria. A woman of your age went through trials that could crack any man in two. You surely must have been so scared being captive of the Volca's and Coshaq's stupid conflict."

"I don't know what you've been told, Scipio, but the truth is that, except the hunger, I didn't really suffer a lot. The Volcas had me protected at all times so did our sadly deceased Frederick Coshaq..." She answers clearly annoyed by Scipio's attempt of flatter.