The Virtue

The Wounds

(Theme Song is Your Call by Secondhand Serenade)

Nova's POV

I hear a loud scream from the throne room and my heart literally stops, I stop falling into Bjorn's eyes and run towards the throne room

I see Ivar standing with an orange hot iron rod and smirking at the blindfolded man hanging upside down on a pillar as Ivar circles around him like a beast

"I didn't steal anything, I swear on my god" The man with the long red marks on his partially naked body begs

Ivar gently touches the rod to the man's white skin and laughs as the poor man wriggles like a worm

"IVAR!" I scream and he looks directly at me with those evil eyes

"STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!" I say as I march toward him and snatch the rod from his arm an throw it on the ground

"This is French court, My father's legacy is to me maintained here. We deal with integrity" I say as my eyes burn with anger

"Ivar, let him go" Bjorn speaks softly as he emerges out of nowhere from behind me

"Ah! Brother! Welcome" Ivar smiles and hugs his brother, "You two already met?" He says

What is with him? He goes from one to hundred in a second and hundred to one in another. His tempers and moods are still a mystery to me

As Ivar and Bjorn have a small talk I order the guards to take the man away

"No" Ivar says as he raises his hand, "He stole from us and now I will kill him"

Ivar gestures his men to back off

"Prove it" I cross my arms as I look at him

"I don't need to prove anything to anyone" Ivar scoffs, his persona with me in private is a million miles away when he is in the throne room

"He deserves a fair trial" I say

"Nonsense" Ivar replies and picks up the rod to warm it up in the fire away

"What is his crime?" I ask

"He stole" Ivar replies absentmindedly as he heats up the rod

Bjorn and the rest of the people watch the drama unfold

"From who?" I enquire

Ivar doesn't reply

I take the blindfolds off the hanging man as look into his piercing blue eyes as it it filled with pain

"What happened?" I ask the sickly man

"Nothing your majesty, THEY ARE PUNISHING ME BECAUSE I AM A CHRISTIAN" The man cries

"THESE PAGAN.." As the man speaks, Ivar howl in anger and reaches out to hit the man with the red hot iron hod

But there is only one disruption....

I block the rod with my own fragile left hand

The rod eats away my skin as the time freezes around us, I felt numb then I felt as if I have touched the surface of the sun. I stand there, unhinged and unshaken

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ivar's POV

She stands there still and serene while perfectly cupping the Iron rod, she turned from Freya, the Goddess of fertility to Surt, The demon of Fire

"IVAR!" Bjorn tackles me as I fall to the ground while I come back to reality