"I remember the Keeper with the White beard told me about that."
"They arrived here with the last Ark, but they decided not to stay. They left right away and went on to settle on a world sixteen light years from here called New Sweden. A world not unlike Nilfeheim, but with a normal orbital path around its sun, so they have no Longnight winters. The vast oceans just like here are full with fish that can be consumed by humans and to top it all, a continent with forests and easy mine able resources.
He paused for a moment and then said. "Today the Church of Odin is a major religion with an impressive temple on Pluribus. New Sweden however has no forests left and enormous fleets of robotic fishing ships emptied their oceans long ago.
They now have fish farms raising Terran herring and mackerel, but you won't be able to buy their famous Butterfish filet, a fish that once was so abundant you could catch one with a blank hook on your fishing rod. The High Priest of the Odin Church was arrested as they found out he organized the sale of illegal drugs via several of the temples.
New Sweden is a progressive world and has many big cities and I am not pointing a finger at them, but we appointed ourselves to keep more than just the rusting scrap from three millenia ago, but keep our real traditions . The ones that brought us here remembered. This is what we still keep, not the obsolete pieces of Ark ship technology buried in a cache beneath the Halls."
He fell silent.
After a long moment he, drained the last of his mead and said."I know you want to ask the 200-credit question. So, go ahead."
"I now understand why you keep this part of the Halls of Hasvik secret and I certainly learned much about our world and how it all works, but why did you pick me? What was this Soak stone business all about and why do that rotten trick with the ghost number? Why pick me?"
"I test every young man that comes up these stairs, you are not the only one. I am doing this a long time. Not always with soak stones, my tests vary but to see the heart and true nature. Out of hundred boys that climb these stairs and don't give up that is, perhaps twenty actually help me. But no one ever went back down to keep their word and get the sack or whatever I left behind. It is usually the sons of Clan Chiefs and they are raised to think they are better than their servants. There have been those who laughed at my peril, even some who actually pushed me down the stairs or threaten me with swords and knives. Most of them however simply ignored my presence and went straight on by. In some case there are those who demanded me to make way or step aside. Even fewer pass the fire test and when I appear the second time attack me in anger.
"When your Grandfather contacted us that he was sending his grandson, I inquired about you and learned much about your situation. "
I was thinking about what he said and he was right. My brothers and much of my school comrades did not think much about servants and even I had spend little thought on Low men and their lot in life. I wondered if I would have been the same if I was not the outcast son. "But why did you choose to disappear and make me think you are a phantom of some kind?"
"Your grandfather is what a Nilfeheim Norse should be. He is strong, one of the most feared fighters, a swordsman without peer on a world of skilled swordsmen; he is also smart and well educated. He is the very definition of honor. If he gives his word, there is nothing short of him dying that would keep him from fulfilling an oath or a promise. If Nilfeheim ever agrees to elect a king, he would easily be the first choice. If he speaks, others listen. If he gives a suggestion it is followed as if it was a royal decree and he is a very important voice inside the Inner Circle of Elders. He sent you here Eric to keep you away from your father, to scour the stone floor in the halls and to sweep snow, just as he did when he was here. He does not know about us or what is beneath Muspelheim."
The woman, still present added "You experienced that your very father managed to have eyes and ears inside the walls of the Keep and enough control to make an attempt on your life. You had to arrive above and be seen doing it, as I am certain your Grandfather also has someone among the Keepers up there acting as his eyes and ears."
"You saying in one breath my Grandfather is honorable and then you say he has spies here and wants the Halls of Hasvik and the Keepers gone?"
"I am saying Eric that once he gave an Oath and his word he will follow it to the end. When he became an Elder, he took an oath to defend and uphold the Book of Ancient traditions. Not the love of his wife and not the love to you could make him go against that. He could have killed your father for what he did to your mother but he did not, because that book gives Isegrim all the rights to beat a woman to death.
He could kick the Olafsons of his burg anytime, but he gave his word and not the lamentations and complains of all his clan members can change that.
He could take you and give you to someone else to raise, he knows about how your father tortures and treats you, but the Book of Ancient Traditions give your father that right and while I have no doubt in my heart that your Grandfather cares much about you, he will rather die of a broken heart than to go against these traditions or break a word he had given."
The Old man continued almost seamlessly. "Eric, he would be the first tearing these walls down and raise his famous broadsword if he thinks we are against the Elders and act against their rules."
The words of the Old man put in words what I had felt since I seen him sit with my father in the great hall, but hearing them like this hurt me more than I could describe. I knew that every word the old man said was true. Grandfather himself had told me so.
The most painful realization in all this was that he could have done something to save mother, if he had put her well being above those cursed traditions. Traditions I learned were far from what they supposed to be.
Chapter 22: Caught
They had shown me to a small alcove chamber carved, like many similar ones into the big caverns wall.
Inside, behind a curtain was a real bed. I was more tired as I realized and fell into a deep and dreamless sleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
The next day I did not wake on my own but was called out while I still felt tired. The seemingly perpetual burning fusion sun and its bright light made any guess what time it was completely impossible, at least to me.
The woman I had met yesterday. stood just outside the curtain and she was dressed very much like I expected a woman warrior to look, not that I had seen one outside illustrations and tapestries. She wore a kind of armor apparently made of hard leather molded to accommodate her female shape. Underneath a short white tunic that flaring and swinging like a short skirt revealed much of her shapely legs. Her curly hair pulled to the back and tamed into a pony tail with a leather strap adorned with feathery things to the side. She held two long spears.
"Good Morning Eric!" She handed me one of the spears and said. "The spear is one of human kinds oldest weapon. In our old languages a man with a Ger became to be known as German and the word evolved to the name of an old Earth tribe, the Germans. "
The spear she had given me had a wooden shaft and was set on the top with a pointed double edged tip of metal. I wanted to impress her and said after I had bowed and said." Odin's spear is named Gungir and it is infallible and its tip cannot be broken. The Elders of the Circle and the Clan Chiefs swear on Gungir the most sacred oaths!" I then hastily added." Your Ladyship."
She did nod with a knowledgeable smile." My name is Siegfrida and you may call me by my name."
She turned the spear and drew a simple arrow in the dirt." This is the Tir rune in the writing of the old Vikings on Earth and it is still used by the druids, the Elder and the wise men of Nilfeheim. It has the meaning of war, victory, law and cosmic order and is associated with the ancient Germanic and Aryan sky god Tir. This rune also resembles Irmunsul the world tree."
For at least an hour she told me about runes and their meaning. Many were familiar to me as they were used everywhere as decorations and appeared as symbols in clan heraldry.
After
that she asked me to follow her to a different cave and she explained that these chambers once were formed by hot magma bubbles and flows while the Volcano was active.
She was a patient but demanding teacher and the fact that she was a woman somehow spurned the male warrior ego that was part of perhaps every Neo Vikings personality. I think I would not have tried as hard if she was a male instructor. For the next 3 weeks I hurled spears, fought with shield, spear, axe and sword until I could no longer feel my arms. Unlike my mysterious teacher back at the burg or our fight instructors at school while I was still allowed to go, she was not cruel and did not inflict injuries and bruised on purpose but I still thought there was not a spot left on my body without one. Every night I was allowed to the baths and the warm water did wonders easing and soothing the bruised and relaxing tense muscles.
It was also a wonderful time. She was full of stories and wisdom about our culture and the gods. She told a story about the Aseir and the legends and then explained the meaning of the story and the symbolism and why that story was told.
Down here I had not wasted a thought on father or the miserable time at our burg. I felt accepted and was allowed to sit with everyone on the same table during the shared meals.
No one was making fun of me, no one told me what a looser or how unwanted I was. No one was beating or kicking me and I did not have to be afraid of noises or heavy footsteps that would announce the appearance of father.
The Old Man the Old Keeper was not always around but when he was he also was full of stories about the early times of the Nilfeheim colony.
I had completely lost any track of time, the weather and the light did not change down here inside the mountain.
Today, after what felt only a short time of training. She stopped and put the training weapons back into their racks."I have to tend to a sick friend and won't be back till tomorrow evening, but that means you have extra time to pass today, so if you want you can help with some of the chores around here. Everyone does them, so don't feel I am punishing you."
"I don't mind doing chores and I am not afraid of work, I do them since I can remember."
"Well if you don't mind you could go to the baths and mop the tiles in both areas and the change rooms. You find the cleaning tools and supplies in a storage corner in the change area. No one will be there at this time so please do the women side too."
"No problem, I can do that."
"You should have plenty of time to enjoy a long bath as well.". She smiled and added." The Ancient one will fill in for me tomorrow I am sure you can find your way to the baths and then to dinner yourself by now."
She left and I did make my way towards the baths. In that corridor that linked the baths to the Big Cavern, I always had the strangest sensation. Something I could not really explain. It was no pain or discomfort, and I usually forgot about it as soon as I felt it. Whenever I passed through the concealed passage it felt as if some unseen hidden force pushed me inside. Almost as if stepping on a faster moving slide belt. My thoughts lingered on this only a heart beat longer than usual. Here in the old corridor that led to the old elevator and the baths were several passage ways branching of into darkness. Siegfrida explained that these corridors were created because they were expecting all colonists move inside the mountain as the first winter turned out to be longer than a few month and became the first Longnight humans had to survive. Now these corridors led to dark and empty, never completed caverns. The light down here came from old Lumi Plates salvaged from the Arks. Ingenious devices creating cold light form a radiation source , but produced no harmful radiation. Terran engineers had created them to last hundreds of years, and many of the Lumi plates still worked after almost 3000 years just like the day they were made. Only a few no longer produced any light or had become very dim.
The inside of this old volcano was occupied by this secretive group for almost as long but their numbers were slowly but steadily declining. Despite their efforts the Old man had told me that there were now less than eighty and they started out with about two hundred. I did the math in my head and felt they did not really have any immediate problem of disappearing , if they declined in numbers at the same rate as they did till now, they still had 2000 years before the last one was gone.
It was easy to think in terms of 1000 years and accept the fact that my female teacher really was over thousand years old. Since I could not really fathom what it meant. There was simply no reference I could apply to really understand , but whenever I was thinking about it, I felt a little uneasy and shivered and wondered if a being that could look back on a thousand years of life experience really was still human.
From Union Class I knew there were member species that looked upon very long life spans. Of course I heard about the Stories of the two hundred Human immortals who were guiding human kind since the beginning and like most I believed them to be legends and myths at least until know.
Mr. Walters said that medicine could easily extend the life of most any carbon based life form including humans. Brains could be implanted in Robot and Android bodies and eliminate most biological limitations and brain pattern activity could be imprinted on a Computronic. Ever since the Insane Robot Coup attempt of 2412, uploading and individuals personality and brain into a Computronic was prohibited. All manufactured robots and Androids were by law determined to be things and had to be base programmed. Creating sentient machines was strictly prohibited to anyone but Mothermachine. I only knew little about the X101, a member species of sentient machines but they did not provide other species with their own robot bodies.
In that lesson Mr. Walters said that the average lifespan for humans was about 150 years. Even though longer life was medically possible he said that most minds simply got tired and a strong longing to die developed and the suicide rate among those reaching the bicentennial age increased drastically with each passing year. It was not against the law to extend life beyond the age of 250 but as Mr. Walters said no one really wanted it.
While I was pondering the long life span of the Keepers I had reached the baths and decided to use that extra time not just to bathe but to swim, the pool basin was certainly big enough for that, but I would do my chore first. By know I knew there were two bath areas one for men and one for women. Both areas were identical in size and layout except the tiles on the male side were blue and the tiles in the womens bath were red. In between were the facilities with showers and toilets and places were you could dress and undress. It all had been built to accommodate the colonists of Hasvik. They never came and never used it. Of course the Keepers had kept it in good repair all that time.
I could not find any mop or bucket or anything else on the mens side so I knocked at the separating swing door then opened it and said aloud." Anyone here?"
My voice slightly echoed and appeared louder than intended but no one answered, there was only the drip of water. So I went in and sure enough there was a corner with buckets, mops and the wonderful smelling lemon stuff they made themselves to clean pretty much everything. So I mopped the womens side first.
There around the corner in the dressing area on the bench lay that leather breast harness molded to Siegfrieda's body. Not far from it, on a peg a blue dress and white apron. A small shelf next to it held artful little glass bottles, decorated ceramic tubs and jars.
This was not mother's boudoir and not her dress. There was no reason for me to wear it and yet felt the urge to do just that. If I would wear that breast harness underneath it would give the dress the right shape, a shapely illusion
I pushed the mob and shook my head. It was wrong what I did in mother's boudoir even though it made me feel close to mother. I was a Neo Viking and I needed to become strong and big. A warrior would not wear a woman's garments.
Thor did it.
But he didn't like it and did it only once out of necessity. So why did I feel strangely excited every time I mopped past that dress?
I forced myself to think about something else and left doing
the other side of the baths, but I was done. I knew it was still early and I had time. I wished someone would come, Women perhaps using the baths but it remained eerie silent. I had to return the cleaning supplies.
I could almost hear my own argument, on the one hand I tried to ignore my feelings as I knew they were wrong, but then what would it hurt? No one would ever know, just to see how it looks.
I undid my braids.
The chest piece fit real nice and as I slipped into the dress it really did what I hoped it would and along with the white apron looking into a mirror I really looked like a girl now, even the shape was now perfect.
A new feeling of euphoria, of suddenly being unshackled and free engulfed me from the ddepest inside and while something in me still warned me but I ignored it and that inner voice felt silent.
As I turned a little to see me myself from the side I noticed Siegfrida standing there, her arms crossed.
Seeing her hit me like a cold shower and I wished the ground would open to swallow me. I started shaking and the sensation of utmost shame came over me.
She looked around and then nodded. "I see you did a good job cleaning."
I tried to say something, but my throat was constricted and even if I knew what to say I would have not been able to utter a single word.
"I had a chance in plans and came to fetch you for dinner. Ulrike made dumplings today."
Then she came closer and said. "The Ancient suspected this and that is why he asked me to leave those things here."
I shivered and could not bring my shaking hands and knees under control. I finally managed to say." He knew?"
She smiled and nodded."He is very old and has seen it all. Human nature holds no mysteries to him."
The old man appeared behind me next to the mirror.
"I visited your burg to learn more about you and when I heard your Midril speak about servants seeing the ghost of the fair lady in the windows of the First ladies old rooms I had my suspicions and I asked Siegfrida to do this little test."
Eric Olafson Series Boxed Set: Books 1 - 6 (The Galactic Chronicles Series) Page 177