Sailing to Borgarsandr, day 8
Njahamrar (Kristianssand)
The ship will arrive in Njahamrar some time after noon, but in the morning I go to Danr and ask if he can write an agreement which I explain, and make 4 copies. Of course I pay for the job and the paper. Iselin's can't write well enough, and I can't use runes. I can't even use a quill correctly. Writing an agreement in a language only I can read would be idiotic. Danr wonders why I need it, as ones word in front of witnesses should be enough, but he knows more important agreements are put on paper and appreciates the clarity it gives the agreement between two people.
--- Agreement ---
Between Master ___________________________
and # ___________________________
# swear allegiance and shall faithfully and well function as the Master's ____________________________________________________________________
until ____________________________________________________________________
After that, # is completely free, and free from all obligations to the Master except that # must preserve the Master's secrets for all eternity unless the Master gives exceptions. During the term of the agreement, # can't lie to the Master. # must not steal from the Master. # must not betray the Master. # can't have intimate company or sex with anyone without the Master's permission. # must preserve and protect the master's secrets. # can't own slaves, and any slaves given immediately becomes the Masters. Should # by serious violence, or threat of violence, against # fail with the above, the agreement can continue to apply as long as # notifies the Master as soon as possible and have proof. Mistakes or misunderstandings that lead to minor violations do not break the agreement. The Master may consider the agreement to be fulfilled before the specified time has expired, but must sign his copy of this agreement and give it to # or say so without pressure in front of witnesses. If # breaks the agreement, the punishment is to become the Masters slave, and all of # property belongs to the Master.
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When he's finished writing, I thank, pay and say I'll fetch the papers when they've dried, and ask if Danr has any finer jewellery. Which he of course has some of - it's part of the luxury goods he sells. I choose a gold pendant with a larger deep blue stone in the middle and two smaller on top, I think it could actually be sapphires, but it's not like I could be sure. It hangs in a black leather cord and costs 13 ounces of silver, but I gladly pay. I also buy a simpler pendant in silver with a small red stone for 2 ounces, and take the papers with me.
When I enter our cabin, both Iselin and Eira look out through the window. I ask them to sit in bed, which they quickly do. I mount the compact camera on the mini tripod and aim it at the desk. Both silently and curious watch, especially when there's dim light at the back. I take a picture and put it on recording.
I take out a paper and give it to Iselin and ask her to read it aloud. Is slow and stuttering, and as she reads her voice becomes broken, she pauses and tears begin to flow. Eira just sits and watches in complete silence, but hug her to give comfort. When Iselin is done, I show her to sit on the stool. With the agreement in front of her on the table, I ask her to fill in my name, then her own name 'Iselin Vigdisdottir from Kambsnes' on the # line. She writes 'Personal Maid' on the next line, and '5 years from year 24 or Asbjörn Aeriksson's reign's longest summer day'. I havn't noticed that they don't count years from a fixed point here, but I should have figured so. It must make history a damn hard thing to keep track of.
We fill in a copy. She sign at the bottom of both, and finally I sign with completely other letters, which I also write above her inscription of my name at the top. I prick the back of her left hand with my knife tip so that a few drops of blood come out. It's just idiotic to do it on the fingertip that you constantly use, and have her put a small bloody fingerprint on each paper beside her signature. I hope the bloody print makes it a little more ritual like, and that she and Eira at least in the beginning think it has to do with Sejd.
I unfold my multi-tools file and take the larger piece of leather, and ask her to lean a little forward over the small table where she is sitting. I fold her beautiful long hair to the side, and placing the leather piece between the neckring and her neck, and ask Eira to hold it in place. Then I quickly but carefully file down the rivet that holds the ring together at the back. Bad soft iron is no match for the file, and I flick the iron filings outside the window. I force the rivet out and force the iron ring apart and carefully bend it off Iselin's neck. I remove her pendant from the ring, put the multi-tool back in my pocket and place the ring and pendant in front of her on the table. I give her a hug from behind and say;
"Iselin, you are now a free woman."
Then I turn off and pack away the camera. Iselin cries with happiness and Eira hugs her, and I receive an intense hug from her when I've packed everything down. We just let Iselin enjoy the moment and be happy, but after a while I ask what she wants to do with the iron ring she is holding and looking at. It's the first time she's really seen that ring she's felt for so many years.
"I want to see it destroyed, so no one will ever wear it again. There are many others, but this one I want to see ruined."
I take Iselin to Danr and Toke, who are both on the aft deck, and ask them to witness that I have made Iselin Vigdisdotter from Kambsnes a free woman, and they congratulate her.
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A few hours later we all stand by the railing and watch as the ship arrive and docks in Njahamrar which should be about Kristiansand, and after we entered the cabin I ask the women to bring their extra dresses so we can visit a bathhouse. I bring the extra shirt, underpants and socks, then we leave to explore a new town.
It's easy to find a blacksmith and ask him to melt and hammer the neckring into a lump while Iselin watches. He understands and shows her as it becomes just a small oblong piece of iron. I discreetly take a picture when Iselin stands and stares as he hammers on the deformed lump of iron. I pay him a couple of coins as a thank you, and then we leave the smithy with Iselin holding the lump of iron in her hand. It was a small symbolic ceremony, but now that part of her life is over. Iselin's smile just makes my heart go wild.
We go and find a bathhouse. It was three days ago since the last bath in Kambsnes. The experience is similar to the first and it's nice to just wash off, and I spend frustratingly many minutes trying to cut the beard on the sides short and even enough. Iselin and the maids directly comment on it, both that I actually cut it, and that it is not particularly smooth, but I'm happy to get rid of the beard on my cheeks. This time, however, I pay the bathhouse to wash the clothes and we put on our extra clothes. We can come by and pick up the clean clothes in the evening and receive an engraved bone piece as a token. Iselin and Eira seems shock that I'm not letting them wash my cloths - it's their duty - and it probably will be in the future, but not today. After that we just go for a walk in the town, and I buy what seems to be a form of cookies and a bottle of some kind of lower alcohol drink that tastes okay. We find a nice secluded place out on the coastal cliffs with a view. Iselin walks happily and straight-backed, and it's almost magical how her already optimistic and pleasant attitude and manner have nevertheless improved.
It feels so damn good, even with the agreement. We sit and enjoy life with cookies and drinks.
"Iselin, how does it feel to have a free neck?"
"It's hard to explain. That weight and the ring have always been there since I can remember. It was a cold hard thing that always reminded me of my place. It have always been a part of me, and the only thing that really was mine, that no one wanted or could take away from me. It feels like something is missing." She touches and caresses her neck and has an absent expression as she speaks, but she ends with a smile: "Now the ring is ruined and the biggest goal of my life is fulfilled."
"This may ease the feeling. The difference is you can take it off whenever you want, and it's not iron."
I show her the necklace I bought for her. It's really adorable how Iselin's hands fly up and grab each other in front of her mouth while her eyes dart between the necklace and my eyes. I didn't think anyone actually did that. Especially not here.
"This is my first real gift to you as a free woman - I hope you like the color, I tried to match it to the dress you chose. Tomorrow is your first full day as a free woman, and I want it to be free, so until the ship sails tomorrow, you can do whatever what you want as long as it doesn't break the agreement. If you want to lie in bed all day - do it. If you just want to walk around - do it. Heh, you can run around naked inside the cabin if you want, just tell me before so I'm not there. From now and the whole day tomorrow is yours, it's your day off."
Iselin seem to feel conflicted by it, but seems to make the decision to really do something.
"If you want to sleep in a place other than your cabin bed tonight, do so, but the bed in the cabin is of course available. Just be on the ship before we leave. My goal is that you will have a completely free day at least every two weeks, and hopefully every week. Since I have two maids and don't need it, you can both switch jobs and help each other. Try to manage it between yourselves, but should any of you be dissatisfied, tell me. Iselin, so you can do something on your first day off, here's your first salary; your very own silver as a free woman. Just don't buy slaves, even if you made a really good purchase last time."
I give her the equivalent of an ounce, 50 coins, while I smile and glance a little at Eira. Eira reacts but looks at Iselin, and a small smile can actually be seen on her lips as well. The selfie photo of us and the two of them, confuses them.
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Eira's been in the background since Master came in with the papers in the cabin, and she's been very deeply affected by everything. The ceremony with the paper. When Master himself took away the neckring. When he hugged her and said that Iselin was a free woman, and when he fulfilled Iselin's wish and the neckring was melted down and destroyed. Eira also wants to experience the same. She really wants to experience it, and not just to become a free woman again.
She looks out over the sea, then at Robert holding Iselin while she leans against him with a big smile as she feels and looks at her new expensive gold necklace. Eira decides that she really wants the same treatment and status - not just to be a free woman again, but to be appreciated and worthy of being rewarded. She will do whatever Robert says to her, and as good as she can, and Robert's even better than Iselin told her. That necklace must be worth several slaves, and he just gave it to her to make her happy, even though he had just freed her. Anyone who sees her in that dress with such a necklace will know that Iselin is important. Iselin would've given a good stately impression even in Alba's noble circles.
It has only been a few days, but Eira has gone from abysmal misery; a tiring starving life in torment and humiliation, raped by creatures pretending to be men, to sitting here on the rocks - freshly bathed in warm water with soap by a maid who helped them. Just quietly relaxing on a cliff in the afternoon sun, in a nice dress with her hair set in braids, enjoying fine cookies and good drink together with a really good powerful rich man and her savior and friend, who has become a free-necked woman.
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Eira hasn't done anything to make this; she's just been taken care of in the hope she will get better and be worth it. Worth being close to Robert. She has a lot to repay, but she will do it even if it takes the rest of her life! It's time to stop being miserable and hopeless Eira!
A fleeting thought makes her stumble when Robert asks her to do Iselin's chores, and she thinks about what some of them might soon be, and it strikes her that her first thought was that she's unworthy of it, instead of being disgusted by the thought. But if Robert wants to have sex with her, she would, even though she hopes he never ask. She's worried that she might not be able to without panicking. She doesn't want to fail at anything Robert asks her to do.
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When we've finished, I tell Iselin to enjoy herself, and ask Eira to come with me to the ship so Iselin can enjoy her freedom. She need to do Iselin's chores now that Iselin has her days off, even if there isn't much to do. Eira, who usually stays in the background, is suddenly very anxious to try to fill Iselin's place and walks by my side as Iselin usually does. Okay, I did not mean it literally that way, but sure - it's good that she's making progress.
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I'm lying on my back in my cabin bed, eyes closed and thinking, when Iselin returns after a few hours. A little tipsy and very happy, but tired, and she returns our washed clothes she picked up. She tells how she have mostly walked around, bought some drinks and honey candy and just enjoyed life. Enjoyed to be free like a lot of the people she's seen, to be able to appreciate the looks some men have given her.
I just smile and remind her that she's has tomorrow too. Iselin pulls Eira out to enjoy the evening sun and honey candy. Her joy is contagious and I just wave them of. Her happiness feels so damn good. It's felt so good to be able to free Iselin from slavery, even though she's still bound to serve me for 5 years, which hopefully will be greatly reduced to the next year or two. It's more intended for that awful 'if'. A short while later, Iselin comes back in and sits down on her bed.
"Eira wanted to stay out there and watch the sunset from the bow, but for me it has become a bit too much today. It's been a wonderful day."
I'm still lying there a little drowsy, with my eyes closed and relaxing with my hands under my head. It's really been a wonderful day. It was just so nice to sit and enjoy the sun with them on the rocks and feel Iselin lean against me. A bit like sitting there with a girlfriend instead of a friend or worker. It was a nice intimate contact I really appreciated.
"It's been nice seeing you so happy."
"This has been the best day of my life so far," I smile and feel a bit proud when I hear her emphasize the word and understand what she means. "...but now I want to make it the best evening and night too...."
My eyes fly open when I suddenly feel Iselin lying against me in bed and instinctively lower my arms around her and I feel her naked body. I just see those green eyes staring into mine framed by red hair, while she softly and seductively continue:
"... but for that I need your permission, so you can have sex with me."
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Eira stands above the cabin and looks out over the glittering waves, but when the seagulls arn't screaming, she can occasionally hear that Iselin got what she wanted. Freya must appreciate Iselin's deep faith. A couple of the sailors cast amused glances in the direction of the cabin, but no one says anything. They just smile. Eira just stands there and watch as the sun slowly move, before Eira goes into the small vacant extra cabin that Iselin rented for her for the night. Iselin said that Robert wouldn't want her to have to sleep in the other bed, and hopefully hear them having sex during the night and morning too, if Iselin gets what she wants. Which was very thoughtful of both Robert and Iselin.
The bed and mattress feels the same but this cabin is cold and uncomfortable. Eira finds it difficulty to fall asleep, and twists and turns. Although she has a cabin with a locked door and a bed all to herself, she gets no peace. It's like there's ants crawling all over her body, and eventually Eira gives up. With her ear to the wall she checks that it's completely quiet, and she can faintly hear Iselin's snoring. Eira gently and quietly enters their cabin so she doesn't disturb them, grateful that Iselin didn't think of locking, and she quietly locks after herself.
The sun has set but the sky is still a lovely red. Eira sees them lying embracing, naked with the blanket pulled up to warm Iselin. Robert doesn't seem to need it. Iselin says he's so warm to lie against. The clothes are on the table in a mess, and Iselin's pretty dress is just laid on the bed. Robert's completely naked and Eira can see the sweat on his body, and his manhood.
The vision doesn't disgust her as she thought it forever would, but the smell does. Eira feels disgusted when she notices the smell of sex mixed with sweat, and her memories flash back on her experience to that smell. She almost chokes, but tries to dispel her thoughts, as she still prefers to sleep here than in the other cabin or out on deck. The smell will disappear, and although the smell is nauseating, she still feels better here. In the same cabin as Iselin and Robert. She opens the window a bit more to ventilate, and quietly folds their clothes and lays them on the table.
Eira quietly lie down in bed with her thinner shorter sleeping dress on and thinks about how much a simple sleeping dress does for her view of herself, and how Robert thought of giving them privacy even in his cabin. How he insisted and how important it was to him. How quickly you can get used to a soft bed. A bed she's alone in this night, the first night since she came to Robert's service without Iselin beside her. But Iselin's light snoring is heard from the other bed and it is soothing. No ants on the body to lie here compared to the other cabin, even though the smell of sex is still here.
Eira has woken up with a jerk many many times the last few nights. It's enough for a sailor to walk past on a night round outside, or on the deck above. It creaks in the planks and she has woken up with a jerk. Then it has been difficult to fall asleep again. Afraid of shadows sneaking up on her in the dark. So she has been lying and watching both Iselin and Robert while they slept. Listened to them. Robert usually lies on his stomach and with one arm outside the bed hanging down. It's funny that he doesn't seem to have any scars or tattoos, but he has a healthy well-nourished and so very hairy body, so scars may not be visible if they are smaller.
Iselin have talked about the night they met and the first time they had sex together. When Robert didn't know she was a slave, and with that rich woman Disa. How it was a revelation to Iselin, that a man could give them sex as both a man and a woman do, and in so many different ways and positions none of them imagined. A man who considers penetrating and playing with her breasts to be just a small part of sex, and also allows himself to be submissive in the act and focused on the woman's pleasure.
Iselin wished she had shared his bed every night, because even if they wouldn't have sex, she wants to feel his body and rest her head against him, while she listens and talks to Robert about everything. It doesn't matter what, but she says she sees the world in a different way afterwards, and she love when he talks about how things work and really are. Hear about the mysteries of the world. Iselin wants to sleep with him, but doesn't want to fall asleep. But he refused to have sex with a slave, and just sleeping with her in bed would be too tempting, even when she is wearing her sleeping dress, which Iselin loves to know. Can't sew them in sacks every night, and none of them seem to see it as an option. Sleeping together but not being able to touch each other would be frustrating for both of them.
Iselin has talked a lot about trying to buy her freedom as soon as she can, because Robert has been so generous so far, it shouldn't take a lifetime or many years as usual, and as a free woman she can sleep with and have sex with Robert again. Iselin's new and highest wish in life is to become one of Robert's concubines, and be able to give him many sons, and she hopes that he will continue to spend time with her when he marries.
Eira has thought that Robert was just lying and didn't want to admit that he considered it below his dignity to have sex with a slave... but now she begins to doubt, as Iselin as a newly released slave is acceptable to share a bed and have sex with, and she's seen Robert sneeking longing looks at Iselin since day one. With love and longing, more than animal desire. He hasn't lied about anything so far. Not once. Not about anything. If he's said something, he's kept it. He's a man who keeps his word even to a slave, and Robert promised her that he wouldn't hit, kick, humiliate or rape her ...
Robert promised.
It feels comfortable to lie in this room even though she miss Iselin's warmth. It was crowded in bed, but it has still felt safer to have someone lying outside who she knows wouldn't hurt her. A protection against being woken up with one hand over her mouth while they force her arms and legs down, lift up her dress and touch her breasts...
They weren't men - they were animals. No better than creatures satisfying their lowest urges. A real man doesn't have to force himself on anyone. Not use his power to force someone to sex. Especially not a sleeping defenseless slave who can't stop them.
Jarl Steinnes was worse. So rich and powerful with a wife who loves him, and yet he needs two women he forced to become his concubines because their families couldn't pay their debts. Debts that rumours say Jarl Steinnes caused. They didn't have much more choice than a slave, because if they had objected, they could have been sentenced to slavery to pay off their debts.
Jarl Steinnes had sex with several of the slave women anyway - just because he could. Even one of the men to humiliate him. Iselin was smart and made him use her mouth when she couldn't avoid him, but she was good at avoiding him. She is so pretty she had to be.
A real man doesn't pee on anyone in front of others just to humiliate them. Eira tried to take him in her mouth as she heard the concubines and Iselin could do, but he was too harsh, and she hurled and almost vomited the first time. So he hit her several times and peed on her. He liked it, so he did it several times. She learned to persevere and not vomit. But then he forced her to swallow instead, saying it was convenient as he didn't have to go out and pee when the weather was bad, and she had to take care of her own vomit. Clean up after him and herself. She learned that too. When she started to smell too much, she was banished to stay in the stable and the yard, but at least Jarl Steinnes stopped peeing on her. But that was when they... the creatures sometimes came at night, and Jarl Steinnes had given them permission.
Iselin said that it felt so wonderful the first night with Robert, even so much better than the woman she had been intimate with before. It must be because he is a man and not a creature like the others.
Eira's husband Gregor could make it feel good, but it always ended so quickly, and it wasn't many months they shared a bed before he became ill. The other ladies said it often was so, and she shouldn't expect more; if she was satisfied by her husband, that was something to be happy about, but it wasn't necessary to become pregnant. Being loved or handled tenderly wasn't a requirement, and Gregor seldom beat her so it was a good marriage.
Did Gregor go to heaven? Has he looked down upon her and seen how the creatures treated her? What does he think of her now? If only she'd given him a child. Preferably a son. Then his father and brothers would have like her more. Wouldn't have ignored her. If she hadn't been so lonely and unhappy, she would have been in her castle and protected, instead of traveling in the forest where the Vikings ambushed.
They are all creatures. Only interested in sex and sons. To satisfy their desires and to spread their seed, even where it isn't desirable. By force. No more than animals. They would do it with animals if there were no slave women. Eira's heard that it happens, especially slave men without a willing slave woman, and it was a common rumor in Alba that men did it with sheep.
On the other hand... Robert doesn't. He cares more about the woman than his sexual desire and refrains from sex unless the woman voluntarily wants to, and he believes that even a willing slave has no real choice so he refuses, even when he longs for her. Iselin says that her Goddess Freya considers the woman's choice to be absolute - regardless of her status - and believes that Robert would refuse even if someone tried to marry a beautiful coveted rich noble daughter to him, because she is forced by her family. Eira knows it would be foolish for a man to say no to such a wife, especially here where a man can have many wives. But Iselin believes in it, and that it's one of the reasons why Freya blessed Robert so much.
Eira remembers how Iselin said that she saw Robert become deeply disgusted when he understood that Iselin was a slave; Robert just froze and stood still. Iselin was at first scared and thought he was mad at her, that he would hit her because she was deceitful and send her back to Jarl Steinnes. Robert had been so happy before. So happy with life and happy for her company before he knew she was a slave. Then he was ashamed and disgusted by himself, and Eira realises that Robert saw himself as a creature instead of a man, because it didn't matter that Iselin wanted to have sex with him when she wasn't really free. Even when Iselin stated that she wanted sex of her own free will, he said no, because he is not a creature. Iselin said she began to see the same controlled anger and contempt when she told Robert what Eira had been subjected to. How Jarl Steinnes treated her, and Iselin doesn't know everything, but it was enough and she enjoyed how Jarl Steinnes esteem fell like a rock. Eira likes it too and remember what Robert looked like the first time they met. She had thought it was for how she looked and was, but now she understands better.
Robert is a man who says no when the woman can't, and respects and takes care of those under him - even a slave woman. A man. Not a creature.
Iselin said it was wonderful the first time with a man. Wonder what Iselin will say tomorrow. Eira hopes that her sleeping in the cabin doesn't spoil it for them, so it's best that she wakes up early, leaves them alone and then disappears until breakfast. Both are worth all she can do, and so she can show that she is not a burden, but skilled and reliable.