In the morning, Venna, and Orn saddled and loaded three horses for the brief trip to Bosberg.

Briga approached Venna and said, “You will not need your shield, Mother. Allow me to put it away for you.”

Venna gave the goddess a quizzical look, but handed her the shield. Briga walked over to Orn and collected his as well. She then carried them around the back of the house. As Briga returned, Selti had arrived on her own horse. After exchanging brief greetings, they all mounted and headed out.

Orn rode alongside Selti, and gave her a knowing smile as he asked, “How are your arms?”

“Does it ever get to a point where they don’t feel like they’ll fall off?” the red-haired young woman asked in response.

“Not entirely, no. But it does get better. You’ll find you can endure longer, your strikes become stronger and more accurate, and your reflexes sharpen. So you get some gain from the pain,” he said philosophically.

“Rather poetic,” Selti said.

Orn put on a haughty expression, as he said, “I do have a way with words.”

Selti laughed and punched his arm playfully.

Orn turned to Briga. “You’ve been quiet. Is everything all right?”

“Yes, I was just listening to prayers,” said Briga, with a distant look in her eyes.

“I have often wondered about that. How do you keep track of it all?” asked Orn.

“I filter them. People pray for many reasons. I ignore the unrealistic, the unreasonable, and the selfish. I seek those asking for grace to be granted to others. Sadly, those aren’t so common, but it makes them easier to answer personally.”

“Aren’t you worried that limiting your responses will cause people to lose faith in you?”

“Sometimes. But I find most people who pray to their selfish desires know deep down that they are prayers I will not answer,” said Briga.

“How do you have time to sort through all of them? I mean, even only answering some, surely there are still so many,” Orn pressed.

“Time is different for us. We exist within, around and outside of it all at once. For you, time is completely linear,” Briga responded.

“Do you know my father?” Selti asked in a muted voice.

Briga tilted her head, and paused as though listening to a far off voice, before answering, “Yes, he is with the souls of this world awaiting his next fate. But worry not, for he is content. He feels no pain and does not suffer. In that place, he has knowledge of your life as it is and as it is yet to be. We gifted him with the knowing because he was a truly good man in life, and being in that place beyond the veil, he cannot affect or change your fate.”

With a catch in her voice and tears forming in her eyes, Selti asked, “Why did he have to die?”

The faraway look on Briga’s face retreated as she focused on Selti, her face displaying her sympathy for the young woman’s pain. “Life is finite, but souls are eternal. The time souls spend in the world varies in length and purpose. I can tell you that your father fulfilled his role to perfection. With your mother, he helped create and bring you and your brothers into the world. He saw you grow and received a vision of your potential. However, he needed to make way for the future of your life, and that of your family. I know this is an incomplete explanation, but it is all I can offer you. Know that he has foreseen you rise far beyond that which he could have ever hoped, and he is truly proud of the woman he helped to raise.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Selti’s head was down as she gave a brief nod, intermittent teardrops falling from her eyes. After several moments, she took in a shuddering breath, dabbed her eyes with her kerchief, and mouthed the words, ‘Thank you,’ to the Goddess.

Briga responded with a warm smile before facing forward once again, her eyes returning to their far-away gaze.

Around midafternoon, they entered the gates to the courtyard of Jarl Sigtrin’s keep. A guard had run ahead of them so that groomsmen and some servants were waiting to welcome them. After they had dismounted, a servant led them to the garden, where Brenda was enjoying some tea.

The red-haired lady looked up from the parchment she was studying. Upon seeing the arrivals, her hazel-green eyes lit up, and she leapt from her seat and wrapped Selti in an exuberant embrace, and then released her daughter to embrace them all in turn. “I am so happy to see you!” Brenda then turned to the servant who led them from the courtyard. “Can you please find our jarl and Prince Erik and ask them to join us? And perhaps arrange for a light lunch to be brought out to us?”

“Of course, My Lady,” replied the servant, before walking briskly back the way they had come.

Brenda blushed slightly as she said, “I try to tell them to call me Brenda, but they keep addressing me in that way. Where are Vylder and Sorgi?”

Venna smiled and answered, “Oh, they stayed behind. Vylder said he had some things to finish in his forge. He’ll arrive later.”

Selti interjected, saying, “And Sorgi said he will accompany Vylder. He wanted to finish some things around the house.”

“How is it with you, Mrs Sogard?” asked Orn.

“I am well. I have not been so busy in such a long time, but strangely, I am enjoying it.” Brenda glanced at the parchment she had placed on the small table.

Since Sigtrin began courting her in earnest, Selti’s mother had become friendly with the jarl’s keep staff. From them, she learned that after Sigtrin’s wife and child passed, he fell into a deep melancholy. This led to the neglect of his demesne. To support him, she began listening to the complaints that the staff confided in her. Little by little, she had improved the running of the keep, and then, by extension, that of the entire Sofjorland province.

Venna’s face split into a sly grin as she asked her friend, “So… have you decided on the day?”

“Venna!”

“What? Oh, come now, Brenda. You two deserve to be happy. Why waste time?”

Before Brenda could answer her, Jarl Sigtrin and Erik approached. They both paused before the two women and bowed exquisitely. Erik was still slightly awkward. However, Venna noticed his improvement.

“Your majesty,” Orn said in an exaggerated, mocking tone. “I would genuflect, but the grass is damp, and Mother would strike me for dirtying my trouse.”

“Mother will strike you, regardless,” Venna threatened, as she struggled to hide her smile.

Erik flashed his brother an annoyed glance, and then his eyes softened as they fell on Selti. He walked to her, took her hands in his and said, “I’m glad you are here, Selti. I missed you.”

Selti’s fair skin blushed noticeably as she replied, “Don’t be silly, Erik. It’s only been a couple of days.”

“A couple of days too many,” retorted Erik.

Brenda’s face broke into a sly smile as she edged closer to Orn. From the corner of her mouth, she muttered, “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you have been giving your brother some instruction.”

Orn simply smirked and glanced back at her. Then he said to his brother, “How are the lessons coming along?”

“Oh, they are fine. They can be…” Erik coughed guiltily as he his eyes darted to the jarl and back, “They are just fine, thank you.”

Orn regarded his brother for a moment and bit back the gibe he was considering, opting instead to say something kind. “In another week, you’ll be getting married, and a week after that, you’ll join Sir Uhter to learn the ways of Ohlsbachi knights, so you have that to look forward to. I decided I would come along and learn with you.”

Erik’s eyes widened in surprise, and then he smiled at his brother.

Venna and Briga, however, both adopted stern looks, and tried to speak at the same time. Venna turned to Briga, and said, “You first, dear.”

“No, you go, Mother, as I am sure we have the same question,” the Goddess replied.

Venna turned back to Orn and asked, “When did you decide this?”

“I just decided now. Come on, Mother, Briga, with all that lay in front of us, me and… that is, Erik and I will have no time to see each other. So I figured we could make the most of the time training. Plus, it never hurts to learn new things.”

Venna mulled that over for a few moments as she tried to find something wrong in his answer. Then she finally said, “Actually, do you know what? I think that will be fine. It will give Briga and I some time to become better acquainted,” said Venna.

Briga looked at the two brothers through narrowed eyes before pointing at them and saying, “Fine, fine. But no getting drunk!”

Both young men placed their hands on their chests while wearing their best wide-eyed, innocent expressions.

This set the four women to laughing and shaking their heads.