Good morning Smár Einn!

Thank you to Mel and Jill!

.: Þrír Tigir ok Tveir :.

Supper is less lively without Arni or the children to entertain us. Erik is not treated poorly, but he is very clearly not part of the family either.

He helps me to serve dinner, and when we eat, he sits separately with his food after we've all sat with ours. It hurts my heart, even though he doesn't seem to mind it.

"How long has Erik lived here?" I ask Tove.

"Egil found him five summers past. He was an orphan, begging for food on the streets. Egil brought him back to give him a better life."

It's debatable. I look up at Erik, who is wolfing the food down. He's a child; he shouldn't be preoccupied by work for someone else.

"We have given him a good life," Egil says, and I look over at him.

"I'm sure you have," I say, not wanting to offend them. Egil frowns, and I can tell he's trying to understand what is concerning me. "Will he one day be able to buy his own freedom?"

Egil looks surprised.

"If he wants," he says slowly. "I would allow it. But he has a good life here. We will find him a good wife and support him for as long as he wishes to stay with us."

I'm baffled by this. I don't understand them at all, and I don't want to risk offending my new family after I've just joined them, so I nod to Egil, turning my attention back to my food. This is a topic I cannot agree with them on, and for now, I think it is perhaps better for me to stay silent.

…

After supper, I help Tove with Halvard. She leaves to bathe while I take the baby into my arms. I settle on a pile of furs, cradling him against my chest. He is so very tiny, and so very beautiful. I'd never gotten around to thinking about children in my old life, but now, being as surrounded as I've been by children, I can't help but think about them.

Before I arrived here, I'd never felt capable or competent in my life. There was always too much that I didn't know, that I couldn't do. I didn't even know if I could take care of myself, let alone someone else.

Halvard wiggles in my arms, his little mouth widening with a yawn. His eyes are still closed, a sleepy look over his peaceful face, and I feel something in me swell. I feel connected to this child who I had a part in helping enter this world. I never thought I'd be able to say that for anyone but a child I birthed, and it is a feeling I don't really know how to name other than I feel a new form of love unfurling in my chest.

For as long as Halvard lives, there will be someone on this earth that I share this special connection with. Someone I met at the very beginning of their journey. When Halvard has children, and his children have children, there will be a lineage that I had a tiny, beautiful role in helping to bring forth.

It's sobering to think about, and the feelings in me urge me to pull him a little closer to my chest.

"Sweet, Tiny Thing," I whisper to him in English because the words pouring out of me are too raw to translate. "Our fates are bound now. The blood of my children will find the blood of yours. Generations will come and go, but our families will always be united." I smile, brushing my thumb across his forehead, a featherlight touch. "You and your descendents will always have my blood to call on. You will never be alone."

Halvard lets out another tiny yawn, and I lean down, pressing a soft kiss to his head. My eyes flutter shut when I breathe in the gentle milk-and-honey scent of him.

There isn't much I can do in this world that is truly in my control, but this right here, this moment is real, and I feel it slide into my soul; this is a vow my children's children will carry, and for as long as we are, we will honor this vow.