A/N - Please remember this story is (currently) taking place late into season one - so Bjorn is still roughly 10-12 years old.
The familiar warmth of the forge welcomed Agi, day after day. Each time the hammer crackled against red hot steel and a fistful of sparks ignited, Agi envisioned her brother. He had inherited his father's name, Lon, as well as his good looks. A broad face, an endearing smile, rusty hair, and auburn eyes akin to her own. The memory of Lon brought Agi a relieved sense of joy one moment, and an insufferable pang of sadness the next.
Agi's gaze often stayed onto Ragnar who watched her progress from afar. She wondered if Ragnar had been present when the killing blow had been struck. Perhaps Ragnar had slain Lon himself. Or witnessed Lon fleeing, though Agi still held firm to the belief that Lon wouldn't have simply turned tail. Lon would've stayed and fought until his last breath, knowing Diantha was in the forest picking berries. A sigh rattled in Agi's chest, and with tears lining her lids, Agi peered at Ragnar again, an angry glower blemishing her soiled face.
Floki, who had been prowling alongside the forge, finally broke his silence. "Is it tiring to ignore Ragnar?" he asked, yanking Agi from her thoughts. Agi stared at Floki blankly, then turned her back to quench the steel of her blade. "Where were you Agi? You were not here, not in spirit. Where did you go?" Floki persisted curiously.
Athelstan knew Agi had no intention in answering, yet he found himself answering for her. "Home." he said simply, drawing Floki's attention. Agi briefly glanced at Athelstan in confirmation. "I visited your homeland once during my travels. It is even possible I counseled your brother."
"I very much doubt that Athelstan, my brother never trusted traveling monks." Agi responded nonchalantly.
"A wise man." Floki complimented with a side-glare at Athelstan. "Tell me of her homeland priest, since you remember it so."
Athelstan did remember it quite well, but he judged from the grimace on Agi's face, that sharing such knowledge would only upset her. "Nothing comes to mind." he said softly, breaking eye contact.
Floki scrutinized Athelstan. "...I do not believe you." he stated, his gaze swinging onto Agi. "You are trying to please her long before pleasuring her. Did you know upon meeting you, Agi intended to kill you Athelstan? Such was her dread of bedding you..." Floki trailed off in a giggle.
Agi eased the blade out of the water, acutely aware of Athelstan's hardened stare as Floki walked off to speak to Ragnar. Wiping her palm against her forehead, Agi kept her gaze near Athelstan, but did not look at him outright as she announced. "Floki spoke the truth. I did not think twice about murdering you, until he stopped me...but you should not take it to heart Athelstan, it was not because of you...it was because of the act itself." Agi finally met Athelstan's gaze. "I will not become complacent here...I will be free someday, whether I am breathing or not." she swore.
"You have a strong resolve." Athelstan commented.
Agi's attention shifted past Athelstan, onto the faraway forms of Floki and Ragnar whose mouths were moving as they gazed back at her. "No..not strong as it should be..." she nearly whispered, with a sheer smile at Athelstan. Her tears of sorrow had blackened into tears of anguish. She liked Floki a great deal, yet he was the reason she had been stolen away. Prolonged time in Ragnar's presence, only seemed to belittle her affliction. She did not bear hate for either man, and for that, Agi was swiftly growing to hate herself. Lon was dead, just as Dianthra had been dead the moment she had boarded that vessel and been given the name Agi.
The blade whirled in Ragnar's grasp, as he tested the balance of the sword Agi had crafted. His weathered fingers pecked at the hilt of the sword, glancing from the blade to Agi. "You have done fine work." he complimented.
Agi did not thank him, not even when Floki's elbow twanged into her side. "Mm I think she knows, Ragnar." Floki remarked cheerfully.
Ragnar smirked. "I would like to see how you wield it now." he told Agi, offering her the sword.
Several seconds leaped by, during which Agi imagined pushing her palm against the handle so that the sword impaled Ragnar's chest. Agi did not act on her imagining of course, but it did cause a smile to coat her lips as she took the blade. "Is it to be a fight to the death?" Agi asked.
"That is for you to decide Agi." Ragnar answered. "I only promise you a fair fight."
Agi's gaze darted from Athelstan's concerned glower, up to Floki's indifferent mug. "Bjorn will not kill you Agi. During breakfast he did little else but stare at your breasts, he does not wish you dead." Floki assured her.
"Bjorn?" Agi repeated. "He's a child."
It was then that Bjorn appeared at the opposite end of the hall, with a sword of his own and a fevered gleam to his youthful eyes. "I am not a little boy Agi. I am Bjorn Lothbrok! I challenge you on my father's name." he declared, pointing his sword in her direction.
Ragnar was pleased by how startled Agi looked and took a moment to bask in her anxiety. "...You cannot avenge your people...but you can save others - those that will be slain by Bjorn when he becomes a man who follows in my stead."
Agi's features had contorted from horror to awe. "You risk your firstborn? For what purpose? Entertainment?!" she demanded with a hiss of venom. For once Ragnar did not respond, merely stared at her indistinctly as she so often stared at him. Agi's attention shifted to Floki again. "I do not wish to fight." she said lowly, her heart thundering in her chest.
"Bjorn does." Floki replied simply.
"Agi!" Bjorn baited.
"...What happens if I kill him?" Agi asked.
Agi hadn't been aware of Rollo sitting in a corner of the room, until a small laugh exhumed from his lungs. "First you ask not to fight, now you ask what happens if you kill him?" Rollo jeered. "You had working too hard at the forge brother, now her own flame has gone out..."
It was true Agi felt timid about going against a child, blood thirsty or not. "Why can I not fight Rollo?" she retorted, her head held high.
A smile threatened to emerge from Ragnar's mouth. "Is that what you wish?" he inquired, watching out of the corner of his eye as Rollo stood. Agi nodded once. "Do you not fear him?" he continued.
"Should I?" Agi replied evenly.
Floki piped. "Rollo would not fight a slave, it is beneath him."
The corner of Rollo's mouth twitched into a sneer. "I would make an exception for her." he promised. Casting a glance at Ragnar and Bjorn, he dejectedly added. "But not today."
Ragnar decided to indulge Agi. "Bjorn must learn to fight a woman as he would a man. You will not stray you r hand nearly as much, because you are not one of us. You are the best choice."
Agi glanced to Floki again. "I am to be a training lesson, yet you bet I would kill him...?"
"I bet that you could kill him, not that you would." Floki corrected. "Lagertha does not think you a killer. And Ragnar is undecided."
"Enough talk." Rollo grumbled, squatting down in his corner again.
Her breath huffed from her cheeks in an unsteady beat, the tip of her sword inches from Bjorn's miniature throat. His gray eyes stared up at Agi fearlessly while Agi felt the heavy combined gaze of Ragnar, Rollo and Floki bearing into her. Would they really do nothing if she beheaded Bjorn? Surely Lagertha would, if they did not. Ragnar had implied killing Bjorn may bring her an semblance of peace, but Agi disagreed. Bjorn's death, would not equal out her losing Lon. Agi leaned down slightly to whisper to Bjorn. "You will grow up handsome, more so than your father...will you be a pillager just as he is?" she wondered.
"Yes." Bjorn answered flatly. "I will do what Father bids."
Agi slowly withdrew her blade from his throat. "You have the freedom to think for yourself, do not forsake that for family." she told him.
"What do you know of it?" Bjorn retorted, scrambling to his feet and retrieving his sword from where it had skirted free of his grasp.
As the swords of Bjorn and Agi clattered against each other anew, Ragnar spoke quietly to Floki, so that neither Athelstan nor Rollo could hear. "You have not yet told Agi her brother lives...?" he remarked.
"She'd not yet believe me if I did." Floki replied.
"Do you think he will come for her?" Ragnar asked, not sounding bothered in the least at the notion.
"I think, that is a decision for the Gods, Ragnar." Floki answered with a coy smile.
Lon's hand slammed against the tabletop angrily. "Lord smite you, you cowardly fuck!" he growled in a gruff voice , his livid gaze enarling the royally dressed Denyn. Denyn was the same age as Lon, but paler and less muscular. He had black hair, and striking blue eyes, which were currently widened in alarm.
"Lower your voice." Denyn commanded casually, gesturing with his hand for emphasis.
Fury still coursing through his veins, Lon rounded the table,."You wished to wed Dianthra, now you are telling me she is not worth rescuing?!" he shouted.
Denyn sighed in annoyance, sinking into his red velvet-lined chair. "Firstly, we do not know where those barbarians took her..." he began.
"I told you I watched their fleet leave, they were headed north." Lon reminded shortly.
"Secondly," Denyn continued, ignoring Lon. "We do not know their full numbers. This Ragnar Lothbrok, would not bring all of his men on a single pillage, especially one as insignificant as..."
Denyn was interrupted by Lon grabbing the front of his shirt, and tugging him onto his feet. "Insignificant? My homeland may have been viewed as such to you m'lord, but it was still the home of my sister and myself. Those barbarians demolished it with fire, while women and children still cowered within their houses!" *
Denyn remained silent a moment, hoping Lon would settle down. "...What you're asking of me, is not possible Lon. I do not have the proper means to voyage into the unknown...not even for Dianthra..." he said carefully. Lon whisked Denyn back into his chair, with enough force to cause the chair to briefly hobble backward on two legs.
Lon turned his back on Denyn, surveying the countryside through the window. He knew Denyn was a noble of little importance, who had inherited what meager wealth he had. "She is my sister Denyn. I cannot do nothing." he stated, his hands now resting on his hips.
"...If you find Dianthra alive, she will not be the same woman she was..."
"She is alive Denyn. That is all that matters."
Denyn hesitated to ask, but his curiosity was irking him too much to remain silent. "How are you so sure they didn't murder her before setting the land ablaze? Did you see her aboard their vessels?"
Lon nodded, as he faced Denyn again. "More than that, I saw the one who took her. Lankiest one of the bunch...he bested me in combat...let me flee...if I had only fled sooner, maybe then I would've found Dianthra before she charged forth to find me..." Lon hung his head, running a hand down his chiseled jaw as tears clouded his vision. "...I stood by while they took her..." he confessed.
"What else could you have done?"
"I COULD'VE FOUGHT!"
"They'd have killed you Lon!" Denyn snapped. "It was the lord's mercy that the lanky one didn't kill you the first time you tried your blade." Denyn rose from his chair. "If you hadn't hid and watched, Dianthra's last memory of you would've been your death. Likely she presumes you are dead, but she does not know, she did not see...and stubborn as Dianthra is, she will cling onto the hope that you survived even if it goes against her nature to do so. Do not think for a minute that the barbarians will break her Lon. She will prevail, she may even escape!"
Lon studied Denyn long and hard. "If you will not provide me manpower, then build me a ship. I will hire my own ship-hands, and I will find her myself."
"...Do you realize how foolish you sound?"
"Do you realize what the fool you are, for thinking I would sit idly by?"
"The fight is over Bjorn." Ragnar announced. "You've lost.."
"Father!" Bjorn protested.
"That will do." Floki insisted, snagging the sword from Bjorn as he approached Agi. Tossing the weapon aside, Floki embraced Agi with a grin. "You see her regret settling in Ragnar? Just as I said – she could've killed him several times, but chose not to." he declared eagerly, clasping a hand on Agi's shoulder as Ragnar ruffled the scalp of a scowling Bjorn.
Ragnar nodded, though when he spoke, he spoke to Agi. "Floki wished to ease the burden of your mourning. I thought there would be no better way than this...was I right?" In truth, Agi did feel vindicated. She had allowed herself to think of her brother Lon, she had been able to stretch her limbs in combat, and felt the gritty warmth of a forge engulf her. Agi did not respond though, she merely stepped forward to return her blade to Ragnar. "The sword is yours Agi. Slaves are expected to fight and die for their masters." Ragnar told her.
"Come Agi, Helga is awaiting us." Floki said, his arm snaking around Agi's waist as he led her home.
"We will fight again Agi!" Bjorn declared.
A/N - Almost 50 followers! Thank you everyone. I apologize if the ending was a little sudden, but I didn't want to wait any longer to update.
Although I introduced Lon, I won't be focusing on him again. Also, his remark about the homes being burned with women and children inside, he could be exaggerating or he could not. (I can't really see Ragnar allowing that.) Please review!