Maude wasn't familiar with
Brenna's family aside from her brother, but she had a sneaking suspicion that Brenna was treated with far more fragility than necessary at home. The admission of her always wanting to learn how to ride might not have gone over well in
Faarin, but here with the Queen she would be treated with the respect of the young woman trying to make her own way, as she was.
"That so?" a brow lofted in curiosity at the mute,
"Perhaps a few lessons can be arranged. I expect we'll be here for a while." The words were spoken while her hands did their best to sign the same. Even if Brenna could read lips, it behooved Maude to get as much practice in as she could. She'd already given Brenna permission to correct and critique her Sign as needed.
"And what of me?" this, next, from Gylfi. The question garnered a switch of her gaze and a general look-over.
"That remains to be seen. This journey is far from over and your duty as Brenna's guard will end only once she is safely back in the capital." It was imperative to her that he not forget his assignment and prove to her that he took it seriously. The strong line of her jaw suggested very little in the way of room for him to wiggle out of his responsibility. Maude sighed,
"But, I understand this is your home. You have family...friends here, yes? So long as Brenna remains at your side I see no reason you cannot enjoy your time, visit those you care for, show Brenna around. But you must stay within the city. I will have need of you. Both of you. Brenna has her own duties she will need to attend to with the Priests."
With that matter settled, Maude offered Brenna a short smile before stepping off to find Solveig. He was off to the side of the camp, mending a tent and keeping to himself - smart man. She saw no reason to interrupt or pull him from the job, and so Maude took a seat on a nearby stump.
"Indeholm is also your home, is it not?"
Setting a pole straight, reinforcing it, lashing it with sinew. He had supplies, and though he felt Maude's approach on the wind and carried scent, he said nothing until she did. Wasn't much more to say. What had started as a daring feat ended in disaster. Much as it often did for him. Volund knew why he had been picked. When the Queen spoke, he spared her a glance to see he sitting and nodded.
"Aye. All my early life. Grew up chasing after piglets and feeding Gylfi's socks to them."
Maude raised her brows at the last part,
"Indeed?" Well, perhaps that explained a bit about Gylfi.
"And why was it you decided to move to the Capital?"
"Old enough and frustrated my father enough. Always under foot and getting into things. He thought learning a trade and aging would settle me down." The conclusion to his father's hopes was seen in the mischievous smile he fixed Maude with and sat down to lash a few more poles, humming quietly but now facing her.
"This was before or after you Took the Path?"
"Not long after. I found that way young, and so my parents believed I would mature quickly. But trouble follows me, it seems. The mischief of Chaos, ever the opposite of Volund and his calm creation." Touching the pendant briefly at his neck, he then nodded, eyes fixed on his work but clearly lost in thought.
Maude narrowed her eyes at the pendant. The name of Volund, one of the Old Gods of her people, was spoken so rarely anymore that the very existence of the Old Ways had become more of a fable than a true history. The Priests of Sittekar knew of them, of course, and she as one of royal blood had the opportunity to seek out knowledge from her family's expanded archive. But the Old Ways were no longer taught - forsaken or forgotten, it depended on who you asked. The
Nordenfiir of today knew only one God and his name was Eogorath.
Perhaps there were more pockets of the Old Faith than she knew. Curious as the subject was, now was not the time for it.
"This trouble of yours is bothersome, Solveig. The duty I have placed upon you is one of utmost importance - not just to me, but to our people. After your stunt today with the boar, I question if I can trust you to see your task through. Am I wrong?"
"The task will be done. It carries weight more import than my impulses. Which are fewer than usual, since... Well..." Here he raised his hands, still wrapped in soft leathers as an indicator. Volund was an obscure name, and he hadn't talked much to Maude about his time with the Priests. What they had told him had happened. What he was supposed to be.
"I have to learn to grow beyond the impulses. They are of my less ideal self. But the priests who healed me also explained what I did at that Keep. And there isn't a choice... Everything has to change, or what I can do will turn from creation and beauty to chaos and destruction."
Maude's gaze shifted to his hands. The significance of what happened at the Keep wasn't something she wished to overlook, but her life presently held too many significant things and the Old Gods just wasn't one of them. Despite what the Priests had told her, and she suspected it was not all that they told him if only not to upset the ways of current faith (speaking of the Old Gods was as
taboo as it was offensive or viewed as simply a joke), the Queen felt it pertinent to set aside.
"I want to believe you," she admitted with some sourness to her words,
"but change is a difficult thing. I need you to show me you are capable of fulfilling your duty. By the next full moon we will be at the southern Portal Stone and I want to stand there, bidding you a safe journey, without any doubt in my mind." Maude inhaled deeply, lips pressing into a thin line as she sat up in alert to a newcomer's scent in the campsite,
"Can you do this for me? Put my mind at ease?"
"I can. Though, warning on freeing the mother boar... If you do, she's apt to check on her piglets and then come back to the camp. She will listen to me now that she is broken. Take the piglets. You can gift or sell them in the town, but gifting might look more befitting of a Ring-Giver visiting a Jarl under them..." Tapping his temple, he smiled.
"Good for more than thinking of ways to torment my childhood neighbor or kiss pretty girls...."
Maude narrowed her eyes at the man, no humor to be found there in the acidic green,
"You were told to release the boar and you will do so tonight when you have finished your repairs. The piglets are not to be touched, I will deal with the mother myself if she returns."
"As ordered, so done. Merely a suggestion alone. I would not keep her for myself. And the piglets are left be. No harm meant. Only suggesting help."
A nod was given in reply - about the closest thing one could get to a 'thank you' coming from Maude. She stood, clamped a hand on the man's shoulder with a squeeze that might've easily crushed bones were it not meant in a gesture of camaraderie.
"Don't take too long, I cannot promise Hugi will save you any dinner." And off she went to greet the new face in the camp.
A dark haired woman in a dress met her gaze near the main fire, one whom she approached with a calm but tethered sense of suspicion.
"Queen Maude," she bowed her head respectfully.
"I am Ruvsá. I trained as a Shield Maiden in Hjerim, and have been a jarna of Aggar's since just before the Usurper took the throne. I have information you need to see before you enter Indeholm."
Maude looked upon her, unsmiling, and offered Ruvsa a welcoming gesture with an outstretched arm,
"Well met, Jarna Ruvsa. Come, we will speak at my tent." A sideglance was given to
Valthar and
Arnor Skuldsson before she turned and lead the way back through the trees to a separate, smaller fire and black tent.
"Have a seat, what information is it I need to see?"
