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The Ritual	By : Svb84 Category: +A through F > Assassin's Creed Views: 795 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own assassins creed valhalla and make no money from this fiction.

Chapter List
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Ivarr stalked around the clearing, almost vibrating with anger as he knelt down looking at the drag marks in the muddy ground. A mental picture formed in his mind as he followed the muddled footsteps that led out of the clearing and back to the road, ending in a mess of hoof prints that headed East. He walked back into the clearing, ignoring the words of his men as they tried to speak with him and coming to a stop before the clearly out of season flowers that bloomed all the brighter against the brown winter scrub. Deep in thought he mulled over the evidence, it didn't take long for his sharp mind to settle on the truth, the city of Eorforwic was infested with rats of the two legged variety. Ivarr picked up the stave from the ground, clutching it tightly. “Get our best scouts and trackers, I want to know where they took her before the next dawn!” Ivarr was angry, so very fucking angry. How dare those Saxon bastards put their hands on her again. He would slaughter a hundred men for every scratch they put on her perfect skin. He kicked at the dead leaves in frustration catching a glimpse of a cold glimmer in the mud. He crouched, brushing away the dirt and decomposing leaves, picking up Lyja’s necklace with a trembling hand and carefully rubbing away the mud with his thumb as the rage possessed him. He squeezed it tightly in his fist, hardly feeling the pendant cutting into his hand as he trampled through the clearing towards his horse. If they thought him a monster now, they would think of him as a Demon from their hell before he was through.
Lyja woke up in the dark, the only light to be found was a small shaft of sunlight cutting through the blackness from a tiny grate high up on the wall. Her nose and throat were clogged with blood, making it difficult for her to breathe. Raising her hand to her face she felt for damage, thankfully her nose was not broken, just bloody and swollen. She picked the dried blood at the edge of her nostrils with trembling hands, teasing out the gory plugs that blocked them, after that she put her finger in her mouth and used her nail to dislodge the clot from her palate, she choked on the wet scab, vomiting it on to the dirty floor. Someone groaned in the darkness, making her jump. “Hej,” she whispered croakily, not daring to speak any louder in case the Saxons heard. Lyja stretched out her feet, feeling for her cellmate, her bare foot found another. She crawled across the filthy dungeon floor, dripping fresh blood from her nose and felt her way up the body of the groaning person with shaking hands. “Halla?!” She whispered “Is that you Halla?”. Two taps on her hand confirmed it. Lyja pulled her into her arms as she sobbed. “Is Una here?” One tap on her hand, no. “Do you know where she is?” Another no from Halla leaving Lyja fearing the worst.
“We caught this one riding toward Bamburgh, stupid bitch was using the road”. The men threw Hluda to the ground before Ivarr. She stared at the floor as her body shook with fear. Ivarr stepped towards her silently, recognising her immediately as the serving girl Lyja had befriended, he should have known better than to let it happen. This treacherous bitch should not have been able to get so close to his Lyja. Ivarr was incensed, he grabbed Hluda’s hair in his fist and dragged her into the warehouse, slamming the door behind him and throwing her into a table. He grabbed the front of her dress and pulled her up, punching her twice in the face busting her nose and mouth. Throwing Hluda to the floor, he walked back and forth as he railed at her, calling her every insult he could think of as he aimed savage kicks at her body, stamping on her ankles as she tried to ball up to protect herself, crying and petrified on the dirt floor. Ivarr strung her up by her wrists before he went too far and killed her, alongside four others he suspected of treachery. “Was it worth it?” he asked as he forced Hluda to look at him. “Please, I'm sorry.I had no choice”. She begged and begged, usually music to his ears but the hate he felt as he looked at this ungrateful cunt burned in his chest. He slapped her hard “Shut your whore mouth!”. Ivarr gripped her face, digging his fingers cruelly into Hluda’s jaw, the blood and drool from her split lip dripping onto his dirty fingernails. “Why?” He spat “Why her? What did she ever do to you?”. Hluda just whimpered and screwed up her eyes, refusing to speak. Ivarr spat in her face, disgusted with her mewling. He walked to the door and called in his men “Strip her,tie her over a barrel and throw her in the barracks, make sure everyone gets a turn and when they’re done…slit her throat”. Hluda wailed and screamed “No! Please No!”. Ivarr scoffed “Do you have something to tell me?”. “I’ll tell you everything, please” she wailed “There were six of us, the men, they took the witches to the castle. The guard at the gate house was paid to send them out without an escort. Please, that’s all I know,please let me go!”. Ivarr walked past her to the row of hanging bodies, stopping at the corpse of a man, all that was left of him was his head and torso. Ivarr spun it around to show Hluda “You mean…this guard?, who do you think gave you up?, I already know where she is” he watched her, savouring her expression, watching the realisation dawn on her features. She gasped before she let out a scream,begging and pleading for her life,swearing she had told all she knew,that she had more to tell if he would only listen. Her pleas fell on deaf ears as Ivarr walked towards her with his axe in hand, raising it over his head as he reached her. He chopped the rope that held her, letting her fall to the floor. Nodding to his men as he walked to the door, opening it for them as they dragged Hluda to the barracks.
The Ragnarsson’s Great Army stood with Bamburgh Castle in sight at long last, after having fought for so long to get to its gates. The brothers rode up to the castle gate with their commanders to meet with King Aella and his Thegns. The Saxon King stood atop his high castle wall with all that was left of his supporters, waiting for the Dane invaders to find his gift.
There was someone tied to the gate. Its pale hands bound at the wrist above its head. Ivarr’s stomach lurched and his chest ached as they got closer. Now able to make out the dark robes of a Volva and the blood that covered her. “Please don’t be her,” he pleaded to any god that would hear that it was not Lyja. Offering his hard earned place in Valhalla that it was not the woman he loved hanging from that gate.
Barely holding his emotions in check as he steeled himself in preparation, he kept his eyes forward as he avoided the concerned looks of his brothers. They continued on toward the castle, his face a mix of grief, worry and anger. The relief that surged through him took his breath as he saw that it was Una. She had been brutally murdered, her face beaten and mutilated so badly she was only recognisable by her grey hair. Relief was soon replaced by anger, he hated the old cow but to see one of their most revered leaders treated with such disrespect made him furious.
Aella laughed as he watched their reaction “How do you like my welcoming gift?” He taunted from the safety of the battlements “I would offer bread and salt but well…this is so much better don’t you think?” A ripple of nervous laughter passed through the Thegns beside him as they looked down upon the Ragnarssons. “You Dane’s are nothing without your witches, how do you mean to breach my wall’s now?”Aella shouted,his face reddening as he yelled.
Halfdan spat on the ground “You will pay for the lives you have dishonoured, Ergi! Why not show some courage and come meet me in a fair fight?, save the lives of your men and have this done with, once and for all. Or are defenceless old women your limit?”.
“Ha,defenceless?” He scoffed “I’ve seen what these heathen bitches are capable of, is it not my Christian duty to send them to Hell?”. The Thegns that stood around him clapped and cheered in agreement.
The Ragnarssons laughed derisively at the deluded Saxons “Look around you!” Ivarr yelled “You are surrounded, your fortress besieged by Dane warriors!, the only land you still have a claim to is beneath your feet. Its over you fat shit,we won!”.
Ubba smiled wryly “We have come for your head, pig!”.
Aella seemed a little rattled, temporarily letting his confident facade drop. He covered it with a loud laugh as he signalled one of his men to bring out the prisoners. His Thegn pulled Lyja and Halla out onto the battlements, their hands bound and their faces bloody and bruised. Aella grabbed a handful of Lyjas hair in his fist and held her head over the battlements so Ivarr could get a good look at the state his woman was in “I have your Pagan whore Boneless. Leave now! Get your brothers to renounce this ridiculous war of revenge or she dies!”. He had begun to sound and look desperate as he played his last card.
Lyjas eyes met Ivarrs from afar, she flashed him a defiant smile as she tried to be brave, she knew that it was more than likely she would die behind these walls and she couldn’t stand the thought of Ivarr seeing her snivelling and crying the last time they saw each other. The last time he saw her alive.
Ivarr seethed when he saw what had been done to his beloved, his heart hurt as she smiled at him, showing her strength where most would be broken.“I’m going to hurt you before you die!” he yelled. Halfdan quieted him before he could make the situation worse, “Enough talk” he said, sensing that this meeting was getting out of hand. He looked between his brothers “Let’s go rally the army and see this done”. They began to turn their horses and head back to the main camp “Leaving so soon?” Aella mocked, stopping them in their tracks, “I’m sure we can agree terms, as a show of good faith you can have this one!”. He kicked Halla in the back, sending her flying over the wall. She hit the floor with a sickening wet crunch, her head cracking like an egg on the stony ground. Lyja screamed and sobbed as she fought angrily against her captors. Swearing and spitting viciously at the murderous King as she tried to get at him. “I’m coming for you!” Ivarr yelled as they dragged her away “Kill him!” Lyja shouted back faintly as she was dragged back down to the dungeons beneath the fortress. “Kill him!”
Lyja was thrown back into the dark cell, hitting the wall and crying out in pain as she jarred her shoulder painfully. She slid down to the floor as the door slammed shut. Her mouth opened in a soundless wail as the despair overwhelmed her. Her tired body trembled with it until she found her voice. Lyja’s anguished screams echoed into the dark until her voice broke and her body shook with the wracking sobs of her grief. She wailed and moaned as the memory of Hallas final moments flashed through her mind. The noise as she hit the floor would stay with her forever. Her breaths became harder to catch and her heart pounded in her chest as panic overtook her, she felt hot and prickly all over with sweat whilst her head swam. Her eyes rolled, Lyja passed out,slumped against the wall of her cell.
Her eyes opened on a painfully bright spring day, the fresh grass tickling her nose. “Finally you come, child of Freyja”. She felt something nudging her side, encouraging her to stand. Stumbling to her feet she looked around with bleary eyes, trying to see who it was that spoke. A large fluffy cat came out from behind her, calmly walking towards a large shady tree, where Urðr waited. “Come” the cat said as it patiently waited for her to catch up. The beast was odd, even if it hadn't spoken to her with a human voice. Its pelt had a green mossy cast to it that she had never seen in her waking life and she could see the spark of intelligence in its amber eyes.
Lyja followed behind her as they approached the Norn who was busy with her weaving. Lyja looked at her work “Why can't I see the other part?” She asked the Norn. Urðr put down the sword carefully, letting it dangle from the frame of the loom and turned to Lyja “It is the fork in your road, Freyja’s chosen. Something that may or may not come to pass” it said gesturing with a graceful hand towards the tapestry.
The cat sat down beside Urðr “Sit,child. There is much that needs to be said”. Lyja did as she was told, sitting in the soft grass at Urðr’s feet. “Who are you?” Lyja said, addressing the she cat. The beast flicked its tail behind it as it stared at her “My name is Ulda and I am a forest spirit and the guardian of the Stave of Yggdrasil”. Lyja smiled “You’re a Huldre?, are you the spirit that’s in my head?”. The spirit cat hissed, showing her displeasure “We have no time for idle words!” She growled. Lyjas face dropped as she was taken aback by the cat's words and temperament. Urðr raised her hand quieting them both as she began to speak.
“Dark times are coming, Freyja’s chosen. You must travel to Uppsala. You will find there women of worth who will teach you all you must know”. Lyja scoffed “Darker than these?” She said with a mirthless laugh “I’m dying alone in a cell. How am I supposed to get to Uppsala?”. Ulda growled at her again, warning her to listen. “You must bring down the walls that hold you” Urðr continued “There are enemies in Midgard that seek to pervert the order of all things, they must not be allowed to succeed”. Lia shook her head “But I have no staff!”. The cat laughed at her. Lyja shot it a venomous look “You don’t need a wooden stick when you have me” It bragged as it began to lick its paws. “I have you,do I?” She said sarcastically “Well this is the first I’ve heard of it, when exactly were you planning to make an appearance, My Lady”. The Huldre hissed viciously,flattening its ears. “Enough!” Urðr said, raising her voice “You have heard my words. If the both of you wish to continue to live you will cease this bickering and work together, or all will be for nothing!” Lyja stood as she lost her temper “Do this. Do that!. It’s all I ever hear and where has it got me?. Fucking nowhere! And still you want more!. When will it be enough?” She watched the Huldre cat trotting away from them as she railed “That’s right, do what you do best and disappear!” She yelled after it before losing her footing and falling into the abyss, hearing the Norn sigh wearily as she fell.
Halfdan sent a few men to collect the bodies of the Volva before they left. The jeers of the Saxon’s rang in their ears as they cut Una down and put her carefully on a horse, doing the same for poor Halla. They rode back to the camp at the edge of the battlefield and delivered them to their Sisters. The Sons of Ragnar stood before the remaining Volur with their heads bowed in respect. “You have our deepest sympathies” Halfdan said with no small amount of emotion in his voice. “I'm sorry we could not bring them back to you alive”. Asdis dropped to her knees placing her hand over the bloody sack that had been used to cover the Elders face “Do not look” Halfdan said gently “I would get one of the other Volur to see to them”. Asdis looked at him blankly as she processed his words.The understanding dawned slowly on her pale face “We will see to them.We owe them that much.” She said,forcing the words out as she tried to hold back her tears.
“Is Lyja not with you?” Inga asked, her eyes overflowing with tears as she looked for her Sister. “Where is she?”. Ubba answered her “She lives but she is still captive, they are using her as leverage, she’s safe for now”. “Safe? You call that safe?!” Asdis said. “They need her alive, she is the only thing they have to barter with now” Ubba said, trying and failing to console them.
Ivarr stared at the floor, listening to Ubba trying to make everything better. The Elders were gone, there was no Seidr to fall back on and there was an army of Saxons and thick fortress walls between him and his woman. They would kill her as soon as he got close just to spite him. “I should have protected her, I’m sorry” he said, unable to lift his eyes from the ground. Everyone went silent as they looked at him, watching as he walked away.
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The Ritual