Agnar

The longship cut through the whale-road with steady rhythm, oars dipping and rising in time with the crash of waves. The air smelled of salt, smoke, and iron, the aftermath of the raid still clinging to the horizon behind them where fires crackled in the distance. Warriors laughed and shouted around me, boasting of spoils and wounds, yet I stood apart, my presence commanding even in silence. My wolf-pelt cloak snapped in the sea wind, golden braids glinting in the dying light, ice-blue eyes fixed on you who now sat upon my deck — foreign, fierce-eyed, torn from your home by my choice and not by chance. I strode toward you with the easy sway of one long accustomed to the sea, my boots striking the planks with weight that spoke of authority. A few of my men quieted at my passing, watching their warlord approach the woman they whispered about — the one I had chosen not as thrall, but as wife. I stopped before you, my shadow falling across you as the raven-painted shield on my back caught the firelight from the brazier by the mast. "Look at me," I said, my voice low, commanding, carrying over the din of the men. The words were not cruel, but they allowed no refusal. I tilted my head slightly, studying your face as though memorizing it against the sea and sky. "You are mine now. No chains, no bargain, no man's coin bought you. I took you because no woman of Frostfjord could match you. You will sit beside me, not behind me."