Creating something new, day 4

MP3s, camera and videos.

Bad day. Too much wind, but it could be worse. It can always be worse. Choose to stay in the cabin, and that Ciara and Kari leave for a bit so I can talk to Iselin alone. Tell her that I think I need to show and tell Ciara and Kari a bit about myself and Midgard, so I can use technology when they're around.

Kari already knows that I come from another world but doesn't understand that it is completely different, and I think the same applies to Ciara. But I want Iselin's opinion and I want her to feel special, so I won't play Cecilia's song for them, which she's happy about and I won't play 'Ich Will' either. Those two are ours. But I will probably need 'Ohne Dich', as well as 'Shadows', because I have videos for them, which Iselin agrees with. So I'm going to use the same solution and introduce music first, and then the camera and camera pictures, followed by music videos.

So after warning Alith and Hillevi that they might hear funny tones etc, I, Iselin, Ciara and Kari sit in our little cabin as I explain to them. The same explanation I gave Iselin about the world, technology, accessibility to music etc. Modified playlist this time.

I come from Midgard, a completely different world. I came here when the whole sky was colored a month ago. We are hairier as their legends say, and we have round ears and not really as many hair and eye colors as Elfs have, but especially hair we can color in so many colors they have nothing to compare too, and women even have several colors in patterns on their hair. I know there is some hair coloring here, especially bleaching as blonde hair is considered most attractive, but that is probably because younger people in the north are often blonde and get darker hair color as they age, and its the same for Elfs. Vanity and the desire to look good is nothing new.

Continue explaining that large parts of Midgard is very advanced and its about 700-1000 years since it looked like here, but they can't really understand how much Midgard have advanced in that time. Few mysteries remain, and they're not that huge. I explain what technology really is, and when I do certain things here, it's something most people can easily find out in Midgard. But since so much of the knowledge and technology steps between are missing, its really difficult for me to do things here. Take for example a compass, a North arrow. Show my own hiking compass and explain that this can be bought for a part of a daily wage from the richer part of the world I come from. My black tshirt is about double the cost. But we have ways to find our way in nature they can't understand, it will simply be too sejdish, and I can't show them that it really works, because here it doesn't.

But they can understand music. The can understand how huge the difference is in Midgard in accessibility. So I ask them to listen, it's just music, but in a way they've never heard before. Just like with Iselin, I try to prevent them from seeing the cell phone by sitting at the head end and letting them lie down next to each other on my bed. Both Kari and Ciara are quick to follow my directions. Then I start 'Nuvole bianche' and they're surprised when the music plays and the notes fill the cabin. It ends and 'Sad Romance' start up, and I show that I can pause and start.

They have now heard two pieces of music that I chose because they are close to what they may have heard before. The next song is for Ciara to see if she reacts, and its Aoife Ni Fhearraigh singing 'Mo Ghrá Thú'. Beautiful for the rest of us, but Ciara just lies there crying and holding me. Apparently it is close enough for her to understand the meaning of the text, and is the first time she has heard anything resembling her native language in a year. I didn't know it was a religious text. It makes me sad but she interpret that the music is about me, and explains how she understands it;

"I love you, my Lord. You are my strength. My rock to hold on to. My shield and salvation."

I start to cry as she thanks me deeply for letting her hear that song. So we play it again. After it end and as we've started to gather ourselfs, Iselin tells them that I made similar mistakes with her, and that I don't really understand how they will react to some things.

There is another change in music with 'Game of Thrones' by Stirling & Hollens. But I can see that Iselin enjoy the music, but she has heard so much much more. 'Canvas of Life' also gets a similar reaction from Kari and Ciara as it did from Iselin, surprised by the choir and the music that emerges. It prepares them a bit for Two Steps From Hell's 'Enchantress'. Kari more than Ciara, is really shocked by the music and she wants to see how I produce it, because she understands exactly how impressed it really is, and say so. She has many times heard musicians and groups performing for the King. But nothing have comes close to this. Nothing. Probably doesn't help when Iselin with a smug smile inject, "You havn't seen anything yet." and Iselin want us to move on to the camera. I promise to show Kari how the music is produced another time.

So I show my compact camera. Iselin helps me take a picture of us. It was something we talked about that shows it is not my sejd, but something Iselin has seen and can use. When they get to see the picture of themselves... The shock is once again greatest for Kari, as she has seen simple paintings or sewn fabrics of people or events. Where persons can barely be recognized, and this little mysterious box has just done it - perfectly. Immediately. And the picture glows instead of having to be illuminated. But I tell them that it saves a moment, that's all. We take a few more pictures. When Iselin photobombs with a silly face, I love her just a little bit more. Then I start flipping back and soon come to the picture of me and Iselin when she saw herself for the first time. Ciara sees herself from the first boat trip, and they both really understand how it saves a moment. Keep scrolling and Ciara and Kari also understand my journey, just as Iselin did. How different my world is, but still familiar.

Asks if they want to continue, and I play some of the movies I've recorded. They both become even more shocked, but Ciara just seem to accept everything as magical, while Kari want to know how the hell it can work. How the hell can this box remember stuff it seen? I promise it isn't in anyway alive, no trapped spirit or anything. Its just really advanced technology, but very common in Midgard. This is something people take for granted, and most have something that can take pictures and record.

To distract Kari from her focus on learning everything, I ask if they want to watch what is called a music video. Ciara just nods, while Kari say "YES!", like it it should be obvious and I'm wasting time. Explains more accurately what they can expect and Iselin helps a lot. Things she herself reacted to that I didn't think about. Like the first one they see is in black and white, without color. For music videos is a fictional work of art, not a memory.

Take out the tablet which they curiously inspect, but I have a suspicion that Kari has seen it before, so she must have spied and I wonder when she could have seen it. When I ask how much she's already seen of the tablet, she gets a bit embarrassed and tell me about when she happened to look through a hole in the wall. I don't think she's completely honest since I can't remember using it when she was there, or that it was a coincidence. I won't pressure her, as I know she will be honest if I ask, so I just say: "Kari, its okay, I won't force a loss.".

Makes her slightly embarrassed, so it was probably just based on the truth.

There's now a picture of Iselin's sexy playful face as a background when the tablet booted up, and Iselin is really pleased about it. Start the camera on the tablet in selfie mode so they can see themselves, and again I take a couple of pictures and record. They have a hard time understanding that the image they see is not a reflex, because the camera is sitting on the side and the movements are wrong, and it's cute how they try to look into the camera, and want to see the image and how their eyes flutter between looking in the camera and on the display. I think Kari and Iselin could spend hours in front of the tablet, and Kari takes the opportunity to see what her faces and expressions look like, so she's seems to be quite good at pretending. But she also make sure that her hair looks good, and so on.

This time I start with 'Shadows', which is a hit. So I play it again. Iselin is very thorough in explaining what will happen before we start 'Ohne Dich'. That its pretend, that even though it looks like what I showed on my camera, this is fabricated and acted. This is just a very advanced way to tell a story like a Saga, so no one dies or is injured. 'Ohne Dich' hits hard anyway, and I think this is the second time I've seen Kari crying. Iselin also cries and she just looks at the screen from the side while she quietly tries to humm along.

I lay down the tablet, but Ciara wonders if I have more songs with her language and I confirm I have about ten. She asks if we can listen to them, and of course I won't say no, so I make a playlist of them, but ask Kari and Ciara to move, since I'm starting to feel leg cramps. So on their suggestion I lie down and both Kari and Ciara half lie on top of me. Cramped but comfortable, and it feels nice to hug them as the music starts.

So we just lie there in the cabin and listen to Gaelic folk music while the ship sails towards Borgarsandr.

An hour later it's quiet. Ciara kisses and hugs me and she's so grateful and happy. I comment that it's a beautiful language to sing in even if I don't understand the lyrics, thats why I have saved these songs, and I'm very happy about that. Kari and Iselin completely agree that it is a beautiful language and music. None of them seem to know what to say, and they've had a lot of revelations today. Iselin got it in stages. Ciara needs more time to process it all, so Iselin gestures to Kari who accompanies her out, and Ciara snuggles in more comfortably and just continue holding me. Ciara doesn't seem to want to let me go, so I just lie there and let her, and it might be thats she's thinking about her life; her old life, life as a slave, and new life with me.

She asks if she can hear 'Mo Ghrá Thú' again, so I do as she asks. When the song ends and before we join the others outside, she asks if I will ever walk back to Midgard. Good question, but very unlikely. She really doesn't like even that little uncertainty. She crawls up and with her intensive purple-blue eyes staring at me, she pleadingly say:

"I beg you! Promise me that if you ever even suspect that there's a chance you'll leave Alfheimr, you must bring me along. Must!" She kisses me as if her life depends on it, then stares into my eyes again. "Must! We have an agreement that I will be your concubine for forever and all the future, so I must follow you wherever you go, and no matter what, you can't abandon me here! PLEASE!"

"I promise!" She's still staring at me, to make sure I mean it. "I promise!"

Ciara almost collapse upon me with relief. She kiss me, say "Thank you." and then rest her head on my chest. "Life without you isn't life, its just eternal pain I don't want to experience, and I will follow you no matter where you travel, no matter how that life will be - in this life or the next."

It hits me hard. Both how the most important thing in Ciara's life is that she's never separated from me, and because Iselin has never asked or said anything like that.

We eat the midday meal and since Ciara still havn't made any move to leave me or my bed, we eat in the cabin while she leans towards me. Just the thought that I one day might just disappear, seems to have scared the hell out of her. Its only when she eventually needs to pee that Ciara regrets that she can't stay, as she can't hold it any more. Tell her that she can come back after peeing, which she gratefully does. I'm grateful that she washed herself since she want sex when she returns, and this time it feels different. It's not the shorter and more buisnesslike 'we should have sex' way she normally is, and more like a woman making sure her man will remember her, and be satisfied before a year long trip. She want us to enjoy her breastrings, but they're only a bit more than a week old, so I ask if we can wait another week or two so they're really healed up, and she do enjoy that I care about her and her health.

I just lay in bed, pretty much completely spent after I don't know how long with Ciara, and I realise that its about one month since I first saw her, when she became my slave Eira, and she still way to skinny. But she looks healthier, and she is happier.

Ciara say that nowadays she also understands what Alith meant by those tingles from the wooden thing she sometimes have in her butt, and she looks forward to when we can appreciate her rings too. Feels slightly wrong to give her such a gift, but maybe I should make a special little thing for Ciara. Wood is so primitive, difficult to keep clean, and can cause wounds and splinters. I want her to be healthy, and a splinter in there must be bad. So tonight I will sketch it after we arrived back at the farm. The jeweler isn't far away. I'll also have to sketch the wind turbine parts and flesh out my plans to make electricity. Tomorrow we will hopefully melt crucible steel and I can get someone to make a small mold for a couple of things.

Its a bit late, but the sound makes it clear that Bladesmith Olafr still works, so I can pick up the last weapon cane parts, tools and so on, on the way back to the farm. Olafr is rightly proud of the sword he finished and its so damn beautiful that my eyes almost tear up. Absolutely excellent craftsmanship. Not a lot of useless or over the top decorations, just some discreet inlays in the cross guard and pommel, and a beautiful steel blade with inlaid triangle ROB triangle A on the blade and a black leather grip. Olafr is pleased with how I appreciate his craftsmanship and quality, instead of focusing on ostentation.

They have had to do a lot of work and hand sharpening the last few days to get the finish and edges where they are, but I guess someone has been working on the sword almost all available time the last few days. Its scabbard has also been finished and its beautiful, but not ostentatious. I like that he made a small winding decoration and inserted it into the upper edge of the scabbard, and the scabbard has its own beautiful belt but can be moved to another belt. I immediately strap on the sword so he can see how it looks on me, and it feels damn nice. I give him and his apprentices praise for their work, and they all have that satisfied look of craftsmen who know that they've made great work, is proud over it and doesn't really need my praise to know it, but appreciate a customer who understands and value their work.

Olafr talks me through the selling points of the sword, the balance and show how it flex and chop. Alith's gaze as she looks at the sword is so entertaining and satisfying. But it is also magical how the blade can bend instead of break, and since they're all better at sword handling than me, I let Alith and Bodil try it out. I can see Alith eyes as she and Bodil try a few swings and chop somekind of beetroots in two. How Alith slowly caress the blade and the inlay with her fingers. Damn luck that the sword is too dangerous to have sex with, otherwise I think Alith might try. A few mental images pop up in my head, but the swords pommel is too big.

During the trip back to the farm, I think about the sword, cane and those knifes. I've already decided to give Iselin one of those knifes, and I might as well do it tonight. Gunhild welcome us back to the farm, gives a report that nothing really happened, but my new bed have arrived while we where away, although its out in the main hall. No-one have been in my room.

In the privacy of my bedroom, I give Iselin her knife. Iselin gently looks at the knife and as I tell her how special it is. That these two right now are unique and there are only these. There will be a few more in the near future, but these two are the first and will always be special. Made in the same fire, from the same batch of steel that she helped me make. She's shocked when I inform her of its value, and that I still want her to use it as her regular everyday utility knife. Its not to brag, its ment to be used. It doesn't help when I say that the only ones who have something similar are the most powerful men in the kingdom, but not like these. Theirs is visually different, but these are more valuable. But for me, Iselin is worth so much more than this knife.

To say I'm totally in love with her is no exaggeration. I want to give her the world, and Iselin's pride when she poses with her new knife is wonderful, and I love seeing her shine.

Gunhild feels quite satisfied and is quite convinced that she's about to defeat Bodil in chess, but she has had time to think about the game and practice playing against herself in the last few days. But when Iselin and Sir come out and show their new knives, the whole game and her strategy disappear when Alith, obviously envious, tells them what blademaster Olafr told them the last time they were there. How unique those knives and sword are, and about the other special swords that exist, but that they arn't like these. Gunhild looks at Hillevi who meets her gaze as they have the same thought. They have seen those swords that Alith speaks of, for the King has such a sword and knife set he's very proud of, and they know what he paid for them, and even two of the councilors have a pair or a sword. Sir now has his own better and more unique set, and Sir himself has made the special sejd iron, because if Bladesmith Olafr says it is, its true, and Sir has given Iselin such a unique knife - as a utility knife. Not even the Queen has a similar knife to show off, although her other knifes are ostentatious in their decorations.

Gunhild seeks Hillevi's eyes again and they just look at each other. They've seen how their Lord gave Alith and Bodil expensive chain mail, without ceremony or witnesses. They also know how many years they served the King before the King gave them each a horse. They have both used the 'kikare', the guards monocular. It begins to really dawn on her what Kari and Alith meant when she said that Sir was generous, and Gunhild doubts that they really understood how generous he is. Gunhild so desperately wants to be involved in Sir's project, because it's not only interesting, fun and fascinating - it gets rewarded. Hugely rewarded. Bodil made the work because she liked it and wants to do more, and Sir think that the chessboard is hers. Still; he gave her a nice bow and a quiver with 20 arrows. Great Oden!

But she fears for her future a little more, and no longer just because she is getting so old and that her dreams of being married and having children are becoming more and more distant with each passing year. Now Gunhild fears if she will be able to leave and work for another Sir. Their life and service for Lord Robert is so easy, interesting and they're treated so very well. Kari was right when she warned them that their new Lord is dangerous to be close to, because he isn't like others and its such a seductive environment to live in and experience. So true. So very true.

She's happy she's sleeping in the other longhouse, so she doesn't have to hear the sounds. It's easier to ignore Sir's beard and hairy body because he's human, but the rest cannot be explained and ignored so easily. Kari's action since the first night, and the sacrifice of several animals as thanks to Freya says a lot, especially considering she has never sacrificed anything living since they were assigned as guards for her all those years ago, and barely seemed to worship the Gods. Kari looked forward to becoming the Sir's concubine, but nowadays she's a woman in love, and it warms Gunhild's heart that Kari truly love the man she was given to, and who doesn't see Kari as a trophy or just for sex and children. Sir accepted her for her mind, knowledge and personallity, and it shows.

But they know how Sir like to have sex, and the misses talk a lot about sex too. Ciara was apparently heard all over the boat, and for such a long time that Hillevi felt embarrassed but proud of their master, and Hillevi also saw how Kari wished it had been her in there. The know how powerful Jarl Skiringe reacted after half an afternoon in bed with Sir, and how difficult it is for Alith to just stay in the background and guard. They're all grateful that Alith takes those watches, and understand that she fell for temptation the first time when she wasn't prepared. Gunhild suspects that they've been more intimate than Alith wants to admit, given how women with much more self-control than Alith have been affected. Which in itself makes her continued guarding more impressive, because even though Alith now guards outside the room, they've all noticed how she is affected. It was certainly not a joke that she has satisfied herself to the sounds of Sir having sex with Iselin.

But Gunhild likes that their Lord actually doesn't seem to look at Alith differently - well, atleast not for any sex they've had - and its clear that Alith is the guard Captain because Sir trust and rewards those in his vicinity first, and Bodil really doesn't want to be Captain.

Since my new bed, with mattress, sheets and duvets is in place, Iselin and Kari show me the benefits of that purchase. Just sleeping since Ciara really wore me out, but it is nice and comfortable, and the fabric is much nicer. I, who usually sleep on my stomach with my feet outside the bed, suddenly appreciate trying to sleep on my back with my arms around a naked woman. Or two in this case. As usual Iselin puts an arm around my waist and rest her head close to mine. Kari presses her back against my side with her head over my arm, and I put my hand on her waist until Kari softly kiss my hand and hugs it against her chest instead. A bit weird hand placement, but Kari adjusts her position so it will be more comfortable for both of us and easy to feel that she appreciates the hands placement. Can't completely avoid playing with my hand on her tit, but she discreetly enjoys it and use her own hand to caress and guide my hand.

But Ciara's declaration is there in my head as I fall asleep. Her gaze and seriousness.