"Anyway, powerful people don't marry for love, and even if you love someone its usually secondary to alliance and power. As you understand I need to marry, but with my high status as a ruler, I can't just marry anyone - I need to marry what others see as 'desirable wifes'. My girlfriends are not what others see as desirable wifes, since they don't have any land, wealth or come from powerful families. Iselin was also born as a slave.

So my prefered choice of only Iselin as my fiancée and probably future wife, would be really bad for our image and status, especially as First wife. She could be an official lover or maybe concubine if I really valued and loved her enough to honor her with that, but no-one with my social status would marry someone like her, or Ciara. It will actually look bad if I married Iselin first, followed by Ciara and Kari, because of their preceived 'worth'. Kari have by far the highest status of them and she is 'just a nice gift from the King', and someone like me doesn't marry someone like her. She's already my concubine, so why waste a spouse postition on her?"

"Oh, thats blunt, but yeah, I get it."

"If I marry Iselin first, I really should marry a woman others see as a desirable wife as second. Kari's conflicted as hell that her instincts scream this at her, but she seem to desire marrige something fierce, and she love that I don't care about 'desirability'. She and Iselin takes refuge in - and promote - my idea that as a Sejdmann I walk my own path, and I marry for love, because Freya is the Goddess of Love. I prove my devotion to Freya by marrying for love, not for power or riches."

"Oh, thats clever! You're using their religion against them!"

"Sort of, as I said; I'm the first Sejdmann, so I hope to get a way with a few things. We're not married yet, and I'm still ambivalent to marrying Kari too. I'd planned to let a year pass, but it might not be an option as it will be a huge problem if I'm offered a highly desirable wife and marriage alliance - which I actually have been, but not officially. The main reason for that - and this worries them - is that I might officially be offered to marry Princess Sefa, since her betrothed man Hunulfr died three months ago. It is of course seen as her planned marrige - which should have taken place by now - was unblessed by the Gods, but it might also be viewed by the public that the Gods 'made her available' for me, and no one wants to barge in on the Gods plans. Princess Sefa is 19 and getting 'old', so they need to marry her to someone important enough within a year or two, and there's limited options for them, because she is the oldest princess, and an influential family might try to take the throne from them through her, which I as an outsider lack the influence to do - and I'm right here. Just think about all the complications, if I said 'no' to Princess Sefa, or said 'yes'."

Jane just stares at me, and her grin has disappeared. She opens her mouth to start talking, but stops herself before uttering a word when other thoughts appear, and repeats it once more, until she finally says:

"Oh, God! You will have to marry her as your first wife, and then she and the King would have influence over you, and decide about any other woman. You wouldn't be able to marry Iselin or Kari, since their 'desirability' is so much lower than the Princess. Wow. That makes it clear that marrige is a chess move, and not for love."

"Love really doesn't matter in a marrige here. It doesn't really matter in most of our world too. How many actually marry for love, without other considerations like security, wealth, status, pregnancy, immigration and so on?"

"Wow, your like the anti-romatic. Yes! I know that is common, and I've meet quite a lot of women and couples like that. But people do marry for love. Everything isn't about money, power or sex."

"True. Hell, marrige here doesn't actually need to involve a lot of sex, just a legal minimum per year and atleast a child, or the wife can ask for a divorce and go winning from it since her man isn't manly enough."

"They actually have laws about that?!"

"Yes, and she can demand a couple of witnesses too. Its law that a woman that havn't 'enjoyed her husband' in three years can ask for a divorce, and if he left to travel, she can legally claim his property. Which is important, since he might have died in a far away land or just abandoned her and his property. If he comes back later, well, tough luck for him. Its done. He should have been home, taking care of his land, woman and making children." Jane smirks, but its important and logical. "There is also a test of manliness, and it can be forced by either side or their families after a couple of years, or on a man before his wedding. The pair is kept isolated from each other and from people of the other sex for a week. If they're already married then they see if the man become arroused by her kiss, touch and bodily contact infront of witnesses, and if so release inside her. If he doesn't, or its before marrige, they test if two other women can get a 'reaction' out of him. If another woman have accused him, them, or his woman, she might be one of these women. The test might be retaken if failed. Once. If neither woman can make him... release, he will be deemed unmanly and disgraced. If the other women can, his woman will be disgraced. Their marrige will probably be voided."

"They test if a man can get it up and cum, under that pressure? Talk about giving someone performance anxiety."

"From what I've been told, most men would rather duel, but no man would ever admit to fearing that test. That would be admitting he isn't sure of his manliness."

"Wait! You said that the man might rape an accusing woman to prove is manliness!"

"That might happen, but then its after a lost duel, and other circumstances. Its complicated, depend on circumstances, social status and I don't understand all the intricacies. I really appreciate Kari's knowledge, and having her on my side. That test have severe social pressure too, as it isn't every man who can marry, and some women are very desirable, so someone might talk shit to force him to take that test, but it end up as a duel instead, which might have been hoped so he can be maimed or killed. The man and his food is closely guarded, so he doesn't cheat or is drugged. Its all because alliances, children and male heirs is everything. There is Sagas of lovers taking that test, to prove that he can only 'get it up' with his true love.

But in a marrige its seldom forced, unless its been years and they remain childless. Some men get 'wounded in battle', or just can't get it up, drink too much and pass out, and some are probably homosexual or just infertile. The need for children is also a reason why a male concubine for a wife might be acceptable, or a traveler might discretely join the married couple in bed, especially if he have similar characteristics as the husband. If she become pregnant, the husband can claim the child as his, and he would never know it isn't. There's no DNA tests here."

Jane grins and find it all very amusing.

"Of course people are jealous here too, and most men and women don't want their partner to sleep with another, but in some ways this culture have a lot of open marriges and free love, especially among the plus twentyfive middle social classes, or unwedded men. As an example a couple might invite someone to share their bed during the upcomming autumn equinox feast; man or woman. Or both. Especially if they already have children, so everyone knows they're both fertile, and its just sex and having a good time. Thats very socially okay bragging."

Jane has a real cheshire cat grin.

"Kari also told me that about women or concubines having travel abroad with their husband on merchant trips, or gone on a pilgrimage, and when they return Freya have blessed them with a child. Or it happened when they visited the large annual Northmen Ting, the primary ruling assembly in the Kingdom, which is a few hours walk from here in the hills on the other side of Borgarsandr. There is people from all of the Kingdom, lots of feasting and such going on then - lots of new faces. Kari's favorite rumours involve the masked prostitute at a feasthall, as most are normal prositutes trying to be mysterious or protecting their future, while others are married or other women looking for a socially unacceptable good time, looking to earn a bit of extra silver, or trying to get pregnant with a suitable man."

Jane giggles about how the problem is sometimes solved, but its very serious. And as long as everything is at peace and the child is loved, I see no real problem. It has probably happened a lot of times in Midgard as well.

"Its really serious. If a man havn't been able to make his woman pregnant after 5 years; it's grounds for a divorce and then his fertility or manliness can start to be questioned, and his favour with the Gods, and an alliance might crumble."

Jane smirks, but her eyes grow large and she cups her hand infront of her mouth. "They didn't have any children! Lagman Filison and his wife didn't have any children! Oh! My! God! We showed up after you left, and got stuck there. Fru Gudfridr might have seen Tom sent by Freya, to make her pregnant before we followed you!"

"That might be true, and she sure as hell won't know about genetics. Actually, you had engagement rings, but here rings are only for marriage. When Tom had sex with Dagny and you removed your ring, you 'divorced' him. They might be close to those five years, as that is when the test usually happens. Especially if he has many childless women - which is something I might have. Its similar for a woman, if his other women have become pregnant. Especially if a wife can't have children or others just believe she's barren."

"Ooh... wow. You really should have accepted my offer last night, and then tried to get me pregnant as soon as possible. You knew, but said 'no' anyway. A simple 'Thank you' isn't enough, since I absolutely don't want to become a mother. Especially here. God, I can just imagine the childbirth mortality here. Still; I won't sleep with you. No offence, but you are not my type."

"Non taken." Considering what she actually offered me yesterday, it says something about Jane, but it would be stupid to point it out. "Filison might have seen it as his wife Gudfridr tried to become pregnant without telling him, and he probably saw that as a grevious insult, since she no longer trusted him to make her pregnant. That probably contributed to him forcing Tom on her, while raping Tom infront of her. Their marriage might still look good in public, but I think is icecold in private, and I wouldn't be surprise if he's been looking for another wife or concubine. And I just realised something. You said Filison started giving you looks, so they might have started to believe they got Freyas intention backwards. Tom slept with Dagny, and you became available to give Lagman Filison a child."

Janes face turns to fear and insight: "He would have raped me!"

"Probably not straight up raped you, but I bet he would try to seduce or pressure you to atleast become his concubine, especially if you stayed over the winter, and then it wouldn't be rape."

Jane is quiet and seems to be contemplating what her future could have been like. "I'm so-oo happy I accepted that boattrip. Imagine if I stayed! I probably should have taken another earlier boat instead."

It's time to redirect her thoughts again, so she doesn't believe I want the same.

"It would have been far better for you and Tom if you did. You should've bartered something to immediately sail after us to Kambsnes. You would probably have reached us in just a day, as we made stops on the way, and then we spent several days in Kambsnes."

Jane absentmindedly slowly nod as she's busy contemplating about what might have been.

"As last night showed, my girlfriends prefer if I didn't have more fulltime partners and they're more than enough for me, so I'm really avoiding it. But its also important for their status that I show that their man is powerful, strong in faith, blessed by Freya and manly. Since I have several girlfriends I try giving the impression of being devoted and deeply loving them, which fit with my plan for marrige. And I still have a few years before children might become a problem that I have to deal with. If I sleep around that's just sex and a social thing, and it proves that Freya really blesses and favour me, and that I'm manly. Its all 'show, don't tell' here. Hell, the fact that my duel was one sided, fast, loud, violent and deadly in a way no-one heard of, just reinforce the belief in many people that Freya favours me like no-one before. Heh. I just realised that I literally have a few women witnesses that I can 'perform', and one of them is a powerful Jarl. Please, stop giggling."

Finally something that worked.

"Don't take this as me comming on to you or bragging, but with everything I just told you, you should know that I've had sex with a couple of women here, but probably far fewer than you think. They really don't seem to mind as long as its occasional sex with an unmarried and unbound woman, and one of my girlfriends have sometimes been part of it, or wanted to join." Jane gives me a look. "They really don't understand this but you could, so even though you're a woman and we just meet - please deal with this okay? I have to vent to someone, and I've had no-one to really talk to like this."

I draw a deep breath, and prepare to admit something I never thought I would. Hell, I never even considered it a chance that it might be a problem. My life here is very different from my old life.

"Its kind of exhausting trying to keep all my girlfriends satisfied and happy. I'm not selfish enough to just get myself off and ignore them. I'm trying to be fair and give them several orgasms each time, but they're younger and three. Please stop giggling, its not funny and besides feeling so wrong to say no, its damn hard... bad choice of words."

Jane is doubling over in laughter. I understand her. Eventually, Jane gathers herself and calm down.

"Yes, I know - woe me. Most days are fine and really nice, but sometimes they get competitive, and I seriously didn't need them to get territorial too. Ciara this morning. Iselin and Kari last night. Iselin yesterday afternoon. Kari yesterday morning, the evening before that, and that afternoon." Jane bites her lips and clamps a hand over her mouth to stop herself from laughing. "With that, along with all the rest, combined with trying to have several happy working relationships under the same roof, you can understand why I'm more than satisfied and happy with Iselin, Ciara and Kari. I don't even want to imagine the horror of having four wifes and four or more concubines - that would be a fucking nightmare!" Jane doubles over in laughter. "Shit! I'm not doing it deliberately." She almost fall of the chair.

In that case, I actually did. I just didn't mean it as a joke. It would be a living hell to try to balance relationships with eight women. Three are hard, and I'm terribly grateful that they get along so well. I'm going to try to keep that balance, and especially not upset it by trying to get a fourth partner. Although I hardly complain about the moments I've had with Alith, it would have been a completely different thing if she had been 'official'. My so far open relationship is pure luxury, but Kari doesn't seem to see it in the same way as Iselin, and Ciara is special, so I am careful to value what I have. Jane manages to somewhat serious say; "Fucking Hell, Mate! You're on your last few years!" before she continue to laugh.

Okay, that was a good one, but it might be true. I havn't thought about it, but if I ever become a really big landowner, or for some other reason end up with a relationship with another woman or two, a separate small house for them is actually a possibility, precisely so that Iselin, Kari and Ciara will feel prioritized and important, and these other women won't mess up our everyday life together. I just occasionally 'visit' her or them, but I live with Iselin, Ciara and Kari. Maybe thats why that arrangement is common here? But until social pressure demands that I have more women, I'm not going to try to find them. Jane is still laughing and saying comments about 'hoisted with your own petard', 'so much hoisting', 'your wizard staff is getting worn out' etc, and it takes quite a while for her to calm down, and wipe away her tears of joy.

"Sorry, will try to think so I don't say something funny. Again. I don't believe in any deity, but I thank the Gods that Ciara have special and low need, and it's of course luxurious as hell to be able to have occasional sex with someone else and no-one mind, as long as it's discrete or they're not married. Discrete is also not what we think since most sleep in the same big hall, and have sex while others sleep beside them. I will not do that. I also fear sexually transmitted deceases since they historically been really bad, and there is no modern medicine here, and then its really iffy with cleanliness. I won't have sex with someone that havn't bathed in a week, and I definitely won't go down on her!" That made Jane stop giggling and a shiver goes down her back. "Then I can't stop thinking about fleas, lice or other bugs."

Disgust makes Jane jump and shiver, and close her eyes. "Shut. Up. Urgh, I need brainbleach. Okay, I believe you've had few women if you have that on your mind, instead of thinking with your dick. Just stop talking about that. That topic is off limits, Okey?!"

I guess small creepy crawlers are an issue for Jane. Good to know. But, just because she doesn't like to be reminded they exist, doesn't change the fact that they do. Reality doesn't care what a person thinks, only what we do about it. And I plan to keep my mansion as clean as possible, with the limits here. Rubbing salt on surfaces, washing and letting it be exposed to suns light and UV will help. But that does explain why Jane used the bed linnen from Midgard when she slept on the sleeping pelts. Guess she's been keeping those linnen as clean as she can, as a protection from the small things she knows might be anywhere. I should remind her to hang it up in the sun. At least she doesn't seem to have severe mysophobia, fear of germs.

"I have a vivid but realistic imagination, and I think way too much. Besides that, I wouldn't jeopardize what I have. I try to avoid being that stupid, and I was really worried about Kari and planned to really get to know her first. Unfortunately, she realised that I didn't actually need to have a sexual relationship with her, because everyone would assume I did."

"What?! Oo-oh! Devious! You accepted her as your concubine, but planned on being friends without benefits. Well, atleast for a while." Janes grin makes it clear she believes that wouldn't last long. "No wonder she didn't tell you about all the traditions and laws until it was too late."

"Yeah. There is more too it, but she desired me more because I was being evasive and sneaky."

"Aaw-wwhh..." like its the cutest and most romatic thing she heard. "The female Machiavelli found someone to play with. You were fucked after that." Yeah, shes enjoying herself again. "Literally." I just roll my eyes. "Oh my, I probably should have asked them last night, instead of you." Its my turn to give her a look, but its futile and Jane is so very good at making quips and puns, while giggling. Eeh, I can live with her enjoyment at my expense.

"Anyway, back to guns and technology, it's safer to talk about - isn't that ironic? Only Alith and Iselin really knows about bullets and blackpowder, the others know its dangerous and shouldn't be put near fire. But they don't really know how I made it, the powder or ignition. A lot is need to know. If it's dangerous I don't really tell anyone unless I have to. Expect that. And I do like to have surprises and backup plans - for everything."

"No, you have getting fucked up plans!" More giggling.

"Please. Try to be serious. I also compartmentalize. Alith knows about some specific things, but not others. Know that as my artist and painter - and most likely occasional therapist because its so nice to talk to someone - I will keep a lot from you too, unless I need to vent about something again. But then again I won't be showing everything you paint to people either; they're not ready for it. You can understand why few are really allowed into my room, and often I'm alone in there for a reason."

"Yes... to get away from your girlfriends! Bwahahah!"

"Please! Sadly its mostly just really boring tedious work that needs to be done, and a lot before the tech gives up their ghost and the info is lost. I'm not evil enough to share that with you - unless you continue to needle me. I have a 2600 page book about Chemistry that needs to be read and written down. In English."

"Woo-ooh! That's uncalled for! Chemistry!?! Gawh! Thank you for not being that evil. So... Ahem. Art! Do you have something I can work with directly? I saw you have ink, quill and paper, and before we get any further - Thank God, you have toilet paper! I cried this morning when I went to the loo. There was a bloody marvellous stack of paper. That might have made my decision without anything else, and its good I didn't use the loo before we talked yesterday. Toilet paper, how I missed thee!"

"I know exactly. Modern toiletts are so underappreciated." Jane enthusiastically nods and draws a dreamy sigh. "The paper isn't soft, but slightly absorbant and feels okayish, but the toilets could be improved - a lot." More enthusiastic noddig. It will be funny to see her reaction when I hopefully get all the creature comforts in my mansion working. "Well, really nice chatting to you - for most of the time - but, as usual, I have work to do. I also feel a bit rude to A guarding us, when she can't understand what we're talkning about, and she's heard her and others names used a lot. We might say anything about her. Scandalous things! Like; she have thighs or showing ankle."

"Don't make me laugh again! But seriously, it was lovely to laugh that much. I needed that. By the way, if it's not to much of a bother; where can I get a new bra and panties? I've been wearing this for yonks, and I saw Alith's and Iselin's this morning? I didn't know they had them here! They look so normal. I thought it was a modern invention!"

"It's not to much, and I will have someone accompanying you. You'll probably find them very primitive compared to what you're used to, and clothing options suck. You must have noticed that pants here don't even have pockets, and I prefer cargo pants."

"Oh you poor thing! Its lucky you have no need to play pocket tennis."

"Chemistry!" Jane smugly grins, well aware she's balancing on a tight rope, but its been fun most of the time. "Just so you know, male or female nakedness isn't a taboo here simply because there really isn't much privacy for most people. As I said, most sleep in the same big room and wash and bathe in the open, so its more of a status thing to have nice cloths, separate sleepwear, and being able to have privacy and protection. Every woman is 'going commando', but short skirts isn't a thing simply because of practicality and that most have very few cloths. Some active women like shieldmaidens and female sailors wear pants most of the time. Bra and panties is a new thing, and most don't really see a need for a bra unless they're well endowed, and panties are pretty much seen as unnecessary, pointless and chaste."

"Chaste?!"

"They cover the womanly parts, under a dress or pants. Everyone else is naked. They would probably see thongs as chaste, not to mention Bikini's."

"... because everyone else bathe naked." Jane finish the sentence while she facepalm and shakes her head.