In which Ylva Sigefridsdottir, also known as Ylva the Dread, had been an earl since she was a young girl, despite having two brothers, following the death of her mad father and power-hungry stepmother.
Hearing of the girl's feared reputation and...
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In Kattegat, Ragnar was sitting at a table with Bjorn, who seemed to be frustrated about something. His son sighed deeply, causing Ragnar to smile as he turned to him. "What is troubling you?"
"What is troubling me is that you do not trust me," Bjorn complained as he lifted his head to look his father in the eye.
"I don't trust you?" Ragnar questioned, giving his son a weird look.
"That night you captured Jarl Borg, you told me nothing of what you meant to do," Bjorn explained, looking annoyed.
"I sent someone to find you," Ragnar argued in a calm tone, "They could not find you. Where were you?"
Bjorn remained silent for a long moment, avoiding eye contact with his father. Her lips parted and he let out a small sigh. "I was with Ylva."
"Ah. So it was your decision," Ragnar replied, earning an offended look with Bjorn, "You chose to be with her, rather than me. That is the difference between you and her. Duty will always come first for her, but what of you?'
"I only ask to be kept in your confidence as your son," Bjorn argued back, quick to change the subject.
"I will be the judge of how far I take you into my confidence. But as a father, I will give you some advice. Think with this..." He pointed at his head before pointing downwards, "And not with your...." He trailed off, smiling slightly while Bjorn looked annoyed, "That is why Ylva will always be stronger than you. She will never have that problem. She thinks with her head, always, and never with her heart or anything else, for that matter."
"She thinks with her heart," Bjorn argued, sounding annoyed since his father kept comparing him to Ylva as if they were rivals, "I know she does. It's the only reason she keeps her brother around, even after everything he's done to her. I don't understand it."
"You couldn't. No one can. Ylva doesn't think as we do. She had to learn to fend for herself at only ten. Her father killed her mother. She killed her father. Her brothers are all she has left in this world. Her only family and family comes first for her. They were her reasons for staying alive those three years in exile. If she loses them, she'll have nothing."
"He mistreats her. I have seen it with my own eyes and she treats it like it is nothing," Bjorn complained in an annoyed tone, "I don't understand it."
"And you never will," Ragnar replied as he shrugged her shoulder, "Ylva is her own person. She makes her own decisions and she doesn't like it when people question them so you would be wise not to. She's a lot like your mother in that way. But unlike you, she is an Earl and equal to me in rank so you must be careful. She might be as young as you, but she has more power than you could imagine."
"She's blessed by the Gods, it seems," Bjorn admitted in a whisper as he looked down at the ground.
Ragnar watched his son closely, gradually beginning to smile. "You like her."
