(no subject)

[thewidewideworld]

{From here}

Sinric can't bring himself to let go of Ragnar's hand all the way to their rooms. He hesitates a moment before gently pulling Ragnar towards his own rooms. They don't feel right any more, like clothes that no longer fit but it feels better than the empty place where Athelstan isn't.

But then he wonders if Ragnar would prefer his own bed, to warm the sheets left cold by Athelstan's absence with better memories.

The uncertainty makes him hesitate, biting his lip.

Comments

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"We could get a new room," Ragnar suggests, "so he won't find us and be hurt."

[thewidewideworld]

"I-" Sinric starts and stops. "I think that might be good. I need- I've been think I need to change my room. Ever since I got back, it don't feel-"

This isn't how to meant to talk to Ragnar about it and he finds he can't the right words.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Yes?" Ragnar says, tilting his head with patient expectation.

[thewidewideworld]

He takes slow breath and steadies himself. "I would like to keep a door connecting our rooms, if you will permit. But I need to change. I need a space that is my own." He hopes that makes sense.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Will I still be allowed?" Ragnar asks.

[thewidewideworld]

"Of course." He frowns, looking up into Ragnar's eyes."Ragnar, you will always be welcome - in my room, in my heart, and in my bed."

"But when I took that room, it was as a servant, under the protection of a powerful Earl and his Steward. You never treated me as a slave but I served you. Because as a child it was all I knew."

"I am a child no longer. Nor a servant to any man. I need to change my room to reflect who I am becoming and have become. And let go of the child I was."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Then we should go down and ask for another room," Ragnar says. "As that's so easily possible."

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric stretches up on his toes to kiss Ragnar. "Thank you, for understanding. I don't want you to think I'm leaving. I just need to change."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"You are simply changing your room," Ragnar says, shaking his head. "No reason for worry at all."

[thewidewideworld]

He kisses Ragnar again in thanks, taking his hand. "Shall I go down now and ask? I'm sure with the bar's magic it can be done swiftly."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"So I think as well," Ragnar says. "There's no hurry for me to get inside, so take your time."

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric nods and gives Ragnar a little squeeze. "I'll be back soon. I promise."

And slips downstairs.

A few moments later, the door to Sinric's old room vanishes and a new one appears on the other side of the room, near the main door.

A few moments later, the door opens and Sinric, smiling, pops his head in. "Ragnar. Come see."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

Ragnar steps inside.

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric's new rooms are very much larger than the compact space he had before. Very much in the style of a Roman villa, the room is high and vaulted. Unlike Ecbert's run down ruin, the arching stone here is rendered in warm white plaster and bordered by narrow frescos of beasts from all over the world.

The floors are tiled in simple repeating patterns of an almost Arab style with thick carpets of Persian making here and there. There is no fireplace but the floor is warmed from below. The bed is comfortable large and spread with Sinric's own furs.

His harpsichord is set in a corner, under one vaulted section of roof that Sinric somehow already knows will resonate perfectly.

Bookshelves line one wall with a great map of the world as it is known in their time painted into the gap between them.

A portico balcony is lined with the clear, large glass of the future age, keeping in the warmth in but leading the eye out to the eastern aspect of the snow covered gardens.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"This is a room worthy of a -- anyone, really," Ragnar says, admiringly. "And that map! Look, there is England!"

[thewidewideworld]

"This is the Bar's doing, not mine. I asked for a room with more space and windows to the east. I wasn't expecting anything so grand."

He comes over journey Ragnar at the map, smiling softly at the little dotted lines crossing land masses and seas. "I think she wants to remind me how far I've come."

He rests his finger on the map, tracing the line from Bulgaria to the Sinese empire. "A year this took. And more than a year to recover."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"In the future, people fly there in one night," Ragnar muses. "But there is doubt if their souls can follow."

[thewidewideworld]

"And do they value it? If so a journey can be bought so cheaply." He muses, following the line up to Mongolia and back, meandering through the territories of the Tang before crossing to Nippon.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"I don't think they do," Ragnar says. "On either side. From all I here, all the world is becoming more like the rest of it in the future, with people using the same tables and plates and listening to the same music in Kattegat and Nara."

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric nods. "Each place would lose the things that made them special. And not value the things that travelled to be had."

He looks up at Ragnar, lips curled in a smirk. "I could imagine singing the songs of Nara at your table in Kattegat. Most people would hate it and throw things at me."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

Ragnar grins. "Why?"

[thewidewideworld]

"Sino and Nippon music has a different sound to it, a different set of notes. It can be very jarring to people not use to it. But I find it beautiful because of that. Because it is so different."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Can you show me?"

Ragnar will always be curious. Always. It's part of his nature, as much as it is of Athelstan's or Sinric's.

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric nods and take a couple of steps back, moving to the centre of the ceiling's vaulting, wanted to test his theory about the acoustics.

He takes a deep breath and sings. The song is a simple one, a fisher-wife's lament but it demonstrates the eastern scales perfectly.

He moves as he sings, his body remembering the graceful dance that went with it. Short, hailing steps as the widow prepares to throw herself into the sea.

And yes, the acoustics in the room are perfect, lending a haunted air to Sinric's voice.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

Ragnar may be staring -- this is as alien as it is beautiful.

But yes, he can understand why some of his warriors would pelt such a performance with apple cores.