slipping away with Ragnar

[thewidewideworld]

{From here}

Sinric leads Ragnar into the bathrooms, glancing around to see if anyone is around before slipping into one of the stalls and closing the door behind them.

"Do you want me to paint your prick with my lips or lift my skirts and take me standing?" He asks with a list-filled purr.

Comments

[thewidewideworld]

"Unless it was the will of the gods that they should die in battle. Is that not right?" He looks to Ragnar. "That angels called valkyrie will take them up to the golden hall. Or so I hear the Varangians tell it when they are deep in their cups."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Yes, that is right," Ragnar says. "That can always happen. But otherwise, they could go home right after battle -- with supper waiting for them, and their wives. That would be, how do the moderns put it, quite the business model?"

[manofbusiness]

"Winning either way", Childermass murmurs. "For those who believe."

[thewidewideworld]

"Better perhaps that the Christian belief that all must suffer." Sinric muses softly, a heretical thought he would never voice aloud at home.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"That's not what Athelstan says," Ragnar muses. "But his version of his religion is generally friendlier than other people's."

[manofbusiness]

"Most suffer in life", Childermass says casually. "Afterward, who really knows."

[thewidewideworld]

"Athelstan is of the gentle, learned side side of his faith. Contemplative and deep. It is the men of power within the church that would have it that we should suffer."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Including Athelstan," Ragnar says, very grim all of a sudden.

[manofbusiness]

Childermass looks at him.

"Miss Seddon spoke to me of a man she was helping with a communication spell. To reach another who had suffered greatly."

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric reaches up to stoke Ragnar's arm, comforting at mention of Athelstan's suffering. "It is Ragnar's message the spell carriers, to Athelstan in his exiled captivity."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Yes, to tell him I am on my way to free him," Ragnar says. "To tell him to have hope. I am very glad tha Rae is going to help me."

[manofbusiness]

"What was done to him", his voice low, "is beyond all conscience."

He's cut a few throats in his time, before he worked for Mr Norrell, but he draws the line at torture.

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric nods in emphatic agreement. No truer word said.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"It is," Ragnar says. "And the ones who did it will be made to pay."

[manofbusiness]

"Once you have him safely out of their hands."

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric nods and tangles his fingers in Ragnar's. "You bring him home safely. I have faith in that."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"I will," Ragnar says, quietly. "Safely, and alive, and well."

[manofbusiness]

"Or with a chance to get well, at least."

They don't call it the same thing, in his time, but he knows hurt doesn't always end when the body heals.

[thewidewideworld]

The fact that Childmass understands that is heartening and he reaches across to gently squeeze the man's hand in unspoken thanks.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Thank you for wishing us well," Ragnar says. "May I bother you for..."

He hesitates.

[manofbusiness]

He isn't certain what to do with Sinric's physical contact - he doesn't get it all that often - so his hand just sort of stays there. But he doesn't pull it away.

"For what?"

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric withdraws his hand after a moment, the touch light and brief.

He looks to Ragnar, curious what he might ask the man for.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Knowledge from your magic?" Ragnar says. "If you can do that for somebody else?"

[manofbusiness]

"Do you mean my cards?" He leans back, thinking. "Yes, I can ask them questions on your behalf, but they are not so good at the details. What do you want to know?"

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric listens with interest, fascinated by this strange magic that seems so natural to Ragnar and his northern gods.