Chapter Trigger Warnings Wrote:Explicit Mention of Non-Con, Explicit Depiction of Illness, Explicit Depicition of Murder
Yes, mothers, it's A Thing of Vikings time!
Fyrir Hiccup House Haddock VI, Collected Public Sermons & Private Contemplations' Wrote:A 'Chain of Events.' Let us meditate on that image for a moment. A chain of events, where one event leads to the next, and that one leads to the next, on and on. But events do not work that way. One event, one action, one choice, can lead to many more events spiraling out from there, making the 'chain' appear more like a net, or a web.
Still, the image does hold for many uses, where we trace back one step at a time to an instigating cause. And the image of a chain, or a net, does function metaphorically in other ways. Like chains, or nets, events can lift us up. They can also restrain us, bind us, imprison us, hold us back, limit us to a specific area. They can help anchor us to safety. They can be fine and delicate, almost ornamental or even unobtrusive, or stout and strong, made of thick links that bear titanic forces. And, with the proper effort…
They can be broken.
Their effects can be halted, through recognition and choice. A blood feud can be stopped, with the chain of tit-for-tat injury and death ended. A system of injustice can be shattered and rebuilt with an eye for greater goodness. A legacy of brutality can be overcome.
A new chain can be forged, one attached to a hoist to raise, instead of a shackle to bind.
We pick up at Inbhir Aora, where Toiréasa and Rodhlaug have an exchange of views, less frank than the robber's daughter was trying for but still not quite through with this "niceness and negotiation" stuff. In the healer's hut on Berk, Heather listens to Fishlegs' diagnosis, elicits their dragons' assistance in his care, tends to those elements of it that require hands, then helps Atali with her own problems. The keeper of a Glas-gau tavern receives royal visitors on urgent business. In his office in Algeciras, Viggo talks affairs of state with William Iron-Arm. In the newly-conquered city of Turpan, Kurya (the Kagan's son) experiences the taste of şeftali in the market, explains why he didn't just take the fruit from the merchant, then dispenses some sweetness of his own. And we close at Inbhir Niss, where Mac Bethad contemplates Norsemen who might be of use to him and Norsemen he doesn't need...
https://archiveofourown.org/works/104089...s/66118687