Danu — The celtic goddess of creation and earth.

It had been nigh a sennight and Aila, although imbued with a strange new steadfastness of heart that suited her well, was yet mourning her brother and husband. She was not wanting for company, but Epona's and Eirik's were all she sought. The rest were often turned away. Erelong, Ragnar, Ívarr, Eydís, Gudrun, and any other would-be commiserators — who had been calling in all hours of the day — curtailed their visitations altogether when she would not see them no matter how often they tried. She needed time.

All the better, Epona thought. She had become misanthropic since coming to this hated land that she was now forced to adopt as her own. If not for Aila, she would long ago have risked her life and fled. 

When a horde of neighbors had descended upon them this morning to simper and condole, she had taken herself off to the cliffs, under the guise of foraging, but really all she had craved was peace and solitude. But on returning, she had remarked with satisfaction that the longhouse was once again devoid of strangers. 

Her errand had not been for naught either: she came away with a brace of fattened auks, that she'd stoned with her sling, and in her apron she carefully carried a clutch of eggs purloined from the seabirds on the cliffs.

After handing over her catch to another slave, she checked in on Aila and the babies, but seeing that the lady slept soundly, she left the chamber with a child on each hip lest they, who were now on the verge of incipient fretting, awaken Aila. She took them outside once they'd been fed — for Epona was breastfeeding Heida as well — and laid them on a woolen blanket beside the smokehouse to gaze at the sky while she worked.

As she neatly lay the fish and ribbons of dulse to dry across the racks, she was arrested by a sight as almost stopped her heart! There, as impossible as it was unnatural, appeared a diurnal moon that hung in full force just above the southern horizon, as if glaring mockingly at the sun that hovered in the north.

This land was especially peculiar. Before today she had thought this more to do with the seasons than anything else, but after witnessing the fleeting sight of two heavenly bodies occupying the same sky...? In the end, the sun endured and the moon, that had emerged only briefly, once again subsided.

What type of omen had she just beheld? What could it possibly mean? Would that that were all, but gods help her, the seasons were just as confounding and improbable! Still and all, summer, with its mild days of unremitting sunlight, was at least far more welcome to her than its counterpart: the wintery weeks of perpetual darkness.

Such was nature. Who better than she, a priestess of Danu, the earth mother, could appreciate that to every male there was a female; after the darkness came the light; and for every death...there was rebirth. She glanced towards the infants and was struck by yet more philosophizing. Just as with the seasons and the cycle of night and day — sun and moon — there was a duality at play even in her own child.

Brenna, who might have been revered in the south, was now and always a slave to the north. She who was the blood descendant of Epona's land, her veins suffused with power, was now, diametrically, just as much a child of this one that was peopled by her own oppressors. One half druid and the other ovate; yet wholly without esteem or rank.

But the dichotomy did not end there. She transferred her regard to Heida. And you, she sighed, are one half raven and the other eagle — clan royalty. The child was of both heaven and of earth; valkyrie and mortal. The tragedy of it was that she would never know who she was and would be forever the outcast bastard who did not fit in with the nobles or the bondsmen, but somewhere in between.

The bifurcations of Heida and Brenna's lot weighted her heart and drew her to kneel beside them, watching solemnly as the one napped and the other gummed her fist. "What a pair you make." Epona's smile had not the strength nor the desiccation to reach her eyes. Fellows in an unlucky happenstance of fate, pulled in twain by blood and circumstance.

Notwithstanding the sun's beaming constancy, it soon came time for the evening meal, and so, wiping her cheeks, she gathered them up to seek the twilight only their house could provide. After the stew had sufficiently boiled atop the fire-pit, Epona ladled the broth from the suspended pot that hung from the beams and, taking a flatbread from the coal-fired skillet, she betook the meal to Aila.

"I wondered where you'd gotten to?" Aila moved up her pillows with a grimace.

"I am a busy slave and have much to occupy myself," Epona replied facetiously, as she placed the bowl in Aila's hands and lit another lamp.

With a sidelong look, Aila sipped her broth unenthusiastically, but seemed not in the mood to eat, for she soon set the meal aside.

"Promise me something, Epona." Her gentle eyes were sky-blue and somber in the shadowed room.

"What is it?" Epona settled herself beside her friend on the bed, and pulled her smock down one shoulder to uncover a breast whither she promptly guided into her daughter's waiting mouth.

"You must never leave me!" Aila then rested her head on Epona's other shoulder, still dusted with flour from kneading the bread, and watched as Brenna supped greedily. "You, my father, Eirik, Brenna, and now Heida are all I have." She stilled a moment before continuing. "And you too," she whispered, rubbing her abdomen as she addressed the creature inside.

When she gave an unexpected hiss, Epona twisted around instantly and asked her, "Are you in pain?!"

"Aye." She chuckled mirthlessly once her face had smoothed out. "He is kicking the breath from me."

Epona lowered her eyes to where Aila rested her hand. "He seems awfully large for so small a space." When she looked back up it was to see that Aila's eyes had drifted and were now faraway, the darkened skin beneath them tightened with worry. "What is it? tell me."

"I do not know what is real anymore. I thought it was a dream; but perhaps I was wrong."

Only the slight puckering of her mouth gave any indication that Epona was bemused by Aila's arcane musing, but she said naught and waited. At length, Aila continued.

"I think I am carrying not one but two sons."

Epona nodded uncertainly with a distrait widening of the eyes. Ere she could answer, Aila sucked in another harsh breath and yelped with pain.

"The pangs started a while ago, Epona."

"Gods, Aila, why didn't you-"

But her words were swallowed as Aila cried out yet again, her discomfit evinced by her pallid face and the shock that swiftly flashed beneath her contorted brows. It seemed an age had come and gone before she managed to ease Aila onto her back and becalm her breathing. Amidst Aila's howling and the infants' bawling — it would be many hours yet before poor Heida could be fed — Epona rushed about, disseminating orders to the other slaves, and readying the chamber for birthing.

It was obvious to her, three hours into Aila's labor, that young Eirik needed occupation, for he was as white in the mouth as his sister and hovering at the doorway. Having no patience for the stupid manner in which he loitered, she sent him and Olaf from the house to fetch Ragnar and Ívarr. The rest of the servants either quickly took themselves from the house or were employed in some task that was required for the comfort and safety of Aila.

"Where is he!" Aila moaned, in some sort of delirium. "He promised me he would come!"

"Who?" Epona wrung a damp cloth of cold water afore applying it again to her friend's temples.

"Check the hallway, Epona!" She twisted her head this way and that, balling her fists and kicking her legs.

"For Ragnar?"

"No!"

"Shh, I sent Eirik to-"

The shattering of something — an earthenware pot perhaps — halted Epona's pacifying as a shriek of fright was also heard in the gallery nearby. The thrall stood from Aila's side and began to walk to the door when, of a sudden, it was unceremoniously thrust aside to reveal a large shadow looming ominously in the entryway.

Epona backed away in horror as a giant of a man emerged into the lamplight, his midnight hair almost invisible against the black mantle draped across his shoulders. He moved soundlessly into the chamber, his eyes riveted to the bed, but Aila was writhing in discomfit and had yet to see him.

"I think I might have scared off your underlings," he drawled, his unearthly irises focusing once more on Epona.

"Arawn," she hissed in terror.

"Not quite," was all he replied, a derisive arch to his left eyebrow.

Epona was so stunned by her fear that she thoughtlessly pulled a dagger from her pocket; one that she kept always hidden in her skirts, afeared as she was of these northern fiends she lived amongst. However, the man was gone the moment she blinked and suddenly behind her, wresting the blade easily from her clammy hand.

"I wouldn't if I were you, little völva," said he. Then, thrusting her aside, he made to walk towards Aila, dropping the blade lackadaisically at Epona's feet. But Epona quickly regained her courage and flung herself before him, effectively blocking his progress.

"I will not let you near her!"

He had seemed almost amused before, but no longer. She could easily see by the flare of his nostrils, the insidious gleam of his eerie glower, and the tightening of his lips that he was at the incipient stages of angered.

He leaned his face down close to hers, his nose almost touching Epona's, and pulled his lips back in some parody of a smile — a minacious sneer. The teeth he revealed had suddenly lengthened to preternatural fangs and his eyes instantly flashed as though kindled by blue hell-fire. She gasped, staggering backwards, and tripped on her under-skirt before falling to the floor.

"Stay away from her!" Epona cried.

"Tis too late for that," said the stranger, glaring down at her. Once he had straightened up, the frightful teeth retracted back to normal proportions, but his full height was still almost as intimidating as his ire had been. "I did not come here to play with you, now move." He did not wait to see if she would obey and brushed passed her as she sat trembling with dread.

⭐️This was actually one half of the last chapter but, became too long...as per usual. You know exactly who'd come to see Aila, don't you! How odd to see him through Epona's eyes...⭐️