Death By A Thousands Cuts | Osferth |

I

Months after Sihtrics' betrayal, life for Cyne has been worse than normal. Sigurd, her beloved dragon has been sent away to live with other dragons; the only thing she had left of her mother was her dragon, the egg which had been passed on throughout generations of her mothers family had chosen her to break for. Growing up Cyne had always thought Sigurd to be her mother, that when her mother died giving birth to her that she was born again through the dragon by her mothers god.  Tekil's head along with others were sent to the gate after they were sent to bring back Uhtred Ragnarsson only missing one head, her brother's, Sihtric which gave her hope that his plan worked and he is now a part of Uhtred's crew. Her father had found a betrothed for her, a man named Axel; he is the brother of her father's man tekil. Her and Axel were planned to wed a month after Cyne's 14 birthday day; she had only met him once when her father decided to bring men in to find a match for her. Cyne's time was mostly spent with Thrya or in her room alone painting which was surprisingly therapeutic, she wouldn't dare go outside without Sihtric by her side.

Cyne was with Thrya like usual when Sven walked down into Thrya's cage he doesn't usually come down here so Cyne thought it best to leave incase he was here to do something to Thrya, she would have loved to fight him and tell him to leave her alone but she had tried once before and it failed she was bruised for weeks after. "Cyne i need to speak to you. Wait up stairs, these won't be long" Sven spoke with venom in his voice. Cyne knew better than to question him so she answered with a simple nod and walked up the stairs. She wasn't waiting that long, it was mostly the anxiety that was making the time feel slow, the only time Sven has talked to her in the last years was when he congratulated her on her betrothal.

She watched Sven walk up the stairs a lot less confident than he walked down them, she was happy Thyra was standing up for herself she didn't deserve how she's been treated.  "What do you want, Sven?" Cyne asked her brother hoping to get this conversation over with as soon as possible. She didn't want to be alone with him longer than needed, the same went with her father.

"Father wants to know where Sihtric is. And don't try to lie, I know you two bastards were close" Sven tells her, obviously wanting to leave as well. Svens hatred for his siblings was never hidden.

"How would I know Sven, he left with Tekil, remember? Father wouldn't let you go with them and you continued to annoy him until he did, which obviously didn't work because your head unfortunately wasn't put on a stick" with that Sven walked away leaving Cyne by herself.

It was the day after Cyne's little chat with Sven she was currently sitting in her fathers hall pretending to be interested in whatever Axel was saying knowing the fat man was probably lying about how many women he had at once. Axel then drifted the conversation on to Cyne asking her how happy she was to be getting married to which she just faked smiled and said a quiet "it's very exciting". Their talking was cut short when a watchman shouted that there were warriors on the north gate and barely a minute later her father and brother came marching in with men at their sides. "Axel, stay here and watch over Cyne. I can't have her dying before she gets married '' Kjartan tells Axel. Her father only cares for the money he gets out of the marriage; she could kill herself the day after and he wouldn't be affected.

It had been a while when things started getting louder out there Cyne watched as Axel walked over to the windows to check how things were looking he quickly walked over to Cyne and picked her up and sat her on the table. "What are you doing?" she asked with panic lacing voice.

"If we are all to be slaughtered I may as well have a good hump before" he told her while unbuckling his pants. He pushed her down and pulled up her dress ignoring her efforts to get him off her. As she was screaming, crying and hitting Axel she saw in the corner of her eye a knife Axe had used this morning she frantically reached for it and once she had it she hesitated for a moment she had never killed anyone even though she has always wanted to become a warrior she never actually thought about killing someone. After looking into Axel's eyes one more time she slammed the knife into his neck.