Berserker ✔

5

"And what happened then?" He obviously knew that she was referring to her. Ronja gave a deep sigh as if her heart was burdened down by the thoughts.

"I was raised there, trained with them. Learned the way to fight, the way of the true Gods."

"So he just sent you here?" He was a curious one, she would give him that. It didn't annoy her as much as she thought it would.

"Not exactly." With that, her mouth seemed to tighten up. The room got quiet it was almost scary. It made his stomach twist. He didn't want to go back to silence. Especially being alone for almost half a year. Ronja frowned, she hated how she wanted to know the real him and not the monster.

"Why didn't you ever come into your wife?" She knew it wasn't her business but if he wanted to talk then she will ask the questions. His eyes formed into slits and he stared at her.

"I don't know. It comes harder for me than for other men. While my brothers like to enjoy the company of women I rather sharpen my weapons." She had a thoughtful look as her eyes take in his figure. She could hardly fathom that thought since his physique was attractive.

"So you don't enjoy sex and you can't cum?" Damn, she was straightforward. Ivar shook his head in clear frustration.

"The women I usually was with didn't enjoy it. And how can I cum into a woman that doesn't want it." He was nothing like any man she met before. The men she grew up with violated anything they wanted. Sometimes she wondered why were the women in the Berserkers. But then she found out they were nothing better than the men. But he, the man sitting before her, was nothing like she imagined. She didn't want to pardon his crimes but she saw something she herself wanted inside his eyes. Understanding that came with love.

"Your wife must've wanted it. You said she loved you." He bit his top lip his electrifying blue eyes looking anywhere at her. She wanted to smile in triumph that she made him awkward.

"I wanted to. But I guess it wasn't the will of the Gods." Ronja crisscrossed her legs. Who knew the way of the Gods other than them though?

"Let's make a deal?" Raising a questioning brow Ivar stretched his long legs. Ronja relaxed her back as she knew no other would be coming anytime soon. Maybe never. "I share something and you share something." Ivar's eyes filled with calculating glint.

"Why? So you can say it to my enemies." His grin could only be described as perfunctory. She pushed herself forward smirking cheekily, "I am your enemy." He laughed slightly again and she gave a genuine smile in return. Probably the first real one, Ivar thought.

"Because either I will run from this place and kill you so my secrets die with you. Or I will be rescued and kill you so again my secrets are safe. Or your brother will kill me and I will take your secrets to Helheim." She fascinated him with those words. The way she didn't claim that she would go to Valhalla.

"Fine, you start!" Smirking Ronja shook her head, she knew he started wars first but talking seemed out of his range.

Widening her eyes amusedly she said, "The reason why I send them man to deliver that message. Was because when I give the signal Haldor will surround Kattegat and he will come for Bjorn's head if he doesn't let me leave." Something about those words gave him a satisfied feeling. If Bjorn died that would definitely ensure his victory.

He knew what was expected from him, "When I killed my brother Sigurd, a big part of me felt guilty only because of the way my brothers looked at me."

"It's understandable, especially with what I heard how he treated you." Ronja furrowed her brows as she did exactly what she promised she wouldn't do. Pardoning his crimes. But it was a fact berserker men took what they wanted and kill whoever they wanted. Sometimes she forgot how men here were soft.

"But he was still my brother, my mother must be looking at me and shaking her head." This time she wanted to reach out and comfort him, particularly when tears appeared in his eyes. Breathing out she slid herself further down the wall. Mother seemed to be a difficult topic for him.

"I hope that my parents take the time of the day in their afterlife to shake their heads at my actions." Her tone was hardly wishing though.

"Who was your mother?" She wanted to close up, built walls that no one could climb over. He was a stranger, how could she share those things with him. Why would she? Yet it seemed as if the Gods didn't want him dead and they certainly didn't seem to want her to leave him either.

"She was a slave" —bringing her eyes back to his she found solace in the way he watched her with raw honesty— "before Borg married his first wife she took a slave into her service. Then she died at their wedding and my father found solace in my mother. If you could call it that. She loved him. Hoping that he would make her a free woman so she could marry him. When I was born my mother hoped for it even more. But he didn't care, he could care less that he had a child. And then he married a young girl and my mother was forgotten."

Something about the way how her jaw clenched made him want to reach for her hand. "What happened to her?" Ronja gave him a bittersweet smile.

"She sold me, to some farmer. His wife wanted children but could never have them so he bought me from her. I heard that she killed herself." His eyes didn't hold pity as if he already saw enough of it for himself.

"I never really met her so when I heard the rumors I was so mad. I wanted to be able to hear from her that she actually loved me. I was ten at that time and now I realize how naive I was. Sometimes I hope that she would be alive now. So I could tell her that she never deserved to have a gift of a child."

"My mother was a mother only to me, she never really taken care of my brothers. I guess that made me even more bitter. That they didn't want to avenge her just because she didn't love them." She still couldn't understand why was she sharing with him. Or why did he seem to have a much softer side?

"But can you blame them? Their mother didn't love them and I know for sure that if someone killed my mother I wouldn't even bother to spare her a second glance." Ivar's expression shifted, it was a dolorous subject whenever somebody talked about his mother. The only person who loved him. She could see clearly why he had trouble with women.

"She still raised them and what Lagertha did was not honorable." He was passionate about the topic.

Ronja laughed, it was a spiteful laugh, "What do you know about honor?!" Her jaw set painfully as she tried to tame down the anger.

Ronja didn't get to finish her thought as the door banged open and in stepped the bear-like man.