The Isles of Skall

Ten years is a long time to keep a secret standing.

Fine. The west wasn't empty.

That's all I'll say tonight. Ask me again tomorrow and I might still say no more than that.

I think I understand something now that I didn't an hour ago. I don't like it.

Freya Thorn

What was out there, Torvald?

Romantasy

Ingrid Wolfhart

@ingridwolfhart

I will not let Kael decide the fate of my clan.

I will not let a prophecy decide it either.

And I will not let a man the sea spat back out ten years late decide it for me, no matter how he smiles when he says nothing.

The Black Fjord answers to itself. It always has.

Noted. I hope your clan's pride keeps it as warm as my alliance would have.

Good. That's the Ingrid I remember.

Romantasy

Autor

Elin Haldor

@elinhaldor

hace 13 sem

Publishing this as an archival record, not a theory :

When ravens abandon the eastern winds, the forgotten path shall open.
The mapmaker will draw what does not exist.

The sea will return what it once claimed.

And the fate of Skall shall rest between the wolf, the frost, and the storm.

Make of it what you will. I only found it. I didn't write it.

I've seen these words before I ever read this record. I don't like what that means.

Then we prepare. Whether or not we believe it, the islands that prepare survive longer than the ones that argue about belief.

I don't believe in prophecies. I believe in clans, and axes, and people who show up. This changes nothing.

Romantasy

Arvid Ravenmark

@arvidravenmark

Found this line in a fragment older than the maps I usually work from :
"The sea returns what it once claimed."
I don't know yet if it's a warning, a promise, or a coincidence wearing better handwriting than it deserves.

Where did you find that.

Arvid. Where did you find that.

I didn't find it. It found me. I understand that isn't a satisfying answer.

Romantasy

Astrid Seaborn

@astridseaborn

Some debts don't survive being explained. They only survive in silence, paid quietly, never mentioned by either side again.

I'm not naming anyone.

I'm just saying the sea isn't the only thing that keeps what it's owed.

I have no idea what this is about.

Then it shouldn't concern you to answer it.

It doesn't. I was speaking generally.

Romantasy

Freya Thorn

@freyathorn

I saw Torvald up close today, not from across a hall with everyone watching him perform.
He didn’t look like a man back from legend.

He looked tired. Older than the songs will say. Like someone who has been holding his breath for ten years and forgot how long that actually is.

I don’t know why no one else is saying this.

Hhth

Romantasy

Ylva Winterseer

@ylvawinterseer

Men who call their ambition “destiny” are rarely wrong about the ambition part.
It’s the other word that tends to be borrowed.

Careful. That almost sounded personal.

Ylva Winterseer

It was an observation. You’re welcome to take it personally if it fits.

♡ liked this.

Romantasy

Kael Frostborn

@kaelfrostborn

Divided islands do not survive what is coming. I take no pleasure in saying it.

Every clan believes its walls will hold. Every clan is wrong in the same way, at the same time, for the same reason.

Someone has to say this before it becomes a eulogy instead of a warning.

Ylva Winterseer

He is not wrong. He is simply the only one willing to sound this unpleasant about it.

The Black Fjord has held its walls for three generations without your permission. It will hold them for a fourth.

Romantasy

Sigrid Ironhand

@sigridironhand

I don’t care about maps that shouldn’t exist.

I don’t care about ravens that forgot which way is west.

And I certainly don’t care about men who wash up after ten years looking pleased with themselves.

Skål to problems worth swinging an axe at. The rest can wait.

Then you’ll be relieved to know I don’t expect you to understand cartography. Only to stay out of my way when I turn out to be right.

Careful, Ironhand. That almost sounded like an opinion.

Sigrid Ironhand

It was a warning. Try again and it’ll sound like something else.

Romantasy

Arvid Ravenmark

@arvidravenmark

drew this island three nights ago.

It was west of every known route.

West of the last marked reef.
West of the waters sailors still agree to name.

I thought it was a mistake.

Then one of Torvald Ashbane’s men saw the map this morning and stopped breathing for a moment.

He did not ask what it was.

He asked who had shown it to me.

No one had.

That is the part I dislike.

Sigrid Ironhand

I hate maps.

That is because maps suggest there are problems too far away for your axe.

Sigrid Ironhand

So Torvald has seen it?

Careful.

Too late.

Romantasy

Torvald Ashbane

@torvaldashbane

I had imagined my return differently.

More cheering, perhaps.
Fewer knives.

But I suppose, in the Black Fjord, suspicion is just another way of saying welcome home.

For those who are wondering where I have been for the past ten years, I can only say this:

far enough to miss bad ale, cold rain,
and people who look at me as if I personally offended the gods.

It is good to be home.

Mostly.

You forgot to mention the part where you explained nothing.

I was building suspense.

Freya Thorn

Is “building suspense” the same thing as refusing to answer?

No. Refusing to answer is what he does when the truth still has teeth.

Romantasy

Ingrid Wolfhart

@ingridwolfhart

The sea gave him back at dawn.

No horn.
No warning.
No apology.

Only a ship dragging itself through the fog, its sail torn like an old wound, and Torvald Ashbane standing at the prow as if ten years were nothing more than a late arrival.

The clan gathered in silence.

Some prayed.
Some reached for their knives.

I did neither.

I watched the dead man smile.

And gods help me, I remembered why I had once hated that smile so much.

I had imagined my return differently. More cheering, perhaps. Fewer knives. But I suppose, in the Black Fjord, suspicion is just another way of saying welcome home.

The ravens flew west before sunrise. All of them. Then the sea returned a man it had kept for ten years. I would like to call this a coincidence, but the world has never been kind enough to be that simple.

Freya Thorn

Everyone keeps saying he came back from the dead. I know I am probably not supposed to ask this, but I am going to ask anyway. Was he dead, or is that what people say when the truth is worse?