Date: Mörsugur 16th, 999. (Alt: 29th Dec, 999 AD.) Location: Götaland (Ancient Sweden.)
A few hours had passed since that moment, and the sun was below the clouds now, giving the temporary campsite a lovely twilight that made the sky have orange and pinkish hues.
Heath had finished up his talks with Arne, Asdos, Åge, Birger, Hreinn and Kåre. They understand the process and the best way to use the illusions in their favour. They each banded off to different areas, mentally noting to themselves, and Heath walked off.
He does not know if it is too early still, and if they did not know each other well enough yet, but he wanted to give it a shot to see if he can help another's possible future predicament. "Egill, may I have a moment of your time?" Heath looked to him as if he wanted a private moment with him, which the others around him understood was a sensitive matter. Egill follows him to another floor. "What is wrong, Heath?" Egill sees him cover his face in an awkward posture. "Your private relationship with Bjorn and Marja." Heath answered.
Egill goes stiff, and his eyes turn wary. "Do you not approve?" He crouches and appears ready to cast a minor spell to run off. "I understand you do not trust me, but I do accept your relationship." Heath pacifies, as he believes that as long as it is consensual, it is alright.
"Then what may be wrong with it?" Egill's eyes squint, ready to gauge his response in a prompt. "Their father, Jorg, would not approve of it. I have seen his views on the matter, and I am worried that if he catches your act. It MAY lead to him ousting you from the clan." Heath's focus on the word may lead to an unexpected reaction from Egill. "You have seen it?" Egill sees Heath go quiet, and he misunderstands that as confirmation. "I suggest marriage between you and Marja, and hide your relationship with Bjorn. I will protect you from him,
as his views on both of his children having it with the same man are. . . Not positive." Heath's downplaying was understood, and Egill was thinking that Jorg's views may be much like the Christians (of the time.) Seeing it as sodomy and incestual (Even without direct contact.)
"In the same way." Heath tried to cover it again, but he paused. Thinking of the best way to talk about it. "Leif had you in servitude and killed your father." Heath's comment had no reaction. "Do you not want him to be resurrected and an apology given?" His question was met with a stare that seemed to have no bottom. His eyelids were relaxed in a half-closed position, showing he internalised himself and had tried to make himself appear more threatening from Egill subconsciously sizing him up, but failing due to Heath's stature.
"No, my father would not want to return, as he would not like his son as I am. But, for me, it does not matter that I may be in a master servant relationship with Leif, for he has treated me well all these winters." Egill had some self-awareness, but it showed he was entrenched.
'Ah, Stockholm Syndrome at play.' Heath internally thought. He nodded in a show of understanding. "Do you have any other family that you may wish to see again from the old territories? I may be able to bring them here." Heath saw Egill think to himself. "I do not know." Egill appears dismissive of this question. Not because he wishes to be rude, but because he saw no reason to find another family when he already has one. "Alright, if you ever change your mind, you know to ask me. I am sorry I brought it up." Heath apologises.
"You do not need to apologise, it has been a long time since that happened and I have made my peace with it." Egill starts to lighten up again, "Though, I will get a drink or two now after covering that." Egill's joke caused Heath to chortle. "Fair." They part ways amicably.
"Well, that could have gone better." Heath says to himself. "Yes, it could have." Somebody says in the background, Heath turns around and sees it was Gorm. "Are you following me now?" He raises an eyebrow provocatively. Gorm raised in hands in a gesture of peace with a twinge of a smile. "I understand why you are doing this, but hear me out." Heath brings in two chairs and a table, and sets it under one of the lights that are hanging from the roof, he asks Gorm to sit opposite him, now both are sitting on the comfortable, gold-laden chairs.
Heath asks a golem through his armour's new communication systems to bring some drinks. Which they do efficiently in Heath's thanks, they drink some wine together in silence before Heath starts a talk. Common standards of the times be damned, he will make his point.
"Imagine you are the victim. I understand your father was quite the tyrant, but pretend as if in this case they cared and loved you for who you were." Gorm was nodding so far, though with a pained blink. He pictured a potential life with a father that actually cared for his people and for him while he was growing up. "Now, imagine the original enemy of your people, the very son of their leader, killed them." Heath paused for a moment to gather his bearings, taking a swig of the wine, its cool flavour helping to keep his bearings.
"Then captured you for such a long time, you forget your own loving father's face and the people beside him who were a devoted family unit, would you not want someone to be there to comfort you?" Heath's final question led to Gorm nearly yelling, but he thought about it.
Heath saw Gorm's face go still, thinking between bias for his son's wellbeing and what would be objective. "It is just the way we do it, your people may not need to after being in a time of peace. But we did not have such a luxury. We. . ." Gorm clenched his fist. "Plundered them for resources as we did not have enough for that winter, nor did we have enough men for work. We had asked for trade first, but we could not offer enough in return." Gorm's eyes were facing away from Heath, knowing he did not approve.
"If we did not, many who were sick then would have died. Before we even started the raid, we had threatened the warriors protecting their village to give us a grant, but they were honourable and stubborn, saying they would rather die first than give us what we needed.
I understood they would be in a similar situation if we did this, but it was us or them." Gorm takes a large gulp of the wine, but nearly chokes on it before forcing it down. He was downcast and understood Heath's point after reviewing it. "I fully understand it was a hard time, Gorm. I simply hate that this realm's standards are so low as to need to fight for such resources." Heath and Gorm fell to a comfortable, yet deafening silence before Gorm gave a large sniff, as if hoiking in back emotions that were going to spill out.
"Do you wish to talk about this with Leif? I get it if you wish for your son to hear what I talked about." Heath asks in between asking for the golem to return with some bread. "No, he feels much the same way as I do, a sad necessity of the time." Gorm shook his head, too.
The golem arrived with the bread that paired best with the wine, setting it down on the table between them. Heath thanked them before it left, but it gave no response. "Yeah, just a few weeks ago I was a stranger, and yet I talked about this now. Maybe it was too early." Heath talked to himself. "No, we trust you do not wish us harm. You only see us through a lens of hope for the future, so I understand your want to help." Gorm patted his shoulder, another new habit forming from Gorm's continuous desire to placate him.
"Well, let us talk about something more positive, what I will call the Dome is nearly complete by the front of the Den höga ormtungan, do you wish to see?" Heath asks with fulfilment in his voice, knowing that the extra golems have helped tremendously in this quick endeavour.
"Of course, and my guess is your build is as great as this one." Gorm gives a thick, hearty laugh. They travel through the portal and then go into a large hallway in the structure that is meant to accommodate the hundreds of thousands in the crowd that would quickly walk through. They soon reach down some steps that then give a large perspective view of the entire Dome's interior. It was absolutely collosal in its interior, it was so large that it even had its own atmosphere, like what was theorised for the Volkshalle back during the 1940s.
"Your interpretation of a theatre is very different from mine, this feels closer to a throne room of a great hall." Gorm gives compliments to the splendour of such a structure, soon finding themselves in the middle of it all. "And this appears endless in seats." He whistles in turn.
'HeHeHeHeHeHe. . .' "Yes. It is over the top. Is it not?" Heath giggles to himself, his romp incredibly light, even with his deep voice. But he suddenly turns around with an unexpected flourish of his tunic to see a large group of the deer walking through to meet with him. Even without facial recognition, he could feel their souls' signatures and noticed the Doe, her sister and her mate by the front. He waves towards them and they walk even faster towards them. "I am surprised you came here so soon. How are you all?" Heath asks amiably.
"We are well, saviour." The Doe's mate calls him by a title that has been circulating between them. Heath tightens his jaw as a reaction before putting on a face. "Please, call me Heath. I see you as an equal like everyone else." Heath's eyes showed his imploring.
"That would not be possible, you will bring back our dead and give us names as new sapient beings. Many are in agreement with me." A few deer nod in the background from the Doe's mate's comment. Heath pushes air through his nose in frustration. "Alright, but no kneeling. Understood?" Heath waits for his response, and after they nod in unison, Heath tempers himself. 'This will be fun.' Heath internally thinks sarcastically. "Is it true you could give us hands?" One of the more impulsive of the calves comments in the background.
This immediately causes one of the elders near him to kick him upon the back-left knee, causing him to sit and do a light yelp. "Woah, no need to attack him for his question." Heath goes to check on the calf that was kicked. He says he was not hurt, just startled.
Heath moves back to his seat and asks Gorm if it is fine for him to plan this out. He agrees and Heath looks back at the deer. "It could go one of three ways, or could be combined together. First option is for me to alter your body to add in a set of arms, either replacing one set of legs or recalibrating your torso and mind to accommodate extra limbs." Heath pauses with another sip of his wine, while he was not getting drunk, it had a nice earthy flavour. He lets it sit in his mouth before swallowing, with his mouth quenched, he speaks again.
"Second option, I give you powers like telekinesis or energy manipulation through external means like magic machines connected to your mind, or to alter your minds directly for such a power." Heath thinks on the third option as being the most plausible.
"The final option is that I simply give you an 'exoskeleton.' Which is a construct around your body that would fit on your torso. It could be made modular and could give you access to new arms without altering your form. Though it would require training or for me to follow the first option in recalibrating your mind for such a prospect." Heath goes silent for a moment before hearing one of the elders speak. "All of those options would be too much. We are only taking from you." The Doe's mother speaks with a whisper. Their tails turn low as well.
Heath knows this too well, as the Völsung Clan's people thought the same way. Heath rephrases it to help. "Think of it as an investment, you could use these to provide easy work, such as resource and material transportation if portals or magic are not available.
Or you could use your new capabilities for jobs like entertainment or other industries. In essence, you would become much like the near-extinct Elgfróði (Human-Deer counterpart in myth with their progenitor of the same name being the brother of Bödvar Bjarki and Thorir Houndsfoot, with only a few small tribes remaining.)" Heath's good reasoning helped them see the merit of the matter. And if their saviour agrees to this, why would they not too? They coax each other into this process until they reach an untimely agreement.
"Of course, Saviour. And we would choose the first option, adding the extra limbs. Any objections?" They bleat and snort in disagreement. Showing that they were all unanimous in this decision. "Then I will get started then." Heath warps to the (concrete brick / glass farm.)
Then immediately warps back with some bricks to use for modelling. He first designs a more 'traditional' centaur model with the first brick, one half showing its outside and the other showing its internal structure, skeleton and organs, while keeping the deer head intact. The second brick is designed as a more 'practical design,' no second spine and ribcage, simply adding the arms above the front legs and elongating the neck for height. Now the third option was trickier to picture, as it is a newer concept that Heath wanted to make perfect.
Heath designs the front two legs of the model as longer than the back legs, the spine is angled at about a 50-degree upturn to reduce the neck strain when looking straight ahead. Above the two front legs are the arms, which are the same length as the back legs.
He used the fourth and final brick to design multiple different hand types, some with hoof structures for fingers for reduced biological change, something more mennskr-like, but with the distant phalanxes (ends of the fingers) being hoofs, or just pure mennskr hands. There were so many options that each of the deer created individual 'parties' per piece, and with there being 50, there was a lot of back and forth. But no fighting at least. "I will let you all decide. As your language installment includes reading. . ." Heath brings out a paper.
"Here are all the pros and cons depending on the biological structure. Now, I will be going to plan for an event tonight, I will see you soon once all of you have reached your decision." Heath waves at them before leaving. Now all that is needed is for the last process.
What food could he serve? "Would a Funfetti cake be too sweet?" Heath talks to himself, sitting in the top floor again. "What is a 'Funfetti?'" Hervor asks, as they are near him. "Imagine pure sugar, about as small as ants, bean-shaped and multi-coloured in a rainbow assortment. And now picture thousands of them on the cake in a thick layer of cream of any colour of choice." Heath's vivid description helped them visualise it. "Pure sugar? How would you accomplish and gather it all?" Agnarr quickly realises that it was a stupid question.
"Of course you would now create a sugar farm. You are making farms for every type of material." Agnarr silently jabbers to himself. Leading to Heath giving a helpless smile. "It is not a living, so it will be easy to make." Heath taps his chin lightly, eyes up to the ceiling.
"Do you think using a milk-based cream would be bad if the deer are here?" Heath asks them. Imagine seeing a creature that, while not the same, still looks similar enough to you is being milked for food? It is like a mennskr getting monkey milk. "Maybe do not tell them?" Hervor believes it could be suppressed. "They will find out sooner or later." Agnarr sees Heath's point and disagrees with his wife. Heath sits there and brainstorms potentials. He goes between different options from the stock available in the farm and by the (forest farm.)
'Could we potentially use barley or oat oil as a replacement for what was a sunflower / corn oil based frosting, and for the fat needed to make it, we could use tree seed extract like spruce / pine nuts?' Heath jots his ideas down and puts them through the others' opinions.
"You could make such options in your realm? That gives so much variety for the future!" Agnarr sees the viability of having such a diverse diet and wholeheartedly agrees with it. "It was never made for the public as such a recipe would have a very thick flavour that would not work with the majority of dishes. But I could re-process it with magic to make it more traditional. Would that work with you if I gave you a taste of it once I make it?" Heath asks them, hopeful they would agree with such a simple but life-changing taste-testing.
""Of course."" They say at the same time. "You two keep on copying each other's words. If it was my realm, you would keep on saying to each other 'jinx.'" Heath jokes, chuckling to himself, but Agnarr and Hervor look confused. But Heath shook his head and walked off.
And he was able to complete the recipe quickly and efficiently, and with a seal of approval, the preparation of a vegetarian, tasty frosting is complete! Now the feast will be prepared.