Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Look! I told you!" Ivar boasted, handing her another manuscript. "Ivar The Boneless was not impotent."
"Ivar, I think you're missing the point of what I'm trying to research here." Ailbe sighed, facepalming.
"You said that I am Ivar The Boneless. I just wanted to clarify that I- I mean he was not-"
"I know." She sighed again, falling back into the ocean of manuscripts that lay strewn across the floor.
"It says here that he had a daughter... Aslaug." He explained, making Ailbe's eyes widen as she recalled her dream. Ivar had been holding a baby in her dream. Aslaug. "And two sons... Baldr and Floki."
"Sons?" She asked. "He didn't have any other children in my dream."
"Well, that's what it says here." Ivar defended. "All to his wife, but I can't find her name."
"It was me, I'm sure of it." She assured with certainty, making Ivar look at her like she was crazy.
"You're sure that you, Ailbe, who is here in 1948, are the wife of Ivar The Boneless - a man who died over a thousand years ago in 873." Ivar stated rationally.
Ailbe furrowed her brows, groaning as she contemplated the insanity of her beliefs. "I can't explain it!" She sighed, looking towards him. "You're just going to have to trust me."
"I've never been good at trusting people." He answered flatly.
She reached out and placed her hand on his, a gentle smile pressed upon her lips as concern showed in her eyes. "You can trust me, Ivar."
For a moment he was entranced, looking into her ocean blue eyes with lips slightly parted. The whole world seemed to fall away for just a moment, before he snapped himself back into reality and shook off the odd feeling that had previously overcome him. He moved away from her, returning the grumpy expression to his face. "Shut up and let's find out what happened to you."
It was hours. Hours of sitting and searching through ancient texts. For a while, it felt as though they'd never find what they were looking for.
And then she saw it.
The Queen Of Peace, Queen of Dublin and Kattegat, had returned. Wife of Ivar The Boneless, the bonnie Queen was presumed dead for almost three years when she-
"It cuts off there!" She groaned, falling back into her paperwork. "For God's sake!"
"Maybe you should go rest." Ivar spoke, still looking at the manuscript in his hands, eyes scanning along the pages. "I'll tell you what I find."
"I thought you didn't believe me." She replied flatly, folding her arms in frustration.
Ivar nodded, a mischievous smirk spreading across his face. "You're right, you sound crazy." Ailbe looked at him reprimandingly, only earning a chuckle in return. "But I trust you."
The red-haired girl gave a sigh and nodded, knowing he was right - she needed some rest. Gently she smiled, standing and looking towards the portrait on her desk. A beautiful red-haired woman with turquoise eyes.
"Who was she?" He asked curiously, dragging Ailbe's gaze from the woman.
"My great grandmother." She answered. "My mother always said I looked just like her, but I never got to meet her. She lived a sad life, died on her own in Norway when she was about 24."
"Norway?" Ivar asked.
Ailbe nodded. "It's where my grandmother was born, though she came back to Ireland when she was very young. My mother said my great-grandmother died on a cliff outside a small town in Norway. She said that something called her there but everyone just thought she was crazy."
Ivar nodded as she left, going to sleep in the next room. His face was as pale as a ghost as he looked back towards the Anglo-Saxon manuscript.
The Celtic queen jumped from a cliff into the fjords in shame.
He contemplated what Ailbe had said. Wasn't she also being called to this place? Wasn't she almost the same age?
