Indeed. There are no foreshadowings that I could tell...the characters have a lot of choices for how the climax will shaketh down...
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Indeed. There are no foreshadowings that I could tell...the characters have a lot of choices for how the climax will shaketh down...
As a managment consultant, seems like I should have gone for teacher, or at least therapist... could have save some money
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I don’t know about that. I just looked up what a management consultant makes in Minnesota. To be a teacher and make that much, you would need to have the equivalent of two masters degrees or a PhD and probably coach a few extracurricular activities.
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Ulvila, Suomi
May, 1193
May, 1193
It had been disillusioning for Thorfinn to realize that the nobles of his father’s court lied like any other men did. Not that he had expected them to be honest; far from it. He had seen too much of the world in Nidaros to believe that the aristocracy was good or especially honorable. He had, however, gotten to the age of sixteen believing that the nobility were more skilled in their lies–that they would extend gossamer webs of deception that no mortal man could possibly hope to tear asunder.
Instead, they lied like laborers did, or artisans. The most skilled, like Duke Mielus of Oulu, might aspire to be as esteemed a liar as your average dockside confidence man–but even Mielus might struggle if asked to run the old Frisian-prisoner scheme on a passing merchant. He might have had the raw talent, to be sure; but there was a boldness and a conviction that a man could attain by knowing that he would starve if he failed to fool. Mielus could never have that.
Here they were at breakfast, for example. Mielus was complaining about Thorfinn’s father, and not for no reason. “And now his majesty wants to go after the hospice. The hospice! As if we can afford to alienate the tietäjät, with your aunt not yet in her grave. It’s madness.” Thorfinn nodded, absently. He had learned that his role in these conversations was to be the callow youth, ever in need of education. It made him seem like less of a threat, which was good.
If Thorfinn’s experience was to be relied upon, now the duke would attempt some clumsy move at establishing a complicity between the two of them. Sure enough, Mielus sighed and offered him a small, exasperated smile: “I swear to the gods, if the people knew how much it took for the two of us to keep your father on track…”
Thorfinn nodded. “It is… not easy,” he said, as if he were just the eager young acolyte.
But inadvertently, Mielus had raised a good question. Why had he risked so much to install a man on the throne that he neither respected nor truly controlled? What had he hoped to gain from that?
Unless he does not mean Father to rule for long. That was an ominous thought. Was he trying to see if Thorfinn was biddable, a suitable puppet? Playing for time until his daughter bore a lawful heir to the throne?
His thoughts were interrupted when a page came in to say that his majesty wanted to see ‘Prince Turo’ at once. Thorfinn gritted his teeth and said that he would be right along.
Thorfinn had never seen his father look quite as fine as he did these days, nor quite as bad. Father was dressed finer than he could remember seeing him, and a collection of royal servants had done wonders for his grooming. Still, all the servants in the world could not conceal the sagging jowls, the bags under his eyes, and the way that his hands shook in the morning. Father blamed that last on the sneak attack by his cousin Elzbieta, but that didn’t explain why the other hand was also afflicted.
Father greeted him with a smirk and a poke to the midsection. “Been enjoying the rich food at court, poju?”
Thorfinn hated the way that his father made reference to his weight, but he dared not let that show. “You wanted to see me?”
“Tyyne is coming this evening with her brothers to prepare for the wedding. You will show the lads a good time, I assume? Your opposition to my new bride has become apparent, and it’s causing trouble.”
Thorfinn stiffened, because Father had hit on something that he had hoped to hide. “I’m not opposed to the wedding,” he said, his tone sullen and unconvincing.
Father put a hand on his shoulder, and gave him a look full of paternal affection. “I know you miss your mother. Of course you do. I miss her too.”
Thorfinn found, to his horror, that he was crying. Father pulled him into a hug and held him as he sobbed. He hated this, hated being weak in front of this cruel man who had fathered him, but he could not help himself. The slightest bit of kindness was placed before him and he leapt upon it with the desperation of a starving animal.
When he had finished, Father gave him a sympathetic look. “I lost my mother too, when I was six. I don’t remember her well, but often I would think–if only my mother were here, maybe things would be easier. My father and I had such a difficult relationship.” He sighed and looked out the window. “I think it’s harder, when the mother’s gone. A child needs nurturing, gentleness… A woman’s touch. I guess I was never very good at that.”
Thorfinn was stunned to hear his father speaking so introspectively. It was hard to accept that this was the same man that he remembered from childhood. He worried that it was an act. He hoped that it wasn’t.
“But here’s the thing, poju,” Father was saying now. “She left us. You’re almost a man now, you should know the truth. When times got hard, when my bitch sister had us exiled, she left. She couldn’t handle the poverty or the struggle, she had to flee south to return to her silks and her sweetmeats and all the little niceties that I couldn’t give her any more.”
Thorfinn frowned. What his father was saying did not sound right to him. It would have been easy to believe that Father was correct on this, that his own memory was faulty. He had been so very young before they had been exiled, but he could have sworn he had overheard the servants talking, saying… What could he remember, though?
“I understand, Father,” he said at last, not knowing what else to say. “I’ll be happy to show Tyyne’s brothers a good time.”
Father smiled, and clapped him on the shoulder. “That’s a good lad. One less thing to worry about.”
The conversation turned then, as Father groused about the latest outrage from the Swedish king. The Swedes had won the duchy of Uppland back, but now King Brage was demanding the duchy of Västerbotten in recompense for the death of his chancellor, Duke Harald Sigurdrsson. Thorfinn was scarcely listening, however. He was still thinking about his mother.
When Thorfinn left his father’s solar, he went to find a servant. “Run out to the market this morning, there are a few things I need.”
The servant nodded. “Gifts for your father’s betrothed, your highness?”
Thorfinn shook his head. There was somebody else who knew why his mother had left, and he meant to ask her while he still could.
*****
Marja was dressed in tattered rags. Her hair was a tangled mess, her face smeared with grime. And yet somehow she looked more regal to Thorfinn in this cell than his father had on the throne.
She said nothing to him as he entered, only looked at him as if nothing could surprise her any more. Thorfinn did not attempt a pleasantry, feeling the falseness of it. Instead, he just reached into his satchel and produced the three gifts that he hoped to entice her with: a quill, ink, and a sheaf of paper. Her eyebrows raised as she considered them, and he could see the longing in her eyes, but in the end she refused. “If you mean to get Ulli’s location out of me…”
“We know where your son is. Mielus got the reports weeks ago. Your Lady Strauwing brought the prince safely to Zaporizhia.” He could see the tension on her face, so he added, “Even Father’s not mad enough to start a war with the horse lords of the Pontic Steppe. Not with the Swedes rattling their sabers.”
Her eyes kept trailing back down to the sheaf of paper. “So what do you want?”
“The truth. About my mother. My father.”
“The truth is that your father is going to have me executed tomorrow,” she said coolly. “If you’re not here to free me, then I don’t see why I should tell you anything.”
He shrugged. “Even if I wanted to… I don’t think I could.”
Her eyes flicked to the door. “The guards down here. Mielus’ men?”
He looked at her in surprise. “How did you know that?”
She snorted. “I knew every man in my father’s service. You don’t?” He had the uncomfortable feeling that he was being judged, and not well.
Thorfinn threw up his hands helplessly. “I can’t free you. I truly cannot. But if there’s something that you want to write, some last words–I can find a ship and have it sent to them. They won’t refuse the king’s son.”
Marja studied him closely. “Your father must have told you some terrible things about me.”
“He did,” Thorfinn admitted. “But the woman he told me about wouldn’t have given herself up for her son.”
The admission made her soften, if only just. “Ask your questions.”
“Why did my mother leave?” To his shame, he found that he could not look at her as he spoke. Instead, he inspected the stonework behind her, and only met her gaze when he could tell she was hesitating. “Whatever the truth is, I want to hear it.”
Her tone was soft, but her words were not. “He beat her half to death. Choked her, broke her arm. Kept her as a virtual prisoner. He would have killed her, in all likelihood; and make no mistake, your father has killed women before.”
“She didn’t come back for us,” he said. Like it was a confession. Like it meant that he had failed her, somehow. In that moment he felt as if he had.
“You reminded her. Of him.” She said it as a bare statement of fact, without judgment.
Her words, as harsh as they were, had the ring of truth to him. Perhaps that’s why he was so shaken by them. It had been easier to imagine that his mother was some invulnerable woman, above the violence and cruelty that his father had dealt out to his children so often.
Thorfinn found that he wanted to weep again, but when he looked at Marja there in her cell, he realized the monstrous selfishness of that. The thought of him, demanding sympathy from a condemned woman less than a day from her own death, was surely appalling. It sounded like something that his father might do. Instead, he simply said, “I believe you.”
“You have a responsibility, Thorfinn.” Her gaze was intent now. “You know him, what he’s capable of. You have to protect the kingdom from him.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” he said, again unable to meet her eyes.
“Yes, you do. It’s not fair that you should have that responsibility. You’re just a boy, and I know he must have hurt you too. But you have the blood of kings in your veins, Thorfinn. That’s what it means to be a Virtanen.”
Thorfinn gave his hands a close inspection. “I wouldn’t know how.”
“I can tell you what I know, but it has to be quick. Tomorrow I’m otherwise engaged.” Marja’s laugh was sharp and mirthless.
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Allies, I think, is too strong a word. But Thorfinn is still a boy and still receptive to new ideas. And he's got a reasonably good bullshit detector.
There was one bit of foreshadowing in an early chapter. Nobody brought it up in comments, but it's there.
For the record, I'm an administrator at a private university in the US, so I doubt I make that much either. Of course, in a year or two I hope to be graduate school so I really am bad at chasing that dollar.
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Thorfinn has the wisdom to keep playing his shell game. I wonder what he will do with it.
NOOO!!!!
This is a bad end to a good woman. I hope that Turo gets his if she gets hers.
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Oof! I’m finishing up my second masters degree right now. Why do we DO this to ourselves???
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This is Turo we're talking about... He's never been one for calm thinking, and he's likely even more confident than ever before now that he's back in power.
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I hated discovering this too...that the rich and powerful are just as dumb as everyone else, often more so...
...even Thorfinn falls for the lies...
This very much reminded me of Game of Thrones, the conversation between Tyrion and Snow at the end about what to do with Daeneryis...
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Thorfinn has the truth now. But what to do with it? He's a smart boy, yet he's surrounded by a bunch of scheming nobles and their soldiers.
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*returns after a few months* Oh I wonder how Marja is doing, I like her…Oh…Oh no
All jokes aside, this has been a great journey, I still have hopes for Marja but can see this ending in tragedy.
I think Thorfinn has it in him to rise to the occasion but it really is a lot to ask of him. Even if he does take the throne, I wonder if there can ever be reconciliations between the family branches or if we’re doomed to see Ulli return to avenge his mother
All jokes aside, this has been a great journey, I still have hopes for Marja but can see this ending in tragedy.
I think Thorfinn has it in him to rise to the occasion but it really is a lot to ask of him. Even if he does take the throne, I wonder if there can ever be reconciliations between the family branches or if we’re doomed to see Ulli return to avenge his mother
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Thorfinn still has time to do the right thing now.
But he also has time later - time that Marja dies not - to do the right thing later.
I was a little jolted by they're sudden return to Turo's presence. What happened with all the time they had in the journey back? I was thinking Marja might have time to talk to Thorfinn.
Rensslaer
But he also has time later - time that Marja dies not - to do the right thing later.
I was a little jolted by they're sudden return to Turo's presence. What happened with all the time they had in the journey back? I was thinking Marja might have time to talk to Thorfinn.
Rensslaer
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I too have been pondering the switch in our point-of-view character.
Discovering Marja’s likely fate near the end of Thorfinn’s chapter helped soften the blow, as at the moment of discovery I was looking through Thorfinn’s eyes, not Marja’s. It occurred to me later that most novels I’ve read don’t pull their punches like that, and led me to wonder if you’re kinder to your readers than your publishers would like, should you be planning on publishing novels someday.
You have the skill to wring our hearts, Cora. Are you saving the gut-punch for Marja’s final chapter, or are you being merciful to your readers? Should you be merciful?
Heh, if you’re saving the gut-punch for later, answering my questions now would be awkward, wouldn’t it? Sorry about that!
(Boo-hiss to autowrong changing Marja to Maria every time!)
Discovering Marja’s likely fate near the end of Thorfinn’s chapter helped soften the blow, as at the moment of discovery I was looking through Thorfinn’s eyes, not Marja’s. It occurred to me later that most novels I’ve read don’t pull their punches like that, and led me to wonder if you’re kinder to your readers than your publishers would like, should you be planning on publishing novels someday.
You have the skill to wring our hearts, Cora. Are you saving the gut-punch for Marja’s final chapter, or are you being merciful to your readers? Should you be merciful?
Heh, if you’re saving the gut-punch for later, answering my questions now would be awkward, wouldn’t it?
Sorry about that!(Boo-hiss to autowrong changing Marja to Maria every time!)
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To be honest, the moment Marja gave herself up to let Emma and the Prince escape...the possibility of a public and messy death has been top of the plausible ending for Marja in my head.
Something special will have to happen to change things...which is possible, there was a glimmer of something interesting in the last chapter that wasn't explained...so maybe...
On the subject of being kind to readers, that is a great question. Jak once pointed out that he was glad at one point in Last Mission that the hero didn't persist in a specific medical condition for very long, as the story would then be really dark. I thought about how I might write that if it were true and found my spirit essentially refusing to go that far into the dark to even think about plotting it.
I don't know about other's writing style...but I often have to experience mentally the story before I can get the responses of the characters right...which means I need to think through how each character perceives and responds...and doing that with something really awful...is really tough.
We've never gotten more than hints of Emma's story...and only hints of Irene's struggle in this arc of the Sword...
Is the goal of Cora not to dwell on the evil lest we think it normalized? Is the goal not to dwell on it to save herself from having to vicariously experience it during the writing process?
Only Cora can tell us for sure.
I only know the concept surprised me when it was raised and my spirit essentially refused to enter the writing process on some topics...
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Hey! I just nominated you for an AARland Choice Awards award for this last quarter. I hope that everyone who follows will participate by voting.
It’s also a great way to learn about other high quality AARs that you haven’t read. See here the details: Q2 2025 ACAs.
It’s also a great way to learn about other high quality AARs that you haven’t read. See here the details: Q2 2025 ACAs.
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I would feel the same way, I think.
Absolutely true. Turo is a very impulsive person, and he's only gotten worse with power.
I think Thorfinn was so starved for kindness from his father that he would accept even this thin substitute. I think children of abusive fathers often feel like that.
A good question.
Thanks!
You're right. Thorfinn really leaves this chapter in an impossible situation. And yet, if not him, who?
I didn't think that Thorfinn would warm to Marja right away, to be honest. And Marja's highest priority at first would be to give Emma and Ulli time to get as far as possible.
This is an interesting conversation. Obviously, you'll see on Wednesday how much my punches were or weren't pulled.
I will say that abuse and violence against women comes up a lot in the stories that I find the most meaningful, because that's a big part of the world that we live in and I don't believe in shying away from it. At the same time, it really rubs me the wrong way when an author, particularly a male author, really gets into depicting male violence against women (sexual or otherwise). There is something about it that can read fetishistic to me.
I do think that if I were starting this story over, I would feature a lot more of Irene's marriage to Turo, both to flesh out Turo's character and to humanize Irene more. I'm trying to humanize the antagonist in part 4 in a way that I'm not sure I ever did with Turo. I would not have written more about Emma's background, because I think the reader gets broadly what happened and anything more would be irrelevant to the story of her as a trauma survivor imo. To the degree that I was squeamish, it's that...
...well, I'll tell you that on Wednesday.
Thanks! I just voted too, and everybody who follows this should vote too. (Not necessarily for me, for somebody.)
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I think about this, too. I've written some dark scenes. I always think that if the message is "isn't this so sick and twisted? It's awesome!" is what comes through, then that's a bit of a problem. I also wonder if sometimes, it can be more powerful to leave things unsaid so that the reader pretty much knows what's happened but we don't see it happen. That's sometimes a much more realistic way of approaching the situation because so much is hidden beneath the surface.
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