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Impaling the Seax was a virtual representation of one of Eivor Varinsdottir's genetic memories, relived by Layla Hassan in 2020 through the Portable Animus HR-8.5.
Description[]
After assassinating The Quill, Eivor went to report to Goodwin and begin her investigation of The Seax's fate.
Dialogue[]
After killing The Quill, Eivor headed back to Goodwin at a tavern.
- Goodwin: Eivor?
- Eivor: Is there where justice hides when she's tired?
- Goodwin: Hides? 'sblood, no! This is a wake, my friend. A celebration to ease The Quill on her way to eternal damnation.
- Eivor: You heard.
- Goodwin: Hilda's were not only eyes in Wincestre. My spies tell me stories of an avenging angel striking down the unworthy.
- Eivor: I have been called worse.
- Goodwin: Be thou hale, Ealborbana! That's life-destroyer in our dialect.
- Eivor: I sat easy with my kins-bane, old honey-waves alike in my horn, and my eyes on the door, expecting my death, yet unafraid.
- Goodwin: You're quite safe with me, Dane. For now. If the mead is fresh and the air is cool, you may often find a friend, even amongst your enemies.
- Eivor: I could use someone like you in my settlement. With ink on his fingers and a sense of honor.
- Goodwin: I would love to devote myself to the study and practice of the law. There is a weariness in war I wish I could shake off.
- Eivor: Impossible. Even in death, our battles will rage on. It's the way of things.
- Eivor: Are you sure The Seax is dead?
Eivor and Goodwin discussing The Seax
- Goodwin: The bishop is dead, that's certain. And if the bishop was The Seax, The Seax is dead. A transitive property of mortality, you see?
Eivor stood up in disagreement.
- Eivor: I don't believe it. Too much theater in Wincestre? Overwrought prayers and wailing women.
- Goodwin: Well, you could pay your respects and see for yourself. The funeral is today.
- Eivor: If he rots, I will leave with my silver. But if he lives, there's work to be done.
- Goodwin: Watch your step, Eivor. He'll be a hefty corpse in death. Alive he'd be much bigger.
As Eivor leaves, Goodwin stated another remark.
- Goodwin: Whether you find or make a corpse, meet me at the witan with your report.
Eivor at Bishop Ealhferth's funeral
Eivor left and arrived at Ealhferth's funeral at Saint Peter's Church.
- Eivor: If the bishop is worm meal, then here should be the proof.
Eivor investigated the funeral by talking with the attendees, one by one.
- Eivor: A sad day for Wincestre.
- Anglo-Saxon Man 1: Maybe now, God will reward us with a man who truly believes in him.
Eivor talked with the man adjacent.
- Eivor: Did you know Bishop Ealfherth?
- Anglo-Saxon Man 2: No, but I plan to write an epic poem of his grimsly demise. O, poor Ealhferth, scorched of face. All your woeful companions, bold byrnied (armored), weeping, weeping as you are ... er ...
- Eivor: Sleeping?
- Anglo-Saxon Man 2: Perfect! Yes!
Eivor saw and talked to man near the body.
- Eivor: Are you the bishop's family?
- Anglo-Saxon Man 3: God no. Just here to make sure that impious bastard is actually dead. He bedded my wife, the randy bastard!
Eivor talked a grieving woman next.
- Eivor: Such a grisly fate. Did you know Ealhferth?
- Anglo-Saxon Woman 1: By reputation, I did. He was no friend of Aelfred's. I once heard them quarreling at a witan.
Eivor talked to another female attendee.
- Eivor: I am sorry for your loss.
- Anglo-Saxon Woman 2: Makes no odds for me. But I am sorry for Harriet. She cared so much for him, more than a sister should.
Eivor investigated the body up close.
- Eivor: Only his face was burned. That seems like a strange accident. And this corpse's built is slight, frail. Goodwin said Ealhferth was a brute.
Eivor asked another woman at the funeral about the bishop.
- Eivor: Did you know Bishop Ealhferth?
- Anglo-Saxon Woman 3: Barely. But can you still the burned flesh? It's rife across the whole graveyard.
Eivor questioning the gravedigger, Wemba
Eivor talked to a man near the graves.
- Wemba: A stranger comes to Wemba.
- Eivor: You don't mourn like they do.
- Wemba: Wemba's always here. Helping the sleeping. Singing to them, so they are not frightened before they meet God.
- Eivor: The sleeping? You mean the dead?
- Wemba: Wemba helps the monks. Dig, dig, dig.
- Eivor: You dig the graves. Did you bury Ealhferth?
- Wemba: Have you seen Leof? My poor friend. Poor, poor Leof.
Eivor investigated the graves closer and found clothes.
- Eivor: A peasant's clothes? Strange discovery in a churchyard.
- Eivor: Leof? What happened to him?
- Wemba: Sleeping, sleeping like my dog when I hugged him too hard.
- Eivor: Someone hurt Leof? I saw a pile of dirty clothes just here. Is your friend Leof a beggar?
Eivor left Wemba.
- Eivor: This funeral is a shadow-play. The Order killed an innocent, burned his face so no one could tell, and interred him in Ealhferth's place. His sister knows more than she lets on.
As Eivor neared the body again, she heard Harriet praying.
- Harriet: Lord, grant my brother Ealhferth eternal bliss, where joy endures for all those beloved of God.
Eivor spoke with Harriet.
- If Eivor spoke to Harriet prior or during to her investigation.
- Harriet: Do you not see I am in prayer?
- Eivor: May we speak of your brother's death?
- Harriet: Have you no shame? Leave me.
- Eivor: I know the burden you bear. Such a weight of sin you have taken on, and all for your brother's sake. I know he lives.
- Harriet: No, he's ... he said it was for the good of all, he ... I am his loyal sister, and I tell you he is dead. You hear me? Dead!
- Eivor: I will leave you in peace, then.
- If Eivor charmed her way to have Harriet reveal the truth.
- Harriet: Leave me alone, I cannot betray my brother.
- If Eivor spoke to Harriet after concluding her investigation.
- Harriet: Leave me to my grief.
Eivor questioning Harriet about her brother's status
- Eivor: A pretty show you've laid on here. But I know the truth.
- Harriet: You would dare speak to me? When my poor brother Ealhferth lies cold in his shroud?
- Eivor: Your brother is The Seax. And no more dead than I am.
- Harriet: Heresy. My brother was the bishop of Wincestre!
- Eivor: When Goodwin got too close to the truth about your brother's place in The Order, you buried him. Or rather, you buried another in his place. The poor gravedigger's friend, burning his face so no one would know.
- Harriet: How did you ... no ... I—
- Eivor caught Harriet off-guard.
- Eivor: Your brother's not in that crypt. Tell me where he is before more lives are lost.
- Harriet: I will not tell you anymore. Guards!
As the guards came in, Harriet shouted.
- Harriet: Alright, alright. Have your way. It won't do you any good.
As Eivor fought with the guards, Harriet pleaded.
- Harriet: Guards, protect me!
Harriet revealing her brother's mission to eliminate King Aelfred
Eivor killed the guards and interrogated Harriet.
- Harriet: Why won't you leave me alone?
- Eivor: Enough of this cat and mouse. Where is your brother, the one they call The Seax?
- Harriet: He's a ghost now. But he will make himself flesh once more at the witan. And Aelfred will be king no more!
- Eivor: He means to kill Aelfred?
- Harriet: Regicide? No! The king will step aside, and Ealhferth will lead us all, risen and resplendent as the Lord.
- Eivor: You are a damned fool.
Eivor left the funeral and headed to the witan to save Aelfred. Eivor arrived at the Witan Hall, but the doors were locked. However, Eivor saw an opening through a window and went inside.
- Eivor: The Seax must be hiding in the crowd, biding his time to strike at Aelfred.
Eivor pondered as King Aelfred gave a speech.
- King Aelfred: In the past, Anglo Saxons prospered in both warfare and wisdom. But the decay of English prose has been creeping. Not priest, clerk, or abbot can turn the letter of their sermons from Latin to English. And how can we understand God's words if they are not spoken in our tongue? Ealhferth is dead. And we mourn him. But the foul deeds of the unrighteous are sown among our holy deeds like cockles and tare in a field of wheat. Education, wisdom, enlightened thought, this will raise us above the sins of our fathers. These I will demand of the next bishop of Wincestre. And so we meet to discuss all worthy candidates. And choose the man who will shepherd our flock.
- Ealhferth: The king is mine!
- If Eivor fought the bishop instead of assassinating him, the bishop would be aided by three replica henchmen, as Goodwin joined the fight
- Anglo-Saxon Man 4: They'll kill us all! God save us!
- Ealhferth: Why do you defend this tarnished crown?
- Goodwin: Enough, you scheming cur!
- King Aelfred Greater men than you have died on my sword.
Eivor assassinating Ealhferth
After killing Ealhferth, Eivor saw Ealhferth knelt at his grave in the Memory Corridor as he was approached by a ghostly Odin and Eivor.
- Ealhferth: How sweet is the Shepherd's pipe when he calls his lambs to slaughter. I was born to Christians in the northern wilds. My mother would cradle me beneath the stars and whisper dovelike, "God watches over you."
A shadowy group of Danes appeared in the distance.
- Ealhferth: Then your people came. And God fixed his stout eye as they slit her throat for a copper ring. No stars threw down their spears as barbarians smeared her blood through fields of broken wheat. God watched all ... and I hated him.
Ealhferth in the Memory Corridor
As Ealhferth pushed down his Christian headstone, Eivor responded.
- Eivor: It may be Aelfred's God was testing you. A trial you failed.
- Ealhferth: Aelfred's God is weak. Yet he would chain us all in His service. From our first breath to our death rattle. My Order wishes to break these mind-forged manacles. I am the wolf in lamb's wool.
- Odin: He takes on the role of a god himself. A worthy path to walk.
- Eivor: A wolf is but a walking feast for ravens.
Ealhferth then threw his medallion to Eivor, who caught it.
- Ealhferth: One more gift to you, Dane. A deadly truth, if you can find it.
Ealhferth gestured to a key left on a shovel.
- Ealhferth: With my death, The Order will not die. It will only transform ... into something far worse for all of us.
Ealhferth then walked down into his grave and his spirit immediately vanished. Eivor walked towards his grave and picked up the key. As Eivor stood up from Ealhferth's corpse, she talked with Aelfred and Goodwin.
Aelfred thanking Eivor for saving his life
- Eivor: Ealhferth will not cheat Loki's dread daughter twice.
- King Aelfred: I owe you my life.
- Eivor: An irony not lost on me, Aelfred.
- Goodwin: My king, we'll go by back streets to the Old Minster. Eivor may find us there when all has settled.
Goodwin and King Aelfred left as Eivor pondered at Ealhferth's key. Soon, a tearful Harriet ran in.
- Harriet: Ealhferth, my love! No!
Harriet dropped to her knees.
- Eivor: Curse you, Dane. My brother served God!
- Eivor: He was not a Christian, he abhorred your god.
- Harriet: But why strike him down? Have you no compassion for good men!
Harriet stood up to face Eivor.
- Eivor: Where is its home?
Harriet directing Eivor to the ruins beneath her brother's home
- Harriet: You treated me with kindness, but this damned order. Their machinations killed my brother, so the rest may rot. Take this key to the ruins beneath the bishop's house. You may find answers there.
Eivor left and ventured to find the bishop's home. Locating his home, Eivor entered the Bishop's Residence. Exploring his abode, Eivor came across a door, opened it with the key, and found a Temple of Mithras under Wincestre.
- Eivor: This must be it. The door to Ealhferth's secrets.
Eivor investigating the temple
Investigating the temple, Eivor came across a letter near the entrance.
- An Unsealed Letter:
The Mark is Aelfred, a withered sprig from his father's trunk. We should have seen it earlier. Someone calling himself a Poor Soldier is colluding with our king and feeding him names. Lunden and Eoforwic have already fallen to this treacherous rat.
Burn the King to ash before he reaches the roots.
The Instrument
- Eivor: I'll send this to Hytham. He may make some sense of it.
After manuevering inside the temple, Eivor found a decree among a bunch of scrolls.
- A Faded Decree:
A Universal Decree, Writ this 870th Year of the Christian Jesus,
Bulwark England against outside agitators. She is our last great fortress upon this earth, with walls not only of timber and stone, but of will, that have repelled our ancient rivals for over four centuries. Yet now we face a new threat. Ravenous Danes who have not yet accepted our supremacy. We must fight to turn them, or eliminate them.
Though embattled, our sects in Francia and Ireland stand ready for our glorious return. Be ever resolute. Though our Order may diminish, our truths are eternal.
The Father
- Eivor: Everything they did was to undermine Aelfred. She lied to me. There is nothing here of The Order. I should see Aelfred for my reward.
Eivor left the temple and headed to speak with Aelfred. Arriving at the Old Minster, Eivor spoke with Aelfred. Within the chapel, Eivor saw guards, a sitting Sigebeald, and Aelfred standing at the altar.
- King Aelfred: Come forth, Eivor.
- Eivor: Here is far enough.
Aelfred offering Eivor the choice of converting to Christianity
- King Aelfred: When wrongdoers came to devour my flesh, these enemies stumbled and fell.
As Aelfred walked towards Eivor, Eivor took a step only to see a soldier have his sword readied.
- Eivor: Have the laws of hospitality been thrown out, Aelfred? I did exactly as we agreed.
- King Aelfred: That you did. But do not mistake necessity for friendship.
- Eivor: You are a man of your word. A man of God.
- King Aelfred: Indeed. By His example, I live my life. Goodwin...
Goodwin walked into the conversation.
Goodwin presenting the Christian cross to Eivor
- Goodwin: Here's the only silver fit for one of your dragon-boats. A reminder of Christ's sacrifice and our charity.
Goodwin handed Eivor a encrusted silver Christian cross.
- King Aelfred: This too, I offer you. Live here among us in peace as a Christian, or die a pagan in a blood soaked field. All you have to lose is life everlasting.
- Eivor: And if I choose neither?
- Goodwin: He offers you hope, Eivor. A life of purpose above and beyond this one. You'd be a fool to refuse.
Eivor rejecting the offer of conversion
- Eivor: Your reign will end, King of the West Saxons. Raven wings will beat until your throne crumbles to dust.
- King Aelfred: You were wrong, Goodwin. This one is beyond saving.
Aelfred nodded at Sigebeald, who left immediately, as an escort of guards surrounded Aelfred as he left. Goodwin took his leave just as the bell rang, which signified an alert of intrusion. As Eivor tried to run, Goodwin pulled a dagger on her.
- Goodwin: You had your chance, damn you!
- Eivor: I did not want it.
Goodwin ran out as Eivor glanced angrily. As Eivor ran, guards immediately noticed her.
- Eivor: Damn you, Aelfred.
As Eivor escaped to Wincestre, she stated to herself her next duty.
- Eivor: I'll return to Hytham and Randvi. They'll want to know what happened here.
Outcome[]
Eivor found and assassinated The Seax and uncovered failed Order plans to take out Alfred and other sects in Francia and Ireland. Afterwards, Eivor talked with Alfred, who offered a conversion proposition, and Eivor denied. Thus, Eivor ran out of the hostile city of Wincestre after an alert was made.
Gallery[]
