"Don't stay forever when you visit friends,
Know when it is time to leave;
Love turns to loathing if you sit too long
On someone else's bench."
Havamal Verses, 13th Century
As the light of the sky vanished for night once more Synneve stirred from her slumber. The sight of her Sire, and his words of warning, sat strongly in her mind, but she rose to make her way to Unn once again. It may be time to make soft goodbyes and speak of future meetings which would never occur. Unlike other exits this would not be a silent disappearance across the sea, however.
The land was calm in the early evening and the passages short. The cold sea air carried the tangy smell of freedom; travel to foreign lands and escape into the wild. She would leave for Ireland this very night if the trip to the village could be made in haste.
Unn was in the yard of the turf-covered house, looking over one of the colts. Her hands played over its legs carefully for several minutes as Synneve watched from the hill. This life of mortal independence could have been one she might have taken herself years ago. The dissolution of her own brief marriage, and the lands she had inherited from her mother would have been enough to set up a decent farm and a decent life of her own word.
It would have been enough if she had not learned that there was more in the world for someone like herself. If she had not met with Aurik. It was useless to think on what might have been, however, and shaking out her clothes one last time she set off down the hill toward Unn.
+
"Let a man never stir on his road a step
Without his weapons of war;
For unsure is the knowing when need shall arise
Of a spear on the way without."
(Havamal Verses, #38, 13th Century)
With nothing to pack, and news given freely the night before, Synneve had little to tell Unn. Her departure would be short and the long road given the travel time it deserved. The good daughter of her family was understanding of her ways. Little explanation was asked for and as she slipped into the darkness once again, the light seeping from the doorway was just a touch warmer than it had been upon her arrival.
The shadows of trees were her company towards the shore and the small village that waited silently in the distance. Her gait solid and unhindered by thoughts of the past Synneve went steady to her future. Odin was with her always and her blood family would slowly release her to the footnotes of family history where she rightfully belonged. Forgotten in a few generations she would be free to visit once more and they would be safer in the ignorance.
She smiled, listening to small animals moving through the underbrush, and turned thoughts and plans to Ireland. Someone would be waiting for her there.