บท 3: Awakening

Inside Kassia's hut, Einar was lying on a rude wooden bed while Kassia next to him cleaned his head with a cloth moistened with water.

"Elin, your son, was lucky; I can feel there is no palpable damage to the skull, so I can only stitch up the wound and Jarl Sven, I understand that honor is important to you, but you should wear a helmet to protect your head."

Kassia just cleaned Einar's wound and took a skull from a shelf and pointed to a part of it. "The outer part of the skull is essential for the body since, according to my research and dissections, some veins that carry physical pneuma or blood running through it.

Fortunately, the blow his son received only damaged his skin and made him lose consciousness, but if it had been in another place, it could be something more serious.

Einar will have to be with me for a few days while I check his condition. I would also like to order some bodies of those dead Vikings to continue my investigation. "

Sven could feel a weight lift off his shoulders after hearing Kassia's words "Count on it Kassia, I'll order Eskol to bring you the corpses and tell your daughter Felipa to collect her share of the loot seized from the Vikings."

Kassia nodded and proceeded to burn a needle to start the suture of Einar's wound; meanwhile, Elin and Sven decided to leave to let Kassia do her job.

At night Max began to smell a herbal scent and could feel a cold substance on his forehead; this caused him to open his eyes little by little.

The first thing he could see was a very rudimentary room that was lit by a small oil lamp; with his dry throat, he tried to speak, "Where am I?"

Kassia, who was reviewing one of his manuscripts, noticed Einar's voice, so she got up from her chair and took a small jug of water; Max could see how a brown-haired woman who had some wrinkles approached him to offer him a jar of water.

Max, without hesitation, moved his hand with great effort and grabbed the jug from the woman's hand; while he drank the water, he could hear the woman talking to him.

"Hvordan foeler du deg"

Max's hand stopped as he couldn't understand what he said, so he decided to reply in English.

"Sorry, what do you say."

Kassia could not understand the words Einar said, although, from the pronunciation, it seemed to be Anglo-Saxon, with some doubt, she asked him.

"Einar kan du forstaa meg" (Einar can you understand me)

Max looked at the woman doubtfully because he did not understand what she said but noticed that it seemed to have a German pronunciation, so he decided to try German.

"Guten Tag"

Kassia couldn't get between what Einar said, so she decided to get up and write down Einar's strange behavior in her notebook.

When the woman got up, Max decided to finish drinking the water in the jug as he took a closer look at the little hut where he stood.

The small light of the oil lamp barely allowed him to see the strange things that were on the shelves of the hut; he could make out some iron tools and some ceramic jars that seemed to have some herbs.

But it was not until on a ledge he saw a small skull that he could remember his whole life, including what had happened on the plane, when Kassia arrived with Einar she could see him cry as he saw the skull on his ledge.

For Kassia, this was somewhat surprising as she had only seen Einar cry once ten years ago when the tribe was forced to exile in this land of ice.

Max, who was thinking about his daughter and wife, heard the characteristic noise of a person writing; when he turned his face, he could see the woman writing something on a piece of what seemed to be papyrus.

With some curiosity, he wiped the tears on his face and leaned towards the woman to see what she was writing.

The first thing he could see was that the woman was writing something using the Latin alphabet; with a little more reading, he could understand that the woman was writing in Latin.

This caused Max to be surprised by what he looked at the woman and asked her in Latin, "Vos potestis intelligere me" (You can understand me)

Kassia stopped her hand when she heard Einar speak Latin, so she decided to reply in Latin, "Einar, when did you learn to speak Latin."

"My name is not Einar, I'm Max, a former Mexican military man, I learned Latin at university.

But could you tell me where I am and what year it is? "

Max's words made Kassia drop the pen with which she was writing; without answering, she reached out her hand, and under the wooden bed, she took out a small chest.

Max could see how the woman took a key from her chest, and with it, she opened the small wooden chest. Inside, the woman took out a book with a leather cover, which she opened and revealed a large amount of text in Greek.

Also, the book had some circular images which seemed to represent cycles; Kassia silently searched for a verse from the book ignoring Einar's curious look.

When she found what she was looking for, she read in silence for a moment, and after finishing reading, she looked at Einar seriously.

"According to the Eastern Book of the Dead, you shouldn't be in Einar's body unless he passed away.

But if that is the case, you can guarantee me that you are not a demon that usurped his body; you spoke three strange languages and also Latin.

Speak now, or I will have to go to Jarl Sven and Godi Asgot. "

Max could feel the threat in the woman's words, so his eyes narrowed.

"Demon?

I took care of my wife in her illness, and I did my best to be a good father to my daughter, but how life rewarded me. "

Kassia watched as Einar squeezed the jug of water with his hand, forcibly causing the jar to break, causing Einar's hand to bleed.

"First, he killed my wife from one of the most disgusting and vicious diseases out there, then he killed my daughter by burning her as she fell to her death from the sky.

But for the life, destroying my family was not enough; it deprived me of my right to reunite with my family in the afterlife, throwing me into a damn black space where I could see what a monster is. "

Max got up from the bed and put his face in front of the woman. "I am just a man who lost everything, and because I once death, I am not afraid of your threats.

But I remind you that if they do not kill me and I survive, I will not hesitate to look for them one by one to kill them in the worst possible way.

Now I hope you can tell me where I am and what year this is. "

Kassia swallowed hard at the look of Einar; in his eyes, she could see what he was willing to kill and die.