Title: "Requiem"

Characters: Thom, Delly

Summary: In the end, it is not an ax, not a sword, but the birth of a child that brings the Viking warrior to his knees. "Though lovers be lost love shall not; And death shall have no dominion." —Dylan Thomas

Warnings: Character death, tragedy, angst

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The Saxon kingdom of Panym

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In the end, it is not an ax, not a sword, but the birth of a child that brings the warrior to his knees.

"A girl," Prim tells him, as she places the bundle in his arms. "You have waited so long for a girl."

"Congratulations, brother," Róry says. "Now you are a father four times over."

And yet there is no trace of the old, rapturous joy of fatherhood, only a growing despair.

I should have controlled my desire, he thinks, as he cradles his daughter close to his heart. Born before her time, she is beautiful—but small, so small. I should not have risked my wife's health for my pleasure.

He licks his lips. "I want to see her," he rasps. "I want to see my wife."

Prim hesitates. "That they both survived the night is already a miracle. The monks say—"

"Confound what the monks say." His voice is low, calm, but he wants nothing more than to scream, to lash out with his fists and feet, like the restless infant in his arms.

It is then that Peeta emerges from the bedchambers, his cheeks hollow, his eyes drawn. In this moment, he looks so much older than his thirty-four years.

The warrior rises to his feet. "My king." His wife's oldest and dearest friend.

"Thome." Peeta lays a hand on his shoulder. "She asks for you."

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ooo

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Her lips are pale, but her smile still takes his breath away, the way it did when they first fell in love eighteen years ago.

"Husband," she whispers. "I thank the Lord for your safe return."

Gently, he lays their daughter by her side, and the reunion immediately soothes the child's cries. "Forgive me, my love." The words catch in his throat. "I am to blame for your suffering."

She places her hands on his face and kisses his lips. "Do not apologize for the nature of life." Her voice is faint. Her breathing is shallow. "Did our eldest return from Normandy with you?"

"Yes. I wore out three horses in my haste, but I forbade him from taking the same risk himself." He manages a smile for his wife's benefit. "He travels with his intended. You shall meet her soon."

Her eyebrows lift in surprise. "Theodore has a sweetheart? So soon after the mission?"

He nods. "A Frankish girl from the town of Évreux. Her name is Marie. She is kind and beautiful, like you."

"Marie d'Évreux," she says wondrously. "How time flies."

"Remember when he was a little boy, playing bows and arrows with Princess Eiryn? The old women thought they would take an interest in each other."

"The princess has always been too headstrong for our son. If the gossip from Tolv is true, she is too headstrong even for Sægeirr." She coughs. "I always thought Theodore would fall for Kara. After all, Kara looks so much like her mother."

And Theodore looks so much like his father. His heart aches at what she means to say. "Your words cut me like a sword, my wife."

She reaches up and traces the scar on his cheek. "I fear I am not long for this world."

He turns his head and presses his lips to her palm. "Do not say that."

Her eyes fill with tears. "You loved her once, and you can love her again."

The idea is preposterous, yet he cannot bring himself to laugh. "I do not think my old friend would appreciate your designs on his wife while he is still living."

"True, but should the opportunity arise… with her, or with any other… promise me your life will go on, after I am gone."

"I shall make no such promise," he tells her. "You are my life, my love, my all."

"Even after I die?"

"Even after we both die."

She shakes her head. "If you go to Valhalla… I cannot visit you there."

"Then I shall not go. I shall be reborn, and so shall you, and we shall be together once more."

The ghost of a smile flickers across her face. "I thought you a warrior of the North, not a priest of the Far East."

"It is not without precedent. One day I shall ask Vik to sing you the song of Helgi and Sváfa. Three lifetimes they lived, perhaps more, and they never failed to find each other."

The child starts to cry.

"Let us speak no more about sad things," he implores his wife. "Here is the happiness we long for. We have been blessed with three sons, and now we have a daughter. What name shall we give her? A Christian name, like her brothers?"

"No. I would like her to have a Northern name, to honor the land of your birth," she says. "Let us call her Dagny."

"A new day."

"Yes. So that no matter the darkness of the night, she will always have hope for the coming of the dawn."

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ooo

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On the third night, his wife dies peacefully in his arms, with Dagny on her breast and their sons Theodore, Gabriel, and Brice by her side.

Before they bury her, he commits her every feature to memory, and cuts a lock of her hair for him to keep.

When their friends hear the news, they come to visit him. They come from Tolv, from the land of the Danes, the land of the Svear and the Geats, from the East.

He grieves.

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ooo

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When his first grandchild is born, he takes Dagny with him, and they settle with Theodore and Marie.

Peeta and Katnisse give him their blessing, and he enters the service of the duke of Normandy.

"Take another wife," his sons counsel him. "There are many women in Évreux. If none satisfy, there is always Paris, and the rest of Frankia."

He refuses. Not while their mother comes to him every night in a dream.

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ooo

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"When will I see you again?" he asks, his fingers entwined in her golden hair.

She brushes her lips against his skin. "Are you so impatient, my love, that you ask me this every night?"

"I will wait, whether it is ten years, one hundred, one thousand," he vows. "But if it were possible to have certainty, I wish that you would give it to me."

"In a thousand years, you may not recognize me."

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind," he tells her. "Even if I am blind, I will see the contents of your heart, and that will make you known to me."

She smiles. "If that is true, then you have just given yourself the certainty you seek."

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ooo

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Vik writes their story in his book, and teaches their song to the skalds.

Darius carves her name into a rune stone that Cato and Clove bring with them on their voyage over the Eastern Sea. It reads:

This stone was raised in memory of Delly of Panym. Wife of Thome the Scarred from Tolv. Mother of Theodore, Gabriel, Brice, and Dagny.

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ooo

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On the day that he falls on the battlefield, the one that comes for him has her face, her heart, her name.

"Are you a valkyrie?" he gasps. It is winter, but the sun shines bright in his eyes. The snow is stained red with his blood. "Or an angel?"

She holds out her hand to him. "I am your love, and you are mine."

That is all he needs to know. "Delly," he breathes. "I have waited so long."

She kisses his lips. "You need not wait any more."

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A/N.

I made a video for this! Link: vimeo dot com slash 129963888

This is an origin story of sorts for modern!Thom (full name Thomas Devereux) in A Thousand Years.

Eiryn is Everlark's eldest daughter. Her name is a combination of Eir, the valkyrie of healing, and rún which means "rune".

Kara, Gadge's eldest daughter, is named after another valkyrie.

Sægeirr ("sea-spear"), Odesta's eldest son, was introduced in Enthralled.

Thelly's sons Theodore, Gabriel, and Brice are named after my broTP3: Thom, Gale, and Bristel, respectively.

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind" is from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.