This chapter is intended as a prequel to introduce an Original Character who becomes entwined with the lives of Ragnar and his friends and family, especially his son Bjorn Ironside. I please beg any readers to bear with me through this first installment.

This story begins in season two between the episodes "Unforgiven" and "Blood Eagle". In my story, Lagertha is not the only Earl to answer Ragnar's call for allies after he has arrested Jarl Borg.

While this story will, for the most part, follow season 2 and 3, I will veer from cannon.

Furthermore, I want to preface this by saying that I am not a historian nor an expert in Viking/Norse history so my story is based more off of the representation of Vikings presented in the show than anything else.

Any and all characters not created by myself are the property of the wonderfully gifted Michael Hirst.

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Chapter One – Origins

"Njord is a great god, and one of the oldest." The woman would always say to the young girl as she lay curled in her lap.

"He is god of the sea. He is able to calm rough waters and if he so chooses, he can save our ships that are in distress. When a favorable wind blows, it is because of him. Father to Freyr and Freyja, he is also our father. He provides us good fortune if he so wishes it upon us."

The woman stroked the girl's hair, soft in her young years. Her heart ached, wishing that this child was of her womb.

"Asta, do you know who gave you to me?" The child shook her head, even though she had heard this story many times from the woman.

"Njord himself gave you to me. He safely carried you from the depths of the sea during winter storms where you were found on the sea-beach and brought to me." The woman gently tickled the child's belly, causing her to giggle. "Everyone was so surprised when you brought to our hall, but I was not. Do you know why?"

The girl shook her head once more. "Tell me!" she begged the woman.

"I knew you were coming because the völvas at Uppsala told me, years before I married the Jarl, that you were coming. They prophesized that the sea would bring me the child that my womb could not and that this child would be favored by the gods." The woman pressed a kiss to the child's forehead, as she held her slight form tightly in her arms.

"You are touched by the gods, sweet child. I pray you never doubt that."

Whether it was believed, scorned or laughed at - Asta's story, the story of the Orphan of Gävle, was as well known by her as it was by freemen and slaves alike.The child touched by the gods, the child of the sea

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After a thunderous winter storm, a newborn babe was found washed ashore on the sea-beaches of Gävle by a poor fisherman. In unforgiving conditions that would fell a strong warrior, the baby was not harmed, untouched by sea and cold alike. Believing this child, this baby girl, to have been spat out of the sea by the gods, the fisherman brought the babe to the great hall of Jarl Kjell.

When the fisherman entered the hall, there was a great feast. Jarl Kjell, the most powerful and prosperous Jarl of Svealand, sat at his seat of power while his second wife, the first having died birthing his fifth and last son, sat by his side. Kjell would have dismissed the fisherman with his fussing babe as he sought an audience had it not been for his wife, Brynyja. Having been unable to bear any children in the several years they had been married, she urged her husband to entertain the fisherman.

As the hall was quieted down, the fisherman recounted the story of how he found the babe. She was found like the giant Bor found two pieces of wood on the sea-beaches, the pieces of wood that Odin and his brothers Vili and Ve breathed life into to create Ask and Embla, the first man and woman. Like Embla, this child was given life by the gods who birthed her from the sea, his voice rang out causing much whispers to erupt amongst the crowd.

Kjell laughed a deep booming laugh of disbelief. Am I to believe that this child is descended from gods? It is more likely that you lain with a slave and wish to push your burden off on to my household, is it not?

The fisherman beseeched the Jarl that the child was not his own, that what he had said was the truth as his voice was drowned out in laughter and insults thrown his way. The fisherman and the babe were sent away.

But Brynyja did believe the man's story for many years ago the sacred völvas at Uppsala had prophesized that the gods would have the sea give her barren womb a child. For three days she begged her husband to find the baby. On the fourth day, the Jarl sent men to the fishing hovels and the babe was brought back to the hall. However, as an orphan, the girl could not be seen as equals to his sons and Kjell insisted that she be raised amongst the servants, raised to serve his family. And so was the babe's fate as she became a young child in service of the Jarl's family, favored in secret by Brynyja who would sneak into the servant's sleeping quarters at night to regale the child with stories of the gods. Despite her lowly status, the child's story quickly spread amongst the servants and slaves who came to love and revere the joyful, ever-helpful girl who was unaware of what was whispered about her

Yet, the girl's fate would not change until she had seen her seventh summer. It was that year that a wandering seeress came to Kjell's hall in need of food and shelter. Once she had been granted a private audience, she asked the Jarl if she could see the child the sea had birthed at the gods' request. Stunned, Kjell could not move or speak for he had never believed anything special of the girl. The seeress once more insisted that the child, who the gods had breathed life into, be brought to her. Brynyja quickly found the girl, dressed in the simple dirtied frock of a servant, and took her to the seeress. The old, wizened oracle cracked a toothless grin as she took the child into her arms. Rocking the child in her grasp, the sacred woman gave a prophecy:

The girl shall be named Asta, for she will be a divine beauty

Touched by the gods, worlds will war inside her

And she will suffer and thrive because of it

She will be loved and hated because of it

The seeress turned the Jarl and looking him in the eye, she finished her prophecy

Like her father Njord she will bless you at sea for the sea is her home and the sea is her blood

She is your way forward

And so Asta, the Orphan of Gävle, was born and whether or not her story was believed, she was both loved and hated because of it.

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Asta stood stoically on the docks, unwavering in the chilling winds as her raven locks danced around her beautifully carved face with each mighty gust. Standing absolutely still in a simple cloak of rough-spun wool, modest attire appropriate for someone serving the Jarl's household, she breathed in the briny air. Letting it fill her lungs, the now young woman was soothed by the sound of lapping waves. Always at peace around the water, her sea-green eyes scanned the horizon, out past the edges of the fjord where the open sea was waiting.

Behind her she heard heavy footsteps. Turning she saw Jarl Kjell striding down the dock. Now older and showing signs of his easy, luxurious life the man now carried himself like the warrior he was in his youth – he was proud and purposeful.

"Asta, dear girl!" He bellowed, reaching her with a grin of mischievous and ambition plain on his face.

She greeted her Jarl with a brief bow of her head. "What has you in such a lively mood?" She asked, for it had been a long time since she had seen the man like this. Plagued by squabbling, fool-hardy sons and the lack of adventure and glory, Kjell had fallen into a dreary state for years. The man that stood before her now was a man reborn.

"Have you heard the tales of Ragnar Lothbrok?" He asked.

"Of course," Asta nodded, for the stories of Ragnar Lothbrok, the farmer who sailed West, were well known and were often the talk of choice amongst the servants. West, she herself had often wondered what laid outside the fjords she called home.

"The gods have destined that we go to Ragnar so that we may go West with him!" Jarl Kjell's voice boomed, echoing off the water. "And it has been far too long since I've had a good adventure!"

Asta looked at her Jarl in surprise, having not expected this.

"We?" She asked. "Am I to go?"

Clasping her shoulders in his large weathered hands, he looked the young woman square in the eye. "Yes, you are to sail to Kattegat with me for you have been touched by the gods." Asta stifled a grimace as her Jarl kept speaking. "The seeress told me that you would be my way forward and I saw forward is in the West with Ragnar Lothbrok."

Touched by the gods, Asta had to bite back a scowl as she forced a small smile. The child touched by the gods. The stories were her plague, the stories had stolen her freedom. The stories would make her a pawn in many a man's game.