Arm (Book)

*Arm* is the story of Nathaniel Moore, the first of the 16 to be born in history, and takes places in 13th century Scotland.

## Background

*Arm* takes place in 13th century Scotland and focuses on the story of a retired warrior named Nathaniel Moore, whose current job is teaching an all boys academy about history, etc. In this alternative history, Scotland is at war with the Vikings and is currently neither really losing, nor winning, but the king of Scotland isn't very able in his position.

One of the hands of the King, Domnahll Ó Fuaráin, strongly urges Nathaniel to come back to fighting, because he's relatively old--about 47--but still able to fight. In fact, he is seen practicing often, and he claims it's for stress release.

On the other side of the narrative, the reader is introduced to Ailios, a young red-haired daughter of a peasant farmer, 19, no taller than 5'4", is a tomboy who has done things like fight lions and bears. She has a scar on her face that goes across her lip and eye, and is blind in one eye; by all normal standards she is not attractive. Her father essentially rejects her, and she doesn't have many friends, but she works on the farm for food. She does a raid on a Viking villiage, and kills a few women and children. In response, a Viking fleet is headed to her father's field near the current Firth of Clyde. The fleet is attacked by some of the king's men, an in response, Ailios' father is fined heavily.

## Story

Ailios seeks to fight with the King's men, and the warrior she goes to, gets the counsel of one of the military leaders--but she soon sees it's a joke. At her behest, she gets a change to fight one the warrior sword to sword and seems to win. But still, the military leader warrior respectfully tells her these aren't the times.

Ailios learns about Nat, about who he was, seeks him out, and directly asks him to train her. Of course, he says no. He could never train her. He also tells her that she wouldn't be able to get into the army no matter how trained she was, but she says her plan is to fight the vikings herself. Nathaniel laughs. She says what she did to the Vikings and what happened to her father. She fights Nat, and he's impressed, and agrees to train her. He does so and presents her to the army leader (who knows him, as he used to be a warrior).

She is given a chance, until later when the King intervenes and denies it; but in the mean time she fight in the army, and gets respect from some of the men.

She continually trains with Nathaniel, and she wants him to join the battle again, but he denies it--until the Vikings invade the mainland. This is when Ailios has been dischanged by the King, but she gets some of the local men to join her and fight apart from the King. Also, Nat ends of fighting because the fight comes to his village. Ailios ends up getting injured, and Nat gets angry--apparently because the King reprimands him for training her. But that's not the real reason. However, the reason isn't revealed to the reader.

Over time, Ailios goes to battle the Vikings on their turf, even when the King is wishy washy about it; in fact the King's own warriors disobey him once due to the dilemma they're being put in. For if they don't advance against the Vikings, they'll just advance against Scotland.

When Nat finds out about Ailios, he goes for her, with the blessing of the King. When the King asks why he cares, the King then falls silent in understanding, but still the reader isn't made aware.

So Nat goes to save Ailios, and soon finds himself battling behind her with a few of the king's men. Then while on the Viking's land, Nat is captured as is Ailios, and they're separated (Ailios is placed with the captured women from previous raids). But Nat breaks out and single-handedly kills an entire Viking horde with just three men, saves Ailios and her men, and fights the Vikings that are currently on land, killing almost all of them. When they are preparing to return to land, Ailios brings up that they should stay and make hold the land, as it is a strategic spot and would give them the upper hand, suggesting that the King can send more men to hold the island. Nat is initially vehemently against it, but one of the army leaders who was sent with them actually agrees. They send a person back to the king to send more men, and he refuses because he says they need the men to hold the homeland. Ailios stands up and says,

"Let us go forward alone. We have a hundred men or so."

Nat knows something only a few know about him, which is that he acts as the "arm" of God. For him, that means he has extraordinary skill in battle when someone needs it (in this case, Scotland needs it). The army general knows this, and Nat decides to move forward with his few men given by the king to take more of the Viking land. He gets Ailios to agree to stay and hold the current island with her plebian warrior squad, and so Nat departs with about two hundred men.

In a short summary of the following events, the mainland gets attacked and seiged, Ailios goes to fight on the mainland, and when Nat gets back, everything is in turmoil, but Ailios has so much clout at this point with the warrior men that she inspires one last stand even though the King is captured and there's no one to stand. Nat gives his sword to Ailios--which is imbued with his aura (each of the 16 can share their aura to give their abilities to others), and Ailios is now even better in battle as he fights behind her. They fight back the Vikings and Ailios is the governor of a new government in Scotland. Nat giving the sword to Ailios is a sign of his approval, which means a lot.

The sword itself is held by Ailios until she passes, and is kept to make Scotland a strong world power over several generations, until Nat's aura leaves the sword over time.