The Captain's Sister

My name is Liissá Sigeing, my mother called me Liissá, though I do not remember her now. I am one of the Children of Od, we who are called the twice lost. Though now I suppose we are three times lost, or at least I am.

I was a trader along the coasts of Feroz when I heard a woman singing songs of home, of Skarsind, of the mountains. She was Elsa, later to be called The Fury, but at that time she was simply Elsa of Skarsind to the traders of Feroz.

She captained a ship and she was as fierce a captain as she is on the battlefield, her knives, her swords, her spears always found their mark and she caused many to bleed from the decks of her ship. The crew followed her with a fierce loyalty and I found myself captivated by her songs and stories, by her very voice for I had not heard the accents of my homeland, of my mountains since I was a child and had left because of the burning and desolation which the Thule brought.

She brought not only joy with her voice, she brought sorrow for she told me of the fall of Skarsind. She told me of her own journey from our mountain home and she let me make a home with her upon her ship.

I am a healer, I am talented with my hands and persuasive with my own voice and we took ships from the Barbarian Orcs and we fought them upon the waters in the ship that was to me, the mountains of home.

Blood was spilt and gloried in and every battle I tended her wounds so that she could enter the fray once more, and every battle I wished her well and to fight with her blood up. I was a member of her crew and I was as loyal to her as they were.

The captain had two sisters and a brother, Elva, Ingrid and Aelfric. Aelfric, she thought was dead in the Fall of Skarsind. We had no idea as we fought aboard her boat that her sisters sought her out to return home. Nor that her brother lived as a slave, but that is his story, not ours.

I would ply my trade, both as a healer and using my other skills, in the harbours when we came to land. We were again in Feroz when I left the ship to bring rings back to the crew, my contribution to their haul. When I returned Elsa, with her accents of home, was not there. She had been visited by her sister the crew told me, and her sister had taken her back to Wintermark.

The longing that filled me then is indescribable. The yearning and need that had been building in me for years to return to the mountains that had grown me, the storm that had birthed me came upon me in that moment and I was overcome.

We sailed from Feroz, following Elsa and Elva as far as the coast of Sarvos. From there, I made my way to Anvil hoping for some caravan or other to work my passage with back to Wintermark. It took me two years since she left to get to Anvil and it took me two hours within the city for me to see her long blonde hair. At that same moment her brother, called her name and I knew it to be her, he had returned from his slavery and I was welcomed into Sigehold, the Hala in which Elsa the Fury made her home with the same passion and hospitality as was her brother.

The accents of home surrounded me as they had not aboard the ship. Skarsind, the mountains, the forests, they were in my ears and my blood again and I was welcomed to return by them all.

I swore my oath to Striking Ardith, the Thane of Sigehold and I was no longer twice lost or thrice lost, I was home and my name was Liissá Sigeing.