Alith, Bodil, Gunhild, and Hillevi are all proud of their experiences and of being seen working for us, but Alith is so incredibly proud and happy to finally be a famous shield-maiden who has been on a raid against enemies. The fact that the raid was righteous and is already being talked about makes it so much better for her. I have apparently begun to influence her with my views on raids on innocent people, and she has felt a little bad about her old dreams of raids and plunder across the sea. The fact that Alith is also increasingly known as the woman who hunted and killed an elk with a thunder weapon does not lessen her reputation. I thought she would burst with pride when first Asbjörn's councillor Efi and then a well-known warrior, who after greeted me and my sambos respectfully, then also greeted her with, "Thunder-maiden Alith".

It's a cool nickname. I don't know how many times she has told Bodil, who was next to her and heard it, but Bodil takes it in stride and is happy for her proud and happy friend. Jane amused herself by discreetly commenting that 'Thunder-maiden' can be interpreted as Alith farts so loud it sounds like thunder, which made Bodil fail to hold back her laughter, and thus made us curious. But Alith doesn't care.

We need to pick up the order from all the craftsmen and women, like the jeweller, but to keep what a bit secret, we send Jane, Ciara, and Caecilia to the ships while Iselin and I visit the jeweller, even though we of course have bodyguards and Ryla with us.

Iselin's necklace commands such respect, and when it is activated and flashing, people recoil or gaze at it with envy, that I discreetly and cautiously ask Iselin if it would be acceptable for her that Kari receive a similar one as a morning gift. Iselin loves the necklace so much, and I definitely don't want to take that feeling away from her by giving a similar one to Kari, even in a different colour and with weaker light, as Kari already has things that make her special, and Kari is rich too. She can buy what she want without asking me, but not something like that necklace. But it would be a really excellent sign of status and sejd that people obviously immediately understand and respect, even more so than a thick gold necklace, which Kari already have, and so do other important women.

Iselin knows enough about what LEDs I have available, but wants it confirmed that there are no more super-powerful green LEDs, and I think there is a fairly powerful blue 3 mm one. Iselin has a rather smug smile when she likes the idea and gives her approval, saying I should give it to Kari with a blue stone, if we can't find a similar transparent large diamond or something similar. The jeweller had a slightly smaller diamond when she bought hers. Iselin gets a cute devilish smile that I just love to see, when she says that her necklace will always have a stronger light, and everyone will know that the sejd in her necklace is stronger, and that she is a little more important, while at the same time it probably suits Kari better that it is more subtle. When indoors, her necklace flashes a little too brightly, which is distracting for other people, so right now she hasn't actually thought about turning it on again and is leaving it off. Iselin fingers her necklace, hold it up on its chain and once again give it a kiss while smilingly shining brighter than the necklace ever do. She really love that necklace.

We know that the jeweller liked the idea of a secret compartment inside Iselin's necklace, where she can carry something that reminds her of our love or a memory, but he doesn't need to see it flashing, because it's possible that he hasn't heard about it yet, and Iselin wants to surprise him. They've already told the jeweller that they don't mind if he makes other storage necklaces for other people, just not in exactly the same design, and Iselin know Jane designed some, partially with a dragon motif.

The jeweller is happy to see us, but we are among his best customers, and he quickly present the jewellery we ordered, which has turned out really nice and precise. But he has been able to cast and then polish it, which explains why it went so quickly, and they are quite simple jewellery compared to some he makes.

Caecilia's necklace makes me smile. A beautiful large amber stone set in intricate silver with a few small amber stones around it, on an embroidered orange lace necklace with some silver thread. The same style as Ciara, Kari and Jane's concubine necklaces, but in sterling silver and with a differently shaped pendant in orange. Iselin has taken liberties to show Caecilia's worth as much as she can, but still distinguish her as slightly 'lower' than my concubines, and the necklace is beautiful. In the future, Ryla should perhaps get a similar one, but it will not be ordered now.

The jeweller is of course happy to make a similar 'storage' necklace to Iselin's, but apart from his other large diamond, we cannot find a suitable jewel that lets the light through well enough, so we buy the diamonds he has. I give the jeweller a standing order that we want to buy diamonds, especially larger and untreated natural ones, and for the time being we can buy most of what he gets in, if the price is right. The jeweller asks Iselin if she has found something to store in her necklace, and I know that Iselin will activate it as soon as he asks the question. Sure enough, Iselin just smiles at him as we prepare to leave, looks him in the eyes as she nods with her hand around the necklace, and says, "I am Iselin Robertswife of Ackerek, so what could be more fitting than sejd?"

When she removes her hand, the shock on the jeweller's face is absolutely wonderful. Mind. Blown! We just turn around and walk out.

Digraldi shows up with Ima and his son Albriktr, just wanting to make sure we're okay, since he's heard the news about what happened. We assure him that we're fine; during the attack on Thrymheim, only Bodil suffered a minor wound to her arm from an arrow, but Iselin's parents were killed before that, and Digraldi sympathises with her as he expresses his condolences. Digraldi met them at the wedding feast a few weeks ago, and they spent quite a lot of time together on and off for a week. He also understands that Ima could have been in Thrymheim and what could have happened if he had delayed. That makes it a little more real and close to home. I make sure they understand that Digraldi, Ima and Albriktr are invited to Kari's wedding.

Digraldi will deliver what he has finished, even if it is not much, as it has only been a few days since the ship was here, but he has finished the new bells and other items, including the brass plates Iselin ordered. Considering possible fortifications, I ask him to cast parts for two new cannons of the same model, even though he does not know that it is a cannon. Considering that Ima knows, she has definitely kept a big secret from her husband. She promised to keep our secrets, so that feels good. It is important that the cannons have the same dimensions so that I can drill and rifle them so that they can use the same projectiles and ballistic table. I hope the new cannons will also be well cast without any cavities, and I would also like him to keep the moulds so that he can make more identical ones in the future, because who knows what will happen?

Digraldi doesn't even seem surprised that I want more, and when he says he hasn't destroyed the moulds and templates for the last cannon, which isn't much more than two months old, I am happy and ask him to reuse the moulds and make three. The first cannon turned out really well, and I don't feel like I need more powerful or larger cannons after drilling and rifling its barrel. Standardisation is good when it comes to weapons, especially for the same ammunition and preferably if there are interchangeable parts between the cannons. If I put one or two cannons in the fortress, I also want one cannon each for my larger ships. The cannons are very expensive, but I'm not worried about the future economy, at least closer to summer, and I have no use for wealth if I'm dead. I need stronger defences and military strength, and frankly, military strength is in this culture very much linked to power and faith, that being militarily strong makes me more clearly the ruler and not Sejdmann. Digraldi doesn't use lead much, but he thinks he has about 30 kg lying around, and I'm happy to buy it from him.

The carriage-wagon maker Obaeinn will make some new wheels for me so that all the cannons can be made the same, and I think there will also be more special wagons in the future. It's just as well that he's making a whole bunch of wheels, which will make it easier for the carpenters on the island to make the rest, and some wheel sets will be wider and have ribs to cope with soft, muddy farmland, etc. I'm going to visit carpenters here to have lots of wheelbarrows made for general construction and farm work, and they need wheels too. There are also several agricultural machines I want to have made, and those wheels need to be special because the machine gets its power from the wheel rolling on the ground, which also means power transmission via the hub, but that is partly a solved problem because the drum brakes have power transmission via the hub, even though that power sort of is in the opposite direction. Then it would be fun to try to make the first electric car. It should be possible to make something that is practically useful on the island, even though the performance will be pathetic, because even something that can only travel at 15 km/h and drive 6-10 kilometers has its uses on small islands.

In fact, Obaeinn or we should manufacture wheels with greater precision in terms of roundness and centring, and then perhaps turn-lathe the wheels so that they are truly round and centred, which would give the steel band a slightly more precise and perhaps rounded or smoother profile, and then balance the wheels. A fairly large carriage wheel rotating at 4 to 8 km/h has fewer requirements than something that rotates several times faster like in a car. 2/3 of the diameter means 50% higher rotational speed, and if the vehicle travels three times faster, this means 4.5 times higher rotational speed, so balance and roundness matter more. If we are to cover the wheels with leather or similar material, the leather must be attached all the way around and gripped against the metal band. Tricky. But if I don't test it, I'll always wonder, so it's worth testing, just to be able to stop wondering.

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Digraldi is also tasked with making many taps, pumps and other items. Honestly, we need a ridiculous amount for all the planned installations, and there will certainly be more than that. We'll talk more, and we already have the craft house with the foundry behind it, which has been finished for a couple of months now, and will be able to solve the guests housing issue when it's time for the marriage. So we walk over to Digraldi so he can properly introduce me to his apprentices, especially Vidar, whom he recommends as my future craftsman and seems very curious about the work we do at my islands.

Digraldi introduces his apprentices again and presents Vidar to us, and I welcome him to my Furstdom on a trial basis. We have a lot of casting work and construction to do, and Digraldi is already calculating the large quantities of copper, tin, zinc, lead, clay, sand and so on that I want Vidar to procure for the casting work. Vidar knows that he will need to work primarily with other metal craftsmen to combine their skills. Not only do we need to equip the foundry, smithy, machine shop and electrical workshop, but we also need to build things like the printing press and much more. Vidar already has a good set of hand tools, but he will get help to make more, and we have so much to do. Vidar has been warned and will accompany us back to Ackerek Islands, just like Bruinn. If Vidar needs anything, it can be arranged so that Digraldi can bring it to the wedding, and there is also the Northmen's Ting before that where my ship can fetch stuff from Borgarsandr.

Together with Asta, we look at the Cog and decide how we can upgrade it with a crane, compass, lanterns, deck prisms, radio, etc. Definitely a proper hatch to the cargo hold. And life preservers and and hammocks.

I would have preferred a ship more like the Millennium Eagle, which is better suited to the sea around here and a ship that can tack in crosswinds and better follow and keep up with the Eagle, which the Cog is poor at as it has no keel, and its square sail solution is also not adapted for tacking against the wind, and the ship is big and 'fat'. I remember my voyage in Danrs Cog last summer, and there is a big difference compared to how the Millennium Eagle sails. The cog is also slower, and after the addition of sails to the Millennium Eagle, Asta is convinced that the Eagle is twice as fast or more than a regular cog like this, regardless of wind strength and in all sailing directions except straight downwind, but the Eagle can still tack at a higher average speed. Asta has begun to consider more sails for downwind sailing, and I sure don't mind to waste less time on sailing from A to B. Heh. Ackerek to Borgarsandr really is sailing A to B. But even as they currently are, the cog rocks around on the waves while the Eagle flies.

The advantages of a cog is that it is easy to sail, its ability to carry lots of cargo while requiring relatively few crew members, and its flat bottom, which allows the ship to lie on the seabed at low tide. There hardly is a tide here, but tidal adaptation is important in certain ports in Avalune, and on the 'Wadden Sea' coast where the huge rivers Reie and Mylyr and their large trading towns of Reiekrône and Tulden are located, and all along the coast to Frigonia, because the tide can be two to seven man-heights high where the port becomes dry shore, and large stretches of the coast are shallow. For a merchant ship, it is more economical to have a small crew, large cargo capacity and greater accessibility to coasts and ports than for the ship to be faster and more manoeuvrable in an archipelago or river. Time is not really important here, and much of a merchant ships time is spent in ports or waiting for the right wind or weather.

Rumours have spread quickly and there are already lots of volunteers for both the ships crew and the warriors. My reputation is at its peak, but we don't need many and have limited capacity to accommodate new crew members or many warriors on the island, but we can let the crew stay at Borgheim over the winter if they don't already have accommodation nearby. The volunteers for the crew positions are asked to show up tomorrow after the auction, when there will be a selection process. According to Asta, at least four crew members are needed for the cog, but five or more would be better. If a winch is installed for sail handling or raising the anchor, it will be possible to sail with even fewer, as the sail can still be handled, but it is more difficult with day-and-night sailing, watch-keeping and other tasks. Practically speaking, three crew members are too few, as two are not enough to handle the sail in strong winds, and the helmsman does not have good visibility and may need help with the rudder, or just someone that shout steering commands.

There are so many warriors who show up and want to serve Sejdmann Arnesson, and more than half are men, which is a very good thing. We just thank most of them for their interest and tell them that there will be a proper and fair selection in Lysesund, four days after the spring equinox, a couple of days after the Tosra Spring Gathering. We are quite convinced that there will be a large group of people there, not least considering everything else that has attracted them there, and it is better when emotions have settled down a bit so that decisions are more thoughtful, in a place that is a little more difficult to get to than here so that those who show up are motivated. We can wait six weeks and make a properly planned selection for the future force, which also gives people from further away the opportunity to show up. The Northmen's Ting will be in less than three weeks, so the word will spread there too. And it is not just for warriors, as the Academy and my other projects might need people-workers.

Iselin, Ciara, Kari and the bodyguards agree that this is a good solution, but they wanted us to hire at least a dozen warriors in six-seven weeks until then, so that we have better protection, and we have done so. Thyra and Laug are actually a nice addition, and they command a lot of respect too, and increase our reputation. I might be slightly uncomfortable with Ryla, but I have to admit that right now it feels good to have Ryla as my shadow, because she is extremely skilled in close combat, and seems focused on proving that she can be a good personal servant and secret bodyguard. Sambos, Alith, Gunhild and Caecilia have all made comments that it's good that Ryla is protecting me.

The plan for the fourteen warriors we have hired, is to be the outer defence during the night when the rest of us are asleep, and the warriors will be divided into seven combat pairs. Three combat pairs will take the evening until midnight, and the next three will take midnight until morning, and the seventh will be a reserve in case someone gets sick or something similar, or just rotating off duty. During the day, they are partially off duty, but then we have our normal bodyguards as well as Thyra and Laug, and there will probably be a lot of training for them, including in reading-writing if they so wish. The new guards will sleep and live in the guest mansion, as it is the closest accommodation to Thrymheim, and it would be silly to split them up so that some live in the small guest house by the barns. We also have communication between the guest mansion and Thrymheim.

There will be a guard post at the southern end of the pavilion and one by the sundial in the courtyard, so that each combat pair cover 270 degrees of Thrymheim's surroundings, reducing blind spots and more overlapping coverage. The third pair rests and warms up in a tent pitched on the north end of the pavilion, so that the fireplace there is inside the tent. Every hour, the pair in the tent will replace the pair that has been outside the shortest amount of time, and this pair will move around and warm up while they patrol the terrain before replacing the pair that has been outside the longest, and that pair will go into the tent to warm up, eat and rest. At least the tent will have a telephone so that they can talk to the day room inside Thrymheim, or the other guards in the guest mansion. The courtyard post by the sundial may get a telephone so that they can talk more discreetly with the pavilion or give advance warning if they see anything suspicious, which the pair in the tent can then go out and investigate, probably using a modular spotlight. A simpler shelter will be built by the sundial so that the guard pair there has some physical protection from rain, wind and arrows, and the pavilion will have something similar.

We have extra tabards and will paint spare shields, because of course the guards must look smart and official when they are on duty, and some will be lent chain mail and helmets. Each guard will be given an alarm whistle and each guard post will have a bell.

I have also hired four warriors who will guard Borgheim, until further notice. Ginna is the old shield-maiden who like most didn't even have a scratch after the raid. She has proven to be surprisingly agile and in good health and physical condition, and Bodil overheard Ginna talking to a colleague. Ginna thinks she is a burden on her children and grandchildren, and at the same time too old for anyone to want to employ her. Ginna seems skilled and experienced enough that I might let her help train others in the future, even though Heimir, Thyra and Laug will be better in their areas, but they will be in my Furstdom. But regardless of that the future, I offered Ginna the position of Captain of the guards at Borgheim and help train the guards there, which she proudly and gratefully accepted, even though I want a written weekly report and a short daily note in the log book. All guards and staff must learn to read, write and count.

The other three are also shield-maidens, and one of them is Kadlin. Kadlin has done well, and discreetly, I paid her 2 ounces of silver for her work as my spy, so that, counting from autumn, she received about 1 ounce a month, plus the raid payment. She is very proud and happy, both for the silver and her new work, and at first thought that guarding Borgheim was the reward, and is a little shocked that I also gave her silver. In addition to a better axe, she and one of the shield-maidens will each borrow a set of leather armour, because the shield-maidens at Borgheim have to look good, and everyone will get tabards and painted shields. Kadlin also needs some better clothes overall, and everyone will have matching uniforms, good shoes, etc. Kadlin has become better friends with Rannow, the woman who knows that I am secretly the owner of 'The Blushing Maiden', and I have asked Kadlin to ask Rannow to discreetly seek me out at Borgheim, and make it clear that it is not about sex.

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