31 The first debate ; War strategies .

Old clan master from Volsung clan had nightmares lately . He was visited in his dreams by his late son Ivar .The whole situation was a strange one .The boy would not speak , he would just watch as his father leaves him again and again for dragon fire .

"It was an honor" clan chief thought , " many of the commoners do not have the advantage of noble birth ... .If he was born somewhere else he would be tossed aside from young age .At least i had given him all the gold, commodities of a noble life and even honor ! Its ok for him to be sacrificed for the greater good , for greater honor"

For matters to be worse when he returned to his yarldom he found out the horrible truth .His young son was expelled from clan land long ago .He -his father did not have anything left from his first born ...They did not even speak on the whole journey to the Skadi temple . And his wife Lagertha was probably behind the whole thing.Even than he could not do anything to her . He was more to blame ! If he only paid a bit attention to the signs he would get everything strait away. When he saw Ivar , in those days in the past boy would just nod and answer the questions .He would never ask for anything he would just do it at it was an unpleasant job and he had to deal with something else .

The mementos were non existent . Soon father found out young boy lived in the slums with two maids and old sentry.He even sent all of his gifts to the charity and only had few books and togas after his death.The noble family treated the boy like trash but still boy smiled all the way to the end..

Initially they were bit closer but later he would see his son once every month or. He only remembered when Ivar was three years old that he liked griffons very much and now in all his grief searched for young griffon for his dead son.Now that griffon is also taken away .His wife told him that it is the best way to forget his son. Also it will be perfect gift for spoiled princess.

He was in full penance for 5 months ,.He refused to eat and he slept rarely .Than his wife acted for the "benefit of the clan" and forced him to attend . He was not exactly forced to attend but Lagertha went and cried for hours .That was a pure show just for him to give that griffon away .

Now as griffon was gone he as host of the event was just slowly drinking and drowning his sorrow in strong rose wine..

The competitions were not serious .Many of these fights both intellectual and martial were held only for prestige of the younger generations . Intellectual fights would consist of poetry , discussion regarding the elements and war strategies .Since Mirmir temple was place of higher knowledge they would always win in those events. Martial competition would be sparring between many of juniors and Volsung clan had the upper hand in most fights. They were not affiliated with any of the great clans of gods but younger members from Volsung clan would learn core of martial arts from sentry captains in the beginning and than advance trough the great heritage of their ancient clan .This way clan would keep the unworthy out of the teachings but the worthy would get supreme educators and supreme arts .

Since clan master was just drinking his wine Lagertha stood up and started the whole process .

" This is a happy event but what is an event without a small competition.As you know we have long tradition when it comes to these matters and many of our esteemed guests once won one of these competitions in their youths .To make these things a bit more special i will give the victor of the each events one wish or a relic .. Of course the wish can not be something large .. For example wishes that may involve killing will be forbidden but some smaller ones like maybe a manor in the middle area or sentry position would be allowed . Also since the Mirmir temple keeps on winning these events they make it a bit unfair So all Mirmir contestants that have higher age than 16 will be forbidden to join .Also for the martial part of the evening no one over 20 should be able to participate .I hope that all is clear lets commence with the debates on war strategies ! "

Mirmir temple was always a place of great respect. Lower clans never dared to do anything but this shameless snake did try to shame the temple. They as elders always bragged how their temple is the greatest , most outstanding place for higher learning .This was a fact , the truth that stood for thousands of years but now in this banquet it was going to be erased by the unworthy Lagertha. Some would argue that Mirmir clan would not even join debate and by that they would be saved from all the gossip but the truth was opposite .No one would care for circumstances but just the results and result would be that they lost .10 elders could do something in previous situations but this particular one was out of their reach. All of them had disciples and those 10 disciples were on that banquet but all of them were over 30 years old .It was a fact that for one to be a head scribe he would need at least 10-15 years of temple education .This is why age difference meant a lot and all the other clans did not have age restrictions .So basically one from Mirmir temple would be against someone that had over 50 years . Even if some of those lower scribes from Mirmir temple were present they would suffer defeat as well . This was perfect for Lagertha ...

When guards gave signal many of happy young people joined . In northern language young was under the 60 years and since the Mirmir temple was basically out of the competition 30 people joined .

Ivar gave a profound look with his eyes to Halfdan.He asked for permission and with the simple nod Ivar stood up and joined the competition as well .

"Hahaha someone from Mirmir temple actually joined .They just hate to loose bit this time they will surely face the defeat " " hahah this man in the mask must be older than 16 years why is he joining .Is he trying to fake his age .We have year mesuring pearl over there so it will be useless hahah . Well even if he is under 15 what can a scribe that just joined temple do " many nobles were whispering in the banquet...

Strangely enough , there were three people from noble clans under 25 and 10 people from temples under 30 years .These were all geniuses that stood in the shadow of the great Library .

Finally it was time for Ivar to register as well and Lagertha asked him for his name ..

"I am Shameless fat scribe and i come from Mirmir temple "

"They sent an idiot .I remember this one was in the loud chewing group . He may be the one that started all that mess . Well i dont care .. They are going to loose and this will serve them as a warning never to mess with my son again." Lagetha thought and said to the Ivar : "Oh esteemed guest please place hand on age mesuring pearl .

Ivar placed his right hand on the blue pearl . The numbers 1 and 5 appeared and finally Lagertha was pleased and allowed him to proceed the platforms .

There were exactly eight platforms with small size in the middle banquet square .These were representations of small four battlefields that had magical function whenever the leaver was pressed on their sides . Two of participants would each gain control over 16 units with various abilities .This was essentially a magic chess with few additional rules .The fight would not be done in moves like in chess but it would be deployment of real battle with soldiers . 8 of 16 soldiers would be regular infantry men. King would be also present in the battlefield but the rest of seven units with special abilities and you could choose even 7 of same kind for the battle . Since this was a real battle terrain would be also randomly generated to make it more fun . The game would end with kings death.

All these rules made the outcome more unpredictable and all battles were different each time .

There were 31 participants in front of clan mistress . She decided to make tournament with 16 matches ad the start .This also meant that one would get a free pass in the first round.

" There are 31 stones here , each and every one of them represents a position in the tournament . On each stone there is a number hidden and it goes from 1 to 31 . All young masters will choose from that pile of stones .The participants that get numbers 1 and 2 will be first match and so on until we get to number 31 witch will skip the first round and advance to second strait away .Since our champions are the scribes from Mirmir temple we will give them the honor of first choosing ! " Lagertha explained with enchanting smile .

"ccc this woman clearly has no dignity at all . She masked her good will to reduce our chances to get that stone . What a cunning mother i have ! " Ivar thought and moved forward to the big stone pile " well at least she does not know that i have my mead power hahah "

Ivar went strait to the pile and started to look trough the stones .He could not just pick the right stone he needed a bit of time to fake his ignorance .He moved ,jumped around than inspected all the stones there one by one slowly .

Lagertha was even more pissed . She did not give a precise time for the whole thing so the boy took advantage of that small mistake .All participants were mad also .It was supposed to be a simple stone choosing and it was supposed to be done in great speed .Now that scribe of Mirmir actually took half of hour just to inspect those stones .Then he jumped like a monkey and went again to first stones he inspected in the start .

Lagertha was now furious and loudly said : "Young guest all of our esteemed city is waiting for the tournament can you choose now? "

" My esteemed highness , i did not know that i have a time period . You clearly did not mention it before . All right all right since your highness is begging this poor monk i will choose this rock over here"

Lagertha wanted to kill him in that moment .Even some of killing intent was present in her beautiful eyes and was starting to oppress Ivar .

"Young girl what are you doing! " The elder from Mirmir temple stood up ."Is this the way you treat your guests in this banquet?" and jumped in front of Ivar ."Stop at this moment "!

The head elder stood up and asked ."Do you want to start a war between our temple and your clan ?You should tread carefully or your whole family will pay the price !"

Lagertha was a bit scared and dropped to one knee ."Im sorry for my mistake but boy pushed things over the limit "

"So what , even if he insulted you he was still here as your guest .What a great shame you have brought to your ancestors..Well since this is the great banquet i will let this slip but not even one offence more !You should check that stone so we can continue with this whole thing. " said great head elder ..

"Thank you esteemed elder ! The number on the stone that Mirmir scribe gave me is.... " and than she stopped while her face was again changing from neutral snow white to red ...

"Tell us the number " one of the more prestigious people said

"31" and the whole banquet erupted with cheers.....