20 The scribe of Mirmir, the chronicler of the earth.

The old teacher had its great robes on.They were different than regular ones and had chains that were decorating them .Each of the chains represented one filed of study and was different.The studiesof the runes were were represented by large golden chain.That meant that the rune work was one of the sacred arts .Each of the small mysteries would add another small circle ring to the chain lock and this man had over a fifty .

That meant that that this man was great master when it comes to rune making and rune working.

Also he had bear braided in the simple lock that symbolized runic m witch was the sing of men.

They measured each other slowly and Ivar was pretty pleased with his teacher .Halfdan on the other hand was disappointed .Boy did not have the look of the scholar and seemed to have attention span of the house flea .That greatly angered old Halfdan.

"Why did he come ? To waste my time?" he thought angrily .

Well since he is here let him have a regular test of perception and freethinking. These tests were basically puzzles that were given by teachers to young scribes .They showed ability of free thinking that was crucial for rune work combination.

"You will get three questions ! First is the question of wits, second is the question of perception and the third is question of basic knowledge! "and he narrated the first question .

You are walking down a road, and you come to a fork, where you meet two brothers. These brothers are identical in all aspects, except one may only tell the truth, and one can only tell lies. You do not know which fork to take, but you know that one side leads to eternal life and happiness, and one side leads to death and destruction. You may only ask one brother one question to figure out which road to take. You do not know which brother is the lier, and which tells the truth. What question would you ask?

This question was really difficult one.The first question was supposed to have some easy puzzles like riddles or even some , decent math problems but this was different one .It involved some profound thinking that could not be learned could just be trained constant exposure to difficult problems so when he Halfdan asked Ivar that question he did not expect him to answer it strait away.

Ivar just said ;"What would your brother tell me is the way to heaven ? and i would go opposite way . "

That was a cold shower that dropped on Halfdan. He in these many years of service did not see anybody answer this question in such an effortless way . He was startled and bit existed by young boys intelligence but hid it all deep down and did not show it on his face ."Maybe it was a fluke " he thought and went on to ask second question.

"What is the shape of our planet and supply your opinions by simple proofs ?"

In those timeS scholars disagreed on the shape of the earth .Many thought that the earth was flat and less thought that earth was round but only scholars baffled in astronomy . Nobody wanted to observe distant comets and stars with constant war and disaster.This was a question of perception and critical thinking. One would need bought to study rune works.

After few minutes of thinking Ivar responded : " Earth is round , i dont have or know may proofs to support my theory but this is what i by my inexperienced eye have noticed."

"If you've been next to a port lately, or just strolled down a beach and stared off vacantly into the horizon, you might have noticed a very interesting phenomenon: Approaching ships do not just "appear" out of the horizon (like they should have if the world was flat), but rather seem to emerge from beneath the sea. This would be only possible if the earth was not flat by round. Also after returning from a trip from Iceland province i noticed that some of the stars that were higher in the sky and some of the stars that were present on the Icelands sky were not present on the sky of Daggertip .That could only prove that we do not look on the stars from the flat surface because if the earth was not round everywhere you go you would get same sky with same positions of the stars"

This response was even more perfect than last one. It could be explained to stupid people and logic behind it was flawless .This truly surprised Halfdan .

"So the boy has some intelligence and is capable to be a free thinker -such a rare quality , he may be perfect for our temple" finally Halfdan acknowledged. If he responds the next question the same way i will take him as my student . I did not find anyone worthy over the years but this boy will do. He has talent to become someone great."

Ivar on the other hand grew restless. These questions were to vague . If their nature would be more specific Ivar would use his Mead power but in situations like this he was not sure if he was right. That Mead truly enhanced his ability and gave him great gift ! He would never notice "small" things in the beginning and stars ,who would care for stars in these dark ages ?. Still now with his perception enhanced he would ( some time even unwillingly) know things , basic things that are not noticeable by common folk.He for example counted all the tiles of marble on witch his horse stepped on.The crazy thing about this is that the whole counting thing was not on purpose !He counted exactly 352 254 tiles . When they came to the temple and Ivar ,now annoyed with his ability was trying to find switch to turn it off h, unwillingly stared at gargoyles .This time mighty guardian even blinked back at him and scared the hell out of him! So he prayed for the third question to be easy one ! He also noticed that his examiner is too quiet and moody.Not a single reaction was present until Ivar saw a small smile after he answered second question. But the smile was there for just a second - two at most !

Finally old examiner went with the third question, question of basic knowledge and asked :" What is the greatest god in our Northern wolf empire in your opinion and why?"

Ivar thought :"Another vague question.Icant use my power this time also! Fuck this its too difficult!!

How could i know what is the right answer that would satisfy old examiner! !!"

To prove that Ivar is diamond in the rough Halfdan asked this "difficult "question.The essence of the question was not so profound but the second part of it was .Many popular responses were Skadi , Njord and Friga . Some of the common folk even preferred noble Tyr or Hamdal but everyone did not like Loki and did respect Odin and Thor but considered them uncaring despots in constant pursuit for power ! Scribes and teachers on the other hand were in the pursuit of wisdom so the most popular answer was of course Mimir some even liked court poet of Vallhala Bragi.

Ivar gathered his courage and said :" Odin.And for the reason why? He sacrificed one of his eyes for knowledge!!".

Halfdan was again stunned .This time to the core ! What a splendid way to look at it.Many think that Odin was just a greedy despot that wanted to pull all the strings but seams that this boy does not share their opinion .He even said that Odins greatest moment was when he sacrificed one of his eyes ! Yes in the view of the many that was greedy thing to do but for a scholar greatest gift to have is wisdom and they would gladly sacrifice both eyes to gain in it !

This final answer cemented Halfdans will to take Ivar as disciple. Learning the runes and implementing them was the job of wits .So only people that could truly do it the right way were the people that had free mind and soul of yearning and Ivar had both ! .Now he just needs to learn to write , to speak and channel ancient Language !

"PERFECT come with me boy " Halfdan finally said and pointed to the small cabinet .

"What is your name boy? And put that mask down!I will be your personal teacher from now on and i dont have any students. So it will be just you and me.Even if your face is disfigured i would not care for your physical imperfections so just put the mask down."

Ivar responded : " Teacher my name is Ivar Volsung, 15 year old from commoner district"

"15year old - fine ! I can still work with this but what is the name Ivar VOLSUNG. ?Why does this boy have such a prominent name ?Was it a cripple in the yarl s clan with the same name , but cripple was sacrificed 6 months ago in Iceland province . Is it coincidence ?"

When Ivar noticed that look .He just said : " Teacher that is why i have my mask on " and had put his mask down " My face is easy to remember and many would have noticed something strange if i did not have the mask on.See? Even you a scholar that does not pay attention to worldly affairs do recognize me .Thats why i moved down to commoners area when i was a cripple but now im cripple no more. The ice goddess granted me a new body and dantian for cultivation so when i came back, i decided to "stay " dead a little bit more . Well my family did not care for me anyway and whats another month or two ?

Old man quickly understood the whole situation . He in Ivars shoes would probably do the same thing and that made him like this young man even more .Halfdan even understood why he preferred to be dead .Probably his family did a great injustice upon him."This young man wants to be dead.Well ill let him stay dead as long as he likes " he thought and than took out silver token from his robe .

"I never thought that i would give this token to someone willingly! "And than tossed the large token with large "personal scribe " words on it .That was something like elite disciple for

the Mirmir temple and higher core of the temple would have one only per teacher .But now he gave it away to young boy he met 40 minutes ago.How strange are the rivers of fate !?