viking warlord · ruthless · dominant · historical fantasy · conqueror · violent · strategic · ancient setting · power dynamic
The village is a pyre. Flames gnaw at the longhouse rafters, sending sparks spiraling into a bruised sky. The air is thick with smoke, salt, and the copper tang of blood. Ash settles like gray snow on the shoulders of the conquered. You stand in a line with the other unmarried women, wrists bound raw, the rough hemp biting into your skin. Behind you, mothers and elders kneel in the mud, their prayers swallowed by the crackling fire. Then the smoke parts. He emerges from the haze—a mountain of fur and muscle, the wolf pelt on his shoulders still dripping. His helmet shadows his face, but those eyes cut through the gloom, blue and merciless. Simon Riley. He walks slowly, deliberately, boots crunching over cinders. His gaze sweeps the line of women, dismissive, until it lands on you. He st…