[center][h2]Saga of Astrid - Year 1 Day 332[/h2][/center]

"Congratulations, you have twins! A boy and a girl." Astrid barely registered what was said as she laid in bed, absolutely drained by the ordeal of childbirth without any modern pain medication. She had been given a cocktail of herbs but she was pretty sure this was just a placebo. She took it gladly non the less.

She had survived, but barely.

The little blonde boy she named Sigmund while the girl she named Sif, Vilkas offering her the chance to name them as a compensation prize for almost dying. Those were savage names for kids who would have to live in savage times.

This was, to say the least, a traumatic delivery for Astrid. Her only solace was that the wise women and physicians hired by Vilkas to look over her made him understand that she was lucky to be alive and that there would not be another pregnancy. As these experts prepared to leave, their job of helping Astrid's delivery being done, she held them back. Before Astrid had been sympathetic but also somewhat indifferent to the daily suffering of people around her, seeing it as somewhat inevitable, something she could do nothing about, but this had shown her she should at least try. And so, she paid a retainer to keep those she judged to be the best at what they did to stay in Sardinia to help other women who would not have the means to hire them to give birth as well as to transmit their knowledge so hopefully some much needed medical expertise might be fostered. 

Astrid's time was mainly taken to recover, with her friend Cidri being of invaluable help once again. Pregnancy had changed Astrid, mentally but also physically. She had never been one to gain weight but put up a few pounds during these last few months, the wise women making her understand that she needed to gather all her strength for what was to come. She did lose most of it afterward but it had left her with a more... matronly shape, something that the looks men gave her made it obvious they found it an improvement. Even with that however, Astrid was not fruitful when it came to provide for young Sigmund and Sif and so she relied on Cidri to feed them as only a mother could.

And then there was the matter of Vilkas. Astrid was surprised to see he had softened a lot toward her, giving her more displays of affection and tenderness than he gave even Cidri and Bela. Being who she was, Astrid found it suspicious. When asked about it, Cidri simply laughed it off.

"This whole ordeal made him understand how much he loves you, depends on you. While you were pregnant your business slowed down a whole lot and he realized he had come to rely on your craftsmanship and also your advice. I think that you gave him a boy also contributed, me and Bela only have him one each, but soooo many daughters."

Ah, now she understood. Perhaps it could be a turning point, the start of a real consensual partnership?

The very thought infuriated Astrid. What, did he think she'd ignore all that happened because of a few tender gestures? That it was all water under the bridge? Hell, the fact that he even thought that his change of attitude somehow made everything better made Astrid rage even more at his sheer entitlement! Oh no, she would never forgive this man for what he did to her, for arbitrary and irresponsible he was with his power.


And so it started slowly as Astrid used the vices of the man against him. She worked tirelessly to make the best, strongest and tastiest alcohol, all around the tastes of her dear husband. Then it was just a matter of keeping his cup full at all time, something she either did herself or instructed the slaves to do. He'd get what's coming to him.

[center][h2]Saga of Astrid - Year 3 Day 61[/h2][/center]

With the birth of her children, Astrid's focus switched from business more toward pediatrics. Stuff like education, health and the likes. It was little things really, wooden blocks with letters on them, she also experimented with paper making since papyrus was exclusive from Egypt and pretty damn expensive to import in volume. It was all chemistry after all, though again she struggled in identifying what plant and what minerals had what elements, recognizing them in the practical sense from all her theoretical knowledge.

One thing that proved to be major was actually another measurement: Time. She had this trouble with her workers before, how time was always so subjective to a people without watches. A timepiece was unfortunately outside of her abilities, but she knew astronomy. And so, she had a great stone sun dial made and placed in the middle of the town. From then on, there would be no excuse: Time was now measured! Workers would not be late for work and kids not be late for their lessons anymore. At least during sunny days.

Her other plan also progressed nicely. The more days went by, the more Vilkas was getting drunk on his own achievements and more literally on Astrid's alcohol. Every new village conquered was a reason for a feast and every feast was a reason to get blackout drunk, not that he needed a reason to do so. And of course every day he spent wasted by the previous night was a day with his fiefdom's affairs were delegated to Astrid as he became irritable and paranoid that his brothers, that maybe his very own eldest son might want to take power from him. But Astrid? She had become so meek, so submissive, always reassuring him he made the right choices, never talking back to him when he asked her to fill his cup again.

These responsibilities she gladly took to herself. Vilkas was consolidating a little kingdom on Sardinia, by the end of the decade he'd probably have conquered it all. With his victories however, he did nothing. Making the local lords swear loyalty while giving lands to his brothers to keep them away and busy or close and under watch. He was good at gaining land, at keeping land, but what did he do with this land?

Astrid had roads built, granaries, a mint, prevented the lords from building tolls at every internal borders so commerce may flow freely, also doing her best so this basic health care she had established could serve the whole island rather than just their town. All of these things however she did strategically, making sure the towns deemed loyal were the ones who had granaries and even then, those chosen would not have walls, just in case they got any rebellious intentions. The idea was simple: Interdependence. Make it so people had more to lose if they started killing each other again than if they went along with what she was building.

Her paramount work during this year was the census. Amatro the priest helped her greatly in this endeavor as he went around with an armed escort. This was because the census did not only record the amount of people, but also their belongings, the division of land and so forth. It was obvious what was coming: Taxation.

[b]TL;DR
-Astrid survives childbirth thanks to the experts brought in to help her, afterwards she decides to pay them to stay as to make a basic form of health care and nurture medicine on the island.
-Chief Vilkas grows more fond of her, but she blames him for almost dying in childbirth and decides to play on his vices to have her revenge.
-She begins working on making something resembling paper since papyrus is exclusive to Egypt.
-Chief Vilkas is manipulated in leaving more and more management to Astrid who uses this to make small improvements, building sun dials for time keeping, centralized granaries and conducting a census in preparation to try and make a tax system.[/b]