Chapter Text
Augusta brushed her fingers across the strange runes on her forearm. She couldn’t understand them but she thought they looked interesting. Her mother said they were her soul words; the first thing her soulmate would say to her when they encountered each other. It was terribly romantic. Her mother and father’s were lovely and she couldn’t wait to meet her soulmate and get married. Sometimes she would get frustrated that she couldn’t read them, and her mother would sit down and reassure her that her soulmate lives in a far away land, outside of the empire, and that she would bring peace to that land by marrying them. From then on her dreams were of foreign princes and adventures, all fun and games for a young princess.
When she was ten, another girl was brought into the palace. Her name was Kamilla. Kamilla was Augusta’s lady-in-waiting and helped her with everything she needed to do. They became best friends and Gus would tell her about her words. Kam thought she was being too romantic about it and that it didn’t matter too much. Gus would sometimes ask to see Kam’s soul words, but she wouldn’t show them and Gus knew better than to press her friend too hard.
As she matured into her teenage years her fun and games turned into business. Her father started to show an interested in her soul words and spent hours trying to decipher where the symbols came from. Augusta had no idea what her father was planning, she was far more interested in trying to copy the movements of the training guards in the courtyard and learning the moves. Ever since hearing the stories that Spartan women went to war with their men, she had been interested in fighting. As a Roman princess, she had to know how to defend herself if she was to be attacked but it wasn’t necessary for her to be a brilliant fighter. She just had to be able to hold off an attacker until help arrived. Augusta relished her training sessions and often repeated the movements in private, sparring with Kamilla in her spare time.
On her eighteenth birthday she was called to her father’s office.
‘Augusta, my beautiful daughter,’ her father said when she entered the room, ‘as princess, you have always been aware of your duty to the empire. Well, the time has come for you to honor that duty. We have finally found a suitable husband for you! He is the chief of one of the most powerful Viking tribes of the north. I’ve chartered a ship to escort you to his land. We expect that your lady in waiting will be accompanying you to ensure you arrive safely.’