Exile's End: Day 29

Word Count: 174,011

Summary of Events:
Chapter 57:
The Iøsenräl came across a large amount of deer and stopped during the daytime to hunt and butcher some meat for themselves before moving on. Thårijn performed an act of particular strength by lifting an entire barrel full of meat onto a wagon for an elderly lady.
Chapter 58:
Thårijn was woken in the night by the sound of wagons and discovered that the 14,000 Iøsenräl they'd been told were missing — who were now just shy of 10,000 — were trying to pass them. He welcomed them into the group to journey. The next night Thårijn chatted with Bærnärd, the son of Äsæ.

Excerpt of the Day:
""Was she ill?" Bænärd asked.
"Very ill," Thårijn replied. "She could not even rise on her own, nor even move her own arms, she was limp as a blanket."
"Why?" Bænärd asked.
"I know not," Thårijn replied. "She passed before we departed."
"You won't be able to visit her grave either?" Bænärd asked. "Like papa?"
"I will," Thårijn replied.
"How?" Bænärd asked.
"I pledged to her that I would lay her among the Kæs at Sönniväbæsted, so she journeys with us in her casket, in the black wagon, drawn by the black horses with no driver," Thårijn replied. "And whence it is that we shall arrive in our homeland either I, or a descendant of mine, or Bæjern even, shall lay her in her resting place as per my pledge to her."
"Why would she lay among the Kæs?" Bænärd asked.
"Because, if it were that we lived in Kænjiøs now she would have been a queen, and she would have been buried there anyways," Thårijn replied. "And to me she always was a queen, she deserves no lesser resting place than among the Kæs where she ought to have bee, she does not deserve to be laid in this land, her grave unknown, and even forgotten as the ages pass."
"Do you miss your mother?" Bænärd asked.
"Daily," Thårijn replied. "She was a magnificent woman. I wish she would have recovered and would have been able to see Kænjiøs and Sönniväbæsted with her own waking eyes."
Bænärd nodded, but said nothing for awhile. "Does your papa miss her?"
"No," Thårijn replied. "To him it is good riddance that she is gone, their marriage was only a marriage of convenience, it was not a marriage of love — although she did grow to love him as the years passed."
"What's a marriage of convenience?" Bærnärd asked.
"They married solely so that, should my father return to Kænjiøs and take the throne it would not be forfeit," Thårijn replied. "According to the laws of Kænjiøs the king or heir to the throne must marry a woman related to him no closer than seven generations, otherwise the throne will be forfeit him."
"What do you mean?" Bærnärd asked.
"My father and mother are seventh cousins," Thårijn replied. "Because of the fact that my mother was the only woman of marriageable age who was as yet unwed who was either seventh cousins or further — eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh cousins or so on — they had to marry so that my father would have a legitimate claim to the throne of Kænjiøs should he ever be able to claim it — and so would their children — and also if he had not married her than the proper house of Kæs would have been ended. They did not love each other, but they married because they wanted the house of Kæs to continue."
"So you could become king?" Bærnärd asked.
"I could," Thårijn replied, although he hoped such wouldn't be the case."

Bærnärd: bear-nahrd