Athelstan shakes his head.

"I know the sacrifice must be valuable - even the animals were the best, I noticed, not an old or sick one among them - but then you speak first of the use I can be to you, as I can and will."

Ragnar knows he wants to be free to choose, and Athelstan knows what he'd choose, and he won't speak of it again. He sighs quietly.

"Ragnar, there's still nothing I wouldn't do if you asked, but... I was afraid today."