By
Morpheus
After surviving an unexpected and brutal encounter with a monster, a young man is drawn into the world of the Val Kyr.
By
Morpheus
After surviving an unexpected and brutal encounter with a monster, a young man is drawn into the world of the Val Kyr.
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Lunch in the school cafeteria was always loud and crowded, but I’d long since learned how to tune out most of the noise. I sat in the area of the cafeteria that was usually reserved for seniors like me, though I was alone at the end of a table, silently the latest Dresden book on my Kindle. You’ve got to like a guy whose solution to the zombie apocalypse was to create his own zombie dinosaur.
I was off to the side by myself, not because I was one of those outcast loners who had no friends, but because I enjoyed reading during lunch and I couldn’t do that while people talked to me. As far as I was concerned, the entire lunch period existed for the purpose of giving students a mental break, and this was simply how I preferred to use mine.
Of course, my solitude didn’t last for long as I saw my girlfriend Julie Rosewald walking in my direction with a tray of food. She was short and a little chubby, but not enough to be called fat, and she had on a pair of glasses that she couldn’t see without. But in spite of not looking like some stereotypical cheerleader, I rather would have been dating her than any other girl in school. She was smart, funny, and best of all, the two of us just clicked.
Julie and I first met back in junior high, when her family had just moved to town and she was the new kid in school. One day at lunch, she’d seen me reading a comic book in the cafeteria, so she’d sat down beside me and started a conversation about all things geeky. The two of us had immediately become friends and we’d eventually started dating as well.
“Hey Mike,” Julie greeted me with a broad grin, sitting down right across from me. “Have you come up with any ideas yet?”
I turned off my Kindle in order to give Julie my full attention. “I was thinking maybe Mario and Princes Peach.”
Julie gave me a thoughtful look and then shook her head. “No, you’re tall and thin…more like Luigi. And Peach isn’t a great match for Luigi, so I could go as Princess Daisy instead.”
“Good idea,” I agreed, grinning as I thought about how much fun the two of us would have making those costumes.
For the last week, Julie and I had been trying to decide what costumes we wanted to make for the next convention we went to. The two of us liked to cosplay, and we always had a lot of fun doing so. During the last convention, I’d gone dressed up as Waldo while she went as Carmen Sandiego. We took pictures of each other in costume, then went our separate ways and began showing the pictures off to people around the convention, asking everyone if they’d seen the other. We’d gotten some good laughs out of that one.
“I’d also considered Harry Pottery and Hermione,” I told Julie. “But those ones have just been too overdone.”
Julie nodded agreement. “Besides, if I was going as Hermione, you’d have to go as Ron instead…” We both chuckled at that.
“Maybe for the next convention,” I told her.
Julie and I talked for a little longer, but then I suddenly became aware of a large figure looming up behind me. I glanced back and saw Bufford ‘Buff’ Grissom, the biggest and meanest looking guy in school, not to mention a star player on both the school football and wrestling teams.
“I’ve got something for you,” Buff stated, looking more than a little intimidating. “Lunch money.”
With that, Buff handed me a ten dollar bill. Last week, he’d been a bit short on cash so I’d lent him a little to buy lunch. The guy had a big appetite, so he definitely appreciated that.
“Thanks for the loan,” he told me with a grin that almost looked threatening. In spite of his brutish appearance, Buff was actually a pretty nice guy…at least to anyone who wasn’t facing him across the football field.
“No problem,” I told him with a shrug. “By the way, how’s your brother doing?”
“Nicky?” Buff asked? Then he grinned, “The nerdy little punk just got accepted to MIT…at fifteen. I tell you, he’s going to be the next Bill Gates.” There was a clear note of pride in his voice at that.
Buff gave me a friendly slap on the shoulder, nearly hard enough to bruise me, then he continued on his way. Julie just chuckled, and when I gave her a curious look, she said, “I was just thinking that we should do a Sin City cosplay sometime. We can ask Buff to come with us as Marv.”
I nodded at that, agreeing that Buff would probably make a great Marv. After that, we returned to the topic of our own costumes, which is what we spent the rest of the lunch period talking about. However, Julie seemed just a little distracted and not into it as much as she usually was. I noticed that, but didn’t really give it much thought.
Several hours later, I was sitting in my final class of the day…history. History was a subject that I’d always been fond of, mostly because of how different time periods were often used as part of the background of my favorite stories. Quite often during this class, my mind would wander and I’d come up with story ideas for things that could occur in that kind of setting.
Over the last two weeks, history had been even more interesting than usual, due entirely to the presence of Ms. Lindrell, the substitute teacher who’d taken over for Mrs. Bonner. Ms. Lindrell was one of those teachers that just couldn’t be ignored, especially by the male students. She was tall...probably about 6 foot 2, though she always wore heels as well, making her tower over nearly everyone in class. And of course, she was gorgeous looking, with long blonde hair and a body that made every boy drool and every girl jealous. Not only did she have a killer figure, and a rack that threatened to burst right out of her clothes, but from what I could see, she also looked really fit…like some kind of athlete or fitness model.
Ms. Lindrell slowly looked around the classroom as she lectured, her gaze settling on Julie for a moment. Julie was sitting on the other side of the classroom for me, and for some reason, she seemed to be a favorite target of attention from the substitute. For some reason, Ms. Lindrell seemed to have taken a liking to Julie, not that I could blame her. Julie was a very nice person.
A few seconds later, Ms. Lindrell turned her attention to me, the other student who she seemed to pay an inordinate amount of attention to. However, unlike with Julie, she seemed to dislike me for some inexplicable reason.
“Michael,” Ms. Lindrell called on me, giving me a flat look at the same time. “What year was this?”
I let out a sigh, not at all surprised that she’d called on me. Ms. Lindrell seemed to enjoy calling me out in class when she didn’t think I was paying attention to her lecture, or when she thought I wouldn’t know the answer. Because of that, I’ve made sure to keep up with my reading assignments, just so I wouldn’t be embarrassed again like I had been the first couple times.
“Nineteen fourteen,” I answered, thankful that I was able to actually remember that. I usually couldn’t remember exact dates of events.
“Correct,” she responded, almost seeming disappointed that she hadn’t caught me with another wrong answer. She gave me a sour look, then continued with her lecture.
When class was over, I joined up with Julie at the door. She still seemed a bit distracted, so I decided to get her attention with something I knew she liked, her favorite anime series. I was quite familiar with it since she liked making me watch it with her.
“You know,” I told Julie, “I was thinking about your suggestion that we make up Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask costumes…” Until now, I’ve been hesitant to go quite that cheesy, but I knew that she’d be happy if I agreed to it. “I figure, maybe we could do that the next convention…after this one.”
“That sounds great,” Julie told me, grinning excitedly for a moment before her expression turned slightly sad. Then with what was obviously a forced smile, she said, “I can’t wait.”
I certainly wasn’t an expert on girls, but I knew Julie well enough to know that something was wrong. Unfortunately, I had absolutely no idea of what it was or what I could do about it. That just made me feel frustrated.
Just then, Ms. Lindrell called out, “Julie, if I could have a word with you in private…”
“Sure,” Julie responded, giving me an apologetic look before hurrying over to the teacher.
Ms. Lindrell and Julie went off to the corner and talked where I couldn’t hear them, but they both looked pretty serious. Julie quickly glanced at me, but her expression looked almost guilty. I frowned, wondering what was going on. When they finished talking and Julie came back towards me, she seemed to be in a grim mood but didn’t want to talk about it.
We walked to the front of the school together, neither of us really saying a word. It was obvious that Julie was distracted by something, and it had only become more obvious after her talk with Ms. Lindrell. I was curious and worried, but also uncomfortable. Though Julie was both my best friend and girlfriend, I didn’t want to come across as overbearing and pushy by demanding to know what was going on.
As we climbed onto our bus, I finally asked my girlfriend, “Are you okay?”
Julie hesitated a moment, then said, “Yes…no…” She paused for a moment before adding, “I don’t really want to talk about it right now.”
“Okay,” I said with a frown, not pressing the issue.
After several minutes, Julie let out a loud sigh and finally said, “I don’t know what to do.”
“What do you mean?” I asked carefully.
Julie hesitated a moment, then said, “I’ve been offered an opportunity…a once in a lifetime opportunity. I mean, this is the kind of thing I’ve been dreaming of for my whole life…but…” She cut of at that, giving me an odd look.
“An opportunity?” I asked, wondering what she meant. Then it dawned on me. Both of us would be graduating from high school in just a few months, and Julie had already been sending out some college applications. “You got accepted to one of those colleges…”
“Sort of,” she answered with a forced smile and adjusted her glasses, which she tended to do when she was nervous.
“Well, that’s great,” I told her with a grin. “I know how much you’ve been wanting that…”
“You don’t understand,” Julie blurted out. “It’s everything I’ve ever dreamed of but… But there’s a price…”
I was definitely getting worried, especially with the odd way Julie was behaving. It took a bit of effort to keep my voice steady as I asked, “What are you talking about? I’m sure your family would help pay for it…”
Julie frowned and stared out the bus window at the passing scenery. Then she looked back at me and carefully said, “I’d have to leave home…and I’d probably never get to see you or my family again.” I gasped at that and Julie winced. After a few seconds, she explained, “It’s like a foreign exchange program, for a very specialized trade school. I’ve been told that it’s really far away and completely isolated.”
I stared at Julie in silence, trying to wrap my head around what she’d said. The whole thing seemed a bit questionable, so I pointed out, “It sounds a bit like a cult.” I gulped, then demanded, “You’re not running off to join some cult, are you?”
“No, it’s nothing like that,” Julie quickly assured me, turning bright red. “And I haven’t even decided if I’ll go yet…”
“Where is this place?” I asked her, trying not to sound too demanding. “I mean, what kind of school is this?”
“There’s sort of a…non-disclosure agreement,” Julie told me with a forced smile. “I’m not allowed to talk about it.”
“So it is a cult,” I said with a long sigh, now even more worried about Julie.
“It’s not a cult,” she assured me, though she didn’t look completely certain. However, her expression brightened quite a bit as she explained, “But it is an opportunity…a chance to do something amazing with my life. I REALLY want to do this…but…”
“But you’d have to leave home,” I said quietly, mentally adding, ‘and me’.
“Yeah,” Julie responded, then quickly assured me, “But I still haven’t decided.”
I stared at Julie for a moment, remembering her odd private conversation with Ms. Lindrell. I was sure that this had something to do with the substitute teacher, but I wasn’t really sure what. And though I really wanted to warn Julie away from this, to tell her not to leave me, I’d seen the look on her face a moment ago when she’d talked about doing something amazing with her life.
“If…if this is really a once in a lifetime opportunity,” I finally told her, trying to keep my voice steady. “You need to go for it.”
“Really?” Julie asked me in surprise.
I gave her a forced smile. “Sure. I mean, that kind of thing doesn’t come along every day. Just…be careful. Make sure that you know what you’re getting into first.”
Julie gave me a big hug and a kiss on my cheek. “Thank you,” she told me. Then as the bus came to a halt at her bus stop, she got up and said, “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
By the time I got home a mere fifteen minutes later, I was feeling depressed at the idea of Julie leaving me to go off to some overseas school. I was worried as well, hoping that I hadn’t just talked her into joining a cult or something. If she did and something happened to her, I didn’t know if I’d ever forgive myself.
I went into the house, not at all surprised to find my dad stretched out on the recliner with a beer in hand while he watched TV. He’d taken off his prosthetic leg, so I could see the stump which ended right above where his knee had been. I quickly averted my eyes, not wanting to see that, nor wanting him to see me looking at it.
Dad looked up at me and scowled. “You going to work tonight?”
“Not tonight,” I answered, careful to keep my voice even and without inflection.
I had a part time job flipping burgers, which I absolutely hated. However, Dad had been out of work for two years now and his unemployment and disability weren’t enough to cover all the bills. I did what I could to help out, though unfortunately, I was sure that my dad resented me a bit for having a job while he didn’t.
“Good,” Dad said with a grunt, turning his attention back to the TV. “You can cook dinner.”
“Sure,” I responded, since that would have been a given anyway.
I carefully avoided looking at my dad, knowing the man he’d once been and feeling sad over what he’d become. Of course, I didn’t remember the time when he’d actually been an Army Ranger since his accident had occurred back when I’d only been a toddler. However, I knew that even though he didn’t talk about it, he was ashamed that he hadn’t lost his leg while serving his country…but as the result of an ordinary drunk driver.
My dad blamed that accident for everything that was wrong in his life, and I could understand why. After he’d lost his leg, he’d also lost his military career. Shortly after that, my mom had up and left him…left us. For a long time, he continued to do the best he could, teaching me how to hunt and generally trying to be a good father, but then the economy had gone bad and he’d lost a series of jobs, one after the other. It had been two years since the last time he’d had a steady job and this had really taken a toll on him.
Suddenly, Dad snarled at me, “Don’t you dare look at me with pity…”
“I wasn’t,” I protested, gulping at his rising anger.
“I was a Ranger,” he exclaimed, giving me an angry glare. “I was a God damn Ranger with the United States Army…”
“Yes sir,” I responded, trying to appease him. Over the last couple years, Dad had slowly been getting worse and worse, and though he’d never tried to attack me physically, I could see the resentment building.
“I served my country,” Dad continued his rant, going on for another minute. “You have no idea what I’ve done for this country…what I’ve given up…” Then he shifted to another old topic, one that I was tired of hearing about. “You’re soft…weak. The Army can build you up…make a man of you…give you a purpose.”
While my dad was in this mood, I knew that it would be pointless to remind him that I had absolutely no interest in joining the military. I had no real idea of what I actually did want to do with my life, or even immediately after graduation, however, I was pretty sure that it had absolutely nothing to do with wearing a uniform, going on marches, or shooting people.
Once Dad was sufficiently distracted and was grumbling more to himself than me, I slipped away and into the kitchen. Since I was on tap for making dinner, I pulled some cubed venison meat out of the freezer and began to defrost it.
The venison, like the summer sausage in the fridge, were leftovers from a hunting trip that Dad had taken me on. I smiled faintly as I remembered the trip, which had probably been the last time the two of us had actually done anything together. Then after a moment, frowned and sadly shook my head, missing that version of my dad and hoping that he’d come back some day.
“Venison stew should work,” I mused, reminding myself that we had some ground venison as well, which would go pretty good in spaghetti sauce.
I got the stew prepped and in the pot, then put it on to slowly cook while I wandered back to my room, carefully avoiding my dad’s attention as I slipped through the living room. Once I was back in my room, I closed the door behind me and let out a sigh.
I sat down on my bed and pulled out my Kindle, deciding to do a little light reading before I actually had to get to my homework. At the moment, I really needed something to distract myself from what was going on, and a good book was my preferred means of distraction.
Dad’s behavior was frustrating, though it wasn’t anything new. In fact, that was one of the problems. Dad was slowly getting worse and worse the longer he was out of work, and I was growing increasingly worried over where that would lead him.
At the same time, I was also thinking about Julie and her mysterious opportunity. I worried that she might be getting involved in something hinky, but admittedly, I was actually a little jealous at the same time. Julie had been so excited about this, whatever it was, and I could only imagine how great it would be to find something that excited me like that.
“But no such luck for me,” I said with a sigh, trying to think about my own future, though I couldn’t even see a direction. After several minutes, I just shook my head and mused, “Michael Jay Sorensen…what are you going to do?”
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It had been an especially long and boring day at school, yet I consoled myself with the knowledge that it was nearly over. I was sitting in my desk, waiting for the final class to start, knowing that I only had one more hour to go until I was free for the day…for the week. After all, it was Friday afternoon.
Normally, I liked to pop open my Kindle and do a little reading between classes, but this was Ms. Lindrell’s class, and if she saw me doing that, I had no doubt that she’d find an excuse to call on me. Because of that, I opened up my history book and glanced through the reading material from last night, wanting to be ready for when she tried to single me out for embarrassment.
After glancing over the rest of my homework, I looked across the room to where Julie sat at her own desk. I frowned slightly, remembering how she’d been a bit distant to me all day, which worried me after what we’d talked about on the way home last night. There was a look of determination in her eyes as well, so I knew that she’d made her decision about accepting that opportunity. I felt a surge of jealousy and regretting talking her into it, but I tried to quash those emotions and feel happy for her instead. However, I knew that I was going to talk to her about it again after school, and hopefully, this time I’d be able to get some more details.
Ms. Lindrell finally came into the classroom after all the students had already arrived. Without a word, she went to the front of the class and looked around, her firm gaze stopping only twice…once on Julie…and once on me. “Homework,” she said simply and everyone began passing their work sheets to the front of the room. Then once everyone had turned in their homework, she immediately looked right at me and said, “Michael… Please describe for the class…”
I spent the next five minutes answering a series of questions about last night’s reading assignment, along with a few about things that we hadn’t even covered yet. Because of that, I’d only gotten about half her questions right, and by the time I sat down, I wanted to duck under my desk out of embarrassment.
“Hey Mike,” the guy next to me whispered. “What did you do to piss her off?”
“I have no idea,” I answered miserably, though the truth was, I was pretty sure it had something to do with her interest in Julie and in Julie’s mysterious opportunity.
Normally, Ms. Lindrell would only call me out like that once during class, and not quite that badly. However, she was in a real mood today because she called me out twice more, though thankfully not quite as badly. She didn’t even bother to correct anyone’s homework, and for the rest of class, she kept alternating between glancing at Julie and actually staring at me with an odd look. Normally, getting so much attention from a beautiful woman might be a good thing, but this was downright creepy.
When class was over, I went to join up with Julie, but Ms. Lindrell told her, “Julie, I need to talk with about…what we’ve been discussing.”
“Of course,” Julie told her with an oddly serious expression. Then she turned to me and smiled, but it seemed a bit nervous and forced.
“What’s going on?” I asked Julie, hoping that she’d tell me more than she had yesterday.
Julie just gave me a hug and said, “Everything is fine…” Then she pulled away and looked me in the eyes with an odd expression on her face, one that set off the warning bells in my head. After a moment, her expression turned a little darker. “I’ve got something to do here, so go on and I’ll catch up later. I’ll tell you everything then.”
I stared at Julie for a moment before nodding my reluctance acceptance. “Okay, just be careful.”
With that, I grabbed my book bag and slung it over my shoulder, then glanced back at Julie again before leaving. I went out to the front of the school, but I didn’t climb onto the bus the way I usually would have. Instead, I leaned up against a light post and waited for Julie to come out. The way she kept acting all mysterious and secretive was really making me increasingly worried, not to mention curious. I wanted to know what was really going on, and when Julie was finished with Ms. Lindrell, I was going to hold her to her promise. However, when our bus finally drove away from the school, neither of us was on it.
I waited for a little longer, feeling impatient and frustrated. I told myself that I was just staying to make sure that Julie was all right and that she got home safely, but I was actually a little worried that I might come off as some kind of stalker. Eventually though, I decided that I’d waited long enough and went back into the school to find Julie.
I went back towards Ms. Lindrell’s classroom, then paused outside the door when I heard voices from within. “I’m glad that you’ve finally accepted,” Ms. Lindrell said, sounding pleased. “Staying here this long has been quite dangerous and I couldn’t have risked staying any longer.”
“It wasn’t an easy decision to make,” Julie admitted. “I mean, this is absolutely amazing, but… Everything I have to leave behind… Everyone…”
“It isn’t easy,” Lindrell agreed, her voice sounding sympathetic. “It never is. But you’ll make new friends, have a worthy purpose, and you’ll see and do things you can only imagine. In the end, I promise that this will be worth it…”
I winced as I listened in, those words confirming my suspicions about Ms. Lindrell being involved in whatever was going on with Julie. I was burning with curiosity and wanted to listen more, but I didn’t. I felt too much of a stalker as it was, so I turned and slowly walked away from the door. Julie seemed to be fine at the moment, but it was obvious that she was holding back even more than I’d thought. She didn’t trust me. It hurt to realize that after as long as we’d been friends, and with as close as I’d thought we were…she didn’t trust me.
“It looks like I’m going to be walking home alone,” I muttered bitterly, heading back towards the school exit for the second time. This time, nearly everyone else was already gone so the halls were almost entirely empty.
I was about halfway back to the front entrance when I suddenly heard a loud scream from somewhere ahead of me. I jumped in surprise but didn’t see anything, at least not at first. Then one of the teachers, Mrs. Clarence, came running out of a side hallway, letting out another scream. I only had a moment to wonder what was going on when something else burst out of the hallway behind her, something large and utterly impossible. And as I watched in shock, the massive creature pounced and left a splatter of blood and shattered human remains where the teacher had been.
“Holy shit,” I gasped, too shocked and horrified to even move.
The creature had four legs and was shaped something like a wolf or mountain lion, though it was obviously neither of those animals…or anything else that I’d ever seen. It stood about four feet at the shoulders, and instead of fur, it was covered with dark red scales. A long thin tail stretched out behind the creature, waving back and forth. My eyes were drawn to the tip of the tail, which had an odd bony shape that reminded me something of a blade. And then the creature turned, giving me a good look at its head…along with the mouth full of sharp teeth that were dripping with fresh blood.
Even though every instinct screamed at me to run, I still found myself frozen, unable to take my eyes off this monster. It was like something right out of a movie…or one of the books I liked to read. A voice in the back of my mind provided a name for this creature. Hellhound. This thing was just like a hellhound from one of my stories, and even if that wasn’t what it really was, it certainly looked like it deserved the name anyway.
A moment later, the creature…the hellhound turned the rest of the way and looked directly at me. It let out an eerie sound which seemed to be half howl and half hiss, and which sent chills all down my spine. Then as it started moving towards me, my brain was finally able to engage my muscles so I turned and ran. I ran as fast as I could, but even from that glimpse I’d seen of it pouncing on Mrs. Clarence, I knew that I didn’t have a chance of outrunning it.
Then, almost as if to prove just how much God hated me, another figure stepped out of a classroom and blocked the hallway in front of me. The figure was holding a massive double bladed axe that had to be five feet long from tip to top. It wasn’t the kind of axe that a lumberjack might use, but the kind I could easily have imagined a barbarian like Conan wielding into battle. But what surprised me even more than seeing such a weapon in the middle of school was the fact that it was being held by Ms. Lindrell.
I stopped running, seeing that I was trapped between a rock and a hard place…or between a monster and a psychotic teacher with an axe. I knew that Ms. Lindrell didn’t like me, but I never would have imagined that she hated me enough to come after me with an axe.
“Michael,” Ms. Lindrell exclaimed, looking surprised. “Get behind me…”
Ms. Lindrell charged almost straight at me, and then continued right on past, hitting the hellhound with the massive axe just as it was about to leap at me. I snapped around and saw the teacher slam the monster with the flat of her blade, knocking it back and into the lockers. Then I regained my senses and started to run again, only to see Julie crouched down in the doorway Ms. Lindrell had come out of, watching the fight with a look of simultaneous excitement and fear.
“Mike,” Julie gasped, grabbing me and pulling me into the classroom with her. She stared at me with an expression that seemed to be equal parts surprise and worry. “What are you doing here?”
“I was waiting for you,” I admitted, poking my head out through the doorframe to watch Ms. Lindrell. “Then that thing showed up…”
The hellhound hit Ms. Lindrell with its claws and she was sent flying back, leaving a trail of blood as she slid across the floor. However, as soon as she came to a stop, she was right back on her feet, charging at the monster with her axe as though she hadn’t even been injured. All I could do was watch in stunned disbelief, feeling like I’d suddenly stepped into one of my books. Admittedly, seeing this kind of thing for real was a LOT scarier than reading about it.
“This can’t be happening,” I gasped, sure that I had to be imagining this whole thing. Dad must be right…I’ve spent too much time reading comics watching TV so now it’s rotted my brain.
When the hellhound lunged at Ms. Lindrell, she used her axe to block its claws, though it snapped at her with its jaws a moment later. She kept swinging her axe, hitting it and seeming to cause it pain and injury, but the monster just kept coming. Then she suddenly dropped to her knee, slamming the base of the axe against the ground. There was a flash of light from the axe, and ice began to form around it and spread across the floor. A few seconds later, the hellhound tried to leap at Ms. Lindrell again, only to have its feet slip right out from beneath it.
“Now I have you,” Ms. Lindrell exclaimed, launching herself at the monster again and driving her axe right into its head. The creature collapsed to the ground, spasming several times before it finally stopped moving. As she backed away from the monster’s body, I saw that its entire head was coated in frost and ice crystals.
“That was amazing,” Julie exclaimed, stepping into the hallway for a better look.
“That was insane,” I gasped, trying to make sense of what I’d just seen.
Ms. Lindrell stood there with the massive axe in hand, wearing torn and bloody clothes, and she was acting as though that was all perfectly normal. She stared at me with an odd expression and actually sounded worried as she asked, “Are you all right, Michael?”
“I…I think so,” I answered, tempted to add that I might have a head injury that was making me see things. Then I gulped and demanded, “What the hell was that thing?”
“A daemon,” Ms. Lindrell answered grimly. “We need to get out of here.”
“That was even scarier than I thought they’d be,” Julie said, making me look at her in surprise.
“We need to get out of here,” Ms. Lindrell repeated firmly. “Now.”
Before I could demand to know what was going on, Ms. Lindrell was walking down the hallway, gesturing for us to follow. Since she’d just saved my life from that hellhound…that daemon…I no longer thought she was going to kill me. In fact, I was pretty sure that if there were any more of those things around, she’d probably have to save me and Julie again.
Then, as if responding to my thoughts, I heard another of those hissing roars like what the creature had made. That was all the warning we had before a second daemon came tearing around a corner and charged straight at us.
Ms. Lindrell snarled something in another language. I had absolutely no idea what language that was, but I recognized profanity when I heard it. She ran towards the daemon, slashing at it with the axe, which she was swinging around as though it weighed nothing at all. If I hadn’t been ready to shit my pants, I probably would have appreciated the sight a little more.
The daemon slashed at Ms. Lindrell, then swung around, catching her with its tail which sliced right across her stomach. She grunted, and lowered the axe for a moment and the creature snapped at her with its jaws. However, she raised the axe quickly enough to block the bite. It shook its head, then clawed at her again. And though she blocked the slash, the force sent her sliding down the hallway.
“Come on,” I told Julie, knowing that from what I’d seen, Ms. Lindrell could probably take care of the monster. However, I didn’t want to be any closer to it than absolutely necessary.
Just as we were starting to run again, the daemon snarled and leapt straight at Julie. Without even thinking about it, I threw myself at her as well, shoving her to the side a moment before the daemon struck. My entire body exploded in pain before I even hit the floor.
“MIKE,” Julie cried out in horror.
“NO,” Ms. Lindrell yelled, throwing herself at the daemon just as it was about to bite off my head. An instant later, its own head went flying.
I was spread out on the floor, hurting like hell from the waist up. However, from the waist down, I couldn’t feel a thing. I had a bad feeling about that…a REAL bad feeling. I gasped for breath, having a hard time getting enough air.
“Oh God, Mike,” Julie exclaimed, dropping down beside me and crying.
I grimaced, trying my hardest just to avoid screaming in pain. I was scared…terrified, and since I couldn’t feel anything beneath that massive ball of agony in my mid-section, I had no idea if I’d shit myself or not.
Ms. Lindrell spat out a furious stream of profanities in another language, then snarled, “The summoner…”
“Oh no,” Julie gasped, jumping back to her feet and staring at something down the hallway. Then after a moment, she cautiously said, “He doesn’t look so dangerous…”
I turned my head, which was about the only part of me I could really move at the moment. It hurt to move even this much and it took a lot more effort than it should. However, I was able to see down the hallway, where a man in a tattered crimson cloak was standing.
I couldn’t make out much about the man because his features were covered with the cloak, but he was holding his hands out and the air in front of him was glowing. I had no idea of what he was doing, but I knew with absolute certainty that it wasn’t anything good.
“He’s trying to summon another daemon,” Ms. Lindrell snarled furiously right before she threw the axe. It flew through the air, slamming right into the cloaked man, who dropped to the ground in a spray of blood.
“Oh God, oh God, oh God,” Julie cried out frantically, looking back as though she was about to start screaming. She finally settled her attention on me again. “Oh Mike… I’m so sorry…”
Ms. Lindrell surprised me by crouching down beside me as well, taking my hand, and then staring at me with a grim look. In class, she’d always singled me out and acted like she hated me, but she’d just saved my life…if only for a few minutes. And when I looked into her eyes, all I saw was sadness.
“Michael,” Ms. Lindrell said, her voice shaking just a little. “I can save your life…”
“You can?” Julie blurted hopefully. “Then do it…”
Ms. Lindrell ignored her and continued looking at me. “You’re dying, Michael,” she told me in a gentle tone. “I can save your life but…I need your permission…”
“Do it,” Julie pleaded as tears ran down her cheeks. “Please save him…”
“It will mean changing you,” Ms. Lindrell stated with a grim expression, reaching out and touching my cheek. She held my face so that I continued looking up at her when my head wanted to flop to the side. “You will become someone else…but you will live. One way or another, the life you know ends now. However…I can give you a new one…if you accept.”
It was hard to breath…hard to think…hard to focus. I gasped for breath, having a hard time getting what she was saying or what she meant. However, I understood that she was offering a choice between living and dying.
For a moment, I struggled just to remember how to speak. Everything was so foggy and fading fast. I stared up into Ms. Lindrell’s crystal blue eyes though, using them as the anchor I needed to focus. Then with a great deal of effort, I whispered, “Yes…”
Ms. Lindrell gave me a sad smile and said, “Then let it be done.”
She held up her hand, which was beginning to glow with an eerie golden aura. And after holding it there for a second, she brought it down onto my chest. A surge of energy burned into me, going straight into my heart, which felt like it was about to explode. Suddenly, the energy shot through my entire body, riding my veins and nerves. I would have screamed if I’d been able, so instead, I just lost consciousness.
--------------------
Roses. I smelled roses. When I opened my eyes, I saw that I was in an unfamiliar room, one with walls that were made of some sort of tan colored stone. Sunlight poured through stained glass windows that covered most of one wall, illuminating everything within, including the short but very wide and sturdy looking bed that I found myself in.
I remained where I was for a moment, silently looking around this strange room and feeling dazed and confused as to where I was and how I’d ended up here. A flash burst across my mind of a monster, followed by a memory of searing pain as its claws tore my stomach open. I gasped with a surge of terror and scrambled out from beneath a pile of blankets, only to discover something even more shocking and confusing.
My body felt wrong…very wrong. When I looked down, I saw why. Two fleshy mounds pushed out of my chest, but they were merely the first thing I noticed. As my eyes swept down over the rest of my body, taking in the smooth skin and new curves, I realized that I was no longer even myself. Somehow, I was not only in this strange place, but in a new body. A female body.
I stood there for a moment, feeling confused and afraid. This was a dream…it had to be. I had another flash of that monster leaping at me…and of lying on the ground with my entrails spilled out. My heart jumped in my chest as I started to panic…as I tried to make sense of what was going on.
Before I could decide on what to do, the wooden door opened and a young woman came in. She was a beautiful brunette about my own age, though she was dressed in an outfit that was just as odd and out of place as the room. Her pants and shirt were loose and flowing, looking as though they were made of silk or some other light fabric. But in spite of the material, they were dyed a dull gray color that most girls I knew would never wear in public.
“Mike,” the girl exclaimed with a look of relief on her face, right before she rushed me and grabbed me in a hug.
“Who are you?” I demanded, pulling away and staring at the girl suspiciously. She looked familiar but I couldn’t place her.
Her eyes widened she took a step back, blushing. “It’s me,” she said with a nervous smile, gesturing down at herself. “Julie…”
“Julie?” I gasped in surprise.
This girl definitely didn’t look like Julie, but once she pointed out who she was, I could see the similarities. Though she didn’t look like the Julie I knew, she did look like Julie’s prettier sister. Her hair was longer and more lustrous while her acne and freckles were missing, along with her glasses. And then there was the fact that she was taller, thinner, and had an athletic yet feminine build that she’d never possessed before.
After taking a moment to absorb all the changes that Julie had gone though, I asked, “What happened to you?”
“The same thing that happened to you,” she answered, giving me an odd look that suddenly made me extremely self-conscious. After all, not only had my body become female, but I was also buck naked. With a gulp, I dove for the bed and tried to cover myself with a blanket, shaking as I did so.
“What happened to me?” I demanded. Julie’s presence, and the fact that she seemed calm, helped to ease my own fears a little.
“It’s okay,” Julie assured me, giving me an almost pleading look. She came closer and slowly gave me another hug, this time taking her time and obviously trying not to startle me. “Lindrell saved your life… If she didn’t change you…you would have died…” Julie pulled away from me again and I could see she was crying, though I wasn’t sure if it was because she was happy I was still alive or sad that I’d changed.
I sat down on the edge of the bed, feeling dazed as I remembered what happened at school. Those monsters…daemons. Ms. Lindrell tearing them apart with a monstrous axe that could have come straight out of some barbarian movie… And of course, the daemon tearing me to pieces. All of it came crashing down on me, and to my horror, the things that I’d thought had only been a nightmare were revealed to be real instead.
“Oh God,” I gasped, not sure how to process all this.
Julie sat down beside me and put an arm over my shoulder, promising, “Everything is going to be fine… You’re alive and that’s the important thing…”
“Alive,” I whispered, remembering just how close I’d come to dying.
Instead of panicking like I’d been doing a couple minutes earlier, I now felt numb and in shock. I was still confused, still trying to process this and make sense of what was going on around me. In the space of an instant, reality had been torn away from me and I’d suddenly been thrust into one of my books. I’d always loved stories where a normal person discovered that there was more to the world than they’d always known, then had to deal with things that they’d never even imagined possible. However, suddenly being thrust into that role made things much less fun.
“What’s going on?” I demanded, staring at Julie, who seemed to have the answers. I remembered what I’d overheard her telling Ms. Lindrell in the classroom before everything went to hell, and I felt hurt and betrayed. However, Julie had always been my friend before so I thought she deserved a chance to explain herself.
Julie was silent for a moment, staring at me with an expression of guilt. “I’m sorry I got you involved in this,” she finally told me, looking down at the floor. “You never should have gotten involved…”
“Involved in what?” I asked her, forcing my voice to remain steady, though it wasn’t easy…especially when I realized that even my voice had changed. It sounded different to my ears…feminine. “Where are we and what the hell is going on?”
“You know how I told you that I was invited to a…special program?” Julie asked me carefully. When I nodded, she gave me a weak smile and said, “Well, here we are…” She gestured around the room.
“Please explain,” I told her grimly. “Real answers…not vague hints…”
“Sorry,” Julie apologized, blushing, which looked even cuter on her than before. “I just don’t know how to describe this, and admittedly, I don’t really know everything. I mean, I’m a new recruit so they haven’t really told me any real details…” She paused at that, then gave me another forced smile. “Sorry… I’ll try to tell you what I know…”
“Good,” I said, making a very conscious effort not to pull the blanket away from my body and look at it again. My whole body just felt...odd.
“I know this is going to sound like a fantasy novel or something, but…,” she started, then gave an apologetic shrug. “Anyway, there’s a group of women called the Val Kyr, who have magic powers and have been fighting daemons and monsters for thousands of years… Lindrell is one of them…and she asked me to join too. It turns out, she was at our school because of me…because they knew I had the potential to use the same kind of magic that they do…and they wanted to recruit me…”
I just stared at Julie, still feeling more than a little dazed at what was going on. I remembered how vague and evasive Julie had been with me on the bus ride home, and now I understood why. If she’d tried telling me that stuff before, I would have thought she was joking. Even now, I had a hard time believing it, and I’d seen the monsters with my own eyes.
“How could I say no?” Julie asked, almost pleaded with me for understanding. “I mean, they were going to make me strong…and powerful...and…” She paused at that before almost whispering, “Immortal.” At my look of surprise, she quietly explained, “Lindrell says that they don’t age and that some of them are over a thousand years old…”
“Impossible,” I started to protest, though I already knew my concept of ‘impossible’ had long since flown the coop.
“I could be like Buffy…or Wonder Woman,” Julie explained awkwardly. “This whole thing, it’s like a dream come true… I just wish you didn’t get caught up in it…”
For a moment, I just stared at her, remembering the conversation between her and Ms. Lindrell that I’d overheard. Suddenly, I realized that Julie hadn’t just been staying after school to talk to her about this…she’d stayed after school because she was planning to leave. Julie had promised me that we’d talk about this later, that she’d explain everything. But now, I realized that she hadn’t ever intended to fulfil that promise.
“You were going to leave,” I said bitterly. “You weren’t even going to say goodbye…”
Julie winced at that, though she didn’t deny it. “I…I didn’t know what to say to you,” she admitted quietly, not looking at me. “How could I tell you that I found out that magic was real…that I was going to get magic powers and become some kind of super hero…that I might live for centuries…and that you couldn’t have any of it?” She finally looked at me, though she quickly wiped the tears from her eyes. “I know you love this stuff just as much as I do…and I thought it would be mean to tease you with something you could never have. I mean, Lindrell says that only women can be Val Kyr and have this magic…”
That little reminder made me glance down at myself and squirm uncomfortably. “And what’s this about?” I asked in confusion. “Why turn me into a girl?”
“Because,” Ms. Lindrell’s voice came from the doorway. “That was an unavoidable side effect of the power used to heal you.”
I stared at Ms. Lindrell, remembering just how intimidating she’d appeared while wielding that axe at school. She looked even more intimidating now that she not only had that axe strapped across her back, but was also wearing armor. The armor covered most of her body from the neck down, looking like something from the cover of a fantasy novel rather than something that had ever been used in the real world. It seemed to have a leather base, though there were parts that were coated with chain mail while much of chest and torso were covered with small scale plates. But in addition to the armor, she had a red sash tied around her waist.
Ms. Lindrell stepped into the room and looked me over, her expression surprisingly gentle considering the way she was dressed. “How are you feeling, Michelle?”
I immediately noticed the way she’d called me Michelle instead of Michael, and I was about to protest until I realized how silly that would be. At the moment, there was no doubt that I looked a lot more like a Michelle than Michael. And of course, I owed that entirely to her and her strange magic.
For several long seconds, I just stared at my armor clad teacher, suddenly realizing that I didn’t know whether to yell at her for turning me into a girl…or thank her for saving my life. At that moment, it was actually a pretty tough decision.
“Thank you for saving my life,” I said awkwardly.
Ms. Lindrell nodded at that, giving me an odd look at the same time. “I regret the circumstances that led to the situation. They were there for me…me and the person I was sent to recruit.” She looked to Julie, who was obviously uncomfortable. “I had thought to be away long before any daemons found us.”
“Mrs. Clarence,” I whispered, wincing as I remembered the way the daemon had killed her. However, that just reminded me that the other one had done the exact same thing to me a short time later.
“She was a bitter old woman who blamed her students for ruining her life,” Ms. Lindrell commented. “But she didn’t deserve that.”
I nodded at that, then cautiously asked, “Who are you?”
Ms. Lindrell stood there for a moment, staring at me with an expression I couldn’t quite read. She finally said, “My name is Lindrell…sometimes called Lindrell Frostaxe. And as Julie has already told you, I am part of an ancient order known as the Val Kyr…”
When Julie had mentioned the Val Kyr before, I was too distracted to really notice the name. This time, I caught it. “Valkyrie?”
“Val Kyr,” she corrected me with a faint smile. “Though admittedly, the stories about the valkyrie and amazons were mostly inspired by the Val Kyr. Most legends do contain a grain of truth, but don’t ever mistake legend for reality.”
Julie put her arm around my shoulder, saying, “I know this is all really weird… I didn’t believe it when she first told me about the Val Kyr either…not until she showed me a few things.”
“Like healing?” I asked, once again fighting the urge to look down at myself.
Lindrell, who I couldn’t really think of as my teacher being dressed the way she was, frowned and nodded. “It was the only way to save your life.”
I winced at that, my thoughts flashing back to when I’d been laying on the ground with my guts spilled out. My heart jumped at the memory and I felt a phantom pain in my stomach, even though I’d already seen with my own eyes that there was no sign I’d ever been injured. My mind had been a bit dazed at the time, but I remember her telling me that I would be changed…and asking my permission.
I licked my lips, trying to keep my voice steady as quietly asked, “What now?”
“Now, Michelle,” Lindrell said, putting her hand on my shoulder and giving me a reassuring smile. “I’ll get you some clothes, then we’ll get you something to eat. Afterwards, we’ll talk. There is much we need to discuss.”
---------------
I sat on the edge of the large bed, still wrapped up in a blanket and trying my best just to wrap my head around everything that was going on. Beneath the blanket, one of my hands was pressed up against my new breasts, which felt absolutely enormous to me. I hadn’t taken the time to really examine myself, but I knew that I was larger than most of the girls in school. The idea struck me as bitterly ironic and I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Lindrell had left the room a few minutes ago in order to get me something to wear, but Julie had remained behind and was sitting beside me, awkwardly trying to comfort me. She didn’t seem to know whether to put her arm around me or give me space, and I honestly didn’t know which I would have preferred at the moment. So I just looked at Julie, who looked so different from the way she always had before. If I hadn’t known who she was, I probably wouldn’t have guessed that she was actually my old friend. In fact, when I’d first seen her like this a short time ago, I hadn’t recognized her.
“Why did she save me?” I asked Julie, thinking of Lindrell and the way she’d always glared at me…and made a point of embarrassing me in class. “She hates me…”
“Lindrell doesn’t hate you,” Julie quickly assured me. “I mean, before this…” She gestured around us with a pained look on her face, “she asked about you a couple times and wanted to know everything about you. And after you were hurt, she was really worried. She said that…that her power might not have been enough to save you.”
I gulped, not wanting to think about just how close I’d come to dying. When I’d been on that floor with the taste of blood in my mouth, I’d been sure that it was over. Of course, I was still alive, but obviously, my old life really was over. There was no escaping that fact.
“You’ve seen the way she always calls me out in class,” I pointed out bitterly. “But I guess she won’t be doing that anymore. I don’t think that any of us are going back to class…”
Julie nodded in sad agreement before admitting, “I think she may have blamed you because I was taking so long to decide… I mean, I didn’t want to leave you and my family, so I guess she was afraid that I might turn her down entirely…partly because of you.”
“So I was just the boyfriend who was getting in the way,” I said with a grimace.
“Lindrell saved your life,” Julie reminded me with a firm look. “And she’s being punished because of it.” I gave her a look of surprise and she continued, “I don’t know much about what’s going on, but I guess she broke some serious rules when she saved you.”
“She’s in trouble because she saved me?” I asked in surprise. “Why?”
Julie hesitated a moment, then reached up to adjust her glasses, only to pause when she realized that she was no longer wearing them. She gave a self-conscious smile and then carefully said, “I look like this because Lindrell changed me…into a Val Kyr. I guess this means that I’m not quite human anymore. I mean, I can feel this power flowing through my veins…even if I don’t have a clue about how to use it yet…”
I stared at Julie for a moment, not at all surprised since this explained her sudden transformation. If I hadn’t been so distracted with my own changes, I probably would have guessed that already. “Then I guess you’ll have that cool magic too…”
Julie gave me a faint smile before saying, “I’m not the only one. Lindrell said that she saved you…by turning you into a Val Kyr too.”
I shouldn’t have been surprised by that one, but I still was. As it was, I was getting hit with one shock after another and I wasn’t sure that I could absorb any more of them. I shook my head, once again wondering if I was caught up in some kind of weird dream. However, I couldn’t buy that one for even a moment. As strange and impossible as this all was, I had no doubt that it was real.
While I was trying to absorb this latest surprise, Julie continued, “But we’re here now…both of us. It was really hard, finding out about all this amazing stuff and not being able to share it with you. But now I can…” She gave me a weak smile and I could see that she was trying to be optimistic and focus on the positive side of all this.
“And I’m still alive,” I added with a weak smile of my own. At the moment, that was the biggest positive I could think of, and reminding myself of it helped to keep from freaking out over the fact that I’d just lost almost everything else.
Lindrell returned just a minute later, bringing me loose fitting gray clothes that were nearly identical to what Julie was wearing. She even brought me a pair of tennis shoes, which were about the most normal things that I’d seen since waking up in this place. Then with barely a word, Lindrell and Julie left the room, giving me privacy in order to get dressed.
Once I was alone, I let go of the blanket that I’d been using to cover myself, letting it drop to the floor. Then I took a deep breath and braced myself before looking down at my naked body again. This time, I knew what to expect so I wasn’t caught by surprise, though I still found myself gasping a little anyway. A quick once over confirmed that I was definitely all girl now, and though I was curious to look myself over more, I dreaded the idea of doing so at the same time. So with a sign of resignation, I focused on getting dressed instead.
“This is so weird,” I muttered, looking down at myself once I was dressed.
The clothes might not have been meant to show off a woman’s body, but with the way my breasts stretched the fabric on the shirt, I still ended up feeling a like I was on display. I bit my lip at that and shook my head, only to have long hair fall into my face. I noted the fact that not only had my hair grown to just a little past shoulder length, but that it had also changed color from the dark blonde I was familiar with to a rich golden blonde.
“Great,” I grumbled, glancing down at my breasts again and knowing that I would now be subject to blonde bimbo jokes. I shuddered at the idea. I took another minute just to steady my nerves and brace myself, then announced, “Here goes nothing.”
I left the room and found myself in a large hallway with wooden doors spread out on both sides along the whole length. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all made of the same tan stone as the room I’d just left, though there were open skylights along the ceiling which let in natural light. Then I noticed that beside each of the wooden doors, there was a small alcove built into the wall. In the alcove beside me, there was a ceramic vase that was filled with freshly cut roses. The scent from the flowers tickled my nose, just as it had been doing from the moment I’d woken up.
Julie and Lindrell were both standing off to the side, waiting for me. From the looks on their faces, it was pretty clear that they’d been talking about me as well, not that I was surprised. In fact, I probably would have been more surprised to find out that they hadn’t been talking about me behind my back. After all, my situation was so…weird. And the truth was, I barely had any idea of exactly what my situation entailed.
“These were left as welcome to a new sister,” Lindrell explained with a smile a she gestured to the roses. Then she gestured to something else that had been on the alcove, and which I’d nearly missed. A dagger. “And this was left as welcome to a new comrade in arms.”
“Comrade in arms?” I asked suspiciously.
“You obviously have a great many questions,” Lindrell told me with a reassuring smile. “But you must also be famished after your healing and conversion…”
It wasn’t until she’d pointed it out that I realized just how hungry I was. Until that moment, I’d been too distracted by everything else to really notice it. “Yeah,” I admitted awkwardly. “I am pretty hungry…”
“Then we’ll eat first,” Lindrell stated, giving me an odd look before she continued. “Afterwards, I’ll answer your questions and explain the new realities you will have to accept and deal with.” That wasn’t very reassuring, but she was already starting down the hallway so I gave Julie a curious look and then followed.
Lindrell led us through a series of hallways until we came to a large room that immediately reminded me of my high school cafeteria, due to the fact that there were more than a dozen tables scattered about. However, after slowly looking over the wooden tables and stone walls, then noticing the numerous weapons that were hung from the walls, I was reminded of something else instead. This room made me think of a movie set, from one of the scenes where everyone in the castle was gathered together in one room for a huge feast.
In spite of how much space there was to sit, the room was virtually empty. There were only six people present besides ourselves, all of them women. One was wearing armor similar to what Lindrell wore, though she had a sword strapped to her side rather than an axe on her back. Three of the women were wearing outfits very similar to what Julie and I had on, though they had sashes around their waists. The last two women were dressed surprisingly normal, with one in jeans and a t-shirt while the other had on a dress. All six of them kept glancing towards us, but none made a move to approach.
“Take what you like,” Lindrell told us, gesturing to a table in one corner that was loaded up with food. “You’ll find that your appetites are somewhat larger than you’re used to.”
The food was set out much like it would be at a potluck, with trays of fruits, vegetables, meats…and dishes that I couldn’t quite guess at. There was even a whole pig on the table, albeit a fairly small pig that was already partly eaten. I grabbed a large plate and began filling it while Julie and Lindrell both did the same.
At this point, one of the women finally came over towards us, nodding to Lindrell, then giving Julie an appraising look before giving me a suspicious one. “Lindrell,” she said politely, looking at Julie again and asking, “I take it this is your new recruit…”
“This is Julie,” Lindrell agreed with a faint smile before introducing me, “And this is Michelle…”
The woman made a clear point of ignoring me while she looked Julie over again. Julie squirmed, a little uncomfortable from the attention, though I wasn’t exactly pleased either. I had no idea who this woman was, but she was clearly going out of her way to ignore me. However, since I didn’t know what was going on or who she was, I bit my tongue for the moment.
“I thought you knew better than to make a convert,” the woman told Lindrell, finally looking to me again. Her expression wasn’t friendly. “You know that never ends well.”
“What’s done is done,” Lindrell told her with a scowl.
“There’s a reason we don’t make converts anymore,” the woman insisted.
Lindrell gave her a flat look and said, “Jass… I stand by my decision and I’ll face the consequences. Now leave us be. Our new sisters are hungry and have a lot of questions that need answering, and I don’t want their first impressions of the Val Kyr to be ones of hostility.”
The woman...Jass…glared at Lindrell for a moment, then she glared at me with a look of contempt before she turned and walked away. I watched her go, feeling stunned and confused by her reactions. Then I looked to Lindrell, who’d gone up a couple more notches in my eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Lindrell told me apologetically. “But not every Val Kyr will be accepting of you. You see, we’ve had…problems with converts before.”
“Converts?” I asked. “What exactly is a convert?”
“Our term for men who’ve been converted to Val Kyr,” Lindrell explained as she led the way to an empty table. “Converts are…uncommon…but not unheard of. Unfortunately, a lot of them have had a difficult time adjusting and have given converts a bad reputation. The last one before you was converted three hundred years ago. Ever since then, the practice has been virtually banned.”
Lindrell had a grim expression on her face, which suddenly reminded me of what Julie had said earlier, about her being punished because she’d saved me. After this, I wondered if she was in trouble because she’d saved me…or because I’d been a guy when she did it. And of course, that led to the question of just what kind of trouble was she in. But then again, I had about a million questions at the moment, and she had promised to answer them once we’d finished eating. I could be patient that long.
Lindrell set her axe on the floor beside the table, then began to eat. I watched her for a moment, then looked around again before commenting to Julie, “Why do I feel like I’m surrounded by larpers at a convention?”
“I was thinking of it as more like a ren faire,” Julie responded with a grin.
After that, we began to eat, not speaking much as we did so. I tried not to think about how odd I felt or how surreal the entire situation was, and I was hungry enough that the food on my plate was able to distract me from those things, at least for a little while. By the time I was finished, I’d eaten every bite on my plate, which surprised me since I had three times more food than I normally would have been able to eat. Lindrell had warned us that our appetites would be larger, but I hadn’t really believed her until now.
“You will find that you can now go without food for much longer periods, when necessary” Lindrell explained when she saw me staring at my empty plate in surprise. “But most of your appetites will have grown larger as well. This is due to the val flowing through your body.”
“The val?” I asked blankly.
“The val is what we call the magic we wield,” Lindrell explained, shifting into the lecturing mode that I was quite familiar with from class. “It is a form of energy that fills our bodies, flows through our veins, and gives us all of our special abilities. In fact, the term Val Kyr literally means…warriors of the val.”
“And it only works for women,” Julie volunteered, though she did glance to Lindrell as if waiting for confirmation. Obviously, Lindrell had already explained all of this to Julie while trying to recruit her.
Lindrell nodded agreement, giving me an almost apologetic look. “Indeed. The val is a powerful magic, but it is a magic that can only be harnessed by women. The val improves our bodies, heals our wounds, fills us with strength, and vastly extends our life spans. However, if a man is given this same power, the val not only does these same things for him…it also converts him to female form. Always.” She paused at that and stared straight at me as she explained, “There are some among our sisters who view this as proof that women are superior to men.”
I nodded, trying not to be offended by that, or at least trying not to show that I was. “Is…is there a way for me to change back?” I asked this carefully since I didn’t want to insult Lindrell or make her think I wasn’t grateful for her saving my life. However, I didn’t really have much hope for the answer. I figured that if she could change me back, she probably would have told me already.
“No,” Lindrell answered with a faint frown. “The val is a part of you now and will remain so for the rest of your life, however long that may be. You are Val Kyr now, and it would be best if you accept this fact and move on.”
I winced at the casual way in which she’d basically just told me to forget about my old gender, body, and life. Then I scowled, my thoughts turning to everything that I’d just lost… I felt a knot in my stomach as I thought of my dad. Though he wasn’t the man he used to be, and we hadn’t gotten along very well lately, he was still my dad. How could I possibly tell him about this? Would I even be allowed to try? After all, Julie had said something about a non-disclosure agreement and had indicated suggested that she’d be forced to cut ties to her old life in order to join the Val Kyr.
I was starting to tremble a little so Julie put her hand on my shoulder and insisted, “Everything is going to be all right…” She still gave me a worried look though, as did Lindrell.
“I know this isn’t easy to accept,” Lindrell told me with a sympathetic look. “But your old life is gone. You are Val Kyr now and will have to accept this.”
“What does that even mean?” I asked, a little bitterness slipping into my voice. “I still don’t even know what this all is…”
“Understandable,” Lindrell said with a sigh. She stared at me for several seconds, then continued, “As you have undoubtedly realized, there are a great many things in the world that most people simply aren’t aware of.”
“That’s an understatement,” I responded wryly.
I’ve read a lot of science fiction and fantasy books, and one thing that they frequently did in the urban fantasy genre, was having magic and odd things coexisting with the modern world, but with most people never knowing the supernatural really existed. In those books, they used different things to explain how most of the world remained blissfully ignorant to the things that existed in their back yard, and I imagined that this was no different. Maybe the Val Kyr intentionally worked to keep these things hidden, maybe normal people just rationalized all the evidence away, and maybe there were other factors at play. I’ve read all the explanations before in different fictional stories, so I didn’t bother asking Lindrell about how this was possible. If that surprised her, she didn’t show it.
“You won’t find any of this in any history book you’ve ever read,” Lindrell continued in her lecture mode, “but some myths and legends do at least have hints of the truth.”
Julie was staring at Lindrell with a look of rapt attention, the same expression I saw on her face when she was watching one of her favorite shows. I was pretty sure that Lindrell had already told her all of this, but that didn’t keep her from being fascinated. After watching Julie for a moment, I gave my full attention to Lindrell as well.
“Long ago, gods wandered this world,” Lindrell stated, using the same tone of voice that she had in class when discussing the events of the first World War. “However, they were not what most myths suggest…and certainly not the creators of the world. According to our records, which do extend to those times, they were travelers…beings from another realm…what you might call another dimension. When they came to our world, they brought other things with them…or perhaps it might be more accurate to say, they were followed by other things. We call these things daemons.”
“Lindrell said that they’re like rats,” Julie offered helpfully.
“Rats?” I asked, remembering the monstrous creature that had nearly killed me. “Damn big rats…”
“What I meant,” Lindrell said, giving Julie a look of faint annoyance over the interruption, “is that they were probably just vermin to the gods. You can think of them as being like the rats that would sneak aboard the sailing ships that traveled the world. The sailors would inadvertently bring rats and other vermin with them, spreading them wherever they went. Daemons are like that...an invasive species that we can’t allow to take hold.”
Lindrell paused at that and stared off into space for a moment with a thoughtful expression. I suspected that she might be trying to get back on the right mental track after that interruption. After a few seconds, she said, “We don’t know for certain why these travelers came, but I’ve always suspected that it was for their version of a vacation…a chance to escape the rules of their own realm for a time. We have few records about the gods themselves, or at least about most of them. However, we know that one of them took it upon herself to clean up the vermin that had come with them. She gathered the women who followed her, imbued them with the val, then set them the task of eliminating the daemons and other invasive species. These were the first Val Kyr.”
“So, the Val Kyr are basically glorified rat catchers,” I said, still feeling a bit bitter about how I’d ended up in the middle of this.
“We destroy monsters and prevent them from taking the world,” Lindrell stated proudly, giving me a look of annoyance. “That is the purpose the Val Kyr have fulfilled for thousands of years.” She continued to stare at me for a few more seconds before relaxing again. “After being here for many centuries, the gods left and have never returned. However, when they departed…they left behind the daemons and various remnants of their power…”
“Like the Val Kyr,” Julie offered excitedly.
Lindrell nodded at that, her expression turning grim. “Unfortunately, we aren’t the only ones to wield a remnant of their power. There are others too…including those who use…or even work with the daemons. Their human allies are an even greater threat than the daemons themselves, because they provide organization and strategy. We’ve been at war with them for nearly as long as we’ve existed.”
I scowled as I remembered the man in the tattered cloak, the one who Lindrell had called a summoner…right before she’d killed him. Obviously, he’d been one of those people who were working with the daemons. I clearly remembered what that daemon had done to me, how it had felt to have my insides torn out. The very thought of that made me shudder, and I knew that I didn’t want to ever have to face that kind of pain again.
“What if I don’t want to get drafted into your war?” I demanded quietly.
“Mike,” Julie started, giving me a look of surprise and then disappointment. That look on her face hurt, but she was the one who’d agreed to that…not me.
For a moment, Lindrell just stared at me in silence, her expression unreadable. Then she simply stated, “I’m afraid that you don’t understand the realities of your situation.”
“That I’m a girl now?” I responded grimly. “That I’ve lost my old life and can’t go back? Or that you want me to fight against those things again?” I shuddered, feeling a surge of terror as the image of that monster flashed through my mind.
“You are Val Kyr now, whether you like it or not,” Lindrell told me in a calm tone. “I know you may not think so at the moment, but this was given to you as a gift and an honor. If you choose to turn your back on that and walk away, I will understand, though many of our sisters will not. They will see this as proof that converts are not suited to be Val Kyr.”
I slumped down in my seat, suddenly feeling small and ashamed. With a casual ease, Lindrell had just pointed out that I was being ungrateful to her for saving my life, insulting her by not accepting what she thought of as a valuable gift, and at the same time, I was proving that Jass was right about me. If inspiring guilt was a martial art, then Lindrell had to be a black belt.
“If you were to leave,” Lindrell continued, this time sounding almost sad, “you would not live long.” I gave her a look of surprise. “Our enemies have ways of sensing the val, and though there are ways of hiding from them…sometimes even for years…they would eventually find you. It would not matter that you were not acting against them, they would kill you and everyone near you just to be certain.” There was something in the way she said this that made me think she had personal experience with that happening. “If you remain, we will teach you to use the gifts you have been given…and help you become strong enough to defend yourself the next time you come face to face with a daemon.” With that, Lindrell reached over and put a hand on my shoulder and looked me straight in the eyes. “I did not save your life merely to sacrifice you to a daemon. Trust me and give the Val Kyr a chance.”
I stared into Lindrell’s eyes and KNEW with an absolute certainty that she was completely sincere. Somehow, I could feel her…feel that she only wanted to help me. It was a surprising realization, especially considering the way she always seemed to have a personal grudge against me in class.
My thoughts turned and I suddenly began to think of all the books I’d read where the main character was faced with ‘the choice.’ In most great stories, the protagonist came to a point where they had to make a choice about whether to stay with the safe and familiar or go into danger and the unknown. This was always an important moment, the point where the protagonist took an active role in their own fate. And though I’d always enjoyed those parts of the story, along with the character growth that developed as a result, being forced to make such a choice in real life was quite a bit different. I was scared…even terrified about what it would mean to accept.
I resisted the urge to look at Julie, knowing that she’d already made her own decision. Now it was time for me to make mine. Luke chose to leave Tatooine. Frodo chose to go to Mount Doom. Now I was choosing to see where my new life would lead me.
“Okay,” I said, trying sound confident in my decision in spite of the butterflies in my stomach. Julie smiled at that. “What do I need to do?”
Lindrell gave me a look of approval and said, “You will have to train hard as there is a great deal for you to learn. But more immediately, you will need to be introduced to our leader.” With that, she picked the axe up from where she’d set it on the floor and strapped it to her back. Once Lindrell had done that, she looked to Julie and then me, announcing, “Come…it’s time to meet Freya.”
I felt an odd sense of the surreal as I walked down the hallway behind Lindrell, who was showing Julie and me around our new home. Our surroundings looked like they could have come straight out of some movie that took place in an ancient castle or fortress, though they weren’t nearly as dark and dank as I would have imagined such a place to be. Nearly all the construction seemed to have been made with the same tan colored stone, but between that and the numerous windows, many of which were stained glass, there was actually a somewhat warm and inviting feeling. This feeling was encouraged by the numerous wooden arches, supports and decorations, most of which had been intricately carved.
The scent of fresh roses was absolutely everywhere, as were the roses themselves. At first I hadn’t really noticed them, but once I had, I couldn’t miss them. There were vases filled with roses, decorating nearly alcove and corner, or at least that was the impression I had.
When I commented on the roses, Lindrell chuckled faintly and admitted, “We have planted a lot of rose bushes in the gardens. Roses are both beautiful, and dangerous.” She made a point of picking a rose out of a vase and pricking her finger on a thorn, giving an almost evil smile. “Much like the Val Kyr. Besides, the flowers make this place feel less like a fortress and more like a home, though make no mistake, it is both.”
“And where exactly are we?” I asked, having no memory of how Lindrell had brought me here. After all, I’d been unconscious and dying…or at least changing at the time. However, even as I asked the question, the answer was obvious. “Valhalla?”
“Yes,” Lindrell agreed. “Val Halla…the home of the Val.”
“Isn’t it amazing?” Julie exclaimed from beside me, nearly bouncing with enthusiasm.
I nodded agreement, though somewhat more cautiously. Unlike Julie, I hadn’t been given the time to absorb the fact that all this stuff was real. For me, this was all one big shock after another, and I was still trying to get my head around it all. As it was, I was also pretty distracted by the weight and jiggling that I felt from my chest as I moved.
“There is much here to see,” Lindrell said, opening a door and leading us out into a large walled in garden, which was framed by rose bushes that grew against all the walls. The scent of roses grew even stronger. “Fortunately, you will both have plenty of time to explore…” She paused at that and gave us a wry smile before adding, “Between your training sessions that is.”
I looked around the garden, then up at the sky, which was dimly lit but had no visible sun or moon. That caught me a little by surprise since I didn’t see the kind of sunlight that had been visible through the windows inside. And as I continued looking upwards, I had a feeling that this place was even stranger than I’d previously thought. In fact, I was certain of it.
“This place feels kind of…weird,” I said, not sure how to describe what I was feeling.
Lindrell smiled faintly at that and nodded agreement. “Come, there is something I want to show you two…”
“Weren’t we going to meet Freya?” Julie asked, sounding both hopeful yet nervous at the same time. I knew exactly what she meant since the name Freya was immediately recognizable to anyone who was familiar with Norse mythology.
“Soon,” Lindrell answered with a smile. “She isn’t expecting us quite yet.”
With that, Lindrell led us across the garden and to some stone stairs that went all the way up to the top of the wall. When we got up there, I looked around and let out a gasp, getting a good view of Val Halla. We weren’t standing at the highest point, but I had enough of a view to make out that we were within a walled citadel with numerous buildings and courtyards. It was quite impressive to look at, especially since I could see several more gardens scattered about. Then I turned my attention to what was on the other side of the wall.
“I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore,” Julie exclaimed, echoing my thoughts exactly.
The ground immediately outside the wall was just flat and desolate stone with no indication of anything living, not even a single weed. However, a hundred yards away from the wall, there was another wall...one made of fog. A thick fog spread out in both directions, and from what I could tell, it completely surrounded the fortress. Val Halla was an island in a sea of fog.
At first, I though the fog was a bit eerie, but as I stared into it, I realized that it was far more than just eerie. I saw the silhouette of a large city in the distance, with numerous large skyscrapers. But as the fog shifted and rolled, the image vanished completely.
“Where are we?” I asked quietly.
“We call this place the Twilight Realm,” Lindrell answered as she stared off into the fog. “There are other names for it…many of them in fact.”
“The Twilight Realm,” I repeated the name. “Another dimension?”
“I hope there aren’t any sparkly vampires out there,” Julie joked.
Lindrell smiled faintly as she responded, “None that sparkle.”
Julie and I shared a look before my girlfriend asked, “What about ones that don’t sparkle?”
Lindrell didn’t answer that one. Instead, she said, “The Twilight Realm is a…shadow of Earth. You can call it an echo of reality…or as one of our younger sisters has referred to it…a sideband frequency.”
“An alternate dimension,” I stated, familiar with the concept from numerous books, movies, and TV shows.
“We know there are other realms out there,” Lindrell explained, gesturing in the direction of the fog. “Wherever the Gods, daemons, and such came from…but we don’t know anything about those places. What we do know is that the Twilight Realm acts as a buffer between Earth and those other realms.” Then she gestured again, this time towards the inside of the walls. “This is an anchor point, a spot where this realm and Earth are tethered. This gives us the stability you see and lets us travel back and forth between the two realms with relative ease.”
Just then, Julie blurted out, “Look...” She was pointing to the fog, or more accurately, to a creature that emerged from the fog. It looked something like a gorilla and a slug…with tentacles. “A daemon…”
“It doesn’t look like the ones from school,” I pointed out grimly, not taking my eyes off the creature until it turned and went back into the fog.
“There are different kinds,” Lindrell explained, not taking her eyes off the monster either. “We aren’t even sure if they’re from the same place…or if they all come from different realms. It doesn’t really matter though because all of them are dangerous. They live in the fog, and about once a century, thousands will swarm us at once, trying to get in so they can cross over to Earth.”
“Hence the walls,” I said in understanding. I looked around, realizing that there was a good reason Val Halla had been built as a fortress.
“Trust me,” Lindrell said with a scowl. “You’ll want to master your gifts well before the next siege.”
I shuddered at the very idea of seeing thousands of those things in one place, much less trying to get in to where I was currently at. I stared into the fog gain, trying to see that city again since that was interesting and a lot less scary than the daemons. However, instead of the city, I caught a glimpse of mountains instead.
“Echoes from Earth,” Lindrell explained after I asked about that. “Like our sunlight.”
“It’s creepy, is what it is,” Julie said. Then she grinned and admitted, “But kind of cool too. It reminds me of that movie…the Fog.”
“The original or the remake?” I asked, wondering when my life had turned into a horror movie. Then I remembered, it was yesterday…or whenever it was that those daemons came to my school. I still wasn’t sure of just how long I’d been out of it.
Julie looked back into the fog, then asked Lindrell, “Is there anything else out there…or is it just all fog?”
For a moment, Lindrell just stood there with a thoughtful look, then she answered, “Asgard, Olympus, Atlantis, Shambala, and I know there were a few others. Our records say that most of them were created by the gods, but we don’t know what happened to them after the gods left.”
“Unbelievable,” I whispered in amazement.
For most of my life, I’d heard stories of those mythical places, and until now, I’d been certain that they really had been just a myth. However, everything that I’ve seen since waking up in this new body had convinced me that the boundaries between myth and reality were a lot blurrier than I’d ever imagined.
“Do you think they’re still out there?” Julie asked, voicing the question I myself was thinking.
“Perhaps,” Lindrell responded with a shrug. “They might have fallen into ruins, been overrun by daemons, or have been absorbed back into the fog. But who knows... They may still be in use, just as Val Halla is.”
“This is so awesome,” Julie exclaimed, bursting with excitement. Almost in spite of myself, I found myself nodding agreement. “What about Xanadu? Or El Dorado?”
Lindrell just chuckled at that, and instead of answering, she turned to walk away, gesturing for us to follow. I took one long look back out at the fog, then another look inward to the fortress of Val Halla. Then with a shake of my head, and a quick brush of my hair from my face, I followed after Lindrell.
We went back downstairs and followed an outdoor path, going past several Val Kyr in the process. They gave us curious looks but didn’t say anything.
“They’re waiting for you to be officially welcomed to the Val Kyr,” Lindrell explained.
Then we arrived at another building and went inside, and I immediately realized that we were in some kind of throne room. There was a large open floor space, with a raised dais on the other end, which contained a rather noticeable throne, which was unoccupied at the moment.
More than a dozen Val Kyr were gathered inside the room, all of which were wearing armor of one sort or another. Though most wore armor similar to what Lindrell had on, one had plate armor and a few had leather armor. Every one of these Val Kyr also had a sash tied around their waists, either in red, blue, or green.
One of the Val Kyr inside immediately started walking towards us, surprising me since she was not only the first non-Caucasian that I’d seen since arriving, but also the largest Asian woman I’d ever seen in my life. In fact, she was the largest woman I’d ever seen period, standing six and a half feet tall, with breasts the size of basketballs, and muscles like a professional bodybuilder.
And as if this huge woman wasn’t intimidating enough, she also held a massive war hammer…one that made a normal sledge hammer look like a toy. She had her hammer casually slung over her shoulder, acting like it weighed nothing at all, when I was sure most men would have a hell of a time just picking the thing up, much less using it.
“Lindrell,” the massive Asian woman greeted my teacher with a grin. “I’m glad to see you’re back safely.”
“It’s nice to be back, Lei,” Lindrell responded with a grin.
“So,” the amazon woman Lei said, turning to look at Julie and then me. Unlike with Jass earlier, she gave me a look of curiosity rather than hostility. “I see you went for one recruit and brought back two.”
“That hadn’t been my intention,” Lindrell explained, almost apologetic ally. “I hadn’t planned on converting Michelle, for obvious reasons, but circumstances forced my hand. But now that she is Val Kyr, I believe she has a great deal of potential.”
“Of course you do,” Lei responded with a chuckle. “You’re the one who awoke her.” Lindrell just shrugged at that while Lei looked me over again. “It’s nice to me you… I’m Lei…”
“Mike,” I started, then winced as I remembered that I didn’t look anything like a Mike anymore. I let out a sigh of resignation and quietly said, “Michelle…”
“I’m Julie,” my girlfriend said from beside me as soon as Lei focused on her a moment later.
“You know, it is quite common for Val Kyr to choose new names upon joining,” Lindrell commented, though she quickly added, “Though not at all required.”
“I’m fine with Julie,” Julie responded with a grin.
“It looks like I already have my new name,” I pointed out wryly.
“So,” Lei asked, looking at me and Julie again. “What pillars are you?”
“What?” Julie and I both asked at the same time.
“They haven’t been to the scales yet,” Lindrell told Lei, who nodded in response. “But I suspect Michelle may be kaern.”
Lei stared at me for a moment, then she looked at Julie again before giving us both a slight bow. “Then let me welcome you both to the Val Kyr.”
Once Lei turned and walked away, Julie blurted out, “She’s huge…”
“I know,” Lindrell agreed with a chuckle. “But when I first met Lei, about a century ago, she was barely five feet tall.” When Julie and I both gave her looks of surprise, she explained, “The val changes all of us…some more than others.”
“Tell me about it,” I muttered, glancing down at myself and seeing the bulges pushing out from the front of my shirt.
Less than a minute later, the mood suddenly shifted and all the Val Kyr turned to look to the dais, including Lindrell. I looked as well and immediately saw why. A woman had entered through a door behind the throne and my eyes were immediately locked on her. She was tall for a woman, about the same height as Lindrell, had a statuesque build and long silvery white hair. She was also wearing armor in a somewhat different style than Lindrell’s, and which included a head piece with winged pieces at her temple. This woman looked every inch the way that I’d always imagined a Valkyrie or Norse goddess to look, so between that and the fact that she sat down in the throne, I knew this was Freya.
“Approach,” Freya commanded in a beautiful yet powerful voice.
Lindrell moved forward, gesturing for Julie and me to come with. When we approached the dais, Lindrell bowed her head and announced, “I present Julie Rosewald and Michelle Sorensen, both of whom I have awoken and recruited to our order.”
Freya looked at Julie, then stared at me with frost blue eyes that seemed to peer into my soul. I gulped, feeling small and weak in front of her, in spite of the fact that she was only an inch or two taller than me. Freya radiated confidence and a sense of power that would have intimidated anyone.
“I am Freya,” she stated, her voice containing a faint accent. “Leader of the Val Kyr and ruler of Val Halla.”
“The blonde one is a convert,” one of the Val Kyr said from a short distance away. I looked at a red headed woman, who was giving me a flat look. “Converts are forbidden.”
“Three hundred years ago, I banned converts from our ranks,” Freya said, turning her attention to Lindrell, whom she stared at with a cold expression. “I had good reason for doing this, as you know.”
“I do not regret my decision,” Lindrell responded firmly, looking Freya in the eyes. “She was injured while saving the life of another…from a daemon. I chose to save her life and reward her courage rather than letting her die needlessly, and I would do so again. Convert or not, I believe Michelle could be a great asset to the Val Kyr.”
“I am a convert,” one woman announced from behind us. “Would any deny my place in these halls?”
Then a second woman called out, “Judge her by her own actions, not those of others.”
Freya held up a hand and the room went silent. “We have already spoken of this in private,” she announced, looking directly at Lindrell with a steely gaze. I had a feeling that she said that more for the benefit of the audience than anything else. Then she turned her attention to Julie, and a moment later, to me. Her cold gaze pierced into me again and made me want to back up. “What’s done is done.”
“As you say,” Lindrell agreed, her eyes darting to me.
“Thousands of years ago,” Freya stated, staring straight at Julie and me, “we Val Kyr were created for the task of protecting this world from otherworldly threats. This is our duty…our honor…and our very purpose. We are endowed with strength and power so we may fight. We are gifted with immortality, yet we may be called upon to surrender our lives. Do you accept this responsibility? Will you become Val Kyr, with everything this entails?”
“Yes,” Julie answered immediately, without even a moment of hesitation.
Lindrell had already asked me this question, in a less dramatic fashion. However, Freya’s words somehow struck me more deeply, making me realize just how serious this was…and just how important. And though the idea of fighting daemons still scared the shit out of me, I still hesitated for only a second before answering, “I will.”
“Then welcome to the Val Kyr,” Freya announced, which was immediately followed by a round of cheers. However, she wasn’t finished. She held her hand up and everyone went silence. Then she turned her attention back to Lindrell. “Lindrell, you are removed from field duty. As of this moment, our sisters are placed in your care.”
“I understand, Freya,” Lindrell responded grimly, giving the other Val Kyr a bow.
“We have already discussed your other punishments,” Freya told her, her voice low enough so that only those who were closest to her would hear. “There will be no more talk of this matter.”
“Thank you, Freya,” Lindrell told her again.
With that, Freya stood up and looked over the crowd before loudly announcing, “Then let the celebration begin.”
I awoke to a loud pounding on my door, with Lindrell’s voice calling out, “It’s time to get up…”
I groaned and responded, “I’m awake…” That seemed to be just the thing I needed to hit the snooze on that particularly annoying alarm, though I didn’t dare roll over and go back to sleep. As if I could. Between the strange location, everything that was going on, the nightmares that threatened to come when I closed my eyes, and the fact that I kept rolling over onto my new breasts, I hadn’t been able to sleep much.
As I sat up in bed, I thought about events of the day before. It had been a shock to discover that nearly everything that I’d always believed to be myth was in fact real, and even more to realize that I was now smack dab in the middle of it. The whole thing seemed surreal. But surreal or not, this was the reality I was now stuck with. Whether I liked it or not, I was now a woman and a Val Kyr, caught up in a war with monsters that had been going on for thousands of years. I was in WAY over my head.
Then I thought about the feast from the night before, which the Val Kyr had thrown as a welcome for Julie and me. There had been food…ungodly amounts of food…with whole pigs roasted over a spit, tables that were overflowing with rich desserts, and more booze than I’d ever seen before in my life. There was beer, wine, champagne, and of course…mead. Mead had definitely been present in large amounts, and the Val Kyr hadn’t seemed to care in the least that Julie and I were underage. They just gave us more and more to eat and drink.
In spite of the fact that I’d eaten more food than ever before in my life, I’d never felt so full that I wanted to puke. And even though I probably ended up drinking enough alcohol to make four grown men pass out, I’d never reached the point where I was completely plastered. Even now, I didn’t feel the slightest trace of a hangover, which was obviously yet one more benefit of being Val Kyr.
“Great,” I said with a sigh. “I’ve gained the power to drink a whole frat under the table.” College was definitely going to be a lot more interesting, or at least that was my thought until I realized that I was now more likely to end up in a sorority than a fraternity. Then again, since I was Val Kyr now and expected to fight daemons, normal things like college might no longer even be possible. I felt a stirring of disappointment at that.
I closed my eyes, reminding myself that my old life was over and this was the life I had now. Lindrell had warned me of that when she’d offered to save my life. She’d given me the choice of life or death, and even though this wasn’t the kind of life I ever would have imagined for myself, it was far better than the alternative. There was no doubt that being a girl with magic powers was WAY better than being six feet under. This would be weird, but at least I’d get the chance to live with it.
With that, I stood up and brushed my long hair out of my face, then I slowly looked down over my new body. Since I’d had a whole day to get used to the idea, it wasn’t nearly as shocking to see myself as it had been the last time I’d woken up like this. It was still weird, as well as hard to believe that this was me, but I didn’t feel the urge to scream in panic.
From comparing my height to Lindrell’s, I knew that unlike Julie, I hadn’t gained any height when I’d changed, though I hadn’t lost any either. I still appeared to be about six feet tall, the same as before. However, I did have much better muscle tone, and I hadn’t exactly been a couch potato before this. Still, with all my new curves on top of that, I definitely had a killer body.
“If this whole Val Kyr thing doesn’t work out,” I joked weakly, “maybe I could make a living with Playboy.” Of course, that was assuming my face matched my body. I still hadn’t seen a mirror since waking up this way, so I had no idea what my face actually looked like, though Julie had assured me I was beautiful. I let out a sigh and said, “I can live with this.” However, even as I said that, I knew I was trying to convince myself just as much as I was stating it as fact. “And it’s not like I have much choice.”
When I was done looking myself over, I grabbed the clothes that I’d worn yesterday. As I’d learned, these loose gray clothes were the Val Kyr equivalent of a sweat suit, used mostly for light exercise and training, which seemed to mean anything that didn’t require them to wear armor. I felt a little grossed out by the fact that I didn’t have any underwear…panties to wear, and as disturbing as it was to admit it, with my new assets I was definitely going to need a bra.
I stepped out of my assigned quarters and paused to look back and forth down the hallway. I knew that Julie was in the room beside mine while Lindrell was directly across the hall, but I had no idea as to who was in any of the other rooms. Just then, one of the doors opened and a gorgeous and very naked woman stepped out and casually walked towards the communal bathroom. I just stared in surprise, wondering if that was a common occurrence.
“This might not be so bad after all,” I mused with a faint smirk, at least until I remembered that I’d be able to see the same thing anytime I wanted just by looking in a mirror.
I hesitated a few seconds, then started down towards the bathroom too. Though most of Val Halla’s décor seemed unbelievably old fashioned, I’d been relieved to discover that the bathrooms were a bit more modern. There were sinks with running water, and even more importantly, flush toilets. The whole place reminded me more of a nice hotel than of public restrooms, and there were six individual stalls, each of which was quite roomy so I didn’t feel at all claustrophobic. However, the fact that I did my business in a women’s restroom…with women’s parts myself…made the whole experience quite awkward.
While I was washing my hands in the sink, Julie came in and smiled when she saw me, then asked. “How are you holding up?”
“I’m doing all right,” I answered, glancing towards the stall that was still occupied by the naked woman. “I just feel…weird.”
“I know what you mean,” Julie responded with a grin. “I mean, I feel different too. Probably not as much as you, but I’m taller and my balance is a bit off because of it.”
I nodded at that, not seeing it as quite the same thing at all, though I didn’t point that out to her. However, Julie had known me a long time and seemed to get what I was thinking, because without another word, she just gave me a reassuring hug.
Though I would have liked to talk to Julie a little more about this, I was feeling pretty self-conscious about standing around in the women’s restroom and having a personal conversation while a stranger listened in. Because of that, I hurried back out into the hall where I met up with Lindrell, who was dressed much like Julie and I, though she had a red sash tied around her waist.
“About my clothes,” I started, burning bright red with embarrassment. “I think I’m going to need some…other things.”
Lindrell stared at me for a moment, then she began to chuckle. “I suppose you’re right, Michelle. Unfortunately, we won’t have the time for shopping since you and Julie are both going to be extremely busy with training for the foreseeable future. Right now, you’re newly awakened and untrained, which makes you both very tempting target for our enemies. They won’t hesitate to come after you, so they can kill you before you become a threat. Because of that, we don’t want you or Julie leaving until you’re able to defend yourselves.” She put a hand on my shoulder and said, “But don’t worry. There are a couple other Val Kyr about your size, so you should be able to borrow one of their bras for now. And the next time someone is sent out for supplies, we’ll have her pick up a few things for you and Julie. Because in case you hadn’t notice, you aren’t the only one who needs new clothes.”
“I’d noticed,” I admitted, blushing even brighter, which only made Lindrell grin.
A short time later, we were back in the massive dining hall that served as a cafeteria. The place had been cleaned up a bit from the feast the night before, but it was still quite a mess. And of course, breakfast largely consisted of leftovers. I didn’t mind eating leftovers, though I was still amazed that after everything I’d eaten at the feast, that I was able to eat anything at all.
“I’m going to get huge, eating like this,” Julie complained, patting her stomach and obviously thinking about the pudge that she’d only just lost.
“That won’t be a problem,” Lindrell assured her, looking quite pleased. “Among the many benefits of being Val Kyr is the fact your body will remain in the same shape it’s in now. You’ll never get fat, no matter how much you eat or how little you exercise. And since you two are still young, you’ll probably both age for a few more years, then stop aging entirely.”
“Awesome,” Julie exclaimed excitedly.
I stared at Lindrell for a moment, thinking about how the Val Kyr didn’t age. She’d already told me this several times, though I still had a hard time believing it, even after everything else I’d seen. “I hope this isn’t too rude,” I started carefully, “but how old are you?”
Instead of being offended, Lindrell looked amused. Julie just stared at her with a curious expression, eager for the answer. “Let’s just say that when I was born,” she finally answered, “your country hadn’t been yet.”
I nearly choked at that while Julie gaped with her mouth open. “Well,” I joked after a moment, “I guess that’s why you taught history…”
Lindrell nodded, no longer seeming like the mean teacher who had it out for me in class. But on the other hand, now that I’d seen her swing that axe around, she was a whole lot more intimidating, so I was glad that her hostility was no longer directed at me. “Now eat up,” she said, gesturing to our plates. “We have a lot to do today.”
Julie and I shared a nervous look, though I could see she was eager and filled with anticipation as well. That was enough to make me grin in response, though I had a feeling that by the time we were done for the day, neither of us was going to be smiling.
After we finished eating, Lindrell announced, “Now it’s time to discover your pillars.”
“Pillars?” Julie and I both asked at the same time.
Lindrell just smiled faintly, then said, “There is something I need to retrieve from my quarters. Come.”
We followed Lindrell back to her quarters, then she ducked inside the room for only half a minute before emerging with her massive axe. She slung the thing over her shoulder with a casual ease, as though it weighed nothing at all, then started off down the hallway again. Though she didn’t say anything, she obviously intended us to follow.
“I feel like I’m in the middle of Lord of the Rings,” Julie whispered to me, gesturing towards the axe.
“Yeah,” I responded wryly. “I just hope we’re not expected to just walk into Mordor.”
Instead of taking us to Mordor, Lindrell led us out of the large building that served as the primary living area, then across Val Halla to a massive building, which seemed to be the largest structure in the entire place. We ended up in a large round room, one which had beautiful stained glass skylights and which seemed nicely decorated compared to a lot of the other places I’d seen. There was something about this room which screamed of it being important, though perhaps that was the fact that there were three large doors placed around the room, not including the hallway we’d entered through.
“We call these the scales,” Lindrell announced with a sweeping gesture of her arm.
At first, Lindrell seemed to be gesturing around the room as a whole, then I realized that she was referring to a pattern that was engraved in the stone floor. There was a triangle, with each side being about seven feet wide. Inside the triangle, there was a circle, and there was another smaller circle at the top of each of the three points. Each of these circles had symbols etched in the middle, and painted with different colors.
“Musical scales or fish scales?” Julie weakly joked.
I just stared at the symbols on the floor and asked, “What do they measure?”
“Your val,” Lindrell answered, giving me a look of approval. Then she used her axe as a pointer, gesturing with it to the triangle. “We use a triangle to represent the val because the val has three pillars…three aspects of the power it gives each of us. Jatta, kaern, and notru. You can think of these pillars as body, mind, and soul…though it would be more accurate to call them vitality, awareness, and essence.”
“These are the pillars you mentioned earlier?” I asked, carefully looking over the symbols. I noticed that each of the three large doors to the room had a symbol on it that matched one of the ones on the floor.
“Yes,” Lindrell agreed. “As I said, these are the three pillars of the val, and they not only define our abilities, but also our roles with the Val Kyr. Each of us has one pillar that we relate to most, where the largest portion of our val energies are concentrated.”
“What do you relate to?” Julie asked Lindrell.
“I am jatta,” Lindrell answered proudly, using her axe to point to the red colored symbol on the floor. “Jatta is what gives us our physical abilities…enhanced strength, stamina, healing, and our longevity. For those of us who are of the jatta, we are even stronger, have greater endurance, and heal even more quickly. But we can also share some of our extra jatta energies with other Val Kyr, giving them a burst of physical energy and allowing them to heal far quicker. Because of our abilities, the jatta usually serve as front line warriors and healers.”
“Kaern,” Lindrell continued, pointing to the green symbol, “is the pillar of awareness and perception. This increases our senses, lets us sense things beyond the mere physical, and allows us to interpret and react to this information more quickly, which enhances our reflexes. Those of the kaern have an even greater awareness of their surroundings, can sometimes sense things a great distance away, and they can project their kaern energies outward in order to manipulate the senses and perceptions of others.” She paused at that, then said, “The kaern serve as scouts, spies, diplomats, and also as our usual recruiters. With their increased situational and tactical awareness, they can also make for effective commanders during battle.”
Then Lindrell turned her attention to the final point of the triangle and gestured to the blue symbol. “Notru is for essence. Every Val Kyr generates essence…a manifestation of our val infused spirit and life energies.” She paused at that and stood there with a thoughtful expression, as though trying to decide how to explain. “If you wear armor on a regular basis…training in it…fighting in it…it will become saturated with your essence. Your essence will then bend the armor to your purposes, making it stronger, tougher and more effective…while also making it feel lighter and more comfortable. Your essence will make your armor become like a part of you...like a second skin. The same is true for your weapon. As you use your chosen weapon, it will slowly become infused with your essence and will also become a part of you. It will become stronger, sharper, and will often manifest your essence in ways that are unique to you.”
With that, Lindrell held up her axe, which began to glow faintly. Suddenly, frost began to spread out over the axe blades, and when Lindrell gently touched the floor with her axe, frost and ice crystals spread out along the floor as well.
“Awesome,” Julie exclaimed, nearly bouncing with excitement. “You mean we’ll get our own magic weapons too?”
“You will be given normal weapons,” Lindrell explained with an amused smile. “But it is you who will fill them with magic.”
I stared at the frost on the ground thoughtfully, then asked, “If every Val Kyr can do this…then what can the notru do?”
Lindrell gave me a faint look of approval, which was quite different than what I was used to receiving from her in class. “Notru generate much more essence than the rest of us and they can quickly infuse it into their environment, giving them control over their surroundings. They can shatter boulders, turn ponds to ice, and make solid ground behave like quicksand. They manipulate the battlefield, construct fortifications, and maintain Val Halla itself.”
“Awesome,” Julie gasped, looking more than a little interested. “So the notru are like wizards”
“No,” Lindrell responded, giving Julie a faint smile. “Wizards wield a different power than the val…though admittedly, wizards and notru can perform some of the same effects.”
“Wizards are real?” Julie gasped.
I just burst out laughing, which got me a curious look from Julie. “We’re standing in the middle of Val Halla,” I pointed out wryly, “being trained to be Val Kyr…and you’re surprised that wizards are real too?”
“Well, how would I know?” she responded, sticking her tongue out at me.
Of course, I was actually just as amazed by that revelation as Julie was, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to tease her. However, that also made me wonder yet again what else might be out there. Faeries? Vampires? Bigfoot? An honest politician? Well, that last one might be a little far-fetched.
“Every Val Kyr falls into one of these pillars,” Lindrell continued, gesturing around the room towards the three doors. “And each pillar has its own training area.”
I looked around, realizing for the first time that we now had an audience. There were several women standing around each of the doors, watching us expectantly. I also noticed that each of them was wearing a sash around their waist, of the same color as the symbol above their door. My eyes darted to the red sash around Lindrell’s waist, then to the red jatta symbol on the floor.
“I am your primary trainer,” Lindrell told us, then gestured to the women who were watching. “But once you learn which pillar you belong to, you will also be assigned a mentor to teach you the tactics and abilities of your pillar.”
“So, what do we do now?” I asked cautiously, feeling self-conscious because of the way we were being watched.
Instead of answering, Lindrell stepped into the triangle on the floor, then stopped and stood within the large circle that was in the middle of the triangle. As soon as she was in place, that circle glowed with a silvery white light, and a moment later, the jatta circle glowed red. Lindrell remained there for about ten seconds, long enough for Julie and I to both see how it worked, then she stepped out and the circles stopped glowing.
“So, basically,” I said, looking over the symbols all over the floor. “This thing is the sorting hat.”
“Me next,” Julie exclaimed eagerly. She hurried into the center of the triangle, joking, “Come on Gryffindor…”
The circle in the middle immediately began to glow with the same silvery white color that it had when Lindrell stood there, making me think that this one just detected that val was there. A second later, one of the outer circles began to glow, the one for notru. The women with the blue sashes, who were standing in front of the notru door, began to clap and cheer.
Julie grinned at me and said, “All right,” as she stepped out of the triangle. “Your turn.”
I nodded at that and looked over the three options, wondering which one I’d choose if I had a choice. From what Lindrell said, there were advantages to any of the three pillars. After taking a deep breath, I stepped forward and into the middle of the triangle.
“Okay sorting hat,” I joked, “do your thing.” The circle that I was directly standing within immediately began to glow with a silvery white light, just as it had for Julie and Lindrell. But when I looked around at the other circles, none of them were glowing. Jatta, kaern, and notru all remained unlit. “What does this mean?”
Lindrell stared at me for several seconds with a disappointed expression before she covered it up. “It means,” she said in a careful tone, the kind that clearly said she had bad news. “It means that you have val…just not enough to qualify for any of the pillars.”
I just stood there, feeling a little confused by that, especially since Lindrell had just made a big deal about how every Val Kyr fell into one of those three pillars. In fact, she’d been very clear to point out that our abilities and roles would be defined based on which pillar we ended up in. Without a pillar, would I even have a place with the Val Kyr?
I took a deep breath and looked around, seeing that Lindrell was standing there with a grim look on her face. Most of the Val Kyr who’d been watching us had begun to scatter and leave, all except for the notru with their blue sashes. The notru were already by Julie’s side, slapping her on the shoulder and congratulating her for joining their ranks. And as they tied a blue sash around her waist, I couldn’t help but feel left out.
--------------------
I’ve died and gone to hell. It was more of a figurative hell than a literal one, but there were daemons involved so I wasn’t going to rule that out entirely. What I did know was that ever since that first daemon had appeared at school, my entire world had been turned upside down and inside out. Nothing made any sense anymore.
Every time I thought of the daemons, especially the one who’d torn out my insides, I remembered the pain and terror. The very memory was enough to make me tremble. And though Lindrell had saved my life, it had come at an unbelievable cost. I’d lost my body, my identity, and nearly everyone and everything I knew. Ever since waking up in Val Halla, I’d been dazed and in shock, trying to make sense of it all. At first, none of it had felt real. I was lost in a sea of confusion and uncertainty and had grabbed at the only life preservers I had…Julie and the Val Kyr.
Julie was the only thing I still had from my old life, and I didn’t know what I’d do without her. Not only was she my girlfriend, but she’d also been my best friend for a long time, the only one who ever really got me. However, she seemed to think of this whole thing as a great adventure and I was pretty sure that she didn’t really understand why I couldn’t see it the same way. Nor, I suspected, did she realize that I was still upset at the way she’d lied to me about what was going, or about the fact that she’d been planning to sneak away without even telling me goodbye.
The Val Kyr were beings of myth and legend, and though I’d fantasized about being recruited into the Jedi order or getting a letter from Hogwarts, I’d never imagined that I would end up among the Val Kyr. Technically, Lindrell had asked my permission before converting me, though I hadn’t understand what my agreement meant at the time. But admittedly, if I had understood, I would have agreed anyway. Facing death has a way of opening your mind to new possibilities.
When I’d agreed to accept my position as a Val Kyr and get trained to fight daemons, I’d had several reasons. As Lindrell had pointed out, I didn’t really have anywhere else to go, at least not safely. However, that hadn’t really been my main reason to accept. The truth was, I was terrified of daemons and wanted to learn how to defend myself against them. If I ever ran into a daemon again, I wanted to be able to fight back…to be the one to tear it to pieces. I wanted to be strong like Lindrell, so I wouldn’t have to keep feeling afraid. And of course, there was my final reason. I’d hoped that by joining the Val Kyr, by dedicating myself to doing something as important as protecting the world from monsters, that this would have made everything worth the cost.
For a short time, I’d let myself feel hopeful that this would all work out, but that was before I’d gone to the scales. Thanks to being a convert, I was already an outsider among the Val Kyr. I’d seen how a lot of them looked at me, and I’d overheard a few snide comments that had been made during the celebration feast. And then that morning, when I’d been shown as not belonging to any of the pillars, I’d become even more of an outsider than I already was. While Julie was celebrating and being led into the notru hall with her new friends, I’d been left behind.
Lindrell had merely given me a sympathetic look, then hauled me off to an out of the way corner where she gave me a two hour lecture on the different kinds of daemons. I felt like I was back in class, and though the information was interesting, it was the kind of thing that she should have been teaching Julie too. Because of that, I realized that the main reason for that particular lesson was so that she could distract me from my self-pity.
Eventually, Lindrell had been called away from the lessons and sent off to some other task while I found myself sent to the kitchens to help clean up. As I discovered, every Val Kyr helped to clean and maintain Val Halla in some fashion, especially the young Val Kyr. And among the Val Kyr, anyone below a hundred was considered young.
I was standing in the kitchen, stewing in my self-pity and resentment as I worked at cleaning a pile of pots and pans. Considering the amount of food the Val Kyr ate at every meal, I wasn’t the least bit surprised by just how much there was to clean. And since I was low man…woman on the totem pole and had done my share of eating, I didn’t bother to complain about the chore, at least not aloud.
“Pick up the pace,” Hilde snapped at me from the other side of the kitchen. “We need those clean before we can start cooking dinner…”
“Yes ma’am,” I responded, glancing to the grumpy old woman who ran the kitchen.
Though Hilde only looked like she was in her mid to late twenties, she was still able to somehow radiate the same attitude as several grumpy old women I knew. I didn’t really know much about Hilde, but I got the feeling that she was a very old Val Kyr who’d seen too much and done too much, so had retired from actively fighting daemons and now just focused on feeding everyone in Val Halla. From what I’d picked up by listening, Hilde wasn’t the only one and there were a few other Val Kyr who’d also retired and now focused only on taking care of various things around the fortress.
Hilde was pretty gruff and no-nonsense, and she’d piled more and more dishes on me, snapping at me the entire time to scrub harder or work faster. However, I didn’t take her attitude personally since she was treating everyone in the kitchen the same way. There was one Val Kyr, who was busy hauling in food, who was being ordered about just as much as I was. In an odd way, this actually made me appreciate the woman, because she was treating me exactly the same as she was treating everyone else. At the moment, I didn’t really feel quite so much like an outsider. Of course, that didn’t mean I wanted to spend any more time scrubby dishes than I absolutely had to.
Half a dozen other people scrambled about the kitchen, working at various tasks. Only a couple of them were Val Kyr though. One of the things I’d learned upon coming into the kitchen was that there were actually normal women who worked in Val Halla, doing various cooking and cleaning tasks. I’d been a bit surprised by them since I’d thought there were only Val Kyr here, but one of the other Val Kyr had said, “These are women who want to help in our fight against the daemons, and since they can’t become Val Kyr, they help in other ways.” One old woman had proudly told me that her family had worked for the Val Kyr for seven generations, with Hilde supervising all of them. I could only imagine what it would be like, having that kind of a family legacy, as well as the same supervisor as your great great great grandma.
“New girl,” Hilde said, looking at me. “We’ve got some dishes out in the hall that need to be brought in.” With that, she used a large butcher knife to chop down through the meat she was cutting, going right through a thick bone as though it was nothing. Between her Val Kyr strength and whatever essence she had in that knife, she was making quick work of what she was doing. I just shuddered, imagining what she must have been like when she was actually fighting daemons.
I went out into the large hall that served as a cafeteria, and I saw a few some dirty dishes piled up in the corner. As I started to gather then, I noticed Jass walking past with another woman. Jass looked at me and smirked, then told the woman with her, “I’m not surprised they put the convert in the kitchens already. She wasn’t strong enough for any of the pillars, so she wouldn’t stand a chance against a daemon. At least in the kitchens, she’ll be useful.”
I grimaced as I listened to that, knowing full well that Jass had meant for me to hear it. I didn’t respond to her insults, though they did make me angry. Were they really planning on putting me in the kitchens full time? Were they really going to just wash their hands of me like that?
“Damn it,” I spat out bitterly.
After losing both my body and my old life, I’d told myself that at least it wouldn’t be for nothing. At least I’d been given the opportunity to become part of something great…that I’d be able to do something important. But now…now it was all for nothing. Instead of being a warrior who fought daemons, I’d be little more than a servant working in the kitchens. Hilde chose to work in the kitchens, as did those normal women, but I probably wouldn’t be given that choice. I laughed bitterly, remembering that when I first heard that I’d been drafted into the war with daemons, I hadn’t wanted anything to do with it. Now it seemed ironic that after I’d begun to look forward to fighting daemons, the opportunity was being taken away.
I wanted to yell, scream, and throw dishes around, but I didn’t. Instead, I grimaced and went back to work. I might not be happy with what was going on, but I wasn’t going to throw a temper tantrum like a little kid. Besides, I didn’t know that know that they were going to stick me down her permanently. All I had on that were the words of a woman who didn’t like me, and my own active imagination.
“Don’t jump to conclusions,” I reminded myself, knowing that Dad would chew me out if I did that. One of the things he’d always told me, back before he went downhill, was that you can’t jump to conclusions. You have to be patient until you have enough information to know what the real situation was. He’d been especially big on patience whenever we went out hunting.
It was with some difficulty that I went back to work, carrying the dishes back to the kitchen and then returning to my pots. As I did this, I couldn’t help but comparing this work to what I’d done at my minimum wage burger flipping job, which I obviously couldn’t go back to. That was one thing from my old life that I wouldn’t miss. So far, this work was a little dirtier, the boss was a lot grumpier, and the benefits...the benefits were definitely mixed.
Eventually, Hilde announced, “Not bad. You worked hard and didn’t complain too much.” I frowned at that since I hadn’t complained at all, at least not aloud. “Grab something to eat and take off.”
I didn’t need to be told twice, so I grabbed a turkey leg and a thick slice of bread, then hurried out of the kitchen as quickly as I could. Since I didn’t really know what else to do, I started back towards my quarters, deciding that I could definitely use a nap. I wasn’t tired, but I could at least use the excuse for a little privacy.
Before I reached my quarters, Lindrell found me, announcing, “There you are…”
“Hilde said I could go,” I said defensively, a little afraid that she’d chew me out for cutting out on the kitchen work.
“Good,” Lindrell told me with a faint smile. “I think it’s time we start on your training. If nothing else, the exercise should help you get more familiar with your new body.”
I wasn’t sure I liked the sound of that, but the fact was, I was actually kind of glad that she wanted to go ahead with the training. Since I didn’t qualify for any of the three pillars, I’d been pretty worried that she wouldn’t think I was worth the effort.
Lindrell took me to a room that was obviously used for weapons training, something that I would have immediately picked out even if she hadn’t told me why we were there. There weapon racks against one wall along with several training dummies set up.
Lindrell went to the weapons rack and pulled out two swords while casually asking, “Have you ever used a sword?”
I hesitated a moment, guessing that the toy lightsaber I used to play with as a kid didn’t count. I gave her an awkward smile and answered, “Does the prop sword I used for a Link cosplay count?”
“I’ll take that as a no,” Lindrell responded, handing me one of the swords.
The sword was a plain one-handed broadsword, and one look at the blade was enough to see that it was so dull that it probably wouldn’t be able to cut through anything. However, it would probably be able to do just as much damage as a baseball bat, though that obviously wasn’t its purpose. This was clearly a training sword.
“Come at me,” Lindrell ordered.
I hesitated only a moment, but not because I was afraid that I might hurt her. I had no illusions that I’d be able to do that, even if the sword had a real edge on it. Instead, I wondered just how bad I was about to get my ass kicked before I swung the sword at her.
Lindrell used her sword to block my attack, doing so with a casual ease. She made no move to return the attack and merely gestured for me to come at her again. I lunged at her several more times with the exact same result.
“Hold the sword like this,” she directed, showing me how she gripped the hilt. “And swing it like this.” She demonstrated a swing. I repeated the same swing in the air, then again as I attacked her. Of course, she blocked it. “Again.”
We continued with this sparring, or at least with my attacking her over and over while she continued to block and point out things like, “Watch your balance,” and “Don’t overextend yourself.” I grimaced in frustration at just how easily she blocked every attack, and soon it started to turn to anger. I had a lot of anger and frustration built up over what had been happening to me, and it all suddenly bubbled to the surface. Lindrell had given me a target, now every bit of it burst out and was directed at her. I leapt at her, swinging the sword as hard as I could, no longer merely trying to tag her as practice, but trying to hurt her for real. However, Lindrell continued to easily block my attacks, acting as though she didn’t notice that I was pissed off. That just pissed me off even more.
“Go ahead,” Lindrell finally said, giving me a grim look. “Let it all out…”
I didn’t hesitate to do exactly that, charging at her again. This was the woman who kept calling me out in class and embarrassing me. This was the woman who’d been trying to take Julie away from me. And this was the woman who’d taken away my body…my family…my entire life. Intellectually, I knew that she’d done this to save my life, but at the moment, I didn’t care about that. I just wanted to hurt someone and she was right there.
After five more minutes, Lindrell suddenly swung at me, catching me by surprise and hitting my arm with the flat of her blade. It felt like being smacked with a baseball bat. “Focus,” she snapped. “Just because you’re upset, that’s no excuse to get sloppy or distracted.”
I snarled and charged at her, only to have her knock the sword from my hands, then smack me with the side of her sword again. She stood back long enough for me to pick up my sword, then she attacked me and I tried to block, without much success. She swung at me again and again, smacking me on the arms and legs with nearly each blow, giving me one bruise after another. I tried using some of the moves I’d seen her using to block my attacks, and this worked a bit. At the very least, it reduced the number of times I got hit.
The nature of our sparring changed and Lindrell stopped pressing her attack, but she was no longer just blocking either. Every time I attacked her, I had to keep in mind that she could hit back, and I definitely didn’t want to get hit again. She was clearly holding back, but getting hit from even the flat of her blade hurt and I wanted to avoid that. I was so caught up in this that I didn’t even realize that I’d already burned off most of my anger, and the fight itself was now keeping me too distracted to dwell on it.
“What kind of daemon attacked us at school?” Lindrell abruptly demanded.
“What?” I asked, surprised by the question.
Lindrell swung at me, getting past my sword again and catching me in the side with a powerful blow that made me feel like I’d just been hit with a baseball bat…again. “What kind of daemon attacked us at school?”
I stared at Lindrell in confusion, wondering why she’d ask me something like that in the middle of our sparring. However, she just stared at me with the same look she had whenever she called me out in class. This time though, there were no other students for me to be embarrassed in front of.
Suddenly, Lindrell lunged at me with surprising speed and I barely got up sword up in time to block her blow. The impact was hard, much worse than any of her previous attacks, and she sent me flying backwards. I hit the ground and my sword went flying away from me.
“Perhaps I should rephrase the question,” Lindrell said, staring at me with an expectant look. “What kind of daemon was it that disemboweled you?”
“A hellhound,” I spat out angrily, remembering our lessons on daemons from a few hours ago. I’d been pleased to find out that it really had been a hellhound. Then I remembered the other name she’d called it. “A khorst.”
“Good,” Lindrell responded, kicking my sword over to me and then standing back patiently.
I picked up the sword and got back to my feet, wincing as I did so. My entire body was covered with sweat and bruises from this training session, and we’d been going at it for a long time. I was surprised to realize that, even though I should be completely exhausted, I still felt full of energy and ready to continue…at least as long as I could ignore the pain. I wiped my long hair from my eyes, silently cursing it and now understanding exactly why girls wore their hair in pony tails. I also understood why they wore sports bras, because all the moving and bouncing around was very uncomfortable. Still I grimaced and tried to ignore it.
“Again,” Lindrell ordered. I winced slightly at that, knowing that this was going to give me even more bruises, and then I charged at her again.
After another five minutes of sparring, Lindrell demanded, “What are daemonites…?”
“Magic users,” I answered grimly, trying to remember what she’d told me in the lecture. “Humans who control daemons…”
“Only partly true,” Lindrell responded, hitting me with the flat of her sword yet again. By this point, I was pretty sure that every inch of my body was covered with bruises. “Daemonites have their own power, which they have different names for. And like the val, it has different pillars…five of them. Most link them to daemons in some way, but they don’t all control daemons. Some are controlled by daemons.”
It was very strange to have Lindrell giving me a lecture while she was simultaneously trying to cut me in half with a sword. Of course, that was no stranger than the fact that she was also giving me a pop quiz on the lecture from earlier.
This time, Lindrell barely gave me any time before she asked the next question. “What does a daemonite summoner do?” I tried to think about that, but Lindrell took advantage of my distraction to smack my thigh with her sword. “Focus.”
“Damn it,” I snarled angrily, more than a little tired of being beaten like that. I quickly blocked another of her half-hearted attacks, realizing that if I took too long to answer, I could expect another painful blow to come. “They summon daemons,” I answered, though I immediately realized this might not be enough. “They can temporarily teleport daemons to them from the Twilight Realm…and control them when they do.”
“That will do,” Lindrell responded with a satisfied nod. With that, she lowered her sword and said, “We’re done training for now.”
I dropped my sword and then dropped to my knees, feeling exhausted, though it was more of a mental and emotional exhaustion than a physical one. Still, I was definitely feeling the training physically. My entire body ached, from my muscles to my bruises, and I was drenched with sweat.
“Are you trying to kill me?” I finally asked Lindrell, wiping my sweat soaked hair from my face again and glaring at my teacher. “I know you probably regret saving me, but…”
“No,” Lindrell stated, interrupting me. She stared at me for several long seconds with an odd expression. “I don’t regret saving your life, merely the cost we must pay because of it.” She crouched down beside me, and to my surprise, she gently put her arm over my shoulder. “I would be doing you no favors if I took it easy on you.”
“And beating the crap out of me is?” I demanded, also thinking about the way she’d always made a point of calling me out in class.
“You are intelligent and capable,” she told me with a faint smile and an odd look in her eyes. “But I have seen that left on your own, you are easily distracted and put forth the minimal required effort. In a classroom, that merely results in a poor grade, but against a daemon…it can result in not only your death…but that of those fighting beside you. As a Val Kyr, distraction and minimal effort will NOT suffice.”
I gulped at that while Lindrell stood back up. She held out her hand to help me up, and after a moment of hesitation, I accepted it. “I understand,” I said quietly, seeing that I had another strike against me, one that I hadn’t even realized.
“Make no mistake,” Lindrell told me, putting a hand on my shoulder and looking me in the eyes. “I want you to succeed. You have obstacles that most Val Kyr never have to face…being a convert and having no pillar. You will probably have to work twice as hard as most in order to prove your worth, but I believe you can. As your teacher, my job is to help you learn and be successful…and motivate you when necessary.”
I gulped, not sure what to say to that. After a moment, I cautiously asked, “So, what next?” After the day I’d already had, I was half afraid that it was back to the kitchen.
“That’s up to you,” Lindrell said with a gentle smile. “We’re done with training for today, but we will continue tomorrow.”
I winced at that, definitely not looking forward to getting the crap beat out of me with a sword again, or to another ridiculous and poorly timed pop quiz. However, there was one thing I was definitely looking forward to. “I can’t wait to take a shower…”
“Oh, we don’t have any showers in Val Halla,” Lindrell told me, making me gulp as I realized that I hadn’t seen any sign of a shower stall in the restrooms. Then to my relief, she gave me a friendly smile and asked, “Would a nice hot bath do instead?”
--------------------
The Val Halla library was the most impressive I’d ever seen, though not in size or even the number of books. In fact, the public library back home had this one beat in both of those areas. However, this library stood out in several ways, the first and most notable being that it was wide and open, with large stained glass windows that made the whole room almost feel like it was a church rather than a dusty old library. The other thing that made it impressive was simply the age of the materials stored within. There were large and intricate books that had been drawn and written by hand, well before the invention of the printing press. There were papyrus scrolls, and even scrolls that had been written on animal hides back from the time when the Val Kyr had first been formed. All of these writings were perfectly preserved, kept in nearly the same condition as when they’d first been written, thanks to careful use of magic.
The librarian was Moraigh, a slender woman who only looked to be about thirty, but who radiated a sense of age, even more than Hilde did. And like Hilde, she’d long since retired from active service and now focused all her attention on the tasks of taking care of the library and keeping a record of current events.
Moraigh had merely grunted when Lindrell introduced Julie and I to her, then she gave me a curious look before writing our names down in the official records as new Val Kyr. As soon as that was done, she wandered away, not even bothering to say goodbye. From what little I could see of her, she was a woman of few words and little patience with other people.
“This is the history of the Val Kyr,” Lindrell proudly told us as she gestured around the room. “Of course, very little of it is written in English, but you’ll have plenty of time to learn the language later.”
With that, Lindrell pulled a thick book off the shelf, then carried it to a sitting area and placed it on a table. Julie and I took our seats so we could begin the lessons for the day. We’d already spent part of the morning doing a little light sparring, or at least Lindrell had made Julie and I spar against each other. Unfortunately, I had a feeling that had merely been a little light exercise to help us wake up for the day.
“This book contains most of what we know about the various types of daemons you’re likely to encounter,” Lindrell said, jumping right into the same lecture she’d given yesterday morning, though this time she had pictures to help demonstrate.
In spite of the fact that Lindrell had already covered part of this yesterday, I listened carefully, knowing that I might very well end up with another pop quiz. If Lindrell started questioning me in the middle of sparring again, I wanted to be able to answer her questions as quickly as I could so I could avoid getting smacked around. However, thinking about the future quiz and the pain that was sure to come with it, I ended up thinking about what had happened afterwards as well.
After the painful and humiliating sword lesson yesterday, Lindrell had taken me to get a bath…at a public bath house. It had been a bit of a shock to walk in and find what were basically four massive hot tubs set into the floor of a large open room. There had been nearly a dozen Val Kyr present, almost all completely undressed, and I’d been absolutely stunned at seeing so many gorgeous and naked women, not to mention mortified at having to get undressed in front of them. I might have protested, but I was still so sore and bruised that I’d just picked a pool that was empty and climbed in as quickly as I could. Of course, it hadn’t stayed empty long as Lindrell and Julie had both joined me, which had been pretty awkward and embarrassing as well. It had been an exercise in self-control as I carefully avoided looking at either of them, much to their amusement. Fortunately, by the time I climbed out of the water, at least all my bruises had fully healed.
“This one has a lethal venom in the tail,” Lindrell said, pointing to a picture in the book. “Getting stung is nearly guaranteed death. The only Val Kyr to have survived getting stung was a jatta, who immediately received an extra jatta infusion from a comrade.”
“Nasty,” Julie said with a shudder while I nodded agreement.
I looked over the picture of the daemon, immediately noticing the similarities to the hellhounds we’d encountered. However, there were some obvious differences too in the shape of the head and also in the tail. I had a spark of recognition and blurted out, “It’s a manticore.”
“That is one of the names,” Lindrell agreed, giving me a faint look of approval.
“Manticores are daemons?” Julie mused, her eyes going wide. Then she blurted out, “What about dragons? Are they real? Are they daemons too?”
“Yes, they are real, and they are daemons,” Lindrell agreed, looking thoughtful for a moment. “But unlike most of the daemons, some gods brought dragons over intentionally…as pets.”
“Pets?” I asked in surprise. “They had pet dragons?”
“I bet they were like baby alligators,” Julie told me with a smirk. “Once they got too big for the bath tub, they get let loose in the wild…or the nearest pond.”
“Perhaps,” Lindrell responded with a look of amusement. “But as far as I know, no one has seen a dragon in nearly a thousand years, not since well before I became Val Kyr. The general consensus is that either the few of them that were left went into hibernation somewhere, or they were killed off without us knowing. Since the Val Kyr aren’t the only ones around with the ability to do something like that, that is a good possibility.”
Lindrell continued our lessons on different types of daemons for a little longer before another Val Kyr arrived looking for her. “Freya would like to speak with you,” the woman told Lindrell, only glancing at me and Julie.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Lindrell told us before quickly departing with the other woman.
Once Lindrell was gone, Julie and I sat in awkward silence for a moment. We’d always been close, but I could feel the distance opening up between us. “So,” I asked awkwardly, “what’s it like being notru?”
Julie’s eyes lit up at that, as I knew they would. Ever since she got back last night from meeting her new notru friends, she’d been pretty excited. “It’s great,” she exclaimed with a broad grin. “I can use magic now…real magic…”
“I remember,” I commented with a faint smirk, remembering the demonstration that Julie had given last night during the bath. She’d put her hand into the water and made some of it freeze into solid ice…around her hand. She’d sat there for a minute, smacking the block of ice her hand was frozen into against the side of the pool, trying to break it. Lindrell and I had both laughed our asses off, much to Julie’s embarrassment.
“Hey, I’m just learning,” she responded defensively. “I’d like to see you do better…” I winced at the reminder that I couldn’t do that, or any of the other special tricks that the various pillars could do. Julie’s eyes widened in realization and she grabbed my hand. “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean it like that…”
“I know,” I told her with a sigh. I was silent for few seconds before admitting, “I’m just frustrated… I mean, first this…” I gestured down at myself and scowled. “Then, I don’t even get the kind of cool power that would make it worth it. I feel like I lost everything…for nothing.”
“It wasn’t for nothing,” Julie insisted. “You’re still alive, and even if you didn’t get all the cool powers, you’re still Val Kyr. You’ve still got a lot of really cool stuff because of that…”
“Have you seen the way everyone stares at me?” I snapped at her. “They all think I’m some kind of freak. They’re just waiting for me to screw up more so they can kick me out…”
Julie jumped to her feet and exclaimed, “Don’t you say that…” She glared at me for a moment, then her expression softened. “Okay, I’ve heard a few people talking…but not everyone feels that way. You’ve just to go show them what you can do.”
“And what exactly is that?” I asked with a snort. “Remember, my val gave me this body…but not enough power to keep up…” I was definitely still bitter about that.
“You’ll figure something out,” Julie assured me confidently. After a moment, she smirked and added, “You’ve always been too stubborn to let the bullies get to you before, so why should now be any different?”
I stared at Julie for a moment, then started to chuckle. “Before, the bullies didn’t carry big freaking axes…”
“But neither did your friends,” Julie responded smugly. “Look,” she sat back down beside me again. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m still here for you. I’m still your friend…” She paused at that, her expression suddenly going sad. “You’ve been my best friend for a long time, and that hasn’t changed. But…”
For a moment, I wondered what she was saying…and why she suddenly looked so uncomfortable. Then it hit me and my mood sank even lower. “But you’re not into girls,” I finished for her quietly.
Julie nodded agreement. “I’m sorry…”
“Don’t be,” I said, giving her a forced smile. “I understand…” Or at least, I understood intellectually. Emotionally, it felt like I’d just been kicked in the balls…if I still had them. As I sat there, I didn’t even realize that I was staring to cry a little until Julie reached over and wiped one of the tears from my cheek. Then without a word, she gave me a hug, which somehow made me feel a little better.
“You might not be my boyfriend anymore,” Julie told me quietly. “But you’re still my best friend.” I just nodded at that, not trusting myself to say anything.
By the time Lindrell returned a short time later, I’d at least stopped crying, though I didn’t feel much better about the situation. In spite of Julie’s attempts to make me feel better, I’d come out of it feeling even worse. Then again, getting dumped would do that.
“It seems that some aspects of your training are to be moved up,” Lindrell said as soon as she was back. She didn’t look very happy about that though. “We’ve been ordered to form a triad.”
“A triad?” I asked curiously.
“The most basic fighting unit we use,” Lindrell explained with a slight frown. “A small unit composed of one jatta, one kaern, and one notru, who train and fight together. When we are sent on missions, it is usually by triad.”
“Kaern, jatta, and notru,” I repeated, looking from Lindrell to Julie. “But I’m not kaern.”
“No,” Lindrell answered carefully. “We will be assigned a kaern to join us.”
“Then, if there are four of us, we won’t really be a triad,” Julie said, glancing at me and looking worried. I grimaced, realizing that I wasn’t going to be part of the new unit.
“Then we won’t be a triad,” Lindrell answered. “But the four of us will be a team.” She gave me a reassuring look, then explained, “New recruits usually train for at least a month before they’re assigned to a triad, so this will be different. Since the two of you are untrained, I expect an experienced kaern will be assigned to us.”
After we talked a little more about what we could expect as part of a triad, Lindrell went back to our daemon lessons. We continued where we’d left of and talked about daemons for almost another hour before we were finished.
At this point, Julie told Lindrell, “Um, yesterday, they said that I had to come back to the notru hall this afternoon for more training.” She gave me a guilty look, then added, “I’m supposed to get my mentor today…”
I frowned slightly at that, definitely feeling jealous of Julie, though I tried not to show it. Instead, I took a deep breath and said, “Congratulations.” In spite of my own frustrations, I was going to try to be her supportive friend instead of her jealous ex.
“Thank you,” Julie said, grinning hopefully before giving me a quick hug.
Once Julie was gone, I looked at Lindrell and let out a resigned sigh. “More sword practice?”
Lindrell gave me a look of amusement, then wryly pointed out, “I appreciate your enthusiasm for the lessons, but no. We’re going to do something a little different than that, though I expect you’ll still get plenty of exercise, and probably even with a sword.”
I gave Lindrell a curious look, not sure of whether I liked the sound of that or not. “You’re not going to throw me into a rancor pit and make me fight my way out, are you? Because in case you’ve forgotten, I’ve only had one lesson…”
“Oh, I’m throwing you to the wolves all right,” Lindrell responded with a grin. “Come.”
That did NOT make me feel any better. Still, I followed Lindrell as she took me back to the building where we’d gone yesterday to get tested for our pillars. We went back into the room with the scales, but we didn’t stop there. Lindrell continued to the door for the jatta training hall.
“By tradition,” Lindrell explained as we stopped at the entrance, “only jatta are allowed beyond this point. However, Freya suggested that as you belong to no pillar, that you might benefit by training a little with each of them. Come.”
The jatta hall consisted of a large open room that was probably four times the size of the gymnasium at my old school, and there were a couple smaller side rooms. I could see various types of weapons and training equipment set up all around the room, but most of the open area in the middle contain fighting rings, all of which currently had sparring going on.
“The jatta mostly focus on close combat,” Lindrell explained, gesturing around us. “We are stronger, tougher, and more tireless than the other Val Kyr, so here is where we train to make full use of this.”
“Impressive,” I said, watching the nearest fighting ring where two women were sparring. One was using a large Scottish claymore while the other was using a sword and shield combo.
While I was watching the fight, several women started towards us. I recognized Lei, the huge Asian woman who was carrying the same war hammer that she’d had the last time. Another of the women wasn’t quite as tall or buff as Lei, but she somehow seemed even more imposing. Perhaps it was her grim and serious expression, or perhaps it was the fact that she had an eye patch. Lindrell had told me that Val Kyr would eventually heal from anything short of death, and jatta could do so far quickly, so that made the eye patch all the more noticeable.
“Lindrell,” Lei greeted her with a grin before giving me a curious look. “Michelle.”
Lindrell nodded to her, then gestured to the woman with the eye patch. “Michelle, this is Ragnhild, head of the jatta pillar and one of Freya’s three generals.”
I stared at Ragnhild, recognizing her from the other day when I’d met Freya. She’d been standing up in the front, near Freya’s throne, along with two other women. I guessed that meant they were the other two generals that Lindrell had just mentioned.
“It’s nice to meet you,” I said awkwardly.
Ragnhild stared at me with one eye, her expression grim. She definitely didn’t come off as friendly, but she didn’t seem especially hostile towards me specifically. “Welcome to the Val Kyr,” she said gruffly, the tone in her voice sounding a little skeptical. “You may train with the jatta.”
Ragnhild turned and walked away, gesturing to the other Val Kyr who’d started to gather. Several of them gave me suspicious or even hostile looks, while others merely seemed curious. However, with her gesture, they all scattered back to what they were doing, all except Lei.
“I think she likes you,” Lei joked, slapping me on the back which nearly knocked me over. “She didn’t just throw you out.”
Lindrell chuckled at that, then admitted to me, “That was a possibility.”
“You’re the first non-jatta we’ve had here in decades,” Lei told me, perhaps to explain the looks that some of the other women kept giving me.
Lindrell began giving me the tour, leading me around the large room and letting me see what was going on. Lindrell came with us, not saying much as Lindrell introduced me to several of the friendlier women.
We reached one area of the room where racks of weapons lined a wall. There were axes, swords, spears, war hammers, and a variety of other things, some of which I didn’t even recognize. I couldn’t help but imagine how awesome some of those would have looked on my wall, but for the most part, they looked like weapons that were meant to be used rather than displayed.
A red headed woman was at the weapon racks, looking at a one handed war hammer that reminded me a bit of the one Thor used in the comics. She swung it back and forth experimentally, though I wasn’t sure why she needed it since she had a large claymore strapped to her back. In fact, she was the same woman I’d been watching fight just a short time ago.
“Bethany,” Lindrell called to the woman, getting her attention. “This is Michelle.”
“Welcome to the Val Kyr,” Bethany said, giving me an odd look. “Lindrell here says you saved the other girl, Julie, from a daemon.”
I blushed at that and nodded. “Yeah. It just kind of happened.”
“She was quite brave,” Lindrell stated proudly.
I just snorted at that since I didn’t think of myself as being brave. I just really didn’t want Julie to get hurt so I’d tried knocking her out of the way. I hadn’t been trying to sacrifice myself for her.
Since I was a little uncomfortable talking about that, I gestured to all the weapons and said, “This all seems kind of…old fashioned. Why don’t you use guns against daemons?”
“Sometimes we do,” Lindrell answered. Then she looked to Bethany and asked, “Remember that blunderbuss you used to carry around all the time?”
“Of course,” Bethany responded with a grin. “I still have the thing hanging from the wall in my quarters.”
I looked around at all the medieval style weapons, feeling a little confused. “Then why aren’t there any guns here?”
“There are two reasons,” Lei answered. “The first is that they’re unreliable.”
“Unreliable?” I asked in surprise.
“They are here,” Lindrell explained. “In Val Halla…in the Twilight Realm…things don’t work the same way that they do on Earth. Gunpowder isn’t reliable. Sometimes a gun will work normally, but it’s just as likely that the ammunition will be a dud or that it will blow up and ruin the gun.”
“Same thing with electricity,” Lei added.
Lindrell nodded agreement. “I’m sure that you’ve noticed there isn’t any electricity.” When I nodded my confirmation, she continued, “We could easily bring in generators, and we have in the past, but it doesn’t do much good. Sometimes they don’t work at all and other times they overload and blow up.”
“That definitely explains a few things,” I said thoughtfully.
“We sometimes use modern weapons when we’re hunting daemons on Earth,” Lei said, “But we certainly don’t rely on them.”
“You said there were two reasons,” I pointed out.
“Essence,” Lindrell stated simply. At my blank look, she explained, “I’ve explained how we imbue our weapons with essence...making them much more powerful.” When I nodded, she continued, “We can imbue firearms the same way, but that doesn’t do anything for the ammunition.”
“You get a lot more bang for your buck when you use something like this,” Lei agreed, holding up her hammer.
After this, Lindrell put a hand on my shoulder and said, “There’s something that I need to go take care of. I’m leaving you in Lei’s hands for the next few hours.”
“We’ll take good care of her,” Bethany promised.
Lindrell just gave her a flat look and said, “She’s here for training, not as an excuse to go drinking…”
“Oh, you know me well,” Bethany responded with a chuckle.
Lindrell told me, “Pay attention. You might not be jatta, but you should be able to learn a few things here.” Then as she turned to leave, she added, “I’ll test you on what you’ve learned later.”
I winced at that, remembering her way of testing how much I’d learned during her lectures. “I’m looking forward to it,” I said wryly.
“I guess I’ve been drafted to play tour guide,” Lei commented with a shake of her head, though she didn’t really sound bothered by that.
“Better you than me,” Bethany told her before she hurried off as well.
“Well, you’ve seen the collection of training weapons,” Lei said, gesturing to the weapons we’d just been looking at. “Mostly, these are just for training with a variety of different weapons. We each have our own personal weapon, which we’ve...enhanced.” She held up her hammer.
I nodded at that, then looked around again, noticing that most of the jatta seemed to prefer things like two handed swords, axes, and hammers. They were going with weapons that took full advantage of their strength, which made sense. However, it was also clear that not all of them were doing that as a few of those training were using one handed weapons. Though whether these were their primary weapons, or if they were expanding their skills as Lei indicated, I wasn’t sure.
Lei took me to a back corner of the room, which was set up for an obvious purpose. There were several modern exercise machines like treadmills and stair climbers, but there were also a lot of weight sets and benches. However, the bars and weights were all large and heavy duty ones, and it looked like they were set up for an Olympics competition.
“Lifting can help you learn your limits,” Lei told me, setting her hammer down. Then she grinned and added, “It also lets us compare ourselves against each other.”
“That makes sense,” I said, suddenly wondering exactly how strong I was now. Lindrell kept pointing out that I’d gotten stronger, but there hadn’t really been many opportunities to test that.
A minute later, I began lifting weights in order to test my strength. Lei acted as my spotter while a couple of the other jatta watched from a short distance, not saying anything. I could feel the energy in my body…the val surging as I strained myself, and when I was done, I was absolutely stunned to discover that I could now bench press over half a ton.
“I can’t believe I lifted that much,” I gasped after I’d set the weight back down.
“I wouldn’t feel so impressed if I were you,” someone commented from the side. I looked over and saw a brunette girl, who didn’t look even look twenty. “Everyone in here can lift more than that.”
“True,” Lei agreed pleasantly. “But you only beat that by what...barely a hundred pounds?”
Another woman slapped the brunette girl on the shoulders and joked, “Admit it, you’re just happy that you’re not the weakest person in here anymore.”
“Well, she’s obviously not jatta,” the brunette responded, almost pouting.
“Of course she isn’t,” Lei pointed out with a grin. “But that’s not bad at all for someone who isn’t jatta. In fact, she almost made the jatta minimum, which is pretty damn good for any of the other pillars.”
After that, I continued lifting weights for more than half an hour, more to see what I was capable of than because of the exercise. It was pretty clear that I wasn’t as strong as any of the jatta, and I felt a bit self-conscious about that fact, especially as the brunette lifted weights a short distance away, making a point of showing how much more she could lift then me.
When I was done with the weights, Lei slapped me on the shoulder and announced, “Not bad. Not jatta level…but not bad at all.”
I nodded at that, then glanced over to the brunette, who stood a short distance away with a smug look on her face. Obviously, she’d enjoyed showing me up and pointing out that I couldn’t match her, and she was the weakest of the jatta.
“So, what now?” I asked Lei.
“I’ll show you some of our other training exercises,” she responded before holding casually placing her hammer over her shoulder and giving me an almost evil grin. “Then we’ll set you up for a little sparring.”
I stared at the massive hammer, my eyes going wide at the thought of having her swing that thing at me. I finally gulped and squeaked out, “Oh joy…”
--------------------
I awoke to the sound of an alarm clock going off, though it wasn’t the digital kind that I was familiar with. It was an old fashion alarm clock, the kind that you wind up and which my great grandparents probably used before there was such a thing as digital clocks. And as hard as it was to believe, the metal hammer on metal bell ringer was even more annoying than my old clock’s alarm had been.
When I’d returned to my quarters yesterday after the long and brutal training session with the jatta, I’d found exactly what Lindrell had been doing during that time. There had been a new nightstand sitting beside my bed, along with the clock on top of it. However, Lindrell had given me a few more things as well, and left a note saying that it was all to help me get started on my new life.
“I could have done without the alarm clock,” I muttered as I climbed out of bed. Then again, I suspect that the alarm was more for her benefit than for mine since it meant that she wouldn’t have to come pounding on my door to wake me up.
As I sat on the edge of my bed, stretching and waking up the rest of the way, I was thankful for the fact that I’d slept well. Last night was the first time since coming to Val Halla that I hadn’t woken up with dreams about the daemon who’d torn into me. Then again, all the training yesterday from the jatta had certainly helped exhaust me enough so that I’d sleep.
Yesterday, Lei had put me through a few training exercises before throwing me onto the sparring ring. She sparred against me herself, leaving me with some severe bruises. And that was when she’d been holding back. Then she had me spar against a couple other jatta before pairing me off against Nicole, the brunette girl who’d enjoyed showing how much stronger she was than me. It turned out that Nicole was the youngest of the jatta, having joined a little more than a year earlier, and I’d spent two hours sparring with her. She was definitely stronger than me, though not by as much as Lei. Still, she’d given me more than her share of bruises before we were done.
After a minute, I stood up and went to the window, removing the blanket I was using to cover it. In the Twilight Realm, there was no sun to rise or set, just the ever present twilight. The light through the window wasn’t bright enough to wake me, but I found that covering the window did help me go to sleep a little easier.
A few seconds later, I turned my attention to one of the other gifts that Lindrell had left for me, a large wooden wardrobe which was set against the wall. It was about seven feet tall, five feet wide, and covered with intricate carvings that were obviously done by hand. The entire thing was quite impressive, and to make it even more practical, it was filled with clothes. There were training outfits as well as casual clothes that would have fit right in at my old school. And of course, it came with panties and bras…which I’d already confirmed were a perfect fit.
When Julie came to Val Halla, she’d brought a bag with some of her personal items and prized possessions, but I’d come here without warning and without anything…not even the clothes on my back. My quarters had been completely empty of any personal possessions, and the only clothes I had were a couple training outfits that had been provided. Normally, being given a few pieces of furniture and some clothes wouldn’t have seemed that big of a deal, but at the moment, it was. My quarters suddenly felt less like an empty motel room and more like a place where I could actually live. And just as importantly, this was also a strong indication that Lindrell expected me to stay, and that I didn’t have to worry about being kicked out tomorrow. That was a great relief.
I picked out my clothes with care, even though there really wasn’t much point. After all, there was no doubt that I’d only need to wear the training clothes for the time being, but I did hesitate over the bra and panties. Until now, there hadn’t been much choice but to go completely bare, though that had taught me a few valuable lessons in why women needed to wear bras. Then once I had my clothes picked out, I turned my attention to the last present that Lindrell had left for me. The full length, antique, oval mirror which now stood in the corner.
Although I’d been a girl for several days, last night had been the first time I’d actually seen what I looked like, and I’d ended up staring at my reflection for nearly twenty minutes straight. The impact this morning was no less surprising, especially since I had a hard time believing that the young woman who stared back was actually me. She was gorgeous, with golden blonde hair and crystal blue eyes. Her body was impressive, with plenty of sexy curves but also a lot of noticeable muscle tone, making it look as though she could have been a member of the Swedish volleyball team. If it hadn’t been for my having seen Lindrell and some of the taller Val Kyr, I might have called her a blonde amazon.
“Hard to believe that’s really me,” I said, shaking my head and watching the girl in the mirror do the same thing. “I guess I’d better get used to it.”
I stared at myself for another minute before I tore myself away from my reflection and turned my attention to more important things, such as getting ready. I quickly got dressed, not even having any problems with the bra since I’d taken the time to figure out how to put one on last night. Once I was fully dressed, I pulled my hair back into a pony tail so it was out of the way, then I left my quarters.
As I walked down towards the restroom, a naked Val Kyr came out and walked right past me. It took all my willpower to keep from staring at her, at least more than I did, but to my surprise, she gave me a once over with her eyes as well. I was blushing bright red by the time I got to the stall to do my business, and even worse, my cheeks weren’t my only parts that were responding to what I’d seen. My nipples were poking straight out and demanding attention, which suddenly made me more than a little thankful that I now had a bra to help hide those twin peaks.
“At least there’s one good thing about all this,” I told myself with a chuckle, thinking about the public baths and how most of the Val Kyr not only looked hot, but seemed to have very little modesty. Of course, that just reminded me that I was on display when I went there as well, and that still made me pretty uncomfortable.
A short time later, I arrived at the cafeteria where I was going to meet up with Julie and Lindrell, as well as find out what kind of training Lindrell had planned for the day. I shuddered at the thought of all the bruises I was sure to get, but at least as a Val Kyr, I healed up in no time at all. And admittedly, it was all pretty interesting, even if some of the lessons were pretty painful.
When I looked around to see whether or not I was the first to arrive, I immediately saw Lindrell, who was standing near the food and talking to another Val Kyr. From her red hair, my first thought was that it was Bethany, but then I realized that it wasn’t. This was the same woman who’d called out against me during my meeting with Freya. This was the same woman who’d reminded everyone that converts were banned.
Though I was standing a good distance away, as soon as I focused on Lindrell and the other woman, I was easily able to make out what they were saying. “She’s a convert,” the redhead told Lindrell in the kind of tone that indicated that she was trying to be reasonable and convincing. “And she doesn’t even have a pillar. She isn’t suited to being Val Kyr. She’ll only get killed and take others with her.”
“Whether you agree or not,” Lindrell responded in a cold tone, “Michelle IS Val Kyr and I will not hear you say otherwise.”
“No,” the redhead said, her own voice calm but insistent. “Whether you agree or not, she’s Estrid all over again. Surely you remember Estrid, the reason converts were banned? She had no pillar either and you know what happened with her…”
“Michelle is NOT Estrid,” Lindrell snapped, suddenly looking angry. “She’s a bright young woman who faces challenges that most new recruits never dream of. She is working hard to adjust and I will NOT have you sabotaging her.”
I stood back and stared in surprise at the fierce way Lindrell was coming to my defense. Not very long ago, I’d been absolutely certain that Lindrell hated me for some reason, though that was no longer the case. In fact, I was beginning to wonder if that was ever really the case.
Lindrell and the redhead stared at each other for several long seconds before the redhead finally said, “Very well, continue to teach the girl. But remember, when she breaks, that I warned you.”
I was burning with curiosity about who this Estrid was and what the redhead meant when Julie came up and said, “Morning…”
“Morning,” I responded, hoping she didn’t realize that I’d just been eavesdropping on Lindrell and that other woman.
“Are you doing all right?” Julie asked, giving me a concerned look.
I hesitated a moment, not wanting to admit what I was really worried about, at least not at the moment. “Just wishing I had my Kindle,” I told her, which was true since I’d lost my Kindle during the daemon attack. “I was right in the middle of a good book, now I’ll probably never find out how it ends…”
“I know what you mean,” Julie told me with a sympathetic sigh. “I mean, I’m going through internet withdrawal big time. I haven’t checked my e-mail or facebook in days…and there are a couple of my favorite web comics that I’d like to check.”
“The downsides of living in a magic castle,” I pointed out wryly, which made Julie laugh.
“Yeah, they never go into that part of things in books,” Julie agreed. “Fortunately, Lindrell said that once we’re trained, we’ll be able to go back to Earth, though we probably won’t be able to settle down in any one spot, at least not without a lot of preparation.”
I nodded at that, thinking about going back and telling Dad about what happened to me. However, I was pretty sure that if I showed up looking like I did now, there was no way he’d believe I was really me. In fact, as I thought about it, I’d probably end up getting the cops called on me. After all, as far as anyone there knew, Julie and I had probably just disappeared without warning…along with Lindrell. And then there was Mrs. Clarence being killed and two daemon bodies which had been left behind. There would undoubtedly be a LOT of questions that I didn’t want to have to answer.
Julie and I started walking towards the food, where Lindrell and the redhead were still talking. As we approached, the two of them turned to face us. The redhead gave me a disapproving look before she quickly covered it up.
“Michelle…Julie,” Lindrell said with a grim expression. I could see that she was still a bit upset from the conversation I’d overheard, but she was trying not to show it. “I’d like to introduce you to Shannon. She’s going to be joining our triad as our kaern.”
I felt a cold knot form in my stomach at that news, and from the look on Lindrell’s face, I didn’t think she was happy about that either. I just stared at Shannon, taking the opportunity for a closer look. She was quite pretty, with a splash of freckles across her cheeks and nose, and she looked like she was in her mid to late twenties, though I knew that this didn’t mean much when the Val Kyr were concerned. I also felt a faint sense of pleasure to realize that she was about five foot ten…two inches shorter than me, though it did make her about an inch taller than Julie.
Julie grinned cheerfully and said, “Hi, it’s nice to meet you…”
“It’s nice to meet you as well,” Shannon responded with what appeared to be a sincere smile. However, when she turned her attention back to me, the smile faded, and in a tone of forced politeness, she added, “And you too, Michelle.”
“For now,” Lindrell said, looking at Julie and then me, “I’ll continue training you individually, though Shannon will help. Once you’re both a little more up to speed, we’ll start working on how to work as part of a triad.”
“Of course,” Shannon added in an almost offhand manner, “Triad tactics are all based around working with three people, one of each pillar.” Though she didn’t look at me, this was obviously a reminder that I wasn’t necessary and didn’t belong. Lindrell scowled and gave Shannon an annoyed look but didn’t say anything.
After this, we all got food and sat down at a table together to talk and get to know each other a little better. Shannon seemed fairly friendly with Julie, but as far as I was concerned, she was polite and professional, but nothing more. It was obvious that she was on her best behavior because Lindrell was there, but I had no idea how long that would continue once Lindrell was out of earshot.
When we were finished eating, Lindrell announced that we were going to go straight into the sword training. “Since there are four of us, we’ll split into pairs,” she announced.
Julie hesitated a moment, then said, “I was told that I should practice with a spear…”
“Most notru use spears or staves as their primary weapons,” Lindrell agreed. “You’ll need to become familiar with a sword as well, but for now you can focus on your spear.” She looked to me and said, “Michelle, you’re with me for now.”
A minute later, we spread out across the training room with Lindrell and me on one end while Julie sparred with Shannon on the other. I glanced over to Julie, who was holding a dulled training spear while her opponent was just using a sword. However, I didn’t spare them much attention as Lindrell lunged at me with her sword, which required my full attention to deal with.
This sparring session was a little easier than the first one I had with Lindrell, mostly because she wasn’t bothering with the pop quiz. Instead, she came at me a little more aggressively, hitting me with harder blows and forcing me to work even harder to try keeping up. Fortunately, after my sparring with Nicole and the other jatta yesterday, I had learned to use my val a little more. I could feel the hum of the val through my body, and as I exerted myself, it surged through my muscles. This let me take Lindrell’s blows a little more easily and put more force into my own attacks.
Then Lindrell abruptly demanded, “What’s the easiest way to kill a tarthock?”
“What?” I stared, caught by surprise by her pop quiz.
Before I could gather my thoughts, Lindrell snapped me with the flat of her blade, leaving a nasty bruise on my arm. Or at least it would if I wasn’t able to heal from bruises as quickly as I could now. However, I knew that if I didn’t answer the question quickly, I could expect another one.
“The eye,” I blurted out, remembering the picture she’d shown me of the large and ugly looking daemon. It had a large eye in the middle of the forehead, along with several smaller eyes on the side. “Behind the middle eye, there’s an opening in the skull…”
“Good,” Lindrell said, looking pleased.
Lindrell was satisfied enough that after this, she had us switch sparring partners. She began to spar with Julie while I was put up against Shannon. If Shannon had an opinion on sparring with me, I couldn’t read it on her face.
Sparring with Shannon was different from any of the other people I’d gone against before. Of course, until now, everyone else I’d sparred against had been jatta and a lot stronger than me. Instead of coming at me with a lot of force, she moved faster, seeming to focus more on speed and accuracy than raw strength. That meant it was much more difficult to block her attacks, but when I did, she didn’t knock me back. I was just thankful she was holding back.
“Don’t simply block,” Shannon told me in a professional tone. “Angle your blade like this. You’ll divert the attack away from you and take less of an impact.”
Though Shannon had made it clear to Lindrell that she didn’t like me, she kept giving me advice and tips like that as we sparred. It seemed that regardless of her personal feelings, for now at least, she was completely professional. I could live with that.
Eventually, I heard Lindrell give Julie one of her surprise quizzes, which was quickly followed by a yelp of pain when she hadn’t answered fast enough. Fortunately, Shannon didn’t seem to believe in the quizzes or the painful smacks to drive in a lesson. It was a nice change of pace.
When we shifted opponents again, I found myself facing off against Julie while Shannon and Lindrell stood back, watching the two of us. Julie held her spear out, grinning wickedly as that gave her a much longer reach than I had with my sword. She was able to use that to keep me back, out of range so I couldn’t get close enough to use my sword against her.
“This hardly seems fair,” I grumbled. “I mean, she’s got a lot longer reach with that thing…”
“Most daemons you face will have a longer reach than you,” Lindrell pointed out. “You’ll need to use different tactics than against someone with a sword.”
I might have complained that this would have been easier said than done, but the fact was, Lindrell and Shannon had both gone against Julie and they’d both done more than merely hold their own. I tried to remember how they’d dealt with Julie, though I had been a bit too distracted at the time to pay much attention.
“I’m starting to like this thing,” Julie told me, looking rather smug. “Come and get me…”
“Don’t mind if I do,” I responded, coming at her and moving to the side so as to get in too close for her to use the spear very effectively. I’d seen Shannon pull something similar on her a little earlier. I swung my sword and she pulled her spear into a blocking position, then gasped as she was knocked back.
“Wow, you hit hard,” she told me, looking a little annoyed.
“Just think of this as doing a Mortal Kombat LARP,” I told Julie, who burst out laughing at that.
“In that case, can I pick a new character?” she joked. “Maybe one with a better finishing move…”
“Less chatting, more sparring,” Lindrell called out.
A few seconds later, Shannon added, “Use your essence. In a real fight, you have to use everything at your disposal.”
That advice was obviously meant for Julie since she was notru and they specialized in essence. Julie just grinned evilly, then held one of her hands out. I could feel the val flowing out of her body and into the air in front of her, just a moment before a burst if air hit me and caused me to lose my balance and stagger back. While I was distracted by that, Julie lunged at me with her spear.
I was barely able to block her attack, knocking her spear to the side as I lunged forward. My sword slid down the spear’s shaft, then smacked Julie right in the wrist. She let out a howl of pain, dropping the spear and immediately grabbing her wrist.
“I’m sorry,” I blurted out, horrified that I’d hurt her. “I didn’t mean…”
Lindrell rushed to Julie and took one look at her wrist before calmly saying, “It’s broken.” She said that as though it was no big deal at all.
“It’s not your fault,” Julie told me, though her eyes were tearing up.
“Just a minor training incident,” Lindrell commented, holding out her hand which began to glow. I watched as she channeled her jatta charged val into her hand, the same way she had when she’d saved my life. “These things happen all the time.”
Without another word, Lindrell placed her hand on Julie’s shoulder, and the jatta charged val went into Julie. Since I was paying close attention, I could sense the flow of energy, remembering at the same time exactly what this would do. This would briefly supercharge Julie’s jatta…and as a result…her ability to heal herself.
“It isn’t a bad break,” Lindrell said, giving Julie a reassuring smile. “It should be as good as new in just a few minutes.”
“Thank you,” Julie told her.
“I’m sorry,” I said again, knowing that it had been an accident, but I still felt bad.
“Don’t worry,” Julie joked, sticking her tongue out at me. “Next time it will be my turn to kick your butt.”
“I can hardly wait,” I responded wryly.
Lindrell smiled faintly, then said, “I think we’re done for now. After lunch, you can work at your chore assignments then we’ll do some more training.”
“Oh joy,” I responded with a roll of my eyes. “I love washing dishes…”
“And gardening,” Julie added, as if she didn’t like her own assigned job of working in the gardens. It was definitely better than scrubbing pots.
Shannon wandered off, apparently deciding that she was no longer needed. Lindrell gave me and Julie each a reassuring smile and said, “You’re both learning quickly. It won’t be long before you’re able to go into the field.”
I grinned at the compliment, knowing that she wasn’t really exaggerating by too much. Over the last few days, I’d learned far more about how to use a sword than I ever would have imagined possible, at least in such a short amount of time. Of course, I owed my ability to progress so quickly almost entirely due to the val. Thanks to my val, I didn’t have to work at getting in shape or building the right muscles, and it allowed me to practice for hours on end before I began getting tired. And when you added the fact that I could recover from all the aches and bruises in very short time, it meant that I was ready to go again in no time at all.
I held no illusions that I saw some kind of sword or fighting prodigy. My swift progress was simply due to the fact that the val was able to remove most of the necessary build-up as well as many of the distractions from training, making the whole process much more efficient. Instead of having to worry about getting tired or hurt, I could focus almost entirely on gaining skill and experience.
“Oh, while I’m thinking about it,” I started, giving Lindrell a grateful smile. “Thank you for everything you dropped off in my quarters. It’s nice to have some clothes…”
“Definitely,” Julie agreed. “Thank you.”
“It was my pleasure,” Lindrell responded, looking quite pleased. “I know it isn’t easy to give up everything you know and start a whole new life, so I wanted to make it easier on you two.”
“The wardrobe was especially nice,” I mused, thinking about the intricate carving all over the thing. “I wonder how long it takes to make something like that…”
“A couple weeks for the wardrobe itself,” Lindrell responded proudly. “And a couple months for the carving…”
I stared at Lindrell in surprise. “Wait…you made it?”
“There’s more to me than just being able to swing an axe and kill daemons,” Lindrell told me, looking somewhat amused. “My father used to be a furniture maker, back in the days when all furniture was made by hand. Though my brother was the one who inherited the family business, I’ve always stayed in practice. Working with wood and making furniture is how I like to relax in my down time…” She had a sad look on her face at that, probably because of the reminder about her family, who were most likely long since dead.
“Well, the stuff you gave me is really nice,” Julie assured her while I nodded agreement.
“You two go on,” Lindrell told us with a faint smile. “I’m sure you’re both eager to get something to eat.”
Julie and I agreed, and a minute later we were rushing to the cafeteria where we piled up on all the foods that were available. It always amazed me just how much food was always available, especially when there were no electric tools or appliances to help. Of course, I’d seen the work that went into this first hand, and I’d do my part in just a little while by peeling potatoes and scrubbing pots.
Once Julie and I were sitting down, I apologized again. “I’m sorry about your wrist…”
“It’s okay,” Julie assured me, twisting her wrist around to show me that it was healed. “Good as new. I guess next time, I’ll be more careful about how I’m holding the spear so this doesn’t happen again…”
I was about to respond to that when I ‘felt’ someone coming towards us, the same way I was now able to sense when someone was working with val. When I looked up, I was a little surprised to see that it was Nicole, the brunette I’d been sparring with in the jatta training hall.
“Michelle,” Nicole greeted me with a smile. She glanced to Julie, then back to me, asking, “Do you mind if I sit here?”
“Sure, go ahead,” I responded, feeling just a little confused by her request.
“I’m Nicole,” she introduced herself to Julie.
Julie grinned and told her, “I’m Julie. I take it you two have already met.”
“We’ve sparred,” Nicole said with a grin of her own. Then she looked me in the eyes and added, “And I am looking forward to doing it again the next time you come over to jatta town.”
“I’ll be better the next time,” I promised her, startled to realize that I was actually looking forward to a rematch once I’d improved a bit more.
Nicole just nodded at that, looking pleased. “Good. That will make it more fun.” Then she looked over to Julie before announcing, “You know, I haven’t left Val Halla in a few months… Have any good movies come out recently?”
--------------------
At first glance, the notru training hall looked nearly identical to the jatta one, at least in size and structure. There was a single large room with several smaller rooms off to the side, though one look was enough to show that the notru used their available space a little differently. As with the jatta, there were some fighting rings, but in this case, there were only two. However, the notru were also using their floor space for a large pond, a large sand box, and even a boulder that had a ten foot diameter.
It had been four days since I’d been given a tour of the jatta training hall, now I was being given one of the notru hall. Julie had escorted me inside where I was immediately met by two women, one of whom was a short haired blonde woman named Sharra, who was the notru equivalent of Ragnhild. She was not only the Val Kyr in charge of the notru, but also one of Freya’s three generals.
The other woman who’d met me upon entering was Natalie, who at 5 foot 6, was the shortest Val Kyr I’d seen, as well as the first black one. Natalie was built like a professional gymnast, compact with a lot of lean muscle, and as Julie had proudly announced when introducing her, she was also Julie’s mentor.
“Welcome to the notru hall, Michelle,” Sharra greeted me with a friendly smile. “Though you are not notru, I hope that we may help you learn to master your val.”
“Julie has mentioned you once or twice,” Natalie commented with a wry smile while Julie just blushed brightly.
Sharra nodded faintly, then told me, “That you were willing to sacrifice your life in order to save hers has earned you much goodwill from this hall.” She gestured to Natalie and added, “For today, Natalie will act as your escort.”
Once Sharra turned and walked away, Julie blurted out, “Isn’t this place awesome?”
“It is impressive,” I agreed, deciding not to mention that it had the exact same architecture as the jatta hall.
I looked around again, still a little surprised at receiving such a warm welcome. There were a lot of Val Kyr who kept giving me suspicious or disapproving looks, but admittedly, there seemed to be an increasing number who were willing to at least be friendly.
Nicole was one of the Val Kyr who’d seemed hostile at first but who was starting to become something of a friend. Over the last few days, she’d hung out with Julie and me a few times when we weren’t training, mostly just to talk about the modern world and things that the older Val Kyr didn’t understand. Until Julie and I had arrived, she’d been the youngest Val Kyr, and she was more than happy to be able to talk with people a little closer to her own age.
Natalie started the tour by taking me straight to the pool of water, which was about six inches deep. Without saying a word, she reached into the water, and as she touched it, I felt her releasing val. As her essence mixed with the water, waves formed and pushed away, then a column of water rose up about two feet before suddenly freezing into a column of ice.
“Every Val Kyr generates an amount of essence,” Natalie explained with a faint smile, “but we notru generate much more. We can infuse our essence into the environment and use that to manipulate it.”
“Except for things that are alive,” Julie added, obviously trying to show off something she’d already learned.
Natalie nodded at that. “We can’t control anything with a life force of its own. But things like stone or water…” She touched the column of ice, which immediately returned to liquid and fell back into the pool. “We use these arenas to practice our control.”
Julie reached to the water, putting the palm of her hand on the surface and releasing some essence the same way that Natalie had a moment earlier. Ice crystals formed over the surface of the water and spread out halfway across the pond, forming a thin layer of ice.
I was paying close attention to what Julie and Natalie had done, and after Julie made the ice melt, I asked, “Can I try?”
Natalie just smiled faintly and gestured for me to go ahead. So I reached for the water and tried to duplicate what I saw them doing, pushing my val energy out as essence and mixing it with the water. I spent about ten seconds with my hand in the water before I was able to release any essence at all, and when I did, ice crystals began to form in the water. I immediately pulled my hand back, remembering when Julie had tried to demonstrate that same trick in the baths and had accidentally frozen her hand in ice.
“Interesting,” Natalie commented, giving me a curious look. I didn’t understand until she explained, “Though every Val Kyr generates essence, it can take weeks of using a weapon before it is infused with enough essence to be noticeable. And this…” She gestured to the water. “Anyone not of the notru would have had to work for half an hour to form the ice crystals you just did.”
“Really?” I asked in surprise.
“Try it again,” Natalie instructed me, her eyes gleaming with excitement. “I want to see how much essence you can impart into the water…”
I turned my attention back to the water, feeling nervous and excited at the same time. I was finally learning how to do something with my val, or at least something other than boosting my strength and healing my bruises. As I repeated the exercise with the essence, I was able to feel the water almost as though it was a part of me, though only the area near my hand, no more than a foot away at most. I tried stretching it further but didn’t have enough essence.
Finally, I pulled my hand out of the water, though I did keep hold of some of the water. It was in the palm of my hand, held together in a sphere by my essence so that it looked like a crystal ball. This seemed to be about the limit of what I could do with my essence, but it was still pretty impressive to me. I grinned as I threw it back into the water, though it broke up immediately after leaving my hand.
“You aren’t generating nearly the amount of essence that a notru does,” Natalie said, “but you are generating enough to be noticeable.”
“Awesome,” Julie exclaimed, suddenly giving me a hug. “Isn’t it cool being able to do that?”
“Chill with the puns,” I responded, only to have Julie giggle.
“As you can see,” Natalie said as she gestured to the sand box and the boulder, “we practice with other materials as well. In fact, it was the notru who built most of Val Halla using that technique.”
“It’s pretty cool,” I agreed, only to wince as I realized that I’d inadvertently made the same pun Julie had. Julie grinned and stuck her tongue out at me.
Natalie held up her spear for me to get a better look at, then commented, “You may have noticed that spears are a preferred weapon of the notru.”
I paused to look around the hall, noticing that most of the women present were armed with spears, pikes, or polearms, though a number of them also had daggers and swords on their belts. I knew that Julie was practicing with a spear, and she had said that this was what notru usually used.
“Why is that?” I asked.
Natalie merely smiled and reached out with her spear, touching the tip of it into the water. As she did this, I felt her sending essence into the spear, then channeling it all the way through to the tip, which turned the water into ice.
“Spears, in their various forms, can be quite effective as weapons,” Natalie explained. “But they also allow us to channel our essence more effectively, letting us do such things as taking control of the ground beneath an opponent without having to get within their reach.”
“Got it,” I said, definitely seeing the advantages of that.
After this, we continued the tour, letting me see the various notru training exercises and methods. One thing that especially caught my attention was that there were a couple women in the corner, sculpting stone statues…with their bare hands. They were molding stone as though it was clay, just to practice fine control.
Then we went to the sand box, where two women were sparring, using both their spears and their essence. I watched in amazement as they lunged back and forth, using the sand as a weapon just as much as their spears, often by trying to yank the ground out from beneath each other and manipulate the battlefield.
“Okay, we don’t have a patronus or anything like that,” Julie told me, looking just a little smug, “but this is still really cool.”
“Yeah, it is,” I told her, feeling a little jealous that she’d be able to do that kind of thing once she had a bit more practice. Sure I had a little bit of essence, but not enough to really do anything with.
We watched the sparring for a little longer, then Natalie decided to put me through some spear training along with Julie. Julie was excited and kept sticking her tongue out at me, mostly because she was well ahead of me in this class. Not only had she already been practicing with the spear, but she also had a lot more essence to work with. I didn’t like that I was obviously at the bottom of the class, but I did appreciate the fact that Natalie was trying to teach me anyway.
“Shall we spar?” Natalie finally asked me, which immediately got Julie to giggling.
“This should be fun,” Julie said, giving me a broad grin.
We went into the large stand box, where Natalie proceeded to kick my ass. At first, she just showed me what she could do with a spear, then she began using her essence as well. I’d lunge at her and she’d sweep the ground, sending a wall of sand up into the air between us. Then her entire spear burst into flame and she came at me with that. It was pretty obvious that I was outmatched, and it pissed me off a little that she’d go through so much trouble just to humiliate me. However, I refused give in did my best to beat her, not that it did much good.
When Natalie was finished, Julie blurted out, “She did that to me the first time I sparred with her too… She really likes to show off…”
“I was merely trying to demonstrate exactly what the notru offer to a triad,” Natalie explained, though she was smirking faintly. “I don’t know what your role will be, but you will need to understand what your team is capable of and how you can work with them.”
A few minutes later, I was sparring again, but this time against Julie, who was much closer to my level, though still more experienced with both using a spear and with her essence. She had a new confidence, a kind that I wasn’t used to seeing from her, but it suited her. For the first time, I could suddenly imagine what she’d be in a hundred years. Unfortunately, I still couldn’t picture that for myself.
As Natalie had already demonstrated, and which Julie continued to do, though much less effectively, going against the notru was quite different from facing a jatta. The jatta tended to come straight at me, using attacks that took full advantage of their massive strength, while the notru tended to hold back and work at keeping me off balance, then striking when they had the right opportunity. In video game terms, the jatta were the tanks and warriors while the notru seemed to focus largely on crowd control.
By the time we were finished, Julie was quite pleased with herself, or at least at having had the chance to show off her new skills. “Consider this payback for my wrist,” Julie told me smugly.
“Yeah,” I responded wryly, rubbing my tailbone which had been bruised a bit when she’d hit me with a massive burst of wind that caught me off balance and knocked me on my ass. “I kind of feel like I came to a sword fight armed with a salami…”
“Mmmmm…salami,” Julie said, doing a bad impression of Homer Simpson.
“Yeah, you’re becoming a real badass,” I told Julie, who just grinned at that. I tried not to let her see that I was actually a little jealous since she was doing so well in her pillar and I didn’t even have one. It was nice that they were letting me train with them, and that certainly helped, but it also reminded me that I just didn’t have what it took to be notru or keep up with them.
“I wish I could show everyone at school,” Julie admitted, looking a little sad. “I mean, I’m probably a lot stronger than Buff now, so it would be awesome to see the look on his face when I lifted more than him in the gym…” I chuckled at the mental image, agreeing that it would be fun.
“And I bet Shelly Nelson would be jealous of you too,” I pointed out, thinking about the girl who used to try picking on Julie and wondering how she’d react to seeing just how much Julie had developed in such a short time. That just made Julie’s grin even broader, and I could see the wheels turning in her mind. I was pretty sure that she was trying to figure out of it would be possible to go home for a visit, just so she could show off for Shelly. However, my mood dimmed as I realized that Shelly would now be jealous of me as well.
“You still have a lot to learn,” Natalie reminded Julie, though a moment later, she admitted, “Though you are doing pretty good.”
Natalie and Julie escorted me to the exit, and to my surprise, Sharra came over as well. She stared at me with an odd look, then gave me a gentle smile. “You are welcome back anytime, Michelle. There is much you may learn from the notru.”
“Thank you,” I responded, feeling a bit confused by the mixed reactions I was getting among the Val Kyr…among the other Val Kyr. A lot of them seemed to dislike me on general principal, but Sharra was being surprisingly friendly. She was one of the oldest Val Kyr, so I would have expected her to be bothered by the fact that I was only a Val Kyr because Lindrell had broken several major rules.
“I have something new to show you,” Natalie told Julie, leading her back into the hall while I left.
I felt just a little dazed as I walked through the hall, still feeling like an outsider, but not quite as much. Both the notru and jatta had made me feel welcome in their training halls, when I wasn’t even with either pillar. And from what I’d been told, I’d have a chance to train with the kaern as well. I’d already had a little experience with kaern fighting, thanks to sparring with Shannon, but I was curious to see the inside of their hall.
“Enough with that,” I muttered, deciding that since I was done for the day, I didn’t want to think about my training any more. Instead, I wanted to focus on something much nicer…like a bath. Though I wasn’t nearly as bruised as I would have been after sparring with Lindrell, I was still a bit sore and tired, so the thought of soaking in hot water was definitely appealing.
I had mixed feelings as I arrived at the bath house, which was no surprise since I still hadn’t gotten used to the idea of bathing in front of a bunch of strangers. However, none of them treated it as anything strange and the baths did feel good. So as soon as I arrived, I got undressed then hurried as quickly as I could to an empty pool. I tried to act as though I wasn’t bothered by everyone seeing me naked, though I wasn’t sure how well I succeeded. But once I climbed into the massive tub, I closed my eyes, let out a long sigh, and just savored the hot water.
While I just sat there soaking, I listened to the noise around me, realizing that I could actually make out every conversation that was taking place in the bath house. One woman was talking about a former lover…in enough graphic detail to make me blush. Two other women were whispering sweet nothings to each other, which not only made me blush, but also tempted me to try getting a look at them.
“Daemons are starting to build up outside the walls again,” one Val Kyr told the women she was with. “At the rate they’re building, I think we can expect another siege soon…”
“That will be annoying,” one of her companions responded. I actually recognized the woman speaking as someone I’d met while training with the jatta. “But at least the daemons will be gathered in one place. What I’m concerned about is the number of incursions we’ve been seeing on Earth. You remember the last time we had a spike in daemon incursions…”
“How could I forget?” the first woman responded with a snort. “You don’t think someone is trying to organize the daemonites again, do you?”
However, before I could hear the response, someone else joined them and the topic of conversation changed to a discussion about which decades had the best clothing fashions. I just shook my head at that, finding it amusing that even near immortal Val Kyr would succumb to the stereotype of talking about fashion.
Then another conversation caught my attention as one woman commented, “I don’t understand why Freya is letting that convert stay…”
“Men are brutish, selfish, and lazy,” the woman with her stated as though that was a simple fact. “I refuse to fight alongside one…or with someone who used to be one. After what happened with Estrid, I would have thought Lindrell would know better than to try converting one of THEM into Val Kyr.”
I continued listening to their conversation, hoping that I could get more information on this Estrid person I’d heard mentioned a couple times, but unfortunately, they didn’t provide any information. Instead, they just complained about men in general, and not just the complaints that every woman had. It was clear that these women had nothing but hatred and contempt for men, which made me very uncomfortable while listening to them.
I shouldn’t have been surprised by such militant feminist views, especially since Val Halla was basically a feminist utopia. There were no men and all the women were superhuman immortals, so I would have thought that women like that would be happy. Then again, here I was, a former man who was ‘invading’ their utopia, at least from their perspective. I was just glad that not everyone in Val Halla felt the same way.
Once I’d listened to their venom enough, I turned my attention away from them and just tried to focus on how good the hot water felt on my body. My new body still felt a bit weird to me, but at that moment, I didn’t really mind. In fact, having my breasts sort of bobbing a little in the water was actually sort of pleasant.
I’d been in the bath for nearly twenty minutes when another woman climbed into the same pool I was using, not even going to the other side. Though I was trying hard not to look at the naked woman who sat down a short distance away from me, I couldn’t help but notice that she had a nice body and long brown hair.
“You’re Michelle, right?” she asked.
“Um…yeah,” I responded self-consciously, blushing brightly and sinking a little further into the water.
“I’m Fleur,” she introduced herself pleasantly, surprising me a little by the way she was casually talking to me in the bath, as though it was completely normal. Then again, considering that all the other women seemed to do the same thing, it probably was normal for this place. “I meant to talk to you when you first arrived, but I got called away on a daemon hunt and didn’t return until last night.”
That made me curious and I took another look at the woman, realizing that she looked vaguely familiar, though I couldn’t place where at first. Then it dawned on me where I’d seen her. During my meeting with Freya, Fleur was the woman who’d spoken up on my behalf.
“I remember you,” I blurted out in surprise. “You said you were a convert too…”
“Oui,” Fleur responded with a friendly smile. “There are still a few of us around, though we usually don’t speak of it.” She gestured in the direction of the women who’d been badmouthing men. “There are too many Val Kyr who share those attitudes…”
I squirmed uncomfortably, realizing that she knew I’d been listening in on their conversation. However, Fleur didn’t seem the least bothered by that.
“Why?” I asked. Ever since I’d arrived, I wanted to know why so many Val Kyr didn’t like converts, but there were always so many things going on that I’d never really asked, or at least I hadn’t gotten a straight answer from Lindrell when I did.
Fleur was silent for a moment, looking a little sad as she finally answered, “Because most of the Val Kyr were born in a world very different from the one you know, one where women were often thought of as being inferior…or even property. Some of our sisters were married off without say in the matter, when they were little more than children themselves. Some were raped or forced into life as whores. Then one day, they were chosen as Val Kyr. They suddenly become stronger and more powerful than any of the men in their lives.”
“Damn,” I gasped, not sure what else I could say to something like that. I’d known that life had been pretty rough in the past, but I hadn’t really considered what it would have been for the women who lived in those times.
“Many of our sisters…overcompensate for their past lives,” Fleur told me sadly.
I stared at Fleur for a moment, no longer thinking about the fact that she was naked in the water, just six feet away from me. Then I glanced in the direction of the women I’d overheard talking earlier.
“And that’s why they don’t like converts?” I asked.
Fleur hesitated a moment, then responded, “One of the reasons.”
“And Estrid was another?” I asked, earning a faint wince from Fleur. “Who is Estrid? I’ve heard her name a few times, but…”
“Estrid wasn’t the start of the suspicion towards converts,” Fleur explained with a sigh. “Merely the final straw.”
I frowned, waiting for her to continue. I could see the thoughtful look on her face and knew that she was trying to decide how to phrase her answer.
“Once, converts were not so rare,” Fleur told me with a faint smile. “This was long before I became Val Kyr, but I was told that converts were honored for the sacrifice they made in order to join the war against daemons. But even then, becoming a woman was not easy…especially for those who were raised with the belief that women were inferior. Because of this, the only men who were converted were those who had already proven their courage and skill…warriors and soldiers.”
“The legends say that valkyries used to take fallen warriors to Valhalla,” I said, realizing that this was true, though not at all the way the legends suggested.
“Indeed,” Fleur agreed. “There were few warriors who also had a spark of the val sleeping within, but those who did were watched closely. As most would never sacrifice their manhood, the Val Kyr who watched over them waited until the right moment...usually when they were injured in battle. At that moment, they were far more likely to accept the honor of becoming Val Kyr…”
“Because it would save their lives,” I said in understanding. After all, that was exactly what Lindrell had done for me. She’d turned me into Val Kyr in order to save my life.
“This was how I became Val Kyr,” Fleur told me, smiling faintly. “Once, I was a young soldier in the service of France, but during my second battle, I fell to the enemy soldiers. I would have perished had Glinde not revealed herself to defeat the soldiers and convert me.” She paused for a moment before admitting, “At first, I thought she was an angel.”
I nodded at that, trying to imagine what it would have been like. If I hadn’t been saved by Lindrell the way I had, I probably wouldn’t have been able to picture it at all.
“So, what happened?” I asked Fleur.
“About seven hundred years ago,” Fleur explained, “A few centuries before I was born, a small group of converts conspired with some daemonites. I don’t know the details, but they allowed a breach into Val Halla…and a lot of Val Kyr died…including most of the converts.”
I just sat there for a moment, trying to absorb what she’d just told me. If a group of converts had betrayed the Val Kyr, then it was no wonder they were so suspicious of us. Then again, Fleur hadn’t said anything about this Estrid person.
“Afterwards,” Fleur continued, “the converts who remained where looked upon with suspicion and most Val Kyr were hesitant to convert more. Many converts had a difficult time adjusting, something made worse by this attitude. Some held to their old beliefs that women were inferior and came to believe that they were cursed, which only encouraged the ill feelings towards us.” She paused for a moment before adding, “Sadly, Estrid was one of these…”
“I’ve heard some people say that Estrid didn’t have a pillar,” I said quietly, trying to keep my voice steady. “Like me.”
Fleur nodded at that, frowning as she did so. “Estrid was converted a mere decade after myself. She had chosen to become Val Kyr, knowing what it meant, but came to regret the decision. Like you, she had no pillar, and she resented this lack of power even more, feeling that she’d sacrificed her manhood for nothing. Her anger and resentment became a poison to her soul.”
“What happened?” I asked, knowing that it wouldn’t be anything good.
“She murdered five of our sisters,” Fleur stated grimly. “Three of them converts like ourselves. Afterwards, she fled Val Halla, running into the mists where she was probably slaughtered by daemons.”
I didn’t know what I could possibly say to that, though it certainly explained all the hostility towards converted…and why so many were concerned about my not having a pillar. I gulped at that, thinking about my own anger and resentment…and just how easily it would have been to embrace those. If it hadn’t been for Julie and Lindrell, I probably would have.
“Being a woman is no curse,” Fleur told me with a reassuring smile. “It may be difficult to accept at first, but it is well worth doing so. Just remember, convert or not, you are Val Kyr…and you are not alone.”
--------------------
As with nearly every meal in Val Halla, lunch was a virtual feast. I was sitting at a table with Julie and Nicole, with a plate full of food in front of me. Lindrell probably would have been eating with us as well if it wasn’t for the fact that she’d been called in to talk to Freya. I was just thankful that Shannon had her own business to take care of as well, because even though she was always professional towards me, she couldn’t hide her suspicions and dislike.
“I love being Val Kyr,” Julie exclaimed, holding up a pastry. “I can eat all I want and never get fat…”
“Oh yeah,” Nicole agreed with a grin of her own. “That has got to be one of the best parts of being Val Kyr. Before my val was awoken, I used to diet all the time…”
Julie nodded at that, though she had a slightly wistful expression. “I do kind of wish I’d been able to graduate first. And I had planned on college…”
I frowned slightly, remembering how eager Julie had been to go to college and get an education. I’d been so concerned about everything that I’d lost by becoming Val Kyr that I hadn’t really thought much about what she’d given up. Of course, she’d actually had a bit more choice than I had, but it still couldn’t be easy to give up on old dreams and goals, even in exchange for something like being Val Kyr.
“I never had the grades for college,” Nicole admitted, shrugging at that. She was actually about two years older than Julie and I, but compared to most Val Kyr, we were all little more than children still. “After graduation, I ended up working as a barista, and I’d probably still be there if I hadn’t been recruited for this…” She shook her head faintly. “I REALLY miss my MP3 player and texting my friends, but this is still really cool.”
“My Kindle,” I stated. “I just wish I was able to bring that with me, or at least some books…” Of course, there were other things I missed as well, but it was a little safer to talk about my Kindle than it was my lost manhood.
Nicole gave me a sympathetic look, obviously thinking about what I’d given up. Then she looked to Julie and said, “At least you can go back to school later. A lot of Val Kyr do that, going back to school or taking time off for other things. You might not believe it, but Bethany has a masters in engineering and Lindrell has a degree in history.”
“Not surprised,” I said, remembering that Lindrell had been my history teacher before all this began. It just turned out that she was a LOT more qualified to speak on history than I’d ever realized.
“Why would they go back to school?” Julie asked, looking a little confused.
“To keep in touch with the modern world,” a new voice said from behind us. I looked over at Natalie, who’d obviously come for Julie. “I was born in Alabama…in eighteen thirty-two.” Her expression was grim, and since she was a black woman who’d been born in that place and time, I had an idea of what her life must have been like before becoming Val Kyr. “The world has changed a lot since then, and it has changed even more for the older Val Kyr. If we don’t constantly work at it, we’ll be left behind and unable to function outside the walls of Val Halla.”
“I can imagine,” I said, wondering just what the world would be like in a hundred years. It was an odd thing to realize that I might very well be around to see for myself. And what would it be like in five hundred years? In a thousand? I shuddered at the thought.
“We’re going to be training in the fourth courtyard this afternoon,” Natalie told Julie. “We’re going to practice with stone, so be prepared to work.”
“That reminds me,” Nicole said, giving me a curious look. “Are you coming back to jatta town soon?”
“I don’t know,” I responded with a shrug. “This afternoon, I’m going to be in the kaern hall.”
“Wow, I’m kind of jealous,” Nicole said, looking sincere. “I mean, I’ve been curious what the kaern and notru halls look like, but you’re the only one I’ve heard of who gets to go into any of the training halls they want.”
“The advantages of not having a pillar,” I responded wryly.
“I have to admit,” Natalie responded with an amused look. “I’ve always wondered about the other halls too…” She gave me an expectant look, as though waiting for me to describe what the other halls looked like.
“I haven’t seen the kaern hall yet,” I reminded her, though I suspected that it was probably built to the same dimensions as the other two.
“Then you’ll have to tell us what it’s like tonight,” Julie insisted while Nicole nodded agreement.
Once we finished eating, we scattered to head to our different directions. While Julie started for the fourth courtyard and Nicole went to join up with her triad for group training, I began heading towards the building that contained the scales and the training halls.
I was crossing an open courtyard in the middle of Val Halla when I suddenly heard a loud roar, coming from a somewhere outside the walls. I froze at the sound, knowing it was a daemon and feeling a chill of fear as I remembered the daemons I’d previously encountered face to face. Though I wasn’t having nightmares about my experience anymore, I hadn’t forgotten it. I knew that even if I lived to be a thousand, I’d never be able to do that.
After glancing towards my destination, I changed direction and ran towards the wall and the stairs that led to the top of it. A couple minutes later, I was staring down to the barren ground outside the wall, and to the three daemons that were wandering around. I gulped at the sight, remembering the warnings I’d had about there being an occasional siege.
Then as I watched, one of the daemons suddenly let out a yelp of pain and jumped back. An arrow was sticking out of its side and another one appeared in its eye a moment later. Though the daemon was still alive, it turned and ran back into the mist while the other daemons followed close behind.
As soon as the daemons were gone, I looked around for the source of the arrows and it only took me a moment to find it. A woman was standing much further down the wall, holding a bow which was already notched with another arrow. She released the arrow into the mist then turned to look towards me.
“Fleur,” I exclaimed in recognition.
The other convert started walking towards me along the wall, smiling when she got closer. “Michelle,” she greeted me pleasantly. “What are you up to?”
I glanced over the wall towards the daemons had been, then answered, “I was on my way to the kaern training hall when I heard the daemons and came up to take a look.”
“The kaern training hall?” she responded in surprise. “But you aren’t kaern.”
I shrugged at that, feeling self-conscious at the reminder that I didn’t belong to any of the pillars. “Since I don’t have a pillar, they’ve been having me take turns training with each of them.”
Fleur gave me a curious look. “Well, I was just about to head there myself, so I’ll accompany you.”
“You’re kaern?” I asked, already knowing that from the green sash around her waist. And then, there was also her bow. I hadn’t seen any archery equipment at all in either the jatta or notru training halls, but I had noticed some kaern walking around with bows.
“Oui,” Fleur agreed with a smile.
We arrived at the entrance to the kaern training hall a few minutes later, though Shannon was already standing there waiting. “You’re late,” my teammate stated simply.
“I’m afraid that was my fault,” Fleur quickly told her. “I was giving Michelle an archery demonstration.”
Shannon hesitated a moment before saying, “Then I suppose that was an appropriate use of her time.”
As we went inside, we were met by another Val Kyr, a woman I recognized at Ailsa, the third general and head of the kaern pillar. Ailsa had shoulder length auburn hair and was almost petite by Val Kyr standards, standing at 5 foot 7 and having the same kind of tight gymnast build that Natalie did.
Ailsa gave me a flat look and simply said, “I’ve been instructed to allow you within this hall. Do NOT abuse that privilege or it will be revoked.” With that, she turned and walked away.
“She was friendly,” I commented wryly. Fleur smiled faintly at that while Shannon remained impassive.
“If you don’t mind,” Fleur told Shannon, “I’d like to accompany you and Michelle.”
Shannon stared at her with a frown, probably remembering that Fleur was a convert too. After several seconds, she responded, “Very well.”
I actually felt a little relieved at that, since while Shannon might be part of my triad, and she’d always treated me professionally, I still remembered what she’d told Lindrell about me. I was glad to have someone a little more sympathetic to my situation along as well.
Then I looked over the hall, which was built as I’d imagined, with the same physical layout as the two other halls. However, the main room was split lengthwise, with one side being set up with weapons racks and fighting rings. The other side was set up as an archery range, which was currently in use by several Val Kyr.
“As Lindrell has told you,” Shannon told me, “the kaern specialization is in awareness and perception. Our senses are sharp and we are much more aware of our surroundings…and sometimes of distant events. We even have the ability to manipulate the perceptions of those nearby, creating illusions.”
“And you can’t forget our reflexes,” Fleur added pleasantly. She looked at me as she explained, “We sense things around us more thoroughly and process the indications a little more quickly, so we are able to react a little faster than other Val Kyr as well.”
We went over to the fighting rings and watched for several minutes as several women fought with each other using swords. The kaern seemed to prefer swords for close combat, though the archery range made it clear that they also liked using bows. I imagined that with their senses, they could see quite clearly at long distances.
“Our senses are our greatest asset,” Shannon told me, leading me back to one of the side rooms. “We practice fighting in the dark so we can learn to use senses other than sight.”
Shannon gave me a sword, then she closed the door behind us. Fleur stood back, watching with a faint look of amusement as Shannon closed the shutters and removed all light, leaving us in darkness.
“All Val Kyr have stronger physical senses and a greater awareness of their surroundings than normal people,” Shannon said. “Most Val Kyr are quite capable of functioning with very little light at all, yet only the kaern can function without even the slightest trace. Stretch your senses as far as you can…be aware of your surroundings.”
From the tone of Shannon’s voice, I suspected that she didn’t think that I’d be capable of doing that. However, she was going through the motions anyway, treating me the same as if I was a kaern recruit, even though she expected me to fail. I grimaced at that, determined to prove her wrong.
I’d already discovered that my senses were much sharper than before, that I could often feel things around me without even having to look. Since I could sense when someone was using their val energies, I focused on that. I could feel Shannon on the other side of the room, and the more I focused on her, the clearer she became to me.
Shannon slowly moved closer, then she swung her sword at me. I raised my sword and blocked, much to her apparent surprise. We traded sword blows as we began to spar seriously, the same way we did in normal training sessions. However, before long, she began to speed up, moving faster and faster. She began reacting to my moves almost the instant I decided to make them, obviously showing off just what Fleur meant when she’d talked about kaern reflexes. I moved as fast as I could, but I couldn’t quite keep up.
We sparred in the dark for over half an hour before Shannon called an end to it. “Your reflexes are too slow,” she told me. “You need to react faster if you want to be effective.”
“She moves slow for a kaern,” Fleur pointed out, giving me a curious look. “But I think she reacts quickly for anyone but. And she was able to fight in the dark, far better than most who aren’t kaern.”
Shannon gave me a curious look, then nodded. “True.”
“Perhaps we should demonstrate our illusions,” Fleur suggested.
“A good idea,” Shannon agreed, smiling faintly. “This can be extremely useful against daemonites and normal humans, though most deamons are immune.”
“What about Val Kyr?” I asked curiously.
“Most can see through the illusions,” Shannon admitted. “If they think to do so.”
With that, she demonstrated what she was talking about. I could feel her pushing her val energies out towards me, much the way I’d sensed the notru releasing their essence. However, the kaern energies had a slightly different feel than the notru essence, and they flowed through the air without becoming a part of it as the notru did.
Everything around me seemed to blur and shift, and then Shannon suddenly looked like Lindrell. However, that only lasted a second, and as soon as I focused on who she was, everything was back to normal.
“I can see how that would be useful,” I said after a moment.
For the next half hour, Fleur and Shannon had me doing exercises to push out my own kaern energies so I could try doing that trick myself. It was obvious that Shannon expected me to fail, so I worked as hard as I could to prove her wrong. And though I was able to push out a tiny amount of kaern energy, it wasn’t anywhere near enough to pull the illusion trick.
Since I couldn’t manipulate anyone else’s senses, I sat there for several minutes focusing on my own. I let my senses stretch out as I had before and began to pick up bits and pieces of conversation from around the kaern hall. Then I recognized one of the voices and focused on hers just a little more. Jass.
“I can’t believe Ailsa is letting that convert into our hall,” Jass complained to another girl, sounding rather bitter as she did so. “She isn’t kaern…or ANYTHING.”
“What I’m curious about,” the woman she was talking to responded, “is why Lindrell went out to recruit that Julie girl, and ended up coming back with the convert too. After all, Lindrell isn’t even a recruiter. Shannon was the one who was supposed to go on that mission.”
“That’s right,” Jass exclaimed. “Didn’t Shannon say that she was the one who’d scouted Julie’s grandmother and great grandmother to see if they’d make a good Val Kyr? Shannon has been watching that bloodline for over a century, so why did Lindrell get sent instead of her?”
I was startled by what I was hearing and suddenly had a LOT of questions as well. But I was so distracted that I lost the conversation and realized that Shannon and Fleur were talking to me again. I gave them my full attention, trying to hide my embarrassment.
“Many kaern serve as archers,” Shannon told me, “offering ranged support as our special abilities are often less than effective in direct combat. Our senses let us see at a greater distance than any other pillar, so this works well with our abilities.”
“You use a bow?” I asked Shannon, more out of curiosity than surprise. So far, the only weapon I’d seen her using was a sword, and I hadn’t even seen her carrying a bow around.
“Shannon usually works as a scout,” Fleur told me with an amused look. “Or she focuses on causing misdirection and confusion among our enemies.”
Shannon nodded faintly at that, then admitted, “My archery skills are…adequate. However, I haven’t touched a bow in nearly a decade.”
“Then it seems that I am to demonstrate this,” Fleur said, leading us towards a weapons rack which contained a wide variety of archery equipment.
I looked over the selection of bows, noting that there were long bows, recurve bows, and even modern compound bows. I smiled as I took one of those and then tested the draw. The draw felt pretty weak so I tested a few others, finding that all of them seemed to have a pretty light draw. Still, I found one that I thought would work.
“You seem familiar with a bow,” Fleur commented, watching me curiously. “I didn’t think most people knew how to use a bow anymore.”
“My dad taught me,” I told her, getting a curious look from Shannon. “We used to go out bow hunting all the time.” Of course, that was before Dad lost his job and everything went downhill.”
Fleur smiled at me and said, “Then let us test your skills.”
When we went to the area that was set up as an archery range, I found that Jass was already there, practicing with a blow along with the woman I’d overheard her talking to. Jass gave me a dirty look when she noticed me though her companion made a clear point of simply ignoring my presence.
Jass looked to Shannon, smirking faintly as she commented, “Trying to teach her to shoot will just be a waste of time.”
I made an effort of ignoring Jass and focused instead on taking my place and focusing on my target. I notched an arrow, drew the string back, and let the arrow fly. It hit the target, but not anywhere near the bullseye.
Jass let out a sharp laugh. “As I said…”
I didn’t let the bitch get to me since that was the first time I’d ever used that bow. I wasn’t familiar with it yet, so I adjusted the sight and then shot another arrow at the target, getting closer. Then when I readied my third arrow, I decided to try using my new senses, pushing out with my awareness and focusing on the target. The whole target snapped into place with much more clarity than I would have gotten if I’d been using binoculars or a scope, and I could fell the path between myself and the target. I could feel that with the way I had the bow aimed now, I would still be three inches off from the center. I listened to this strange sense and made the proper adjustment. A moment later, the arrow struck dead center.
“A lucky shot,” Jass muttered, giving me a glare before demonstrating her own skill and hitting the bullseye as well.
“Way to go Hawkeye,” I mused with a grin. Then I glanced down at myself and let out a sigh. “Or maybe Katniss would be more appropriate now.” I let out another sigh, thinking that I was going to have to find new role models. But somehow, I didn’t think I’d ever find myself relating to Leia more than Luke or Han.
“Nicely done,” Shannon commented, her expression carefully controlled.
I fired a second shot and got it into the bullseye as well, then a third. Now that I’d gotten a little more familiar with the bow, not to mention this strange new sense I possessed, it was quite easy. But while I was doing this, Jass kept glaring at me and then firing shots of her own, most of which hit the bullseye though one missed by nearly two inches. I smirked faintly at that.
“Impressive,” Fleur told me with a look of amusement. “It takes most new kaern a bit of practice before they’re able to match those results.”
“I’ve been practicing since I was eight,” I admitted, remembering all the time Dad and I had spent out in the back yard, shooting at targets. I really missed those days.
“You may not be kaern,” Fleur said with a smile, “but I think you may have just earned yourself a place as an archer.”
“Perhaps,” Shannon agreed, giving me a thoughtful look. “But how would she fare with a moving target?”
After this, I spent the next two hours practicing with the bow, shooting at various moving targets which were set up on the other end of the range. At first, it took me a couple shots to get the hang of it, but this wasn’t the first time I’d worked with moving targets, and these ones were a little more predictable than a live deer usually was.
The entire time I was shooting, Jass remained in her position, trying to one-up me and demonstrate that she was better. However, unlike Nicole, she wasn’t able to really manage that. For most of the practice, it seemed that we were evenly matched…at least once I’d get a practice shot or two off whenever we shifted things up.
“I think she’s proven herself a capable archer,” Fleur told Shannon when we were finished. “I would be quite happy to have her standing by my side during the next siege.”
Shannon gave me another curious look, perhaps in surprise at discovering that I actually did have something to offer to the Val Kyr. Of course, archers who’d been practicing for centuries like Fleur, would probably still kick my ass, but at least I’d proven that I could hold my own.
“We’re done for now,” Shannon told me. “And since Ailsa hasn’t banned you from the premises yet, I’ll bring you back for further training another time.”
“Thank you,” I told her before I started for the exit.
As I was leaving, Jass went up to Shannon and began talking to her, so I stretched my senses to listen in. “Why did Ailsa let that girl in here?” Jass asked Shannon, obviously upset. “She isn’t kaern…”
“No, she isn’t kaern,” Shannon agreed in an even tone. “But her admittance and training were ordered by Freya.”
“But she’s like Estrid,” Jass pushed angrily. “It’s only a matter of time before she kills someone…”
“Do NOT speak to me of Estrid,” Shannon snapped at her. “Estrid murdered a member of my triad…someone I was close to…so you don’t need to remind me of what she was, especially since those events happened more than two centuries before you were born.”
“I’m sorry,” Jass apologized, actually sounding sincere. “But this convert is a threat and…”
“Whether or not I think Michelle should be Val Kyr,” Shannon responded firmly, “she is part of my triad. And as such, if you insult her…you also insult me. I will hear no more talk against her until such time as she’s proven herself dangerous to the Val Kyr.”
I finished walking out of the kaern hall, filled with mixed emotions. As with the other training halls, I’d proven that I just don’t have enough kaern to do the same kind of tricks that they do, that I just couldn’t measure up to their abilities. But on the other hand, I had proven my skill with a bow and had at least earned Fleur’s respect. If nothing else, I might find my place among the Val Kyr as an archer.
And then there was Shannon, who confused me a great deal. I knew that she didn’t think I should be Val Kyr and she’d made it perfectly clear from her attitude that she didn’t like being on the same triad as me. From what I’d overheard, I now understood some of her reasons as well. But even so, she’d defended me to Jass, so I just didn’t know what to make of my teammate.
--------------------
It was a little uncomfortable to stand perfectly still as a woman I’d never met before silently measured me with a tape measure, acting as though she was trying to fit me for a coffin. But in spite of how awkward the situation felt, I couldn’t help but feeling a little excited as well. After all, this was the next step in my becoming an active duty Val Kyr.
This morning had started the way things often did, with sword lessons and sparring, though after a couple hours, Lindrell had changed things up. The rest of the morning had been spent with lessons on triad combat tactics, which focused largely on what the roles of the triad members were and how they could support each other. And though this had been fascinating, it had also been a clear reminder that I didn’t fit into any of those roles, and as such, seemed to have no real place in the triad. By the time lunch came, I was feeling pretty depressed again, though everything turned around once Lindrell told me what was planned for the afternoon.
After lunch, Julie and I were sent to a section of Val Halla where neither of us had been yet. There was a large building, and at the front there was a blacksmith’s forge where a Val Kyr was taking hammer to anvil and making what was clearly intended to be a sword. The two of us stopped and watched her working the metal for several minutes before going further into the building, seeing another Val Kyr who was working a pottery wheel and one who was doing glass blowing. This entire building was reserved for artisans and craftsmen…craftswomen, containing various tools and workshops, including the one that was claimed by Lindrell for her furniture making. However, there was only one shop that we were interested in at the moment.
I instinctively flinched when Zubell, the woman with the tape measure, suddenly cupped my breasts, though she was completely professional as she did so. Still, Julie burst out laughing from where she was sitting a short distance away. I glared at her, though she responded by sticking out her tongue. Of course, Julie had already gone through this whole thing as well, right before it was my turn.
“I have everything I need for the two of you,” Zubell said, giving each of us a speculative look. “Wait right here…”
As soon as Zubell went into the next room, Julie gave me a grin and said, “This is so exciting…”
“I know what you mean,” I responded with a grin of my own.
Zubell returned a couple minutes later and set a pile of armor pieces on the floor. She separated the pile out into two smaller piles, one of them intended for Julie and one for myself. After all the training that we’d done over the last two weeks, we were finally being given our own armor. I could hardly wait to try it on.
“Since neither of you is jatta,” Zubell told us, “you won’t need the heavier armor. This should allow a good balance between protection, flexibility, and ease of movement.”
With that, Zubell began to help Julie get dressed in her new armor, demonstrating how it went together, adjusting the straps and making sure everything fit. Julie’s new armor was a mixture of leather and finely woven chain mail, and it looked pretty good on her. Once she was fully dressed, Zubell looked her over and seemed satisfied as well.
“Wear this as much as possible over the next week,” Zubell instructed Julie. “You’ll familiarize yourself with wearing armor, and as your essence infuses with it, it will adjust to your body further, becoming both stronger and more comfortable.”
“But I can infuse my essence with it right away,” Julie pointed out, just a little smugly.
“Every notru says the exact same thing,” Zubell pointed out with a scowl. “And while true, quickly infused essence will also fade quickly. Essence you allow to build slowly lasts much longer and will become more personally attuned to you.”
Julie nodded at that, having a thoughtful look on her face. As a notru, she’d been practicing on how to push her essence into other things quickly, so this was probably the first time she’d been told to hold back and go slowly.
While Zubell helped me get dressed in my armor, Julie practiced stretching and moving around in hers. “You know,” she told me with a grin. “I feel like I’m doing a Xena cosplay…”
“Just don’t expect me to be Gabrielle,” I pointed out wryly.
Julie just grinned more broadly. “Why not? You are the blonde one.”
Once my armor was on and fully adjusted, I moved around carefully, surprised at just how light it felt. Then again, I was a lot stronger than I used to be, even if I didn’t look it. I went over to the full length mirror that Zubell had on the wall and looked myself over, amazed at how dangerous I looked. With this armor on, I actually looked like a warrior woman from some video game or book…or like the Val Kyr I now was.
My armor was a little more heavy duty than Julie’s was, with some overlapping metal plates for my torso and back, though it wasn’t as sturdy as Lindrell’s armor either. All in all, it looked pretty awesome and I had no doubt that if I showed up at a fantasy convention in this gear, I’d probably get a lot of compliments.
“Bring your armor back to me if it requires repair,” Zubell told us in a professional tone. “And once you have a decade under your belt, you can talk to me about custom armor if you’re so interested.” With that, she turned her back to us and began cleaning up, making it clear that we were dismissed.
As we walked away, Julie stared down at herself and grinned, much the way she did when she was checking out a cosplay costume that she was particularly proud of. “This is awesome…”
“Definitely,” I agreed, giving her a matching grin. “The only thing we’re missing is some real weapons.”
I grinned for almost the entire walk across Val Halla, back to where we were going to meet up with Lindrell again. At the moment, I was in a very good mood since for perhaps the first time, I actually felt like I belonged…like I’d been accepted as Val Kyr. I just tried not to think of everything I’d left behind in order to earn this chance.
When Julie and I arrived at our usual training spot, I saw Lindrell and Shannon were both already there, dressed up in their armor and looking ready to go. Julie grinned at the sight of them and asked, “How do we look?”
“Like Val Kyr,” Lindrell answered with a faint smile before her expression turned grim. She gave me a look that suddenly made me worried.
“What’s wrong?” I asked suspiciously.
“Our triad has been given orders to go on a training mission,” Lindrell answered with a scowl. “We’re going out with another triad to check on a report of some minor daemons.”
“All right,” Julie exclaimed, nearly jumping with excitement. However, I hadn’t missed the fact that Lindrell didn’t clearly didn’t share her enthusiasm. She put a hand on my shoulder and said, “We’re finally going to go on a mission…”
“Michelle isn’t going,” Shannon stated, making Julie and I both freeze.
Lindrell gave me an apologetic look as she explained, “Michelle, I’ve been ordered to leave you behind…”
“What?” I asked defensively. “Why?”
Shannon looked like she was about to say something but Lindrell gave her a cold look and she shut her mouth. Then Lindrell looked back to me. “I’ve been told that you aren’t to go into the field until you’ve had further training. Unfortunately, while we’re gone, you’ll remain here in Val Halla…training.”
With those words, my good mood crashed through the floor and the confidence I’d been starting to feel over the last few days faded away. I grimaced, clenching my fists in anger and trying to fight back the tears that threatened to come. After all the hard work I’d been putting in to show that I could pull my own weight, it still wasn’t good enough. This was a firm reminder that I was a convert with no pillar…and that I’d never accepted as Val Kyr. I’d lost my body…my dad…everything I knew for nothing.
“I’m sorry,” Lindrell told me in a gentle tone, giving me an apologetic look.
Julie gave me a worried look then abruptly threw her arms around me. “Don’t worry,” she promised me quietly, “Everything will work out… I know it will. You just have to have faith.”
“That’s easy for you to say,” I spat out bitterly, making Julie wince. I bit my tongue before I could say more. I was pissed…and even jealous…but it wasn’t Julie’s fault.
“We’re leaving immediately,” Lindrell said, looking to Shannon and then Julie. Then she stared at me with worried look and something else that I couldn’t quite read. “I’ve been instructed to send you straight to the fifth courtyard as soon as possible.” She reached out and put hand on my shoulder, looking me straight in the eyes, then quietly added, “You have what it takes to be a great Val Kyr. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”
I nodded at that, not trusting myself to actually say anything. I was afraid that if I did, I’d either burst out crying or start yelling, neither of which would help to get me taken seriously. As the three of them started for the door, I finally called out to Julie, “Be careful.”
“You too,” she responded, giving me a worried look.
Shannon hesitated at the door, then said, “Maybe next time, after you’ve completed your remedial training…”
Once everyone was gone, I let out a snarl and punched the wall in anger. My fist cracked the stone where it struck, but my entire hand was immediately filled with pain. I let out a yelp of pain and then grabbed my hand, though I could already feel my val going to work on it. It wouldn’t take long before any injury I’d given myself would be completely healed, as though it had never happened. If only my emotional bruises could heal as quickly as the physical ones.
“It’s not fair,” I muttered bitterly. “After all this…” I looked down at my armor, which just a short time ago had been a clear sign that I’d been accepted as a Val Kyr. Now, it almost seemed like it had been given to me as a joke.
I remained where I was four about ten minutes, long enough to cool down, at least enough so that I was no longer punching or kicking the wall. It was also enough to heal my hand, at least most of the way. My hand was still a little tender, but I knew that even that would fade quickly. That meant I’d probably meant that instead of breaking bones, I’d probably just bruised it pretty good.
Then I finally remembered that I was supposed to go straight to the fifth courtyard for my remedial training, though I certainly wasn’t in the mood for it at the moment. Then again, I was pretty pissed off so maybe being able to swing a sword at someone was just what I needed. With that in mind, I started for the courtyard, wondering who they were going to have teach me this time. With the way my luck was running, it would probably be Jass or one of the other women who hated me on general principle.
The fifth courtyard was probably the smallest courtyard in Val Halla, but it was completely walled in so it was also the most private. There were no rose bushes, ivy climbing the walls, or other plants as decorations, but when I entered the courtyard, I saw that weapons racks had recently been placed against the walls. There was also a woman present, fully armored and wearing a helmet which obscured her features. She was standing in the middle of the courtyard, obviously waiting for me.
“I am Ionne,” she stated as soon as I entered the courtyard. “Take up a weapon and attack me.”
The woman…Ionne held a spear, though it wasn’t like any spear I’d seen before, even in the weapons racks of the notru training hall. This spear had a sharp metal point, not just on one end, but on both. After looking at that spear, I was tempted to grab a spear from the rack so she wouldn’t have the advantage in reach, but I had a lot more practice with a sword than with a spear so I grabbed one of those from the weapons rack instead.
I approached Ionne cautiously, not knowing anything about her, though from the spear, I guessed she was notru. She wasn’t wearing a sash. I took a swing at her and she easily blocked my attack, then swung her spear around and in a swift move, hit my ankle and knocked my foot out from underneath me. I hit the ground hard, and before I could even get up, she lunged at me, nearly impaling me with the tip of her spear.
Though I scrambled back and out of the way, Ionne kept coming. I managed to get back to my feet but had to block her attacks as quickly as I could. Several of her strikes got through my defenses, making me thankful I was wearing armor. But at the same time, the armor was unfamiliar and was slowing me down. I might have been able to do better without it, though I wasn’t willing to find out at the moment.
“Is that all you have?” Ionne asked, sounding almost disappointed. “You’ll have to do better than that.”
I grimaced in anger, feeling sick and tired of all these Val Kyr treating me like I was crap because I’d been born a guy…or because I wasn’t as powerful. I hadn’t asked to become Val Kyr, to give up everything I used to be, but I’d tried my best to look at this as an opportunity and deal with it. But no matter how hard I tried, it never seemed to be enough.
With a grimace of determination, I charged at Ionne again, attacking her as hard as I could. She continued blocking, smacking me with the spear and then swiping at my feet. I was getting better at sensing when she was about to do that though, thanks for my practice with the kaern. I just had to pay attention, let myself sense when she was starting to make a move so I knew what she was about to pull on me. Then when the opportunity presented itself, I swung my sword at her as hard as I could, having learned from my sparring sessions that I was stronger than any of the notru or kaern I’d practiced against. However, she stopped my attack, taking a step back from the impact but not being thrown off like I’d been hoping.
Suddenly, Ionne lashed out with her spear, and as I went to block it, she lunged forward and swept my foot from underneath me, then she continued forward and slammed me to the ground. I scrambled back to my feet, only to have her to it again. This was getting more than a little frustrating.
“Why don’t you stay down?” Ionne asked. “It will be much easier on you…”
I didn’t answer Ionne, at least not with words. Instead, I renewed my attack, though she kept dodging and blocking, reacting so quickly that there was no doubt that she was kaern. Kaern were the only ones who had reflexes that sharp.
“You can’t defeat me,” Ionne stated as though this was a simple fact.
Ionne swung her spear at me, using it more as a staff at the moment. I blocked with my sword, being knocked back by the impact. She was strong, though I was used to sparring against Lindrell and she hit a lot harder.
“Lindrell has been teaching you well,” Ionne, suddenly lunging again hitting me with the spear. This time, if it hadn’t been for my armor, she would have impaled me. “But you still don’t stand a chance.”
“I don’t care,” I responded angrily, sick and tired of everyone wanting me to turn and run away. Or at least, that was what it felt like at times.
Ionne attacked again, and when I tried blocking, the sword was knocked from my hand and sent flying. She swung the spear at me, hitting me in the side, hard enough that it would have broken ribs if not for my armor, then she swept my feet out from beneath me before driving the spear tip right into my chest.
“Stay down,” Ionne commanded.
“No,” I snapped, glaring up at her.
Ionne backed away, letting me return to my feet. Then she suddenly slammed the tip of her spear straight down into the ground. An instant later, there was a flash of lightning, though where it came from I didn’t know. It struck the spear and sent a burst of sparks flying in every direction. Though Ionne didn’t seem to be affected at all, I felt a burning through my body, feeling almost as though I’d just been hit with a taser.
From what I’d been told, nearly every Val Kyr could perform some kind of trick, using some of the essence stored in their weapons to do amazing things. Lindrell cold create frost and ice from her axe, and it appeared that Ionne could turn her spear into a lightning rod. Fortunately, I also knew that this would use up the extra essence, and that for anyone but notru, they’d need to recharge their weapon before they could do use it again.
I scrambled back to my feet, feeling sore and shaken from that attack and wondering just how bad it would have been if she’d actually stuck me with the spear before doing that. I shuddered at the thought, then tried to push it aside. I started back towards my sword, though she threw her spear and it stuck into the ground, right between me and the sword.
“You don’t give up easily,” Ionne said, sounding pleased by that. “Good.” She walked over to a weapon rack and pulled out a large war hammer, one that was like an oversized sledge hammer, though not nearly as large as Lei’s. “Pick a new weapon.”
I took one more look at my lost sword, then went to the weapons rack and looked over the variety of different weapons. Since Ionne obviously intended for me to use something other than the sword, I grabbed a spear. It wasn’t a double sided spear like the one she’d been using, but I hoped the extra reach would help me beat her.
Ionne made no comment about my weapon choice and merely gestured for me to attack. I didn’t need any more invitation than that. I lunged at her, though she used the hammer to knock the spear blade aside. Her weapon was heavier and slower than mine, but she continued blocking, reacting the moment I began making my moves. Yet again, I was certain she was kaern.
Then Ionne swung the large hammer at me and I used the spear to block, though she’d hit with enough force to send me flying back onto my ass. I quickly scrambled back to my feet, a bit surprised at how strong she was. I didn’t think she was jatta, but she was hitting harder than any kaern or notru I’d sparred with.
We continued sparring with hammer and spear, with her getting past my defenses several times, giving me several hard blows that would have broken bones if it wasn’t for my armor. My armor was holding up a lot better than I would have expected, for which I was grateful. I really didn’t want to have to take it back to Zubell for repairs on the same day she’d given it to me.
“Pay attention,” Ionne ordered, holding out her hammer.
Since she’d just warned me to pay attention, I did just that, and I could feel it as she began pouring essence into the hammer. I was surprised at that since only notru could push essence into something so quickly and easily, but Ionne was kaern… Wasn’t she?
Ionne stood there for a moment, still holding her newly infused hammer, then she slammed it into the ground. There was BOOM and the ground shattered and exploded, sending a shockwave of shattered stone in my direction. Since I was paying attention, I saw the wave coming in time to leap to the side and avoid it.
I stared at Ionne…and her hammer, wondering how she’d done that. Was she kaern or notru? I’d been certain she was kaern, but she’d just pulled out essence and used it as a weapon like the notru. Then again, she hadn’t infused her essence into either the air or the ground…only into her weapon. She’d used the same kind of weapon trick that any Val Kyr could perform, though she’d charged the weapon much more quickly.
In spite of the fact that I was worried about what she was going to pull on me next, I was also excited. That trick she’d just pulled… I was sure I could do it. After all, when I’d been training with the notru, I’d been able to generate enough essence to do a few small things…maybe even enough to charge a weapon.
With that, I pushed my own essence into the spear I was holding and I felt it charge up. It was now stronger and tougher, with the tip being even sharper and more effective. However, I pushed in even more essence, all that I could spare. The whole spear was infused with essence, more than it needed to merely be a spear.
Ionne made no move to attack me while I was doing this. Instead, she stood back, watching me expectantly…waiting for me. It took me a moment to realize that she wanted me to copy her move. She wanted me to do the same thing she had.
“I can do this,” I muttered, focusing on my spear and the extra essence it contained. I wasn’t sure how to make full use out of it, but even as I thought that, the entire spear burst into flame. It didn’t burn my hands, though I wasn’t sure I wanted to risk holding it long enough to give it a chance.
Still, I didn’t want to waste this opportunity, so I charged at Ionne and tried to hit her with the spear. She leapt back so I drove the tip of my spear into the ground at her feet. Suddenly, all the flame rushed right out of the spear and onto the ground, where it continued to burn like a puddle of napalm.
“Holy shit,” I blurted out in surprise.
“An interesting manifestation of your essence,” Ionne commented, sounding amused. “Now switch weapons.”
Ionne casually tossed her hammer aside and went to the weapon rack, pulling out a broadsword. I followed her lead, dropping the spear and going to pick out an axe. Then we went at it again.
It was strange to spar with a weapon that I’d never used before, and one I wasn’t comfortable with. Ionne obviously held back because of that, but she still got past my defenses to hit me numerous times.
I didn’t have enough essence to charge my new weapon up the way I had my spear, so we sparred in a fairly normal fashion for about twenty minutes, until Ionne decided to step things up again. She charged her sword with essence and it suddenly burned with a glowing green aura, one which made me wary. Fortunately, by then, I was able to pull out enough essence again to charge up my axe. Once I did, a thin layer of frost formed over the blade, much like when Lindrell used her ability.
“Good,” Ionne said, right before she swung her sword right at my head. I brought the axe up to block, and to my surprise, she cut right through it. Her blade barely missed actually hitting me, but that was obviously due to her control rather than my defense. Since my axe was destroyed, she just casually tossed her sword to the side.
I expected Ionne to tell me to pick a new weapon, but instead, she just punched me. Her fist connected with my jaw and I was knocked back, feeling almost as though I’d been punched by Buff…before my Val Kyr augmentation. Ionne didn’t say a word and just came at me, throwing another punch.
“I don’t think so,” I said, blocking her punch, which seemed to surprise her. I just grinned, suddenly feeling a little more confident in my chances. I’d never taken a martial arts class in my life, but my dad had taught me how to fight.
Fighting Ionne unarmed was different than fighting her with a weapon. Since we were both wearing armor, our punches and kicks couldn’t actually hurt each other, with one exception. I didn’t have a helmet, so any of her punches to my face still hurt, but she was wearing a helmet so I was unable to return the favor. Still, for about five minutes, we traded punches and kicks until she suddenly swept around and kicked me in the stomach hard enough to send me flying back to where I landed on my back.
Ionne came and stood over me, but she made no move to kick me or further attack like I might have expected. Instead, she reached down, offering a hand to help me up. After hesitating for a second, I accepted it.
“You do not surrender in the face of a superior foe,” Ionne stated, sounding pleased. “You’ve shown that you can learn quickly and be flexible when the situation changes. I’m pleased to see that I won’t be wasting my time with you.”
I winced at that, then said, “I imagine you’re probably not happy having to give me remedial training.”
“Remedial training?” Ionne asked, sounding surprised. “Is that what you think this is?” Then before I could answer, she stated, “I’m not here to provide any remedial training. I’m here as your mentor.”
With that, Ionne removed her helmet and shook her long silvery white hair free. Then she stared at me with frost blue eyes that seemed to look straight through me, making me suddenly feel as though I was frozen in place. All I could do was stare back in recognition…and shock at the realization that the person I’d just spent the last couple hours sparring with was none other than Freya.
--------------------
As I’d recently come to appreciate, one of the greatest joys in life was being able to take a steaming hot bath after a strenuous day. And after the emotional roller coaster that this day had been, I needed this relaxing soak more than ever before. However, even after soaking for half an hour, I was still feeling stunned and confused by the revelation that Ionne…the woman I’d sparred against for several hours…who’d announced that she was my new mentor…was actually Freya, leader of the Val Kyr.
When Ionne…Freya had revealed her identity to me little more than an hour ago, I’d immediately been filled with questions. However, I’d also been too stunned to put any of them into words at that moment. After all, I’d just gone from being on the verge of being kicked out of the Val Kyr to suddenly being taught by Freya herself, all without warning. Fortunately, Freya had told me to take a bath and get cleaned up, saying that we would talk more over dinner. In her quarters.
It said something for my state of mind that I was so distracted by thoughts of what was going on that I barely even noticed that there were two other women sharing the same bath pool as me. Neither of them was very talkative though, and like me, they seemed content to just enjoy a long bath in peace.
Once I was finished with my bath, I climbed out of the water and grabbed a large fluffy robe from where it was hanging on the nearby wall. Other women were wandering around completely naked, seeming unconcerned about it as well. And though I was starting to loosen up a bit about bathing in public this way, I still had a long way to go compared to them.
I went to my quarters were I finished drying off, brushed my hair, and then went about getting dressed. I wasn’t sure what the appropriate outfit would be for meeting with Freya in private, but I didn’t really have many options, so that simplified the choice a great deal. I put on a clean training outfit and decided that if she’d wanted me to wear armor or something else, she should have mentioned it.
Then as I looked myself over in the mirror, hoping I’d make a good impression, I mused, “I wonder if Lindrell knew she was sending me to spar against Freya…” Unfortunately, I’d have to wait until she got back before I could ask her. I also wanted to talk to Julie about this, but that would have to wait just as long. I couldn’t even talk to Nicole, who would have been my third choice, because she was part of the other triad that went off on the training mission with them.
I couldn’t believe how nervous I was about my upcoming meeting with Freya, which made me feel like I was being called into the principal’s office. I definitely had a lot of questions though, especially about why she’d set up that sparring session this afternoon…and why she’d called herself my mentor. Freya was the leader of the Val Kyr, which meant she was probably far too busy to spend time training someone who couldn’t even make it into any of the pillars.
“She was trying to impale me with a spear earlier,” I reminded myself with a chuckle. “I’m sure that having dinner with her can’t be any worse than that.
Freya, as I’d learned, had two sets of quarters. There were her official offices, which were in the same building as the audience chamber where I’d first seen her, and then there were her personal quarters, which were approximately three stories above my own. I went upstairs, to the hallway which she shared only with her three generals, and then I nervously stood in front of her door for a moment. It was a beautiful door, solid wood and covered with intricate carvings of scenes from Norse mythology. I was so caught up in looking at the door that I almost forgot I hadn’t knocked.
Instead of some kind of servant, which was what I was expecting, Freya answered the door herself. To my surprise, she was dressed in casual clothes, or at least I assumed they were casual clothes. The outfit she was wearing was in the same style and material as the training outfit I had on, except hers was dark blue with silvery white trim over much of it.
“Come in, Michelle,” Freya said, almost pleasantly.
I stepped into her quarters, which were larger than my own, but not nearly as large as I’d been expecting. Freya’s quarters were only four or five times the size of my own, though I noted that she also seemed to have a balcony space as well. However, the space she did have was so full that it was on the verge of being cluttered.
A full weapons rack was set up against one wall, though at least half a dozen other weapons were hanging on the wall, including the double sided spear that she’d used against me earlier today. Two suits of armor were set up against the wall beside the weapons rack, the fancy one she’d worn the first time I saw her, and the much simpler one that she’d worn today. However, weapons and armor were far from her only decorations. There were several overflowing bookshelves, not to mention various paintings, photos, and random seeming items. I guessed that being a virtual immortal, Freya had probably been collecting personal items for a very long time.
When I turned my attention back to Freya, she was watching me with a careful expression. “Your outfit is incomplete,” she stated. “Stand still.”
With that, Freya bent down and began to tie something around my waist. I was surprised to see that it was a sash…a white sash that matched the one she herself was wearing.
“That is more appropriate,” Freya said with a faint smile.
I carefully touched the sash at my waist, then looked to hers again before asking, “What does the white mean?”
“It means we are atra,” Freya answered with a clear note of pride. “It means we are of the center…of all pillars yet none.”
I hesitated a moment, then admitted, “I don’t understand…”
“Of course,” Freya responded with a faint sigh. “It has been so long that we have had an active center that few remember what it means…” She gestured to the table that sat in the middle of her room, and which was currently covered with trays of food. “I will explain as we eat.”
There was enough food on the table for six people to stuff themselves with, which meant that the two of us would probably be able to eat it all and still have room for dessert. There was even booze at the table, though I was pretty sure that Freya wasn’t attempting to get me drunk. For one thing, it would take a lot more than that to get two Val Kyr drunk.
“Um…Freya,” I started awkwardly, though she immediately cut me off.
“Freya is my title,” she said, looking faintly amused. “Five other women have held the title before me, including the goddess who formed our order. When we are serving as student and mentor, I would prefer you to call me by my name…Ionne.”
“Ionne,” I repeated, remembering that was what she’d introduced herself as in the courtyard. “So that really is your name…”
“Yes, it is,” Freya…Ionne agreed before turning her attention to the food.
I sat down and started to eat, trying to be patient. After a few minutes, Ionne started, “Every Val Kyr has approximately the same amount of Val. For most, when their val awakens, the largest portion of their val automatically flows to one of the three pillars.”
“For most,” I said, having caught that distinction. Lindrell had told me that this was true for every Val Kyr, not most.
“There are exceptions,” Ionne explained patiently. “On rare occasions, the val spreads evenly among the pillars. Those of us who are of the center do not have enough val in any one pillar to give us its full power, but what we lack in focused power, we make up for with versatility.”
“Jack of all trades,” I said in sudden understanding. “Master of none.”
“As you say,” Ionne agreed. “Though we are not as strong as jatta…and cannot share our vitality with others, we are stronger than any notru or kaern. Our senses and awareness are nearly sharp as any kaern, though we lack the ability to influence the senses of others. And our essence…”
“We don’t create as much as the notru,” I finished for her, remembering my training in their hall. “But we still generate more than the others…” Freya nodded faintly at that. “So basically, we’re second strongest in every pillar…”
“Correct,” Ionne responded, looking amused. “And because of this, we also have enough strength in each pillar that we can…combine them in ways no single pillar can.”
I ate a little as I considered what she told me, feeling excited and confused at the same time. On one hand, it was an incredible relief to finally have an explanation about why I didn’t have a pillar, especially one that didn’t come down to my just being a loser. But on the other hand, now I had a lot more questions than before and I wasn’t even sure where to start.
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?” I demanded bitterly, thinking about how much it hurt to see I didn’t have a pillar…to have everyone acting as though this meant I was some kind of failure. I glared at Ionne as though it was her fault. She’d obviously known that my lack of having a pillar really meant that I was a center, but she hadn’t said a thing. She hadn’t told me and hadn’t corrected everyone else about it either. “Why didn’t anyone know I was a center?”
While I stared at Ionne, waiting for an explanation, it suddenly dawned on me that I was no longer as intimidated by her. Sure, she was basically the queen of the Val Kyr, but it was hard to be intimidated by someone I was eating a casual dinner with. But then, I realized that this was the entire point of her inviting me to her private quarters for dinner, as well as for having me call her Ionne instead of Freya. She didn’t want me to be intimidated by her.
“Those of the center have always been rare,” Ionne finally said, giving me a steady look that I couldn’t quite read. “Even at our greatest, there have never been more than a handful of us at any one time. But what few of us there were have always been greatly valued. At one time, all of the most powerful triads had a fourth…a center. Our roles are less defined than those of the pillars as we focus on versatility, adding our strength wherever it is most needed.”
“I guess that makes sense,” I responded, feeling relieved and excited as I considered that there actually was a place for me on my triad, that I wasn’t just an unnecessary extra. However, that didn’t answer the question as to why no one had told me until now, or why Ionne had sent my triad out without me.
“I do not know if you have been told of this yet,” Ionne told me with a grim expression, “but seven hundred years ago, we were betrayed from within, and at the end of the battle, the traitors were left slain…along with many loyal Val Kyr and half the atra.” She went silent for a moment, staring at her food though she didn’t eat. Instead, she drank from a cup of mead, then commented, “Much of our order was broken that day, and even now, we have not fully recovered.”
I thought about what Fleur had told me, about how a lot of the Val Kyr became suspicious of converts after this. Even after seven hundred years, that hadn’t gone away completely, which was no surprise since long lives came with long memories.
“Only three atra survived that day,” Ionne continued with a faint scowl. “Over the next two centuries, the other two perished in battle. One new atra was awoken during that time, but she too was killed. The last atra in active service was slain in battle five hundred years ago, so I alone remained of the center…until now.” Ionne paused again, then gave a forced smile as she admitted, “Most Val Kyr have forgotten the atra and the role we once served.”
For a minute, I just stared at Ionne, my dinner nearly forgotten as I absorbed everything she’d told me. If no one had seen an atra in that long, then it was no wonder no one recognized what it meant when the scales showed me as not having a pillar. It also meant that out of all the Val Kyr, Ionne was the only one who could possibly be my mentor.
“What about Estrid?” I asked, suddenly remembering the other convert who’d lacked a pillar. She was conspicuously absent from Ionne’s story.
“Estrid would have been atra,” Ionne agreed sadly. She scowled deeply before continuing, “She never should have been converted. She’d agreed to become Val Kyr, knowing what it would mean, but she did not…adjust well. She became angry and combative, complaining that she’d been cursed for the sin of worshipping a false god…” Ionne snorted dismissively at that. “I would have been Estrid’s mentor, had she been willing to listen and learn. Because of that, she never learned what it meant to be of the center.”
Ionne sat there with a sad expression on her face, one which told me that she took Ionne’s fate personally. In a way, I could sort of understand. After all, Ionne had been the only atra among the Val Kyr, and at that point, she would have been alone for two hundred years. I imagined that Estrid’s failure must have been quite a missed opportunity for her, and it was possible that she felt she’d failed as a mentor.
“I owe you an apology,” Ionne abruptly said, staring at me with a steady look. “I know the…difficulties you had, thinking that you belonged to no pillar…facing contempt from some of our sisters.”
I stared at Ionne, surprised at the apology. She was the queen of the Val Kyr, and she was apologizing to me. Of course, I knew I deserved an apology, I just hadn’t expected to get one.
“Then why didn’t you say anything?” I asked, fighting to keep my voice calm when I really wanted to yell at her.
“Because you needed to prove yourself to our sisters,” Ionne stated calmly. “And because I needed to see what you are made of. I needed to see if you would surrender in the face of adversity…or if you would work to earn your place. I needed to see how willing you were to adapt.”
“It was a test,” I said in understanding, feeling a surge of anger and frustration.
Ionne could have made things easier on me with little more than a simple explanation, yet she’d kept quiet just to see what I’d do. I bit my tongue to keep from saying something I shouldn’t. Ionne might not be quite as intimidating as she’d been before I sat down to dinner with her, but I still remembered who she was and that she could make things very hard on me if she wanted. Even harder than they already were.
“I will not waste my time with someone who is incapable of learning,” Ionne told me, clearly referring to Estrid. “However, I believe that the time I spend training you will be time well spent. Lindrell does not know you are of the center, yet she is still quite confident that you will make for a valuable addition to the Val Kyr. After watching you, I agree with her assessment.”
I blinked at that, stunned by the unexpected compliments. It was also rather nice to know that Lindrell hadn’t been intentionally keeping me in the dark about the whole atra thing, and that she’d still had faith in me anyway.
“And as for the reason I held you back from the training mission with your triad,” Ionne started, obviously guessing one of the other questions that was on my mind. “I did this because you were not yet ready…”
“But…,” I began to protest, offended by her statement since I’d been a Val Kyr just as long as Julie, and there hadn’t been any problems with Julie going.
“Training for the center is not as simple as for the pillars,” Ionne told me in a patient tone. She gave me a steady look, one that clearly stated that she knew exactly what she was doing, and I wilted a little in my seat. “For most Val Kyr, they know where their strength and abilities lay and can focus on those. But for those of the center, we must train in all pillars. We must understand what each pillar is capable of in order to build the foundation to use our own gifts.”
“That’s why you’ve been having me go to each of the training halls,” I said in understanding.
Ionne smiled faintly at that and took a bite of her own dinner. Once she was finished swallowing, she explained, “We atra have no training hall of our own. Traditionally, as we are of all pillars yet none, we have always been free to train in any of the halls.” She paused at that, giving me a thoughtful look before continuing. “I have left your initial training in the hands of Lindrell and the pillars. However, as today has confirmed for me, you have developed enough of a foundation that we can begin your training as a center.”
I took a drink of my mead, not exactly enjoying the flavor but making a point to drink it since Ionne was. When I thought about starting my real training, or at least my training as an atra…a center…I felt a surge of excitement. It was almost enough to make me forget that I was actually upset at Ionne for the way she’d left me in the dark for so long.
I couldn’t wait to actually start learning some new tricks, the kind of things that everyone else could do…or more specifically…that only the atra could do. Then again, Ionne had already started doing that earlier today. A faint smile threatened to form as I thought about the way I’d been able to charge up my weapons with essence. Being able to do that had really made me feel like I was really Val Kyr, and I wanted more.
“And we’re the only atra?” I asked Ionne, though she’d already said as much a few minutes earlier. She merely nodded at that.
Though I didn’t know exactly how many Val Kyr there were, I did know that there were less than two hundred. And out of all of those, only two of us were atra. It was no wonder we didn’t have a training hall of our own. What would the point be of building an entire training hall just for two people? In a way, it was strange to realize that even though I did have a place among the Val Kyr, I was still a bit of an outsider. Then again, Ionne had been the only one for a very long time so I could only imagine what that had been like for her.
“Why aren’t there more?” I asked her quietly. “You said there used to be more atra…”
“Have you not guessed?” she asked me, looking faintly amused.
I stared at her for a moment, trying to think of what could have changed between then and now. Then I realized what it was and let out a faint gasp of surprise. Ionne nodded.
“When one first becomes Val Kyr,” Ionne explained in a calm tone, “their newly awoken val flows towards one of the three pillars. However, as you now know, there are exceptions to this. Sometimes…one out of every five times…when one is being converted, their val balances between the pillars and they become atra instead.”
My eyes widened as I realized what that meant. “You’re…”
“A convert,” Ionne agreed with a wry smile. “As were all atra, though very few Val Kyr remain who remember this.” There was a sad tone in her voice as she finished saying that.
After this, the rest of dinner was more subdued as there were no more major revelations. Instead, we continued eating while Ionne told me a little more about the past, back when the atra were a valued part of the Val Kyr. I listened in fascination, feeling hopeful about my own future.
When we were finished with both dinner and the conversation, I left Ionne’s quarters with a smile on my face. Sure, I was still bothered by the fact that she’d left me in the dark for so long, but after that talk I definitely felt a lot better about my place with the Val Kyr.
--------------------
I looked myself over in the mirror, admiring how well my armor fit me. I looked like a stranger, both beautiful and dangerous at the same time. Even after being in my new body for a couple weeks, it still caught me by surprise whenever I saw my own reflection, and the armor only made it seem even more surreal.
“Welcome to my life,” I muttered. “Surreal enough to be a Tim Burton movie.” Then I smiled faintly and mused, “But somehow, I don’t think Johnny Depp will be cast in my role.”
With that, I checked the straps on my armor one more time, making sure everything was put together correctly. This was the first time that I’d put the armor on by myself, so it was a good thing that I’d paid close attention to what Zubell had shown me yesterday. Once I was certain that the armor was indeed on correctly, added the final touch…the white sash Ionne had given me last night. Now I looked like a proper center…or at least I hoped I did.
As I left my quarters, I spared a glance towards the door of Julie’s quarters and frowned slightly. I felt a stirring of jealousy over the fact that she was still gone on her first mission while I’d been left behind, but I quashed that emotion with the reminder of why I’d been left behind. Sure, Julie might be off on a mission, but I was getting lessons from Freya herself. That was nothing to sneeze at. In fact, I was pretty sure that when Julie heard, she’d be jealous of me for a change.
For a pleasant change of pace, I actually felt rather proud of myself as I went to the cafeteria for breakfast. Other Val Kyr were starting to gather and I knew that I’d arrived just in time. If I’d waited much longer, the wait for food may have gotten a bit too long for my liking.
Hilde came out of the kitchen along with two of her workers, all three of whom were carrying trays of food that they set out on the large table. Then Hilde stopped, her eyes going straight to the sash on my waist. “About damn time,” she said before she turned and went back into the kitchen.
Other than Hilde, only two other women seemed to notice my sash, though I suspected that Hilde’s reaction was the thing that had drawn their attention to it. One notru who I only vaguely recognized commented, “A white sash must mean she’s a blank slate…that she doesn’t have a pillar.” However, her companion, a kaern I’d never seen before, corrected her. “No. Freya wears a white sash as a symbol of her office, so I suspect our young convert is going to be in serious trouble once Freya learns of this.”
Since I was eavesdropping on their conversation, I didn’t bother to correct them. Instead, I took my food and went looking for a place to sit. But to my pleasant surprise, a familiar Val Kyr was waving for me to join her and her companions. I didn’t hesitate before going to the table where Lei was sitting with Bethany and another jatta I’d seen around a few times.
“Sit with us,” Lei invited me with a smile.
“Lindrell would never forgive us if we treated you poorly in her absence,” Bethany added with a grin of her own, gesturing towards an empty seat.
“Thanks,” I responded, happy at the invitation since it meant that even without Julie and Lindrell, I was still making other friends among the Val Kyr.
“You remember Anya?” Lei asked, gesturing to their other companion.
“We haven’t really been introduced yet,” I responded, holding my hand out. “I’m Michelle…”
“It is nice to meet you,” Anya told me with an expression that was cool yet polite. When I shook her hand, I didn’t get a sense of hostility, but more of a hesitancy. I suspected that she was taking the attitude of ‘wait and see’ before deciding whether to like me or dislike me. I could accept that.
“Since your traid as away for the time being,” Bethany said, giving me a faintly sympathetic look, “why don’t you come to our hall for some training this morning?”
“No need to let your training slack just because Lindrell is gone,” Lei agreed.
“Thank you,” I told them with a grin, “but I’m supposed to spend the day training with my mentor.”
“Your mentor?” Lei responded, giving me a look of surprise. “Who did they give you as a mentor?”
I hesitated for a moment, wondering what to tell her. If I told them that Freya was my mentor, they’d probably think that I was either bragging or lying. And then there was the fact that Freya had been keeping the fact that I was a center pretty quiet so far, so I didn’t know if she’d want me talking about it or not. I finally settled for saying, “She told me to call her Ionne.”
“I don’t know any Ionne,” Lei responded, giving me a curious look.
“I haven’t heard of any Val Kyr named Ionne,” Anya stated, her expression holding a clear note of suspicion.
“That is no surprise,” a new voice said from the side.
I looked over, surprised to see that it was Sharra who was standing there with a plate of food in her hands, obviously having overheard us as she was walking past. I’d seen the three generals eating in the cafeteria, and occasionally even Freya, but I hadn’t noticed them being especially talkative with anyone except each other and some of the other elder Val Kyr.
Sharra smiled faintly as she announced, “Ionne serves the Val Kyr in a special capacity and has not been a front line combatant for over eight hundred years.” Then she paused to give me a curious look, seeming somewhat amused at the same time. “She is the only one qualified to help you master your rare gifts.”
“What do you mean, rare gifts?” Bethany asked Sharra curiously.
Sharra reached out and put a hand on my shoulder, stating, “Michelle is atra…a center. Her val is evenly balanced among the pillars, making her of all pillars yet none. Our last active center fell in battle over five centuries ago, leaving Ionne as the sole remaining atra…until now. I feared that we would never have another, so I am pleased to see myself proven wrong.” She looked me in the eyes again and smiled. “Train hard young center, for we shall need your abilities in the battles ahead.”
“I will,” I promised, knowing that if Freya was going to train me personally, then I had to give the training everything I had.
Sharra released my shoulder and turned to leave, but before she could take more than two steps, Bethany asked, “Why have I never heard of this Ionne until now?”
“Oh, but you have,” Sharra paused to respond with a chuckle. “Though you know her much better by her title.” And as Sharra continued walking away, she simply added, “Freya.”
With that, everyone nearby suddenly went silent…as did many others throughout the cafeteria. I realized that not only had nearly everyone within hearing distance been listening in, but so had every kaern in the large room. I gulped, suddenly feeling more than a little self-conscious.
“Freya is your mentor?” Bethany demanded of me in surprise.
I nodded awkwardly at that. “Yeah. She kind of surprised me with that yesterday afternoon…”
Bethany, Lei, and Anya all stared at me with looks of amazement. Then Lei chuckled and admitted, “I have to admit, I wouldn’t have wanted someone like Freya to have been my mentor. That would have been too much pressure.”
“Yeah, I kind of get that,” I muttered, fully aware of the fact that a lot of Val Kyr were probably still listening in.
“Good luck with that,” Bethany told me in a tone of voice that indicated she also meant, “Better you than me.”
The rest of breakfast was a little awkward, so I ate as quickly as I could then hurried out to the fifth courtyard where Ionne had said to meet her for practice. This time, I arrived before she did, though I didn’t have to wait long before she appeared. Ionne was wearing the same armor as yesterday, though she was missing the helmet.
Ionne spun around her double edged spear, which seemed to be her preferred weapon, then simply stated, “Pick your weapon.”
I pulled a sword out of a weapons rack and immediately charged it with essence, at least enough to make the weapon a little more effective. I held the rest of my essence back for the moment, knowing that I’d need it before long. Half a minute after this, Ionne and I were going at it much the way we had yesterday, though there was a noticeable difference. She was no longer merely overwhelming me to see if I’d give up or not. This time, she was holding back a little and offering advice, much like Lindrell did during our usual training.
After half an hour of fighting sword against spear, Ionne pulled the lightning rod trick again, this time summoning the lighting while she was swinging the spear at me. I was paying close attention to what she was doing, so I felt the surge of essence from her spear, right as it built up enough to discharge. That gave me all the warning I needed to jump back, where I barely managed to avoid being struck. I felt the static, but at least this time I didn’t feel the boom.
“My turn,” I said, pushing more essence into my sword and watching in amazement as blue flames flickered along the blade.
I was never quite sure what the effect would be when I pushed essence into a new weapon, but Ionne had told me that was normal. Once a Val Kyr attuned to their chosen weapon, they could use the extra essence to release a bonus effect, one that was different for each individual. Of course, the notru didn’t rely on this bonus effect much since they had enough essence to manipulate other things around them in a much more controlled fashion, and as usual, we atra fell in between. We could get a bonus effect like this from nearly any weapon we used, though Ionne told me that we each tended to get specific types of effects for each type of weapon. According to her, any spear she used this power with acted like a lightning rod and any large hammer could be used to send shockwaves through the ground.
“So that’s what a sword does for me,” I said, though I still didn’t know exactly what the blue flames would do.
I leapt at Ionne, who blocked my blade with her spear. Then I tried several more attacks, each of which was blocked. However, when I paused, I noticed that wherever my blade had connected with her spear, a small blue flame remained on the spear where they’d connected. Ionne paused to look at that as well, then ran her hand over one of the small flames before yanking it back.
“An interesting manifestation,” Ionne commented as the flames faded away from both my sword and her spear. “My charged sword can cleave through anything, even enhanced weapons or the hardest of daemon hides. It seems that your blade leaves behind a ghost flame, one which can still harm your foe.”
I grinned at that, already seeing the possibilities. If those little flaming spots on her spear had continued to burn, then that would have made it very difficult for her to continue sparring without burning her own hands.
“Let me guess,” I said, looking towards the weapon racks. “Change weapons?”
Ionne smiled faintly at that as she nodded agreement. “For those of the center, our greatest strength is our versatility. We may have a preferred weapon, but we must be prepared to change weapons and tactics as the need requires.”
I looked over the various weapons on the rack, remembering that yesterday, the spear had caught fire for me and the axe had frosted over. If those weapons did the same thing for me each time I used them, then could shift between fire, ice, or these ghost flames just by changing which weapons I was using. Now that I thought about it, it was obvious why Ionne kept making me change weapons.
“Due to the nature of their gifts,” Ionne explained, “jatta will almost always attempt to solve a problem with a direct application of physical power, Notru will usually focus first on how they can manipulate their surrounds to suit their needs, and kaern will gather information and seek to manipulate the information that others possess. Each of these tactics has great value in the right situation, and our strength is being able to shift between them, to pick the most effective method for solving a problem.”
“I think I understand,” I told her, picking a war hammer from the rack and wondering what that would do for me.
“Ours is a balanced perspective,” Ionne continued, taking a one handed axe as her chosen weapon. “This is invaluable, whether on the field of battle as part of a triad…or serving in another capacity.”
After this, Ionne and I began going at each other again, this time with our new weapons. I quickly found that I really didn’t like the hammer. It wasn’t too heavy for me to use, but it was too bulky and awkward, especially when it came to trying to block anything. However, when I charged the hammer with essence and smashed it onto the ground, I was rewarded with a loud BOOM. It wasn’t the Earth shattering shockwave that Ionne had created yesterday with her hammer, but more of a loud sonic boom that deafened me for a moment and shattered all the nearby windows.
“A very distracting manifestation,” Ionne commented as she glanced towards the nearest window, or at least the now empty frame. “Though perhaps a little too destructive to the windows for such casual testing.”
“I don’t think I like using the hammer anyway,” I admitted.
“It is not my preferred weapon either,” Ionne admitted. “But it is good to practice its use, and to know what it can do for you.”
“It’s definitely a jatta weapon,” I said.
Ionne smiled faintly. “Indeed it is.” She gave me a thoughtful look, then slipped into lecture mode again. “In the hands of a jatta, who can put great strength behind the blow, this can be a very formidable weapon indeed. When sparring against one who is jatta, do not try to match their strength for you can’t. Instead, use your advantages. Be aware so as you can avoid their attacks and slip through any openings. Use your essence to power your weapon so when you do strike, you can do so definitively.”
I winced slightly as I remembered my sparring session in the jatta hall, and how I couldn’t quite measure up to Nicole’s strength, and she was the weakest of the jatta. I could only imagine how nasty it would be if Lei hit me with her hammer…with her full strength.
“When you face a notru,” Ionne continued, “you can’t take control of the environment from them, nor can you match them with essence. But what you can do is remain aware of what they are doing, find the openings, then strike with a strength they cannot match.”
“And with kaern,” I said in understanding. “I can’t beat their reflexes, so I should just come at them with strength and essence?”
“Your own reflexes are nearly a match for theirs,” Ionne said with a nod of agreement. “Enough so that they cannot overwhelm you completely. As atra, we cannot beat any of the pillars in their areas of strength, but we have two other pillars where we exceed them, so we use those.”
“Sort of like rock, paper, scissors,” I thought aloud, earning a blank look from Ionne.
Ionne gave me a faint smile, then told me, “Of course, daemons and daemonites do not have the same strengths and weaknesses as Val Kyr, but the idea is the same. You must be ready to adapt your methods and tactics, striking where they are most vulnerable.”
I nodded my understanding as I went to the weapon rack and switched out my hammer for a double bladed axe, a smaller version of the one Lindrell uses. I had a feeling that this one wouldn’t suit me much better than the hammer had, but I felt that I should at least try it out.
We charged back and forth, using a pair of axes. When I charged mine up, it coated with frost, and whenever I struck Ionne, her weapon, or even the ground with the icy blade, it left a small patch of ice, much like how my sword had left ghost flames. However, I couldn’t maintain the frozen axe for long.
After I’d practiced with axe and spear, Ionne gave me a thoughtful look and announced, “I’ve been told that you are already adept with a bow.”
I nodded at that, then proudly told her, “I used to go bow hunting with my dad.”
“Excellent,” Ionne responded, looking pleased. “Then let us test your skills.”
There were a pair of bows leaning against the wall beside the weapon racks, and though I’d seen them earlier, it hadn’t seemed like a good idea to use them for close range sparring. However, I was more than happy to pick up a bow and quiver while Ionne did the same.
The two of us made our way up to the top of the outside wall, and from there, I looked down into the barren ground and the mist. Half a dozen daemons were wandering around within my view, and I could sense the movement just beyond the wall of mist which told me that more were hidden within. A chill went down my spine.
Then remembered my lessons on daemons, and the fact that some of them could fly. I looked up into the sky, relieved to see no signs of any daemons above us. However, with the thick wall of fog that surrounded Val Halla, there could easily be a dozen flying daemons nearby, flying wide circles around the fortress without my even knowing.
After I was done looking at the sky, I looked around, noticing that there were a couple kaern archers placed along the walls. Obviously, they were present to keep watch for any flying daemons, which made me feel a little better about remaining in Val Halla.
“Normally,” Ionne told as she stared out at the daemons with a grim expression, “your training would progress at a somewhat more leisurely pace. Unfortunately, daemon incursions are increasing, as are the number of daemons surrounding Val Halla. You and Julie must be readied for battle as soon as possible, for I fear that before long, every Val Kyr may be needed.”
I gulped at that, not sure what to say. I’d overheard other Val Kyr talking about how there were more daemons showing up on Earth, and I’d seen the ones wandering around outside Val Halla with my own eyes. I just hadn’t realized that things were getting bad enough to concern Ionne...to concern Freya.
“Lindrell told me of your first encounter with a daemon,” Ionne commented, still staring down at the daemons below us. “I imagine that was quite frightening, especially for someone who probably didn’t believe in their existence at the time.”
“Something like that,” I admitted, shuddering at the memory.
“Then I imagine you may find our target practice to be rewarding,” Ionne said, right before notching an arrow and letting it fly in a swift and graceful motion. The arrow struck a daemon in the head, which seemed to piss it off more than anything.
I grinned at that, then took my own turn, sending an arrow at the same daemon. The daemon moved so I missed my target, much to my annoyance. I was trying to show off my skill, which I couldn’t do if I missed. So I took a deep breath, readied another arrow, then fired my second shot. This time, I hit the daemon in the neck, which seemed to annoy the creature but little more.
“Unfortunately,” Ionne mused, “many daemons have thick hides, so your aim and timing must be perfect in order to hit their vulnerable spots. Of course, there are alternatives…”
With that, she channeled essence into her bow, so when she notched the arrow and drew back, the string began to glow with a golden light, a light which seemed to channel straight into the arrow until the arrow itself appeared to be made of the same golden light. When she released the arrow, it shot through the air like a golden laser, going straight through the daemon’s head without resistance until it hit the ground and vanished. The daemon collapsed to the ground, the body twitching a little but nothing more.
“Wow,” I said, not sure what else I could say to that impressive display.
“I must be careful with such an attack,” Ionne responded with a faint smile. “Anything behind my target would be pierced as well.”
“That could probably be useful too,” I thought aloud, imagining what would happen if there were other daemons behind her target. Ionne merely smiled.
“The bow has never been my preferred weapon,” Ionne admitted. “I prefer to fight my foes face to face. However, there are times when it is the most effective weapon for a situation.”
I nodded at that, but I was more focused on preparing my own shot. I took a deep breath, then pushed essence into the bow until it reached the point where it was completely saturated. There was no visible sign that anything had changed, no glowing string or flareup of flames, though I could still feel the charge. I just had no idea of what it would do this time. Then as I pulled the string back, I felt the charge of essence running down the string, flowing into the arrow much the way Ionne’s had a minute earlier.
When I released the arrow, it flew through the air with a lot more force than any normal bow would have been capable of providing, courtesy of my essence. My arrow struck the side of a hellhound, then all the remaining energy and essence that was stored in the arrow was released in a single burst, creating a large hole in the daemon’s side. I just stared in surprise as the daemon looked more like it had been shot by a cannon than hit with an arrow.
Ionne nodded in approval. “That should prove effective, if used carefully.”
I stared down at the daemon, seeing exactly what she meant. I’d blown a nice sized hole in the daemon’s side, but the daemon was still alive. It was howling and snarling, obviously pissed off and in serious pain. I’d hurt it bad, but I hadn’t killed it. With a grimace of determination, I pulled another arrow out of my quiver notched it on my bow. I didn’t have enough raw essence left to recharge my bow, but I hadn’t used up the full charge on that last shot and was able to fire a second arrow. This one hit the daemon in the neck and blew a nice sized hole in it, one large enough that I nearly severed the head entirely. This time, the daemon collapsed to the ground dead.
“That was a much better shot,” Ionne said with an amused look.
I just grinned, feeling an immense sense of satisfaction after killing that thing. “That was awesome,” I exclaimed, eager to try this again. Then after a few seconds, I asked, “What happens if I charge the arrow with essence instead of the bow?”
“Try it and see,” was her answer. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough essence left to do that.
Ionne and I continued with our target practice, using the daemons as targets. However, this was a little more difficult as most of the daemons had rushed back into the mist after we’d killed two of them. But whenever one ventured out again, we took the opportunity to test our aim. Shooting daemons was much more satisfying than shooting at simple targets, and this was definitely the kind of training I could enjoy.
Once I’d built up enough essence, I was ready to try the experiment with the arrow. I notched the arrow and drew back, then I infused my essence directly into the arrow. However, as I was in the middle of doing this, the arrow suddenly exploded. Shards of the shaft hit my armor and one piece sliced across my cheek.
“What the…?” I started, grabbing my bloody cheek.
“Some things are not sturdy enough to withstand a direct infusion of essence,” Ionne told me with a faint smile, not seeming the least bit bothered by my injury. Then again, my cut would be healed without a trace in just a few minutes.
I just glared at Ionne for a moment, realizing that she’d known this would happen but hadn’t said a thing. Just like she hadn’t said a thing when the scales had shown me as not having a pillar. Val Kyr seemed to be fond of giving painful lessons, which made me wonder if all the Val Kyr were hiding some kind of sadistic streak.
“Admittedly,” Ionne continued in a pleasant tone, “a sturdy arrowhead can hold a small amount of essence, enough to harden the head and improve the armor penetration, though little more. The kaern often keep arrowheads close, charging their essence until they are needed.” She paused to hold up her bow, then added, “But as you have seen, you can channel essence and a manifestation into an arrow indirectly.”
“It would have been nice if you’d told me that before it blew up in my face,” I spat out bitterly, rubbing my cheek and giving Ionne a brief glare. She didn’t seem to notice.
Fortunately, after this we returned to target practice without any more surprise lessons. This only lasted for another half hour before Ionne announced that we were going to take a break, both for lunch and for her to take care of some of her responsibilities as Freya.
“We will continue your lessons in the library,” Ionne told me once we were done. “Be there in three hours.”
When I walked down from the wall a few minutes after that, I was clutching the bow firmly in hand, grinning as I thought about how much fun it was to shoot daemons, especially with the supercharged arrows. I couldn’t wait until Julie and Lindrell got back, because I was really looking forward to showing off some of the tricks I’d learned.
--------------------
Lunch was a more than welcome break from a morning of long and painful training. This morning, Ionne had been too busy with her other responsibilities to train me, so I’d been sent to the jatta training hall instead. And unfortunately for me, since it was now public knowledge that Ionne was my mentor, they’d taken off the kid gloves in order to keep me from getting a swollen head, or at least I assumed that was the reason.
Ionne had told me that when sparring against jatta, the secret was to use my reflexes and the fact that I could charge my weapon with more essence than they could. However, Lei, Bethany, and several other jatta reminded me that this was easier said than done. I might have several abilities that were superior to what they possessed, but each of them was stronger and more durable than I was, and they had a LOT of experience sparring with kaern and notru. If it hadn’t been for my armor, I probably would have broken every bone in my body. As it was, I’d broken my nose, which had already healed, and I’d received a painful lesson in humility.
“You’re getting better,” Bethany told me as she came over and slapped me on the back, giving me a cheerful smile in the process. “You’re getting pretty good at dodging and finding openings…”
“But not good enough,” I responded with a sigh. “I think my bruises have bruises.”
Bethany chuckled at that. “Think of that as motivation to be better the next time.”
“Why does that sound familiar?” I muttered, shaking my head at the standard Val Kyr motivation techniques.
Bethany sat down at the table and began to eat, then a minute later, Lei joined us. The large woman set her massive hammer down beside her chair, making me wince slightly as I saw it. That hammer had been responsible for half the bruises I’d received this morning, along with the broken nose. And as good as my reflexes had become, I couldn’t dodge the explosion she caused when she smashed the hammer into the ground. Fortunately, she’d only been able to use that on me once since she couldn’t recharge her essence nearly as quickly as I could.
“I still can’t believe you actually have Freya as your mentor,” Lei said after a few minutes. “I’ve never heard of her mentoring anyone…” She glanced to Bethany for confirmation since Bethany had been with the Val Kyr for even longer.
“I was wondering about that myself,” a new voice said. I looked over at Fleur as she came over and casually took a seat at our table as well. She gave me a curious look. “I’ve heard the rumors, but I’ve never been one for those.” She gave me an expectant look.
I let out a sigh, suddenly feeling self-conscious and on the spot. I was fully aware of the fact that there was no such thing as a private conversation in the cafeteria and that any and every kaern could be listening in at the moment…just like they had been yesterday at breakfast.
“You’ve probably noticed the white sash,” I told Fleur, earning a nod in response.
“I would assume it was because you belong to no pillar,” Fleur told me, “except that Freya wears a white sash as well. I’ve always assumed the color was merely a badge of her office, signifying that she was neutral and favored no pillar over the others…”
“It means we’re atra,” I told her, feeling awkward for having to explain something like this to women who’d been Val Kyr for centuries. “That our val is spread evenly over all the pillars instead of focused mostly on one.” I gave a wry look as I added, “Ionne…Freya told me that she’d been the last one…until now.”
“I’ve heard of the atra,” Fleur admitted with a thoughtful look. “Though admittedly, I’ve never heard much of them, save that they had faded from existence.”
“That’s about what I heard,” Bethany agreed with a nod. “I’ve heard the name, but I don’t remember hearing many details, and I certainly don’t remember ever hearing that Freya was one.”
“She’s my mentor because she’s the only one who can be,” I pointed out with a sigh.
And though Freya hadn’t actually said so, she’d suggested that once I was experienced, assuming I survived long enough, I’d be the one to train any future atra…if any more ever appeared. At the rate the Val Kyr were recruiting converts, that wasn’t likely to be anytime soon.
“I wonder why it’s been so long since we’ve had an atra,” Lei mused thoughtfully.
I bit my tongue to keep from saying anything, though I was itching to answer her question. It was nice to finally be the one to know something that the experienced Val Kyr didn’t, but I didn’t dare take advantage of that to show off…at least not this time. Somehow, I didn’t think that Ionne would be very happy with me if I told everyone in Val Halla that she was a convert, especially considering the way a lot of women treated us.
Then I considered the fact that Ionne was the one who’d actually banned new converts, and just how hypocritical that order was. Though I hadn’t asked her about it, I had thought about it quite a bit over the last two days. I was pretty sure that she’d done it mostly for political reasons, to convince the Val Kyr that she was doing something about the ‘convert problem’, though I doubted that was the only reason. After all, converts were having it pretty rough at that time period…and after what had happened with Estrid, any new ones would have had it even worse. My guess was that Ionne had tried solving the problem by removing converts from the picture…at least until things cooled off.
While we ate, I explained a little bit more about what it meant to be atra, and I felt rather smug as I did so. I was definitely enjoying the opportunity to be the one in the know, even if I felt a little silly for it at the same time. After all, how could I really be an expert on the subject when I’d only learned all this myself over the last two days? Still, I knew enough to answer most of their questions.
“That does explain a few things about how you fight,” Lei commented.
“Jack of all trades,” I responded with a shrug, “master of none.”
When we finished eating, we all went our separate directions. As I was leaving the cafeteria, I found my way blocked by Jass, who was giving me a cold look. She made no threatening moves towards me, but she was definitely hostile.
“I don’t know why Freya would waste her time with someone like you,” Jass spat out.
“Then why don’t you ask her?” I responded defensively. I was more than a little tired of her attitude.
“You don’t belong here,” Jass insisted. “Sooner or later, you’re going to get good Val Kyr killed. Your kind always do.” And with that, she turned and walked away, not even bothering to look back.
“Bitch,” I muttered, knowing that she she’d hear that if she was actually paying attention.
I shook my head, then continued on my way to the library where I was supposed to meet up with Ionne. I wasn’t sure how long this session was going to last since her schedule was a little busier than Lindrell’s, but I had little doubt that whatever she had in mind, it was going to be educational.
When I arrived at the library, I found that Ionne was already there. She was in the middle of a quiet conversation with Moraigh, and though I could have easily listened in, I avoided doing that in order to be polite. As it was, what little I did hear sounded like they were speaking in some other language, so eavesdropping wouldn’t have done me much good anyway. They finished their conversation a moment later and Moraigh immediately hurried off.
“Today, we will discuss atra tactics within a triad,” Ionne stated, gesturing towards some table and chairs, making her meaning clear.
After we were both sitting down, Moraigh came over and set a large book down in front of Ionne. The librarian stared at me for a moment before saying, “It has been quite some time since our last new atra.” Her voice was quiet and even, giving no real indication as to whether she thought that was a good thing or not. She nodded faintly towards Ionne, then walked away.
“The rest of your triad will also need to be taught to work with a center,” Ionne commented as she opened the book and then began her lecture.
The current lesson was similar to what we’d done yesterday afternoon, which was a LOT less painful than the sparring, but also a bit dry and boring in a lot of places. Still, in spite of the fact that I wanted to close my eyes and take a brief nap, I forced myself to pay attention to what she was saying. I’d already gotten into the habit of doing that during Lindrell’s lectures, but that was largely because I needed to be ready for whenever Lindrell pulled one of her pop quizzes. And if I could stay focused for Lindrell, I could certainly do that for Ionne too.
We had been talking for a little more than half an hour when another Val Kyr came into the library and bowed lightly to Ionne. “Freya,” she stated grimly, “I have urgent news.” Then she paused, her eyes going to me, silently asking the question of whether or not she should continue in front of me.
Ionne’s posture and expression shifted slightly and she went from being Ionne to being Freya. “Tell me,” she ordered.
“We’ve received word from Lindrell and Constance’s triads,” the messenger responded crisply.
I froze at that, suddenly becoming much more interested in this message since it dealt with my own triad. I watched the messenger closely, noting her grim expression and growing even more worried about my friends. Julie, Lindrell, and Nicole were all off on that training mission, along with Shannon…who I wasn’t quite sure whether to count as a friend or not.
“This isn’t a minor incursion with a few lesser daemons as was originally reported,” the messenger told Freya. “It’s a moderate incursion with three confirmed daemonites. They’re requesting immediate reinforcements.” I let out a gasp at that, suddenly feeling even more worried.
“Notify the first three triads on the emergency response list,” Freya told the messenger in a calm and professional tone. “Tell them to prepare for immediate briefing and deployment.”
“As you say,” the messenger responded, giving Freya a light bow before she hurried away.
“I’m afraid our lessons have ended for the day,” my mentor told me, her posture, expression, and tone of voice all saying that she was still in Freya mode.
As Ionne…Freya turned to leave, I frantically blurted out, “Can I go…?”
Freya turned back and fixed me with her frosty blue gaze, making me gulp as I once again remembered why I’d been intimidated by her. Still, I was worried, almost desperately so, and pleaded, “It’s my triad…my friends. I want to help… Please…”
“Very well,” Freya responded after a moment, her expression softening. “You may rejoin your triad.” Then as I let out a sigh of relief, though my heart raced nervously at the same time, she continued, “Go to the armory for some weapons. You’ll need better than a dulled training sword this time.”
“Thank you,” I told her before I raced off to the armory as fast as I could.
There were no guards watching over the armory, nor would it have made much sense for there to be. Every Val Kyr already had at least one personal weapon, and there were countless other weapons scattered across Val Halla as well. No one was the least bit concerned about someone coming in and helping themselves to another weapon or two, especially when these weapons weren’t even charged with essence. Fortunately for me, I didn’t need to spend a couple weeks infusing a weapon before I could really use it.
“Let’s see,” I said, looking over the large selection and trying to decide on what I wanted.
For a moment, I mentally ran over a list of the weapons I’d practiced with against Ionne and the special manifestations that I could unleash with each. When Ionne had talked about being versatile with weapons, she’d almost made it sound like she expected me to go into a fight armed with an entire arsenal, but that was not only impractical but silly. Instead, I just wanted one weapon and settled on a broadsword, mostly because I’d had a lot more practice with the sword than with any other weapon. Except one. After I grabbed a sheath for the sword, I also grabbed a compound bow and a quiver of arrows. The draw for the bow was way too light, but I knew that was just my new strength speaking.
I went to the first courtyard, which was the largest and most open one in Val Halla. This was the main courtyard, the one that most Val Kyr crossed several times a day while moving from one building to another. It was also the place where all the Val Kyr were gathering for the mission. So far, Freya was there, as were two of her three generals and five other women, mostly ones I didn’t know. Some of the gathered Val Kyr gave me curious looks while a couple others seemed more suspicious. Neither of those reactions surprised me anymore.
While Freya briefed the three triad leaders, I stood back and quietly listened in. At the moment, I didn’t really care if eavesdropping was rude or not. I just wanted to know if my friends were all right. Besides, from the expressions of the kaern who were present, I wasn’t the only one listening in.
A few minutes later, the remaining Val Kyr arrived, including Lei. I let out a faint sigh of relief at the sight of her and her large hammer. In spite of the fact that I’d asked for this…begged for it even, I was scared of going into an area with daemons running around. It was comforting to have at least one friendly face coming along.
“Michelle,” Lei greeted me, giving me a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry… We’ll make sure Lindrell and Julie get back here safely.”
I nodded at that, then realized that she wasn’t including me in the ‘we’. She thought I was staying behind while she and the others went out. “Actually,” I told her, trying to hide my nervousness, “I’m coming too.” I held up my bow.
Lei gave me a look of surprise before cautiously saying, “I’m sorry, but I don’t think you’re going to be allowed…”
“Freya already gave her permission,” I said, only to earn another look of surprise.
“Then I guess you’re coming,” Lei responded with a sigh, looking just a little skeptical. Unlike with some of the Val Kyr, I knew that Lei’s doubt had less to do with my being a convert and an atra than it did to my lack of experience. “Just hold back and follow our lead.”
Once Freya was finished briefing the triad leaders, she looked around the group and stated, “You are walking into a hostile incursion with few details. Two triads are already on site, so your mission is to reinforce them and deal with the incursion. If possible, capture a daemonite for questioning. However, the first priority is ending the incursion as soon as possible, before the daemons either become entrenched or spread.”
As soon as Freya was finished with her brief speech, everyone who was going on the mission turned their attention to the center of the courtyard, and to what looked like some kind of art piece. Three stone pillars rose from the ground, each being about twenty feet tall and they were placed about fifteen feet apart from each other, forming a triangle. However, in spite of first impressions, this was no mere courtyard sculpture.
These three standing stones and the space between them were the very center of Val Halla, in more ways than one. This was the anchor point where Val Halla was tied to Earth, the thing responsible for driving the mists back, stabilizing the area, and making Val Halla possible. This was also the point where travel between the realms was possible, something which the daemons instinctively understood and wanted to take advantage of, which was the entire reason they kept surrounding Val Halla.
Three Val Kyr stood guard at the anchor, a triad with one member of each pillar. They were present in case any daemons got past the wall or the wrong person tried sneaking through from the other side. However, the kaern and notru also served another purpose as well, controlling the portal and communicating with Val Kyr in the field.
“You know where we need to go?” one of the triad leaders asked the guardians.
“Yes we do,” the notru responded with a nod. Then she held up three oddly shaped stones, each about the size of a golf ball, and she handed one to each of the triad leaders. “Remember to keep your keys close.”
“You say that every time,” a notru named Katherine said with an amused look.
“And my reminders must work,” the guard responded with a smile of her own, “because you have yet to lose one.”
With that, the notru guard reached out and touched one of the pillars, which was fully charged with essence…though not her essence. All three of the pillars were charged, apparently by the goddess who created Val Halla, the anchor, and the Val Kyr themselves. The space between the pillars was just an odd blur in the air, and it responded when the notru pushed her essence into the pillar.
“I always dislike this part,” Lei commented from beside me.
One by one, the Val Kyr walked between the standing stones and into the blur…then disappeared. I’d gone through this once before, though I didn’t remember it. I’d been unconscious at the time and in the middle of transforming. I felt a mixture of curiosity and nervousness, but when it was my turn, I stepped through without hesitation.
Suddenly, the world felt like it was twisting and spinning around me, and for a moment, I felt as though I was having a seriously bad case of motion sickness. However, this only lasted for several seconds before it went away and I realized that I was standing someplace new, someplace that definitely wasn’t Val Halla.
I was standing in the middle of a street, surrounded by buildings that looked nothing like the stone walls of Val Halla. A single sweeping glance around me was enough to reveal that we were now in a small town, one that didn’t seem to have any buildings taller than three stories. We were back in the real world, a world with blue sky, a real sun, and a horizon that didn’t suddenly end with a wall of daemon filled mist. I felt a surge of excitement at that...and relief. I’d been getting a bit tired of looking up and only seeing the dim twilight that was always present in Val Halla, so it was nice to actually feel the sunlight on my skin again.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“Australia,” someone answered without looking at me.
“The streets are empty,” someone else point out grimly, making me realize that she was right.
A moment later, one of the kaern exclaimed, “We’ve got a daemon coming from the south…”
Everyone snapped around, and at first, I didn’t see anything. Then I focused and could sort of feel the movement a short distance away, right before I saw the creature running out from behind a car. It was about the size of a large dog but shaped mostly like a rabbit, though one without fur or skin. The creature let out a weird hissing noise as it raced across the street, its long ears pressed backward until they almost touched its back..
Suddenly, there was the familiar sound of a gun being fired. I looked to one of the Val Kyr beside me, noticing that she was holding a large handgun, the kind that if a normal woman had fired one handed like that, the recoil would have broken her wrist. The daemon rabbit tumbled to the ground, though it took two more shots before it wasn’t moving anymore.
“A minor daemon,” Lei commented, not sounding impressed. “There are supposed to be some bigger ones around here too.”
“There’s one up ahead,” one of the kaern stated grimly. “I can feel it around the corner.”
All ten of us carefully moved in the direction that was indicated, and a minute later, I saw the daemon that she’d sensed. At first glance, it appeared to be a graceful white unicorn. However, when I focused my attention on it and the creature came into a much clearer view, I could only gasp in disgust instead. The daemon was built something like antelope or deer, and I could see that it was also somewhat gaunt and bony. It had no white fur as I first thought, just glossy pale skin, the kind that I’d seen with horror movie vampires or things that lived in deep caves. It had four red eyes, two on each side of its head, and of course, there was the long black horn that jutted out from the center of the forehead.
I’d always thought that unicorns were supposed to be beautiful, graceful, and pure, so the sight of seeing the real thing…or at least a daemon that had probably inspired the stories, was a huge disappointment. This creature was hideous and disgusting, radiating a sense of unnatural wrongness. And when I saw what it was busy eating…a human body…the body of a child…I felt even more revolted.
“I thought unicorns like children,” I gasped in horror.
“They do,” a notru named Nadia responded in a cold angry tone. “Just not in the good way.”
The unicorn daemon looked up and saw us and snarled, revealing an overly-large mouth that was full of sharp teeth. A moment later it began charging straight at us, its head down so that it could impale someone with that nasty looking horn. The Val Kyr around me were immediately in motion, with all three of the notru spreading out and sending waves of ground towards the beast. It was hit with a swelling surge of concrete and stone shards, which brought it to a stop and knocked it to the ground.
“I hate these things,” Lei exclaimed as she ran straight at the unicorn. She leapt into the air and brought her massive hammer down with all her strength, smashing it into the daemon’s head and killing the creature with a single blow. All I could do was stare in amazement, knowing full well that Lei hadn’t even used any special essence tricks, just a big hammer and a lot of strength.
“My great grandmother was killed by one of these beasts,” the Val Kyr with the gun commented as she walked up to the daemon’s body and spat on it. “It impaled her from behind while she was trying to save a little girl…”
I stared at the dead daemon, feeling a mixture of curiosity and disgust. Nadia gave me a curious look and asked, “Is this the first time you’ve seen a daemon up this close?”
“No,” I answered, scowling as I remembered the last time I’d been this close to a daemon, which had been back in school when it had torn out my guts. “I’ve been closer.” That earned me some curious looks.
“I believe this confirms what we’ve been told,” one of the triad leaders stated. “We’ll split up to search for the other triads, then meet back here in an hour.” She looked at me and added, “Michelle, you’re with my triad.” I nodded in understanding.
“And ladies,” a triad leader by the name of Danah added, her eyes sweeping over all the Val Kyr present, though she paused to give me a skeptical look. “Be careful.”
With that, we broke up into the three triads, each going in a different direction. I was relieved to find myself accompanying Lei’s triad since it meant that I was with someone I was starting to think of as a friend. Nadia was part of that triad as well, and though I didn’t really know her, at least I knew her name. The same couldn’t be said of the last member, the team leader. Still, my focus was less on the Val Kyr I was currently with and more on my own triad. After seeing that unicorn daemon, I just hoped they were all right.
--------------------
There is an old saying that once God had created the world and filled the rest of the continents with animals, that he took everything he had left and placed it in Australia. And though I hadn’t seen any of the local wildlife yet, all the odd daemons I’d seen since arriving had convinced me that this must be true.
Lei took the point as my temporary triad slowly moved down the street while Nadia took a position a little behind her and to the side, ready to protect our sides or throw off any daemons who attacked from the front. Gretchen, the team leader and kaern of the group, held back just a little further behind Nadia and to the other side, keeping a careful watch for any approaching daemons and using her bow to shoot at any of the lesser daemons we saw.
I followed in last place, having picked the job of watching our backside in case daemons tried hitting us from behind. My senses were stretched to the limit, though unlike Gretchen who was scanning everything, I was focused mostly on tail. And though I could have used my bow to help Gretchen with the smaller daemons, I didn’t want to waste my arrows when she had everything under control. Instead, I had my sword drawn and was ready to fight if anything got to close.
“Incoming from the north-west,” Gretchen announced, just a moment before I sensed the daemon myself.
This daemon was rolling towards us along the ground, looking just like a boulder with a three foot diameter. It had rough gray skin, and if it had just been sitting still, I probably would have just taken it for a rock.
“Enocht,” Gretchen spat out as she fired an arrow at the creature. I wasn’t sure what the word meant, unless she was saying what kind of daemon it was. Lindrell hadn’t covered these ones in her lessons yet. The arrow hit but didn’t seem to do any good, much to her annoyance. She muttered, “Sheisse.”
Without a word, Nadia put the tip of her pike onto the ground, sending a wave of concrete at the daemon and knocking it back. The daemon stopped rolling and just remained where it was for a moment before it opened its mouth…which formed about half its body. Now it looked like a rock with a massive mouth, filled with sharp stony teeth.
“It’s Pac Man,” I blurted out, noticing an obvious similarity between this daemon and the video game character. If Julie had been there, she would have chuckled at the reference, though none of the three women with me showed any sign of catching it.
Gretchen raised her bow, and I could feel the surge of essence as the energy she had stored within it flared to life and ran down the string into the arrow. I didn’t see any visible effect, but when she released the arrow straight into the daemon’s mouth…it froze...literally. Frost and ice crystals erupted from the mouth. I wasn’t sure if it was dead or not, but Lei made sure by smashing it with her hammer.
“So far, we’ve encountered seven daemons,” Nadia commented as she leaned on her pike. “Most of them lesser daemons…no real threat.”
“That merely means that we haven’t encountered the real threats yet,” Gretchen pointed out. “The daemonites who brought them here should be nearby.”
“We need to find the other triads,” Lei pointed out, casually kicking a chunk of stony daemon hide.
“Agreed,” Gretchen responded, her eyes going to the three story building that was nearby. It was probably the tallest building in this small town, so I immediately saw what she was thinking. “We’ll have a better view from up there…”
“Why didn’t we do that sooner?” Lei asked casually slinging her hammer over her shoulder.
Gretchen didn’t bother saying anything, and a minute later we went into the building and up the stairs. There were blood stains on the floors and wall, and a little piece of something that looked like it had come from a human being. However, I didn’t see any sign of a living person, which made me even more worried about my friends.
I felt like stopping and emptying my stomach, and the only thing that kept me from doing so was the fact that I didn’t want to look like a wimp in front of these other Val Kyr. Because of that, I tried to ignore the blood and gore and focus instead on finding my friends.
We made it to the top floor without any problems, then had to climb a ladder up through a hatch in order to reach the roof. I looked around nervously, half afraid that we’d be met with an army of daemons, though fortunately, the roof was just as empty as the rest of the building had been. However, from there, I could see several daemons running around the streets…but still no people.
Gretchen looked out from the edge, trying to see any signs of the missing triads, so I went to the other side of the building and looked out from there. Seconds later, she called out, “I see them…”
I immediately ran to her side of the building and looked out to where she was pointing, focusing my senses until I could see them as well. Julie, Lindrell, and Shannon were outside the town, fighting a daemon that looked like a giant snake. And from what I was seeing, it looked like they were losing.
“Sheisse,” Gretchen exclaimed angrily. “They’re too far...”
I glanced to her bow, then stared out at my triad, gulping as I did so. They were pretty far away, further than any archer would normally be able to reach, at least with any form of accuracy. And then I looked to the quiver on Gretchen’s back, remembering that she’d already used up all her stored essence. Even if she could shoot that far, her arrow probably wouldn’t be able to do much against a snake that large…not unless she happened to get it perfectly through the eye or something.
“I’ll try,” I said, nearly shaking with fear as I watched the massive snake snap out with its tail, hitting Lindrell and sending her flying back. She was still moving, but I didn’t know how much longer they’d last.
“Don’t bother wasting your arrows,” Gretchen told me.
I ignored Gretchen and pulled out an arrow. Then, taking a deep breath, I charged my bow, suddenly getting a look of surprise from the triad leader, who probably didn’t realize I could charge my weapons that quickly. I notched the arrow, took careful aim, using every bit of my senses and focus to make sure I had the path right. The snake had raised its head and was obviously poised to strike at Shannon.
“Please work,” I whispered, preying to any god who would listen as I let loose the arrow.
My arrow shot through the air, propelled by my essence so it moved faster and further than any normal arrow possibly could. I held my breath, feeling my heart race in desperate worry until the arrow struck my target, catching the snake right in the head. An instant later, the remaining essence exploded out of the arrow, destroying the head and causing the rest of the snake to collapse motionless to the ground.
“You hit it,” Gretchen exclaimed, giving me a look of surprise.
However, I barely paid Gretchen any attention as I was still watching my triad, relieved to see that they were all right. Shannon stared at the dead snake daemon for a moment, then looked around for the source of the arrow. She looked straight at me, so I waved to her, knowing that she’d be able to see me just as easily as I did her…if not more so.
“They know we’re here now,” I said unnecessarily since Gretchen would have seen Shannon waving back as well.
“We know where Lindrell’s triad is,” Gretchen told Nadia and Lei. “Let’s go retrieve them.” Then she turned and gave me an odd look before nodding faintly and simply saying, “That was a good shot.”
The four of us hurried back down to the street then started in the direction where we’d seen my triad. We saw another minor daemon run across the street in the distance, but at the moment, it was also a minor problem, not worth chasing down yet. Our first order of business was to meet up with my triad.
“Keep an eye out for Constance and her triad,” Gretchen reminded us.
I nodded at that, not needing a reminder since Nicole was a member of that triad. I might not have been as closer to her as I was to Julie, but I still considered her to be a friend and I’d been worried about her.
Suddenly, the air was filled with the sound of a gunshot, making me freeze in surprise. Just as I realized it must have come from one of the other triads, everyone from the triad I was currently traveling with all started running in the direction of the noise. As soon as I realized I was being left behind, I raced after them as well, wondering how I’d gotten into a position where I was running towards the sound of gunshots instead of away.
There were two more gunshots before we found the source, a woman in one of the buildings who was shooting at daemons from a window. At first, I thought she was one of the Val Kyr, until I got a look at her. She was terrified, determined, and obviously one of the people from the town. In fact, she was the only living one that I’d seen.
The daemon looked like it was part frog, part alligator, part snot, and all nasty. Gretchen shot it through the eye with one of her arrows and the creature howled with rage and pain. It started to run away, onto to have Gretchen shoot two more arrows at it. Then while the daemon was stuck in one spot, twitching and snarling but too injured to move, she casually walked up, drew her sword, and drove it right through the daemon’s head. It finally stopped moving.
“It’s dead,” Nadia called out to the woman in the building.
“Who are you?” came the suspicious response. “You’re dressed like those other women…”
“Other women?” Lei responded. “You’ve seen our friends?”
The woman cautiously peeked her head out the window, letting me get a good look at her. She looked like she was probably in her mid-forties, with a tanned skin and rough features that couldn’t quite be called pretty. “They showed up a couple days ago,” the woman responded. “Said they were hunting some rabid critters outside of town. We just figured they were poachers, bonkers…or both.” There was a pause, then the woman admitted, “I just thought that if those crazy sheilas wanted to hunt bunyip, they welcome to try, just as long as they stayed away from town…”
Gretchen nodded faintly at that. “Then I assume the daemons came into town…”
“Is that what these things are?” the woman demanded, her voice shaking. “Demons?” She was silent for a moment, then added, “They sure turned this place to hell fast enough…”
“We’re here to get rid of the daemons,” Nadia called to the woman.
The woman didn’t answer at first, and she’d ducked back so I could no longer see her through the window. Seconds later, she cautiously stepped out the door, holding a shotgun in her hand and looking at us suspiciously.
“How do I know your friends didn’t bring those things here?” the woman demanded, not pointing her shotgun at us, but I could tell she was ready to do so at a moment’s notice.
“They came because they knew some daemons were nearby,” Gretchen answered her grimly, “and their job was to kill them before they hurt anyone. Unfortunately, there appears to be a lot more than we thought.”
The woman hesitated a moment before nodding and relaxing just a little. “I’m Debbie…Debbie Martin.” Then she looked us over again before asking, “You Americans?”
“Nyet,” Nadia responded with a smirk while Gretchen simultaneously answered, “Nein.”
Lei shook her head while I raised my hand a little and said, “I am…”
“If you come with us,” Gretchen told Debbie, “we’ll try to get you out of here alive.”
Debbie hesitated, glancing back and forth down the empty street before she cautiously approached us. “Safety in numbers, and all that…”
“How many other survivors are there?” Lei asked Debbie.
“I don’t know,” Debbie answered grimly, shaking her head and staring at the ground with a haunted look in her eyes. “Those things showed up last night and started tearing through everyone…” She shuddered visibly before adding, “I just hunkered down and shot any of those buggers that found me…”
“You’re lucky you didn’t run into any of the bigger ones,” Lei told her with a grim scowl. “A lot of them are too tough to be taken out by a shotgun.” Debbie just gave us a skeptical look, as though not quite believing that medieval weaponry would work where modern firearms wouldn’t. I couldn’t blame her for that in the least, though fortunately, we did have a dead daemon to convince her with.
“We need to continue,” Gretchen pointed out, glancing towards the dead daemon. “I would like to unite with Lindrell’s triad before we begin hunting the daemonites and larger daemons.”
Debbie looked like she wanted to ask some more questions, but her eyes went to the massive hammer than Lei had casually swung over her shoulder. The woman’s eyes went wide and she gulped visibly, then kept quiet and followed along behind us as we continued our mission. However, I noted that she kept her shotgun ready to use again the moment she spotted another daemon.
The town was pretty small, and I guessed that there had only been a couple hundred people living there before the daemons arrived. I felt sick when I thought about what must have happened to all those people, so I tried to focus on just keeping an eye out for more daemons. It didn’t take long to reach the edge of town, which just abruptly ended, and we could see Lindrell, Shannon, and Julie all walking in our direction. All three were dirty and seemed to be splattered with daemon blood, but none of them seemed to be harmed at the moment, much to my immense relief. We remained where we were and waited as they came to us.
“Michelle,” Julie exclaimed once she was closer, right before she ran at me and grabbed me in a hug. “What are you doing here?”
“I decided to go on a walkabout,” I joked weakly. Then I asked, “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Julie responded, suddenly looking self-conscious. “I’m bruised all over and a daemon broke my ankle this morning, but Lindrell healed it up pretty quick…”
“Michelle,” Lindrell greeted me, giving me a worried look. Then she looked to Gretchen, “Thank you for your assistance earlier. That was a well-timed shot…”
“It was,” Gretchen agreed before gesturing to me. “But I’m not the one who made it.”
Lindrell gave me a look of surprise while Shannon looked faintly smug. “I told you…”
“You killed that daemon?” Lindrell asked me, giving me a strange look. When I nodded, she grinned proudly. “Well done.”
“You one-shotted that thing,” Julie exclaimed, giving me a broad grin. “Awesome…”
I grinned at that, feeling rather proud of it myself and appreciating the recognition. “Thanks.”
“What happened?” Gretchen asked Lindrell. “I thought this was a hunt for some minor daemons…”
“It was at first,” Lindrell responded grimly, her eyes going to Debbie, who was standing in the back and looking awkward. “There were a few of them outside of town, so we focused on hunting those down. Then last night, a lot more suddenly appeared…along with more powerful ones. We were overrun before we realized it and have been trying to stay ahead of the daemonites since.”
“We’d separated from the other triad before this happened,” Shannon added. “We’ve been out of contact since.”
Lindrell and Gretchen talked for a few more minutes as they filled each other in on everything that was happening. When they were finished, Lindrell turned her attention back to me, giving me a curious look.
“Not that I’m unhappy for your help,” Lindrell told me, “but what are you doing here? Freya specifically ordered you to stay behind…”
“Freya also gave permission for her to come,” Gretchen assured her.
“Freya banned her from coming for minor daemons,” Shannon exclaimed in surprise, “but allowed her to come for this?”
“Things have changed a little since you left on your mission,” Lei assured her with a chuckle. “For one, she has a mentor…”
“Really?” Lindrell asked in surprise. She stared at me with a faint scowl and said, “As your primary instructor and triad leader, I should have been informed…”
“All right,” Julie told me with a tired smile. “Congratulations… Who is it?”
“Um…,” I started, not sure how to answer that one.
However, Lei just burst out laughing, then slapped me on the shoulder, hard enough to make me stagger. “You’ll never believe this. Her mentor is Freya.”
Julie, Lindrell, and Shannon all had looks of stunned disbelief at that revelation. Then Julie burst out laughing and responded, “You almost had me…”
“Actually, Freya is my mentor,” I said a little self-consciously.
“But Freya doesn’t mentor anyone,” Shannon exclaimed, giving me another look of surprise as well as confusion.
“I think this discussion can probably wait,” Gretchen reminded us. “We have a mission to complete.”
“She’s right,” Lindrell agreed with a scowl. She held up her axe and used it to point to the middle of town. “We have daemons to kill.”
“I’m out of it for a little while,” Julie announced, quoting my favorite scoundrel as she gave me a curious look, “and everyone gets delusions of grandeur…” A moment later, she stuck her tongue out at me before following after Lindrell and Gretchen.
I adjusted my quiver and the bow that was slung across my back, then started to follow after them as well. However, Shannon put a hand on my shoulder and caused me to pause.
“Excellent shot,” she said simply, giving me a faint nod. “Thank you.” And with that, she followed after everyone else, leaving me to bring up the back.
-------------------
Nicole was in bad shape. Her armor was gouged, torn, and covered with blood…a lot of it her own. She was battered and exhausted, barely even able to stand on her own much less continue fighting. Since she was jatta, this said a great deal about just what she’d gone through since the daemons overran the town. And unfortunately, she was in much better condition than the other two in her triad.
Rebecca, the kaern of her group, was missing an eye and most of one arm. Lindrell assured us that Rebecca would survive, and that with a little extra jatta energy, she’d be fully healed and back to normal within two weeks. However, Constance…their notru and triad leader, hadn’t been so lucky. She hadn’t been able to walk away from the fight at all.
When we’d arrived at the meeting place, Dahan and her triad had been there waiting, along with Nicole and Rebecca. So far, the third triad that we’d brought with us had yet to return so we were preparing to go look for them as well. But at the moment, we were listening to Nicole’s story and finding out exactly what we were up against.
“The daemon was big…and strong,” Nicole told us all, her voice weak and filled with exhaustion. “But we were holding our own…until the daemonite showed up and summoned more daemons…”
“The big one got Constance,” Rebecca added with a wince of pain. “The beast bit her head clean off…”
Lindrell nodded at that, and without saying a word, she put her hand on Rebecca’s shoulder and gave her another charge of jatta energy. I knew that Lindrell couldn’t afford to give too much of it, not when she’d already been through the ringer as well and we still had more daemons to fight, but any little bit would help. Lei, who was much fresher to the fight, gave Lindrell a warning look before sharing a little of her own energy with Rebecca as well.
“So, the daemonite you saw was a summoner,” Gretchen mused, looking to Rebecca and Nicole.
“The bastard got away,” Nicole spat out bitterly. “It was all we could do to finish that big one… If it hadn’t been for the reinforcements arriving when they did…” She gave a grateful look to Dahan.
“We saw three of them at one time,” Shannon added grimly. “We saw one summon a few daemons, but none of them confronted us directly so we couldn’t be certain what the other two are capable of.”
“Excuse me,” Debbie Martin asked, looking around at all the armored Val Kyr who’d gathered in the middle of town. “But what the bloody hell is going on?”
Debbie looked angry and afraid, but she showed no signs of running away. I couldn’t help but being impressed by that because the first time I saw a daemon, I’d run screaming like a little girl. In fact, a part of me still wanted to do that. That tingle of fear just made me grab the hilt of my sword more tightly. This time, I wasn’t going to let those things tear me to piece, or at least, I’d go down fighting. I just REALLY hoped it didn’t come to that.
“Daemons exist,” Lei answered Debbie with a grim expression.
“I’ve got that part,” Debbie responded with a snort. “But what are these daemonites you keep talking about?”
There was a moment of silence before Nadia answered. “They’re humans who work with daemons…who can communicate with them. Usually, they start off trying to use daemons as weapons…but it messes with their heads. Most of the daemonites I’ve seen eventually start to sympathize with daemons more than humans…and they help them do things like this.”
“It’s the nature of their magic,” Lindrell added grimly. “Every daemonite can get into daemon heads…can hear their thoughts to one degree or another. Eventually, the daemons get into their heads as well.”
“And what do those bloody buggers want?” Debbie demanded.
“To daemons, Earth is the promised land,” Nicole said, snorting bitterly. “Plenty of room to spread out and an all you can eat buffet…”
“Our job it so stop them,” Lindrell stated, using a rag that she’d found somewhere to wipe daemon blood off her axe.
Debbie stood there, silently staring off down the street with an angry look on her face. I could feel the terror radiating off her, but it seemed to take second place to the fierce determination. These daemons had killed her friends and neighbors, and it was clear that she wanted revenge.
“Our last triad hasn’t returned from their search,” Gretchen announced, looking around the room. “I don’t think it’s wise to separate our forces again at this time. I recommend we stay close for daemon extermination and keep watch for them in the process.”
“Agreed,” Dahan responded while Lindrell nodded her own agreement.
“I’m in no condition to fight at the moment,” Nicole reluctantly admitted, her eyes going to Rebecca who was in even worse shape.
“What of your triad?” Gretchen asked Lindrell.
Lindrell looked to Shannon and Julie, both of whom were obviously bruised and exhausted but otherwise all right. Then she looked to me before nodding. “We could use a rest, but we’re capable of continuing.”
Suddenly, Gretchen scowled and looked around while Shannon did the same thing. “We don’t need to go hunting the daemonites,” Shannon stated. “They’re coming to us.”
“We’re surrounded by daemons,” Gretchen added.
Almost as if waiting for that introduction, minor daemons began to appear, crawling out of buildings and into the streets. Unfortunately, they weren’t alone as several of the larger daemons began to appear from down the street as well. But in spite of the daemons, Shannon and Gretchen both looked towards the roof of a nearby building, and a moment later, I saw why.
There humans stepped into view, all of them wearing the red cloaks that marked them as daemonites. One was tall and skinny, an old man with dark skin. The second man had a stocky and somewhat overweight build, and appeared to be in his thirties. The last was a young woman with short hair and several piercings on her face.
“The tall one,” Nicole said with a grimace. “He’s the summoner…”
“The same three,” Julie spat out angrily. “The same ones we saw before…”
I stared up at the daemonites, who seemed to just be staring down at us and enjoying the fact that we were surrounded by nearly two dozen daemons, all of which were slowly moving closer. I clenched my sword tightly, trying to look as calm and in control as the more experienced Val Kyr. The truth was, I was terrified and felt like I was going to shit myself.
“Are they all summoners?” I asked, thinking that this would explain why there were so many daemons since summoners could temporarily pull daemons to Earth.
“No,” Lindrell responded grimly, slowly looking around at the approaching daemons. “There are too many daemons for even three summoners to call at once…”
I gulped at that, realizing that this meant the situation was even worse than we’d thought. If there were too many daemons for three summoners, then that meant the daemonites either had access to an anchor of their own…or one of them was a ripper. A ripper was the rarest of the daemonite pillars, and Lindrell had told me that the Val Kyr killed every ripper they came across as soon as possible because they were the most dangerous of all daemonites. Rippers could tear open portals between Earth and the Twilight Realm, letting large numbers of daemons through…permanently.
“The daemonites cannot be allowed to escape,” Dahan stated firmly.
With those words, Gretchen and I both raised our bows and shot at the daemonites. However, before the arrows hit, the stocky daemonite suddenly puked, projecting a green spray through the air. As our arrows passed through the green mist, they smoked and broke apart, hitting the side of the building in pieces. Gretchen just snarled and fired two more arrows in rapid succession, both of them right at the female daemonite, who jumped back and out of sight.
“Sheisse,” Gretchen exclaimed furiously. “He’s a channeler…”
“So, she’s likely the ripper,” Lindrell finished in a cold tone. What she didn’t need to say was that this made her an important target, though not quite as an immediate a threat as the other two.
I’d already seen a summoner in action and still had the nightmares to remember him by. Though a ripper could also bring in reinforcements, she wouldn’t be able to do it quite as directly. And then there was the third member, who was the real wildcard of their group. From what Lindrell had told me, channelers were permanently bonded to a specific daemon, and they could tap into that daemon’s powers and abilities at any time…with the most powerful ones even being able to transform into that daemon.”
Unfortunately, as dangerous as the three daemonites were, we were still surrounded by rapidly approaching daemons. We didn’t wait for them to draw first blood as Gretchen snapped around and fired an arrow right through the eye of a large ratlike daemon. An instant later, everything exploded into chaos the daemons all rushed us at once and everyone else joined in the fighting.
Nicole and Rebecca weren’t in any shape for more fighting, so they crouched down out of the way while Debbie joined them. The local woman had a grim look on her face as she took aim and shot a small daemon, blowing it’s head most of the way off. I could see the grim satisfaction in that death, though she held off on shooting again until another small daemon got too close.
Lindrell and Lei both charged at the largest daemon, some kind stocky thing that was about the size of an elephant and was covered with a mixture of slimy scales and patches of hair. Hammer and axe drove into the daemon at the same time, but neither woman used their special essence tricks. I knew that Lei had already used up her essence this morning during her sparring with me, and I assumed that Lindrell had probably used hers up against the other daemons she’d been fighting.
Gretchen stood back and continued shooting smaller daemons with her arrows, carefully aiming so that she only used one per daemon. The ones who were tough enough to survive an arrow through the head were quickly dispatched by one of the others. I joined Gretchen in shooting at daemons, and when she ran out of arrows, I gave half of mine to her so she could continue.
Nadia held out her hands and formed a mass of essence between her hands until it suddenly burst into flame, then she sent the flaming ball of essence through the air and hit the large daemon that Lindrell and Lei were attacking. It was an impressive looking attack, and something that I might have imagined Gandalf or Harry Dresden doing. However, I knew that this kind of flashy move used up a lot of essence and wasn’t very efficient. Obviously, Nadia was trying to show off a bit for Debbie…and probably Julie and me too.
Julie used her spear to impale one of the smaller daemons that had survived Gretchen’s shot, then she went to help Lei and Lindrell. She stabbed her spear into the ground and stone spikes rose up from around the daemon and began closing in, almost like a pair of massive jaws. That was enough to hold the creature in place long enough for Lindrell to drive her axe deep into its head and kill it.
I looked up towards where the daemonites were waiting and took the opportunity to ready another shot, but they were all staying back, giving me only glimpses of them as they peeked at the fight. I didn’t have a clear enough shot to waste an arrow at the moment, though I was really tempted to try anyway.
Then as I watched, the summoner stepped forward and the air in front of him blurred for a moment. Suddenly, a new daemon appeared, something that looked like a little like a squid with wings. I had a clear shot at the squid and could have taken it down immediately, however, I also had a momentarily clear shot at the daemonite. I took the shot and the summoner was sent flying back with an arrow through him. I simultaneously felt excited to have hit him…and horrified for the same reason. I’d just killed a person.
“Look out,” Shannon suddenly cried out, a moment before she hit me, knocking me to the side right before something shot through where I’d been standing.
“What the hell…?” I exclaimed, getting back to my feet and seeing several small black and oily blobs bouncing around. One of them suddenly launched itself at me, but this time I saw it coming and stepped out of the way before it hit. “What the hell is that thing?”
“Something you don’t want to get hit by,” Shannon answered with a sneer. “They don’t have any teeth or claws, but their slime is highly toxic. If any gets on your armor, it will slowly eat through it…”
“Gotcha,” I responded, imagining what something like that could do to skin.
Shannon snapped around and used her sword to slice through several blobs, jumping back to avoid getting hit the slime. Nadia joined in, sending a wave of ground at the creatures to throw them back before several others jumped at the creatures and quickly killed them.
“Incoming from the south,” Shannon yelled out while Gretchen called out a similar warning.
I looked in the direction that Shannon had indicated and gulped, seeing two more of the larger daemons charging towards us. I recognized one as a manticore while the other looked something like a sea urchin with tentacles on the underside. I grimaced, then shot the manticore with my last arrow, catching it in the neck and seeming to piss it off. I muttered some profanities and drew my sword, knowing that I’d have to get closer to these things to fight now.
“Watch for the tail,” Lindrell yelled a warning, obviously referring to the manticore since the other daemon didn’t have a tail.
“The daemonites are up to something,” someone called out, though I couldn’t tell who it was.
“Follow my lead,” Nadia told Julie as she used her essence to move the ground, creating a wall between us and the two large daemonites. Julie joined her, raising the ground in another area, blocking off most of the street and leaving the daemonites only two options if they wanted to reach us. They either had to go over the wall or through the opening that had been left…an opening that was only large enough for one of them to come through at a time. “Herd them to where we want them…”
When the manticore started through the opening, Julie and Nadia caused the wall to close in from both sides, catching the manticore in between and pinning it in place. With the manticore trapped, four Val Kyr charged the creature at once. Lindrell swung her axe at the monster’s neck while Lei simultaneously smashed her hammer down on its head, killing it in mere seconds.
One of the rabbit shaped daemons leapt high into the air and was coming down straight towards Lindrell’s back. I jumped at the daemon, slicing it in mid-air and knocking it aside. The creature hit the ground, cut nearly in two. I shuddered at the black daemon blood which now splattered my armor and cheek, feeling more than a little disgusted.
“This isn’t like a video game,” I whispered, feeling overwhelmed and suddenly realizing that I was in way over my head. I was holding up all right so far, but that was because I was surrounded by nearly a dozen other Val Kyr…and an Aussie with a shotgun.
Just then, there was a loud roaring, drawing my attention back to the building where the daemonites had been watching us. My eyes widened as I saw the channeler, who was starting to change. He tossed his cloak aside, revealing his body which was misshapen and growing. His skin turned gray and sickly while his clothes split and tore. I was both horrified and mesmerized at the sight, unable to turn my eyes away. The daemonite was transforming into a daemon.
“I don’t think that’s a good thing,” Julie commented, echoing my thoughts.
“No, it isn’t,” Lindrell stated, covered from head to toe with daemon blood. She looked like she’d stepped right out of a horror movie, though that was appropriate since I felt like I was standing in the middle of a horror movie.
“Die you fucking bimbos,” the daemonite girl cackled from the rooftop, actually laughing and acting as though she was having a great time. “You fucking whores are toast now…”
The daemonite channeler was no longer remotely recognizable as human, and the large twisted form, toppled from the building, still changing as he fell. He hit the ground hard but didn’t seem the least bit bothered from the impact. Then the changes seemed to finish and I got a good look at the monster he’d become. The daemonite’s body was a sick looking mixture of warty gray skin and slick black scales, all of which radiated an aura of pure wrongness. His torso was built somewhat like a bulldog, with powerful chest muscles and short clawed front legs, but one look at its hideous and massively jawed head, and I was instantly reminded of the rancor from Return of the Jedi. From mid-torso back, the entire body was that of a massive snake.
“Look out,” Shannon yelled, grabbing Julie and one of the other Val Kyr and yanking them back even further.
I’d been so busy staring at the daemonite that I hadn’t really been paying attention with my full abilities. As a result, I wasn’t prepared when he threw his head up into the air and spewed a nasty green liquid up into the air, the same green vomit he’d used earlier to destroy the arrows.
Thanks to Shannon’s warning, nearly everyone was already starting to move away, though Nadia was using the ground to form a stone umbrella to protect herself, Rebecca, Nicole, and Debbie. Green droplets rained down on us, and I dove out of range, only getting a couple drops on my armor. My armor sizzled and melted slightly where I’d been hit, making me thankful that it hadn’t hit my skin. However, from the scream of pain, not everyone was that lucky.
While we were scattered and avoiding the spray, the daemonite suddenly charged forward, grabbing a woman from Dahan’s triad on its jaws and biting. There was a sick sound and a scream that was abruptly cut off. The daemonite casually dropped her to the ground and then made a show of stepping on her body.
I stared in horror and anger, realizing that the daemonite was intentionally taunting us. As Lindrell had told me during training, the true danger of channelers wasn’t just that they had all the powers of a daemon at their disposal…but that they could use them with the intelligence and strategy of a human.
This daemonite had suddenly become our primary target, and most of us were glaring at him with vengeance in our hearts. I hadn’t even known the woman’s name, but she deserved much better than that. I was terrified, but also pissed off.
In spite of the fact that the daemonite channeler had just demonstrated himself to be a huge threat, he wasn’t the only one. There were still other daemons present, even if most of them were minor daemons and not in quite the same league. And of course, we still had to deal with the walking sea urchin, but that one was currently separated from us by the wall that Julie and Nadia had created.
Almost as one, all the jatta attacked the daemonite, including Nicole who seemed to have recovered enough to continue fighting. The daemonite swung his massive tail around, smacking the rushing Val Kyr and sending them flying backwards. He roared, then suddenly lunged to the side, trying to get Shannon, who saw it coming and leapt out of the way. She snapped around and sliced her sword down on the creature, catching it on the shoulder, though this didn’t seem to bother him.
“Kill the fucking bitches,” the female daemonite screamed from the rooftop. “Teach them not to persecute us and murder our friends…”
I snarled at that, wishing I still had some arrows left. Her ‘friends’ had just slaughtered an entire town, so even though I’d probably feel guilty for putting an arrow in her, I’d be happy to do so anyway.
“You monsters killed Bob,” Debbie yelled, shooting a small daemon. “You killed Sue and Gina…” The local woman seemed to have lost her fear because at the moment, all I saw was anger and determination. It was an expression that matched what most of the Val Kyr wore, and it suddenly struck me that she would probably make a good recruit. She tried another shot but was out of shells, so she began using her shotgun as a club and began beating the daemon to death.
I stabbed a smaller daemon with my sword, then realized that there weren’t very many of the small ones left. They’d stopped coming in swarms like they had been, much to my relief. I looked over at Julie, who drove her spear through a small daemon, then gave me an exhausted look before she quickly covered it up with a forced smile.
“This is a real Leroy Jenkins moment,” Julie joked weakly.
Suddenly, Nadia cried out in pain, and when I looked at her, I was horrified to see the flying squid had grabbed hold of her and was biting her head, or at least I assumed it was since its main body enveloped her head almost entirely. She desperately grabbed at the tentacles, trying to pull them free, but they were firmly wrapped around her neck, shoulders, and arms.
I started rushing to Nadia’s side, but Nicole cried, “Look out,” and dove at her. An instant later, I realized why as the daemonite had decided to take advantage of Nadia’s distraction. It turned towards her and puked a nasty green spray, catching both women in it even as Nicole tried getting them out of the way. Nicole screamed in agony.
Gretchen let out a vicious stream of profanity, or at least I assumed it was profanity since it was all in German. She rushed to their sides, as did Lei, who immediately hit both Val Kyr with a surge of extra jatta. All I could do was stand frozen, staring in horror as Nicole and Nadia writhed in agony, with their armor sizzling and melting…along with exposed flesh.
“DIE!” Lindrell screamed in rage, slamming her axe into the daemonite as hard as she could, though he turned fast enough that she only glanced him. He suddenly turned again, snapping at her with his vicious jaws and catching her arm. She screamed again, this time in pain. With my sharpened senses, I heard her bones snap.
“Notru,” Dahan yelled out. “Contain him…”
Every second I watched this daemonite, I grew even more terrified of him and what he could do. However, he had Lindrell’s arm clutched firmly in his jaws, and as he shook his head, he was shattering it even worse, to the point where I thought he’d tear the arm right of her socket. I barely thought about it as I pushed every ounce of essence I could spare into my sword, causing it to burn with ghostly blue flames.
“No,” I gasped, the word escaping my lips without my consciously saying it. Lindrell had saved me from those daemons at school, she’d saved my life when there was no way I should have survived, and she’d been my teacher and friend ever since. There was no way I was going to let that thing eat her. NONE.
I charged at the daemonite, slashing my sword down across his face. He howled in pain, releasing Lindrell in the process. Someone grabbed her and pulled her back while I jumped to the side as the daemonite tried to bite me. It backed up, revealing a line of blue flames on his face where I’d cut him, still burning away. He tried grabbing at his face with his claws, perhaps trying to put the flames out, but his stubby legs couldn’t quite reach.
Though I was scared, I was also pissed off and determined to hurt this thing. This daemonite was a monster…a true monster…even more than the daemons themselves. This one had been a human, yet he’d knowingly fed an entire town to the daemons. I wanted to see him hurt. I wanted to see him pay.
I charged at the daemonite again, though I wasn’t the only one. He was about to snap at me when Lei hit him from the other side. This gave me the opportunity to try slicing him again, but he lunged forward, leaving me in place, though I continued slicing at him, leaving a long, though not very deep gouge that must have been at least six feet long. And it was still burning.
The daemon howled and dropped to the ground, rolling on his side as he tried to put the flames out. I was stunned since my cut wasn’t very deep, but it appeared that the ghost flames were doing more than the cut itself.
There was a flash of purple light as someone else unleased their special essence attack, though I didn’t see who it was or what the effect was. However, that was followed up with nearly everyone who was capable joining in the attack.
“I’m trying to hold him,” Julie called out, making me realize that the daemonite was starting to sink into the ground, as though it had turned into quicksand. However, the soft patch of ground wasn’t large enough to swallow the entire daemonite. Enough of his body was still outside the area that he was able to keep pulling himself out of it, or at least he was trying. That effort was slowing him down and keeping him distracted.
I snarled and charged at the monster again, this time driving my sword straight into his side as deeply as I could. He howled in pain and tried to roll away, then swept his massive tail along the ground, hitting several Val Kyr with it. He snapped his tail again, and though I saw it coming, a smaller daemon lunged at me at the same time and kept me from moving fast enough. The tail hit me with a painful crack and sent me flying back.
“Michelle,” Julie cried out, giving me a worried look but remaining where she was, glaring at the daemonite and keeping her focus on the ground beneath him.
My sword was still embedded in the daemonite, burning him from the inside out, though I knew the flames were just about at their end. After all, I’d only had a limited amount of essence charged into the sword and it had pretty much run out. The daemonite howled in pain and desperately tried to fight off the Val Kyr, without much luck. He shifted his head and I could tell her was preparing to spew out more of that acid vomit, but a wall of stone rose up from the ground in front of him just as he released it, keeping anyone from being hurt.
I started to get back to my feet and winced from the sharp pain in my side, which made me suspect that I might have broken some ribs. However, I was used to getting banged up and hurt while training, so I did my best to ignore the pain.
“You will die,” Lei cried out, bringing her hammer down on the daemon’s head as hard as she could. There was a loud cracking sound and the creature dropped, leaving him open for several Val Kyr to strike him at once and ensure he was dead.
I staggered towards Lindrell to check on her, but she was already sitting up, holding her shattered arm with her good hand while glaring at the dead daemonite with an expression of grim satisfaction. I just let out a sigh of relief, thankful that she was all right. Sure, she’d been pretty banged up, but as a jatta, I knew that her arm would probably be good as new by tomorrow.
Suddenly, the last daemonite screamed out, “BOBBY…” She glared down at us from the roof of the building, her expression filled with hate. “You bitches killed Bobby…”
“Get her,” Dahan commanded grimly. Two women immediately rushed into the building to find their way up to the roof.
“The boss was right,” the young woman snarled furiously. “You cunts are fucking evil… You killed Bobby… You murdered our friends just because they want to be free…”
I stared up at the daemonite, stunned that she’d call the Val Kyr evil when she and her daemon ‘friends’ had slaughtered an entire town. Lindrell told me that daemonites had a psychic link to daemons, and that it skewed their perspectives, but I hadn’t realized just right she’d been until now.
“She’s nuts,” I blurted out, though no one responded.
“The boss was right,” the daemonite spat out. “You’re all gonna pay for this…”
And with that, the daemonite tore her hand down through the air, as though she was trying to claw something that wasn’t there. The air suddenly ripped and tore, creating gash in space itself. She spat out at us, then stepped through the tear that she’d ripped open and vanished, with the hole closing behind her.
“The ripper escaped,” Gretchen snarled angrily. “The one we needed to stop the most…”
“Too late to worry about her now,” Shannon stated. “We have other priorities to deal with now…”
With that, I followed her gaze to where Nicole was kneeling on the ground, her armor largely destroyed by the acid vomit…along with half her face which had been burned off. The sight was so horrific that I nearly emptied my stomach at the sight of my friend, who was cowering in pain while Gretchen knelt down beside her to try helping.
Nicole was my friend, and I wanted to help her, but I had no idea how I could possibly do that. She was jatta, which meant that she’d heal from this, but for now she was in a lot of pain. I clenched my fists tightly, thankful that at least we’d taken out the monster who did that to her.
“Nadia,” I whispered a moment later, staggering towards the other woman who was motionless on the ground. The winged squid had been pulled away and killed, revealing a gaping hole in Nicole’s head where the daemon had been chewing.
“She’s dead,” Lei stated, her voice filled with anger and grief.
I hadn’t even really known Nadia before today, but tears were already pouring down my cheeks. I stood there for a moment, suddenly feeling drained and tired, though it was more emotional than physical. I just wanted to collapse to the ground and cry over all the people who’d been killed.
“Bloody bastards,” Debbie gasped, drawing my attention to her.
The local woman was on the ground, her body spread out in a puddle of blood. Her side was torn open, not as badly as mine had been the first time I’d encountered a daemon, but still bad enough. She was gasping for breath and obviously in a lot of pain.
“Can you heal her?” I pleaded aloud, looking from one jatta to another. Unlike Lindrell and Nicole, Debbie wasn’t jatta…she wouldn’t heal on her own.
Lindrell and Nicole were both in bad shape, and admittedly, they probably needed all their jatta energy just to heal themselves. However, Lei seemed unharmed, other than bruises. Lei stared down at Debbie and then crouched down beside her, but to my surprise, she made no move to give her any jatta energy.
“We got them,” Lei quietly told the dying woman. “We got all the monsters…” Of course, that was actually a bit of a lie since the ripper had escaped and there were still a few daemons wandering around, but this was obviously meant to comfort Debbie.
“Good,” Debbie whispered, closing her eyes for the last time.
Julie came over, and without saying a word, she grabbed me in a hug. We were both filthy, covered with blood and other things I didn’t want to think about, but at the moment, I didn’t care. I just hugged Julie tightly.
This had been my first battle as a Val Kyr, and I was sure that I’d put up a good enough showing to prove I could hold my own. But in spite of that…in spite of the fact that we’d killed two daemonites and chased off the last, this didn’t feel like a victory. Not in the least.
--------------------
I stepped into the cafeteria for dinner, scowling slightly as I looked over the room. The mood in there was pretty grim, which was no surprise considering the losses we’d suffered yesterday. Not only had an entire town been wiped out by the daemons, but too many Val Kyr had died as well. All of Val Halla was in mourning for our fallen members, especially those who’d known and been friends with the fallen for centuries.
I quietly loaded a tray with food, wincing slightly as I turned too much and felt a twinge from my ribs. I was almost completely healed from my injuries, though my ribs were still feeling a bit tender from where they’d been broken. I didn’t bother complaining about this though as I knew full well that I was one of the lucky ones.
Yesterday, after we’d finished killing that daemonite channeler, everyone who was able to, began to move through the town, looking for survivors and killing all the remaining daemons. It had been slow and messy, but not nearly as difficult or bloody as the previous fight. We took no more casualties or even serious injuries after that, except for the last triad.
I’d gone to that town with three triads, though after we’d split up, one of those three had gone missing. During our search of the town, we found the triad…or at least what was left of it. They’d been ambushed by daemons during their search and completely overwhelmed. Two of their members had been killed, though the last one had survived…barely.
My thoughts turned to Nadia, as they had countless times since yesterday. That flying squid daemon had dropped on her from above, held her tight, and ate into her head. Of course, the acid vomit had only contributed to the damage she’d suffered, damage severe enough to kill her. I felt nauseous at the memory…and at the guilt. I’d watched as the summoner had brought the squid over, and I’d had the perfect opportunity to kill it immediately. But I hadn’t. Instead of killing the squid, I’d shot the daemonite instead. If I’d only killed the squid when I had the chance, it never would have been able to get Nadia. No one else had said a word about this, but I knew that she was dead because of me.
Once I had all my food, I started looking for a place to sit. Lei was sitting with Bethany and one of the other jatta, but when she waved to me, I pretended that I didn’t see her. I scowled and continued on my way, taking a seat by myself. I didn’t want to sit with Lei…or even talk with her right now. I might be responsible for Nadia’s death, but I blamed her for Debbie.
Debbie had proven herself to be a brave and determined woman, fighting off daemons and surviving when the rest of her town had been slaughtered. And though she could have just hidden behind the Val Kyr, letting us protect her, she’d continued fighting to the best of her ability. If anyone deserved to be Val Kyr, it was her. But Lei hadn’t used her jatta energy to heal Debbie, nor had she even tried. Instead, she’d just sat there, crouched down beside the Australian woman as she’d died. I knew that it was definitely against rules to make someone Val Kyr without permission, but if an exception had been made for me, then Debbie had definitely deserved one too.
I ate in silence for several minutes, then noticed Julie coming into the cafeteria along with her trainer Natalie. The two of them were busy talking, and though I could have stretched my senses in order to listen in, I didn’t bother to do so. Admittedly, this had less to do with my respecting their privacy and more to do with a strong suspicion that they were talking about the fight from yesterday. At the moment, that fight was the last thing I wanted to think about, and unfortunately, the one thing I couldn’t stop thinking of.
After they got their food, Julie and Natalie went their separate directions with Julie coming over to sit next to me. She gave me a faint smile before asking, “How are you feeling?”
“Physically, I’m fine,” I said, not bothering to mention the twinge from my ribs. That would probably be gone by the time I went to bed.
Julie gave a knowing nod at that. “Yeah, I keep thinking about everything…about what happened.”
Julie closed her eyes and winced, reminding me that she’d gone through more than I had. I’d only been in that town for a few hours, but she’d been there for a couple days. When she’d arrived, it had been a living town, full of living people. She’d actually met the people who lived there and had to watch as they were killed. Without saying a word, I reached out and grabbed her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. I just wished that I could do something more.
“Did you see Rebecca?” Julie abruptly asked.
“Not since we got back yesterday,” I responded with a scowl.
“I stopped by her quarters to visit,” Julie admitted, looking a little self-conscious at that. “She’s getting better, and they say her eye will finish growing back within a few days, but it will be a bit longer for her arm.”
“At least she can heal,” I pointed out, knowing that this was one of the best things about being Val Kyr. As long as you survived, you could heal from just about anything…and in a very short time. However, that just made me think of Nadia again, which filled me with a surge of renewed guilt.
Julie and I continued eating in near silence for the next few minutes, until Lindrell and Shannon arrived. Lindrell’s arm was in a sling, which was no surprise considering how badly it had been shattered. For anyone other than a Val Kyr, they would have been in a full cast, perhaps even have lost the arm entirely. As it was, she was not only Val Kyr but jatta, which meant that her arm would be fully healed and back to normal by this time tomorrow.
“How’s the arm?” I asked Lindrell, not sure what else to say.
“Uncomfortable,” was her answer, though I could tell it hurt a lot more than she was letting on. “But I’ll live.” All of us nodded in understanding of that.
I stared at Lindrell’s arm for a moment, then thought or Rebecca who actually had to regrow hers, and who would be able to do so in less than two weeks. I was glad for Rebecca, but that only reminded me of my dad and the fact that he’d lost most of his leg. And unlike these Val Kyr, he wouldn’t be able to simply grow a new one. That injury had resulted in a lot of problems for him over the years, including the loss of my mom as well as most of his confidence. The Val Kyr truly were lucky to be able to heal from such injuries.
“You did very well,” Lindrell told me, putting her good arm over my shoulder and giving me a proud look. “I have to admit, I’m especially impressed that you were able to set fire to your sword that way. You hadn’t even used it long enough to attune it to you…”
“And so quickly after charging that arrow,” Shannon added, actually looking impressed.
“Part of being a center,” I explained self-consciously. “I don’t have enough essence to do any of the things Julie does…” I gestured to Julie and gave a wry smile. “But I can charge my weapons up pretty quickly.”
“A useful ability in combat,” Lindrell assured me. “I wish I could recharge my axe so quickly.”
“You’re going to have to show us how you do it,” Julie insisted, smiling again. “I want to see that flaming spear you told me about…”
“That is kind of cool,” I admitted. Then I glanced to Lindrell and added, “And I can do the whole icy axe thing too.”
“Then this I will have to see,” Lindrell responded with an amused look.
I nodded at that, looking forward to showing off a little now that I actually had some tricks of my own. I’d already seen what each of them could do, and they’d certainly showed off for me, so it was only fair that I return the favor a little. However, I couldn’t really get excited about that at the moment, not with everything that had happened yesterday.
“Are you all right?” Lindrell asked me with a worried look.
“Nadia,” I said quietly, not able to meet their eyes. I fought back tears as the guilt surged up again. “It’s my fault she died…”
“Why would you think that?” Lindrell asked, still looking worried.
I hesitated a moment before admitting, “The daemon that killed her… I…” I paused to wince. “I could have killed it earlier but I didn’t… I could have shot it right after the daemonite summoned it…”
“But you shot at the summoner instead,” Shannon stated for me while I nodded agreement. I braced myself for her condemnation of my stupidity, or at least a comment about how she’d been right to doubt my ability to serve as a Val Kyr. Instead, she said, “You made the right choice.”
“What?” I gasped in surprise.
Shannon gave me a steady look and explained, “I was watching your shot and you made the same choice I would have. You had to choose between killing a minor daemon, of limited threat, and a daemonite summoner. In that situation, the summoner takes priority. If you’d killed the daemon, the summoner would simply have summoned another…or perhaps several more which were even more dangerous. If that had happened, more of us may have been killed.”
“Nadia’s death is NOT your fault,” Lindrell insisted, giving me a steady look. “The only ones to blame are the daemonites who brought the daemons there. Don’t forget that…ever. You did well. You both did.”
“You both need more training,” Shannon added, smiling faintly. “But you did quite well for your first battle.”
“The farewell ceremony is tomorrow,” Lindrell said with a sad look. “We won’t resume training until at least the next day. For now, continue to rest. You’ve both earned it.”
For the rest of the dinner, we avoided any conversation relating to the daemons or what had happened at the town. I was glad for the change of topic, though a little self-conscious when the conversation turned to me, or at least to the atra and what it meant to be one. Lindrell and Shannon had both been surprised by the revelation that I was atra…and that Freya was as well. And though neither said it, I was pretty sure they were embarrassed by the fact that they’d never even suspected what my odd readings on the scales really meant.
When we’d finished eating, Lindrell put her good hand on my shoulder again and told me, “Go find something to help you relax. You’ve earned the rest.” She looked to Julie and added, “Both of you.”
“And what about you?” I asked wryly, my eyes going to her arm. If anyone needed to relax and rest up, it was her.
Lindrell just smiled and responded, “I’m going to my workshop to do some touchup work on a project. I find woodcarving to be very relaxing.”
“Then I will leave you as well,” Shannon said, giving Julie and I a faint nod of her head before she and Lindrell took off.
“So,” Julie started, giving me a curious look. “Do you have anything planned?”
“Sure,” I responded with a roll of my eyes. “I was just going to put in a movie and surf the net.”
Julie laughed and punched me in the shoulder, much harder than she would have been able to before becoming Val Kyr. Fortunately, I could take a hit a bit better than I could before becoming Val Kyr as well. “You asshole,” she joked. “Even with the new packaging, you never change.”
I let out a faint sigh, relieved at that statement. I glanced down at myself, frowning slightly. I was getting used to being a girl, enough so that I didn’t think about it too much most of the time, but it still made me feel awkward and self-conscious whenever I did.
“I was just going to go take a bath,” I told Julie, thinking that a nice hot soak was just what I needed.
“I’ll come with you,” she quickly volunteered.
Julie and I started to leave the cafeteria, but just as we were reaching the exit, Lei called to us. I acted as though I didn’t notice her and continued hurrying on my way.
“What was that about?” Julie demanded. “That was rude…”
“So was letting Debbie die,” I responded bitterly, earning look of surprise from Julie.
Julie looked like she wanted to say something, but she seemed to realize that I didn’t want to talk about it right then because she kept quiet. Neither of us said a thing as we continued going to the bath house together.
Once we arrived, I got undressed as quickly as I could, trying very hard to ignore the fact that anyone could see me. I was fully aware that one Val Kyr in other pool was keeping a close eye on me, watching with an appreciative expression that made me blush. I didn’t really relax until I’d climbed into the pool and my body was mostly submerged.
“I’ll never get used to taking baths with a bunch of other people,” I complained to Julie, who nodded knowingly.
“I know what you mean,” she agreed. “I never would have been confident enough to do it before…” She gestured down at herself, a reminder of just how much her own body had improved as a result of becoming Val Kyr.
The baths were just one of many things I had to get used to in my new life. Living without technology, training for combat, fighting monsters from my worst nightmares, and of course, there was my new gender. It was all so overwhelming, I suspected the only reason I hadn’t completely freaked out was that Lindrell had been keeping me too busy for that.
Julie and I both soaked in near silence for several minutes, just relaxing in the hot water. Then she finally said, “At first, it was really awesome…being in Australia and on a real mission…”
“I bet,” I agreed, not sure what to say.
“At first, it was just a few small daemons outside town,” Julie continued quietly. “Then bam…a lot more of them came out of nowhere…and some big nasties too…” Her voice was shaking.
I winced as I remembered the town, the way it had looked after the daemons had gone through it and killed nearly everyone. I could only imagine how much worse it was watching the slaughter happen but not being able to stop it. Without saying a word, I reached out and took Julie’s hand in mine.
“I was terrified,” Julie admitted. “I’ve never been more scared in my life, not even when we were at school…” She paused and was silent for several seconds before adding, “But now, I really see why we need to stop the daemons… We can’t let them get loose on Earth.”
“No, we can’t,” I agreed, imagining what would happen if that ripper had opened a gate into a crowded place like Times Square instead of a small town in the middle of nowhere. It was enough to make me shudder and silently promise myself that I wouldn’t let that happen.
A minute later, Nicole came over, already in the process of undressing as she asked, “Can I join you?”
“Sure,” Julie responded with a grin.
Nicole finished setting all her clothes off to the side, then she climbed into the water with us. I tried not to stare at her, or at least at the injuries that hadn’t fully healed. There were several spots on her body that were scarred patches, where the acid vomit had eaten through her armor. However, the worst was her face, half of which was covered with scar tissue, where her skin and muscles had grown back but hadn’t yet finished the job. She even had a patch over the eye.
“You’re looking better,” Julie said cautiously.
Nicole nodded grimly at that, then admitted, “It doesn’t hurt quiet as bad as it did, but it itches like crazy…”
Nicole took her seat in the pool on the side of us, intentionally positioning herself so that Julie and I saw the healthy side of her face instead of the scarred one. It was obvious that she was self-conscious about her injury, so I wasn’t about to make any Harvey Dent jokes.
“Damn, this feels good,” Nicole said with a long satisfied sigh.
“Have you seen Rebecca?” Julie asked Nicole, who nodded confirmation.
“She’s healing,” Nicole responded with a shrug and then a wince. “Not as quickly as me, but she’ll be fine in no time.” Then she joked, “But we do have matching eye patches…”
“You should see if Ragnhild wants to join your Nick Fury fan club,” I suggested with a weak grin.
“Nick who?” Nicole asked with a blank look. Then her expression brightened and she gasped, “Oh, that character Samuel Jackson plays…”
Julie rolled her eyes, probably over the fact that Nicole hadn’t immediately recognized the character. After all, Julie had once gone to a convention in a rule 63 Nick Fury cosplay…the comic version, not the Samuel Jackson version. Of course, I’d gone to the same convention doing my own Rule 63 costume as the Black Widower.
The three of us continued to chat a little as we soaked, until Nicole abruptly asked me, “Are you avoiding Lei?”
“Yeah,” Julie added, giving me an almost accusatory look. “I noticed you were doing that…”
“Why?” Nicole asked, seeming surprised.
I didn’t answer at first, so Julie blurted out, “You said it was something about that Debbie woman…”
I grimaced at that, feeling angry again at the way Debbie had died when she didn’t need to. I’d barely even known the woman, but her death still really bothered me, probably because out of everyone who’d died, hers was the one that could have been avoided. Of course, Lei hadn’t been the only jatta there, but Lindrell and Nicole both had the excuse of being badly injured while Lei had been right there and had done nothing.
“Lei was right there,” I finally said, my words tinged with my bitterness. “Debbie was dying right in front of her, but Lei didn’t heal her.”
“What?” Nicole asked, giving me a surprised look.
“I know there are rules against making people Val Kyr without permission,” I continued, “but she probably would have made a great recruit…”
“She did seem pretty brave,” Julie agreed.
Nicole just stared at me for a moment with an odd expression before saying, “But it wouldn’t have done any good…”
“Why not?” I demanded.
“That woman might have been brave enough,” Nicole said carefully, “but she never could have been Val Kyr…and Lei couldn’t have healed her if she had tried. She didn’t have any Val…”
“What does that have to do with it?” I asked, feeling more confused by Nicole’s reaction than anything. “I mean, isn’t that what giving her jatta would have done?”
“No,” Nicole answered, looking thoughtful for a moment, as though trying to figure out how to explain this. “We jatta don’t give Val to people…just jatta energy. We can’t even really heal anyone, only give them the jatta to heal themselves. If someone doesn’t have any Val, then giving them jatta doesn’t do anything at all…”
“But what about me?” I demanded. “Lindrell healed me…”
“But you had a Val spark,” Nicole tried to explain. “All Lindrell did was wake it up…and give you enough jatta to heal and convert you faster.”
I was silent for a moment as I absorbed what she said, feeling a little confused. I’d heard several people talk about a Val spark, but I’d thought that was what Lindrell gave me when she’d filled me with jatta energy.
“How come I had a Val spark then and Debbie didn’t?” I asked, now more curious than anything. “Where would I even get something like that?”
“You don’t know?” Nicole blurted out in surprise, looking between me and Julie, who shook her head too. “Hasn’t anyone told you? You inherited it…”
“Inherited?” I repeated.
“The only people who can become Val Kyr are ones who’ve already been touched with Val…who already have a spark of it to awaken,” Nicole explained, looking as though she was surprised that we didn’t already know this. “And the only way to have a spark of Val is if you inherit it…” She paused at that, looking back and forth between me and Julie again before saying, “The Val was originally given to us by the goddess who created the Val Kyr…”
Julie’s eyes widened in realization, just a moment before my own. “Then that means…”
“Every Val Kyr…,” Nicole stated firmly. “Every person with a spark of Val…is descended from one of the original Val Kyr that the first Freya created…”
--------------------
The third courtyard was a special place, one reserved for honoring the fallen Val Kyr. The walls surrounding the large courtyard were etched with the names of every Val Kyr who’d ever fallen, many of which were written in runes and other languages I couldn’t read. The entire courtyard was a memorial and radiated an air of respect and honor.
Many Val Kyr I’d never seen before had arrived in Val Halla last night and this morning, returning in order to attend the farewell ceremony and honor those who’d recently died. Most of the Val Kyr who were currently present were dressed in armor, just as Julie and I were. Lindrell had told us that this was traditional for farewell ceremonies, an indication of respect for a warrior.
I saw Lei a short distance away, though I didn’t go over and say hi to her. I wasn’t as angry with Lei as I had been, but there was still a little resentment that had yet to fade away entirely. Now, I understood intellectually that there was nothing Lei could have done for Debbie, but my emotions hadn’t fully accepted that yet…nor had they completely released the guilt I still felt over Nadia.
At the moment, the courtyard was filled with Val Kyr, all except for an area in the middle where the bodies of the fallen Val Kyr had been placed. According to Lindrell, it was traditional to cremate those who died, but for the moment, the fire had yet to be lit.
Since Julie and I were the newest Val Kyr and had known the dead the least, we stood back out of the way and just watched. Many of the other Val Kyr went towards the bodies, stopping only a short distance away and bowing as they said their goodbyes. Tears kept coming to my eyes, though I quickly wiped them away before anyone noticed.
Fleur was a short distance away, busy talking with two other women in French. A couple other Val Kyr were having a conversation in German, and I’d heard other languages being used as well.
According to Lindrell, English was the official language in Val Halla and had been for ‘only’ a few hundred years, ever since the British Empire had been at the height of its power. Before then, there had been a long period where there had been no official language, so every Val Kyr had learned how to speak several different ones just so they all could communicate.
I smiled faintly as I listened in on some of these conversations, not having a clue what was being said. I supposed that if you wanted a private conversation in Val Halla, it made sense to have it in a language that not everyone understood. I made a mental note to see about getting some lessons once everything settled down.
“There you are,” Nicole announced when she saw us.
Nicole was one of the few who wasn’t currently wearing armor, but that was because her armor had been badly damaged and had yet to be repaired. She looked much better than she had yesterday, with her injuries having healed almost entirely. She was no longer wearing her eye patch since her eye had grown back, but it was still milky white and she couldn’t see out of it yet.
“Hey,” I greeted Nicole, knowing that she had to feel even worse than we did. After all, Constance, her friend and the leader of her triad was one of those who’d died. I could see her puffy good eye and knew that she’d been crying as well. “How are you holding up?”
“All right,” Nicole responded with a forced smile. “I’m really going to miss Constance… She was a bit of a bitch at times, but she could really be nice when she wanted.”
I nodded at that, knowing exactly what she meant. That same description could have been given to Lindrell, who could be quite nice and friendly, but a complete bitch when she was doing her training. I shuddered slightly as I thought about her fondness for ‘pop quizzes’.
“Oh,” Nicole abruptly said, “I wanted you to meet someone…” With that, Nicole brought us over to another Val Kyr, one of the new arrivals who I hadn’t met before. “This is Helen… Would you believe, she’s my great grandpa’s little sister?”
I looked at Helen in surprise, not really seeing any family resemblance to Nicole. “It’s nice to meet you,” I greeted the woman.
“And I you,” she responded, giving me a curious look. Her eyes went down to my white sash and she frowned slightly.
“Michelle is an atra,” Nicole quickly told her. “Just like Freya.”
“I see,” Helen responded, giving me another curious look. “I’ve heard of atra, but I’ve never actually seen one…”
“Except Freya,” Nicole reminded her.
Helen nodded at that. “True. But if you’ll forgive me, I must pay my respects.” With that, she made her way towards the center of the courtyard…and the bodies.
“Wow,” Julie told Nicole. “It must be weird seeing Helen like that…”
“It was at first,” Nicole admitted. “But I tend to think of her as more of an aunt than anything else. Still, she has some really funny stories about my great grandpa from when he was a kid.”
“I wonder if I’m related to anyone else,” Julie mused as she looked over the crowed with a thoughtful look.
“Probably,” Nicole responded with a shrug. “But it might be a few generations back… I know one triad has three generations of the same family serving in it.”
“Wow,” I said, trying to imagine what that would be like. As it was, I wasn’t even sure how I’d inherited my Val, not even whether it was inherited through my Mom or Dad’s side.
Nicole nodded at that and continued, “I know some Val Kyr grew up knowing about their family legacy, and that they’d probably be recruited when they were old enough. But others, like all of us I guess, were so separated from it all that we had no idea until we were recruited.”
“You should probably go ask Shannon,” I told Julie. “I heard someone say that she’d actually been watching your family for a few generations, so she’d probably know if you have any relatives here…”
“Good point,” Julie agreed with an eager grin.
“And speaking of the devil,” Nicole added, gesturing to the side where I saw Shannon and Lindrell walking towards us.
When Shannon and Lindrell were closer, Julie blurted out, “Nicole said I might have some distant relatives here…”
“Did she?” Lindrell asked, giving Nicole a flat look.
Shannon smiled faintly before answering, “One of your ancestors was a close friend…and a member of my triad.”
“Really?” Julie exclaimed in excitement. Then her expression dulled and she said, “You said she was…”
“Daemons?” I asked quietly.
Shannon shook her head, looking a little sad. “Estrid. She was one of Estrid’s victims.”
Julie gulped at that. “Oh… Do you know if I have any other relatives here…still alive?”
Shannon hesitated a moment before answering, “You do have some very distant cousins…but most of us do. Jass is my distant niece…and Sharra is Lindrell’s great aunt.”
“Really?” I asked, growing more curious. “What about me?”
“I don’t know,” Shannon admitted. “I don’t know of your bloodline, but that isn’t surprising. The greater the distance between you and your most recent Val Kyr ancestor, the less likely anyone would be to know of your bloodline.”
“There are many lost bloodlines,” Lindrell added, giving me an odd look.
Before I could ask any more questions, the farewell ceremony began. Freya stood up front, dressed in her formal armor and began to give a speech. She started off by naming each of the Val Kyr who’d been killed in the recent battle, as well as saying how long they’d served. Everyone was silent as she spoke.
“They have served with honor and distinction,” Freya announced, her voice strong and clear, though I could hear the sadness in it. “These brave women have made the ultimate sacrifice, and they shall not be forgotten…”
Once Freya was finished with her speech, she stood aside and several other Val Kyr spoke, talking about the dead women. I barely knew any of them, but I still mourned their deaths, especially Nadia’s. Some of the Val Kyr remained stoic, but many cried, surprising me as powerful warriors hugged each other.
“I have served beside Nadia for thirty years,” Lei announced sadly. “She was not just a fellow warrior, but a great friend. She loved expensive vodka, cheap men, and had a guilty fondness for disco. She will be greatly missed…”
Tears ran down the large woman’s cheeks and I suddenly felt guilty for not even thinking about what she must be feeling. I’d been so busy blaming her for not helping Debbie, that I hadn’t even considered the fact that she’d just lost a friend. I suddenly felt really low.
When Lei was finished speaking, Gretchen began to talk. Lei started towards us to quietly talk with Lindrell, but after a few minutes, I told her, “I’m really sorry about Nadia.” I felt another wave of guilt as I thought about my own small part in her death.
“Thank you,” Lei told me with a faint smile, putting a hand on my shoulder. “This is the danger we all face…the price we must all eventually pay in order to protect the world from daemons.”
There was no accusation or blame from Lei, which made me feel even more guilty. However, she just gave me a gentle smile and a squeeze to my shoulder, then looked back towards Gretchen as she spoke about Nadia and the other fallen Val Kyr.
Once all the speeches were done, the fire was started and encouraged with some essence. All the bodies were engulfed in the large bonfire, and for several minutes, everyone just stood there, staring into the flames and saying goodbye.
While everyone else was starting to depart, Shannon shook her head and told Lindrell, “I don’t like this. The last time we took this many casualties in a single battle was a century ago…”
“The daemonites have a leader,” Lindrell said grimly. “And a ripper. These are dangerous days indeed.”
“They’re going to pay,” Lei said, stating this as a simple fact. She held her hammer up, scowling deeply and I could see in her eyes that she might be acting calm, but she took this very personally. I would have felt sorry for whoever she went after, if they hadn’t deserved it so badly.
Just then, someone called out, “Michelle.”
I looked over and saw Freya coming towards me with a grim expression on her face. She was definitely in Freya mode at the moment, and quite intimidating.
“Freya,” Lindrell greeted her cautiously.
“I need to borrow Michelle,” Freya told her. Then she turned to me and said, “Come, I think that now is the perfect time for a lesson.”
I was a little confused by that statement since this definitely didn’t seem like a very good time for lessons. After all, we’d just barely finished with the farewell ceremony, and the bodies were still in the process of burning. However, I merely nodded and followed behind her.
Freya led me into the same building as the armory, then into an area of the building where I hadn’t been before. “Every pillar possesses abilities the others do not,” she told me as we walked. “The atra are no different. Though we lack the strength in any pillar to duplicate those abilities, we have enough of each that we can combine them in ways that no single pillar can.”
I was startled by that, but Freya didn’t add anything more. Instead, she led me into a hall where there were several heavy metal doors, being guarded by two armed Val Kyr. Without a word, one of them opened a door and let us in.
The room on the other side of the door was obviously a prison cell, with a prisoner included. I stared at the man who was stretched out on the bed, his stomach wrapped up in bandages. He was tall, thin…and familiar looking. This was the daemonite summoner I’d shot a couple days ago.
When we’d searched the town to kill off the remaining daemons, we’d found that the summoner was still alive. Freya had told us that she wanted a prisoner to question, so we’d brought him back to Val Halla…even though he wasn’t in any condition to talk.
“We’ve treated his wound,” Ionne told me, “but it isn’t enough. I fear he may die before we can get any answers from him.”
I didn’t bother asking why no one had given him any jatta, having learned the answer to that one already. However, I wasn’t sure why we were here at the moment, or what it had to do with Ionne’s lesson.
Ionne began unwrapping the bandage around the daemonite’s stomach, revealing the hole I’d shot through him. He grunted and moved faintly, but not much. One of the guards came into the room and stood back, as though the daemonite was still a threat.
“Pay attention,” Ionne told me.
I focused all my senses, wondering what she wanted me to pay attention to. Then I felt her summoning essence and jatta…at the same time. This wasn’t nearly the amount of jatta energy that a jatta would be able to call forth, and definitely not enough heal a Val Kyr.
“Essence has no effect on anything with a life force,” Ionne told me calmly. “And jatta energy can give strength and vitality to Val Kyr…but does nothing to any who are not.”
Then Ionne did something, somehow merging the essence and jatta energy together into her hands, which she then placed on the summoner’s torso, next to the wound. I could feel her pushing the combined energies into him, and she stood there with a look of fierce determination on her face as she did so. Then as I watched, the wound began to seal up and heal.
Ionne pulled back, gasping for breath and looking exhausted, though I barely noticed her. Instead, I was staring at the summoner…who she’d healed. He wasn’t Val Kyr, but she’d been able to heal him anyway.
“If combined,” Ionne explained, “the essence and jatta can be used to do something that neither alone can…”
“You healed him,” I blurted out unnecessarily.
“Not completely,” Ionne said with a sigh. “But enough…” She was silent for a moment, then explained, “If you combine the energies, you can control the flesh to a small degree…enough to heal a small area.”
I gasped at the sudden realization that if I’d known how to do this myself, then I might have been able to save Debbie. I might have been able to heal her even when a jatta wouldn’t have been. My stomach knotted at the thought.
Almost as though she was reading my mind, Ionne continued, “This takes a great deal of effort, and you must possess enough of both jatta and essence.”
Ionne paused at that and gave me a gentle look, and though she didn’t say anything, I knew what she meant. During the battle, I’d used all my essence to charge my sword, so by the time Debbie had been injured, I wouldn’t have had enough essence to do this…even if I’d known how. However, that didn’t make me feel much better.
“I regret having to waste such an ability on a deamonite,” Ionne said, staring down at the prisoner with a grim expression. “However, I require him to survive long enough to answer my questions.”
“Is that safe?” I asked carefully. “What if he tries to summon some daemons…?”
“If he tries to summon a daemon,” Ionne said, looking to the guard, “stop him…by any means necessary.”
“Understood, Freya,” the guard responded with a faint smile. I could see from her expression that she was actually hoping he did try something.
In spite of the healing, the daemonite wasn’t able to answer questions quite yet. The other guard brought him water and let him rest while Ionne explained what she’d done and how I might be able to do the same thing.
“This is not an easy ability to use,” Ionne told me. “And unlike with a jatta infusion, you control the flesh itself…much as a notru does stone or water. Any mistake can make the injury worse.”
Once the daemonite had recovered enough strength, enough to sit up, though it was obvious that this took some effort, she began questioning him. However, he ignored her questions, doing nothing but glaring at her.
“Go ahead and torture me,” the daemonite finally announced defiantly. “I’ll tell you nothing…”
“Gladly,” the guard responded, though only looked to Ionne and made no move.
“That will be unnecessary,” Ionne stated in a calm tone. She stared at the daemonite for a moment, her expression going grim. “Michelle… Pay attention.”
With that, Ionne began to draw forth essence, the same way she had before healing the daemonite. But instead of pushing out jatta energy, she began to push out kaern energy instead. I watched intently, stretching my senses to the limit to see exactly what she was doing. Essence and kaern energies merged and fused, and when Ionne touched the daemonite’s forehead, she pushed the energies inside.
“I lay a geis upon you,” Ionne announced, talking to the daemonite though I knew this was for my benefit rather than his. “You will answer any question I ask of you. Of this, you have no choice.”
The daemonite glared at her but didn’t say anything. Still, I could see a spark of fear in his eyes along with the hatred. I wished I could feel bad for him, but I couldn’t. Not after what he’d done at that town.
“You have mind control powers?” I asked Ionne, a little stunned by that revelation.
“A geis allows us to impart a single command,” Ionne answered, not taking her eyes off the daemonite. She looked tired, the same way she had a short time ago when she’d healed him, which suggested that this geis thing was just as difficult. “I cannot truly control his actions or mind, merely force or proscribe a specific and limited behavior.” She finally turned to look at me, giving me a tired smile. “A person can hold but one geis, and it will fade with time.”
“I’m not telling you anything, you Val Kyr whore,” the daemonite spat at Ionne. The guard looked like she wanted to hit our prisoner, but Ionne waved her away.
“What is your name?” Ionne calmly asked the daemonite.
“Jerome Stillwell,” he responded immediately. Then his eyes widened with a look of surprise, making me realize that he hadn’t intended to answer.
“How many daemonites are working together?” Ionne asked him.
Jerome looked like he was trying not to answer, though he immediately said, “Three in my group.”
“You said in your group,” Ionne mused. “How many daemonites are working together?”
“I don’t know,” Jerome answered, looking like he’d sucked on a lemon. He was clearly not happy about having to answer these questions.
Ionne frowned at that, then urged him, “Why don’t you know?”
Jerome glared at Ionne as he said, “Security. Only the boss knows everyone…”
There was a pause as Ionne stood there with a grim expression on her face. On the surface, she seemed calm, but I’d grown to know her enough to recognize that she was apprehensive. “And who is your boss? Who is in charge of your organization?”
Jerome visibly struggled to avoid answering the question, but it did no good. After several long seconds, he finally blurted out the answer, one that sent chills down my spine. “Her name is Estrid.”
--------------------
I stood atop the wall of Val Halla, silently staring off into the mists. I saw images in those mists, shifting and changing whenever I took my eyes from them. There was a city…a mountain…a forest…and then nothing at all. These were just shadows from the real world, flickering across the proverbial wall.
Then I turned my attention to the barren stretch of grown below me, and to the daemons that were circling Val Halla. There was a mixture of daemons present, some minor ones that weren’t much of a threat, but there were also larger and much more dangerous creatures as well. Each and every one of them had been drawn here by their instincts, drawn to try reaching the other side of the wall and the anchor point that was protected within.
My eyes settled on one daemon, a three headed monstrosity. I clutched my bow tightly and took aim, not bothering to aim for any of the heads. I remembered this type of daemon from one of Lindrell’s lectures, and in spite of having three heads, it only had one brain. Its brain…or at least what served as one…was hidden in its torso. So after taking careful aim, I charged my arrow and let it fly. The arrow hit the daemon in the side, in the spot closest to its ‘brain’. I blew a large hole in the creature, but it wasn’t quite deep enough. Fortunately, I hadn’t used all my essence with that last arrow, so I let all the remaining essence flow from the bow to the second arrow, then I fired that one, right into the hole I’d already made. The daemon fell over dead.
“Good shot,” Lindrell announced from beside me, giving me a nod of approval.
“You totally pawned that noob,” Julie added with a broad grin before teasing, “But you still didn’t one shot him.”
Shannon, who was also standing on the roof with us, and who was the only one with a bow beside myself, didn’t say a word. Instead, she took aim at another daemon and released the arrow, hitting the creature in the neck. He howled in pain and then ran off into the mist. Her arrow hadn’t been charged with any essence, so had merely been a normal arrow, which was of limited use against a lot of these daemons.
In spite of the fact that Shannon and I were shooting at daemons, we weren’t actually up here for target practice. Instead, that was merely the way we were entertaining ourselves while we waited. Without saying a word, I fired another shot, one that lacked the benefit of being enhanced. I hit one daemon in the head, and that was immediately followed up by one of her shots, catching the same daemon in the head.
It had been a week since our big battle, and though the first few days afterwards had been all about resting, healing, and mourning, the rest of the week had been a return to training. We’d been training even harder than before, focusing more on how we would work together as a team. We’d even done group sparring, with our triad going against others. Of course, we outnumbered all the other triads, but our sparring partners had usually been able to find a fourth member to join them for the match in order to make things fair.
This morning, we’d been doing more group sparring when Ionne had arrived and put a halt to things. “Go to the south wall for a demonstration,” she’d told us before turning and leaving. Now my triad was standing on top of the south wall, waiting for whatever it was that Ionne wanted to show us.
We didn’t have to wait long before a section of the stone wall opened up, courtesy of two notru, who’d created a small gate. Four women walked through the opening and into the barren daemon filled ground. I immediately recognized Freya and her three generals…or more accurately, I suddenly realized…Freya’s triad.
Ragnhild charged in front, swinging a massive axe that was much like the one Lindrell used. She drove her axe right into the skull of a large daemon, killing it with a single powerful blow. However, other daemons quickly began to converge on them.
I reached for an arrow to help, but Lindrell put a hand on mine to stop me. “No,” Lindrell said, not taking her eyes of the fight below us. “Our purpose here is to observe…not to interfere.”
Ragnhild was facing off against another large daemon while Sharra swept her long spear along the ground, sending a ripple of stone to knock back most of the approaching daemons so they didn’t get overrun. While this was happening, Ailsa stayed close and called out warnings, prioritizing the approaching daemons and using a bow to shoot at those which were most vulnerable. This was an experienced and well-practiced triad.
Freya seemed to be everywhere, quickly leaping into any opening where she was needed. When Ragnhild faced a massive hellhound, Freya moved to the side and used her double sided spear to impale the creature in the throat. When a daemon charged their backside, from where Sharra wasn’t able to cover, Freya suddenly leapt at the daemon, driving her spear into the creature. There was a flash of lightning from her spear and the daemon fell to the ground dead. However, Freya didn’t stop and dwell on that creature, but shifted again, taking a small daemon that had made its way too close.
I watched the fight in amazement, realizing that Freya was trying to demonstrate not only what a properly trained and experienced atra could do, but also how an atra fit in with a triad. I certainly wasn’t the only one who was impressed by this display as increasing numbers of Val Kyr climbed up to the walls and joined in watching. I heard enough comments to realize that most of these women had never seen Freya in combat before, and they were definitely impressed.
When another large daemon at them, charging while Ragnhild and Sharra were both occupied, Freya took that one as well, repeating what she’d done the last time almost exactly. She drove her spear into the daemon and there was another flash of lightning, which left the creature dead.
I was a bit stunned by that move since there hadn’t been enough time for Freya to build up the essence to charge her weapon again so soon, but she had. But then, I realized that this wasn’t what had happened at all. Jatta and kearn don’t charge their weapons in the middle of a battle, they charge their weapons slowly, keeping them fully charged until they need to unleash essence stored within. Freya hadn’t charged her spear twice…she’d gone into the fight with it already charged ahead of time.
As the fight continued, Freya found another opportunity for a powerful strike, dropping her spear and drawing her sword, then immediately unleashing the essence that was already stored within. She sliced right through a large daemon with ease, earning some gasps of amazement from the audience. By this point, I’d realized that she was cutting loose with her essence a little more than she really needed to, mostly just to show off and impress everyone. It was definitely working.
The fight lasted only a few minutes more, leaving dead daemons scattered about while the remaining daemons retreated into the mist. There were cheers from the gathered Val Kyr while one woman announced, “That is why she is Freya.” It took me a moment to realize that the speaker was Hilde, who seemed to have taken a break from her kitchen in order to watch the show.
“That was awesome,” Julie exclaimed when it was all over, nearly bouncing with excitement.
“Impressive,” Lindrell said with an amused look.
I nodded agreement, in a bit of a daze as I thought about what I’d just seen. Freya had been moving around a lot, using her reflexes and awareness to be where she was needed most, and then to strike hard and fast. If that was how an atra was really supposed to fight, then I was pretty sure that I couldn’t keep up…at least not like that.
In video game terms, most of Freya’s essence manifestations provided a lot of burst damage, but mine didn’t. Sure, I could provide some nice concentrated bursts of damage with a bow, but not with a sword or spear. Instead, those manifestations were more like damage over time effects, which would require a somewhat different strategy to use. Still, I’d learned a great deal from watching Freya, and I was already considering how I might make use of it.
Once Freya and the others had come back inside Val Halla, the notru guards sealed the entrance they’d made and returned it to being just another blank section of wall. The audience had already begun to disperse now that the action was over, so we left the wall as well and went to find Freya. She and her generals were waiting for us.
Ragnhild had a grim look of satisfaction, the kind that might make kids run away in fear. The fact that she was cleaning her axe with a rag probably would have contributed to that quite a bit. “It has been too long since I’ve been able to properly stretch my muscles,” she commented.
“That it has,” Sharra agreed, leaning on her spear and appearing to be in a good mood, in spite of the fact that she had daemon blood splattered across her cheek.
“It was decent exercise,” Ailsa admitted grudgingly. “Yet still pointless.” She gave Freya an odd look and said, “One new atra will not change what has come and passed. You know as well as I that the time of the atra has passed and that there will be no more.”
“Perhaps,” Freya responded with a faint smile, one which clearly said that at the moment, she was Ionne rather than Freya. Then she looked over my triad, her eyes settling on me for several seconds before she said, “I hope our demonstration will be of use in learning to integrate your new center.”
“It was…educational,” Lindrell told her, pausing to glance at me with a thoughtful look. “And that does give me some ideas for further training…”
“Good,” Freya responded, her eyes going to me and then Julie before telling Lindrell, “Make sure they are on time.”
Lindrell merely bowed her head slightly. “Of course.”
I was about to ask Lindrell what Ionne meant, when a Val Kyr hurried in our direction. She was dressed in normal civilian clothes and wouldn’t have drawn any odd looks back home, if it wasn’t for the blood on her shirt. “Freya,” she exclaimed, almost frantic.
“Patrice,” Ionne greeted the woman, shifting back to her Freya body language right before my eyes. “Report.”
Patrice stopped and bowed quickly to Freya. “Connie,” she started, pausing with a look of anger and grief flashing over her face. “The young woman I was sent to recruit…”
“Where is she?” Ionne asked grimly.
“Daemonites,” Patrice responded with a snarl. “I’d barely made contact when daemonites attacked…”
Ionne…Freya scowled with a cold look. “What happened?”
“They killed Connie and her whole family,” Patrice explained, barely containing her own rage. “How did they find us so fast?”
Freya stood there for a moment with calm expression that hid the grief I felt from her. “Victoria will need to be informed of grand-daughter’s fate…” Then Freya began leading Patrice off without even looking back at us. “Come…you will tell me everything.”
“Oh my God,” Julie blurted out once Freya had gone. She suddenly looked pale, obviously remembering how the daemons attacked us at school…and probably realizing how lucky she was that they hadn’t come after her when she was at home with her family.
Shannon and Lindrell shared a dark look, then Lindrell admitted, “As you well know, this isn’t the first time daemonites have attempted to kill our new recruits. We think they’re trying to cripple us by killing our new recruits before they even become Val Kyr.”
“We don’t know how they’re finding us so quickly,” Shannon admitted.
I grimaced, remembering the daemon that had nearly torn me in two, reminding myself yet again of how lucky I was to survive. I’d lost nearly everything because of those daemonites, but I was still alive and how I had a purpose.
“Why don’t we ask our prisoner?” I suggested, knowing that Freya’s geis was still active.
Of course, we hadn’t actually gotten a whole lot from our daemonite prisoner, due mostly to the fact that he nearly bit his own tongue off in order to keep from talking. But once he was healed up enough to talk again, we’d go back to the questioning. For now, the guards were making sure he was gagged, with a mouth guard to prevent him from trying that again.
“You haven’t heard?” Lindrell asked, giving me a curious look. At my blank expression, she explained, “He killed himself last night. Somehow, the daemonite was able to slip loose enough to summon a lesser daemon…which then killed him.”
“Suicide by daemon,” Julie said with a shudder.
Lindrell nodded at that. “Freya and her generals will decide how to deal with that issue. For now, there is no need for you to worry of this.” She paused, giving us both gentle looks and adding, “Go and take some time for yourselves. We will meet again in three hours.”
I nodded at that, thankful for the rest. Yesterday, the training had gotten a little rough…as it usually did. However, my injuries hadn’t healed quite as fast as normal, or at least not all of them had. After the training, my guts had felt like they were in knots, and it had only gotten worse. Even now, when every bruise from this morning had already healed up, my guts were still knotted up in a very uncomfortable way.
“That whole daemon fight was awesome,” Julie told me with an excited grin as we started back towards our living area. “I mean, did you know Freya could fight like that?”
“You should try being on the receiving end of it,” I responded with a faint smile. “Trust me…it hurts.”
“Oh yeah,” Julie responded, giving me an odd look as she remembered that Freya was my mentor. “I don’t know if you’re lucky or unlucky…”
“It depends on the day,” I said with a weak chuckle, thinking about of the days she got particularly rough with the training.
We were nearly back to the area where we lived when the knot in my gut suddenly clenched up painfully, making me pause and let out a loud gasp as I waited for it fade. “Are you okay?” Julie asked me with a worried look.
“I’m not sure,” I answered honestly. “Victoria kicked me in the stomach pretty hard when we were sparring yesterday, but instead of healing, it seems to be getting worse…”
“That’s weird,” Julie said, giving me a surprised look. “I mean, your Val should have healed you right up already…”
“I know,” I told her with a forced smile. “I think she messed me up a lot worse than I realized.”
Julie stared at me for a moment, then let out a sigh. “Then stop moving around… Sit down and give it a chance to heal…”
“That was what I had in mind,” I agreed. Then I paused at the entrance to the restroom and added, “If you’ll excuse me, I have to use the little boys…girls room.”
As soon as I was in a bathroom stall, I began undoing my armor so I could do my business. I’d been wearing the armor every day for the last week, so I’d become quite familiar with the process and was able to do so quickly and easily. I felt a faint amusement at that fact, since not that long ago, I never would have expected to wear armor outside of a cosplay, and certainly not enough to become comfortable in it.
Once I’d removed my armor enough to relieve myself, I froze and stared down at my blood soaked panties with a gasp of shock and horror. I was bleeding…enough to soak my panties and even run down my leg beneath the armor. For a moment, all I could do was stare at the blood, then I realized where the blood was coming from and I felt an even greater surge of horror and disgust.
“Oh shit,” I gasped, my first thought being that I’d been hurt a lot worse during my training than I’d realized. I must have ruptured something and had internal bleeding. But then, I suddenly realized that this wasn’t a training injury at all. This was something far worse. “Oh hell no…”
“Michelle,” Julie said from outside the stall, her voice filled with worry. “Are you okay?”
“That depends on how you define okay,” I responded with a weak joke. Then I groaned, feeling shocked, horrified, disgusted, and relieved that I wasn’t really injured…all at once. I was such a confused mass of emotions that I just burst into tears.
“Michelle,” Julie demanded. “What’s wrong?”
I tried wiping away the tears and spat out, “I’m bleeding somewhere I shouldn’t even have…”
“Bleeding…,” Julie started. “Oh my God… You’re having your period?”
“You don’t need to sound so happy about it,” I snapped.
“Sorry,” Julie told me, but I was pretty sure she was smirking as she said it.
I pulled out a massive wad of toilet paper, thankful that this place was stocked with the good quality stuff, not that it would do any good against this mess. “This is gross, nasty, disgusting…”
“You’re preaching to the choir,” Julie said in a cheerful tone that really made me want to hit her…or at least give her a raspberry.
I spent several minutes simultaneously cursing and crying before Julie coaxed me out of the stall so I could get cleaned up. Fortunately, my armor had slowly become saturated with essence during the last week, making it not only lighter and more comfortable, but also making the blood come out with ease.
I was humiliated, though Julie was sympathetic and helpful rather than teasing me. Of course, I had no doubt that the teasing would come later, once I wasn’t freaking out quite so badly. And to make it worse, I knew that I should have expected this. Lindrell had provided sanitary products along with the clothes, cabinet, and mirror, so I’d had plenty of warning that it would happen eventually…but I’d been oblivious. Or more accurately, I’d been in denial.
While I was cleaning up, Julie ran to my room to get me some pads, tampons, and clean panties, then patiently advised me on how to use them. The whole time, I told myself that this was some kind of karmic payback from when I was twelve years old and had teased one of the girls at school after I’d found out she was having her period. After this, I was NEVER going to laugh at a girl for going through this again.
Once I was cleaned up and presentable again, I left the restroom, though I really wanted to just go into my quarters, lock the door, and hide there until this all went away. The only thing that kept me from doing this was the fact that Julie went through this every month and never made a big deal about it. If she could walk around in public while bleeding from her yoohoo…so could I.
“During my first time,” Julie told me sympathetically, “my mom gave me a glass of wine and a tub of Ben and Jerry’s…”
“We don’t have either of those things here,” I reminded her.
However, Julie just snorted and pointed out, “I don’t think we’ll have any problem finding the alcohol…not around here. And I know for a fact that Hilde has a lot of chocolate stocked up in the pantry…”
Julie and I went to the cafeteria where we immediately ran into Nicole. Nicole was now completely healed and showed no signs that she’d been injured a week ago, though the same couldn’t be said from her armor. It had been repaired enough that she could wear it again, but it still showed indications of having been damaged.
“Hey,” Nicole greeted us cheerfully. “That was a great show earlier…”
“Yeah,” Julie agreed with a broad grin of her own. I just grunted.
Nicole gave me a curious look and asked, “Who pissed in your Cheerios?”
Julie snickered at that, then bent over and whispered in Nicole’s year. Nicole’s eyes widened and she stared at me for a moment before she burst out laughing.
“It’s not funny,” I snapped, only to have both girls giggle.
“Actually,” Julie told me with another snicker. “It kind of is.”
I glared at them both, only to earn more giggles. However, Julie stopped me from turning around and going back to my quarters, and a couple minutes later, I saw sitting down at a table with a mug of mead and a thick slice of chocolate cake. Julie and Nicole both swore that this would help ease the symptoms, though I suspected they were just using that as an excuse to have a snack.
Eventually, it was time to meet up with Lindrell and Shannon again for more training, though I definitely wasn’t in the mood for that now. Still, I wasn’t about to wimp out and give Julie and Nicole an excuse to laugh at me more.
When we met back up, Lindrell gave me a curious look before carefully saying, “You look…upset. Is something bothering you?”
“She’s having her first monthly visitor,” Julie told her.
I glared at Julie, feeling even more embarrassed than before. “Do you have to tell everyone?”
“Sorry,” Julie told me with a sigh, suddenly looking a little guilty. “I guess I’ve always kind of wished I could see what a guy would do if he had to go through this like we do… I guess I kind of forgot just how rough it was during my first time…”
I hesitated a moment, giving her a suspicious look. However, she did look sincere, so I relaxed a little. “Just ease off…”
“I’ll try,” Julie told me, giving me a quick hug. “Sorry if I’ve been a little bitchy about this.” Then she giggled faintly and teased, “I mean, you’re the one with the excuse for it…”
I glared at Julie but Lindrell said, “I think Michelle could use some understanding.” Then she looked to me and gave me a gentle smile, putting a hand on my shoulder. “This is a right-of-passage…an initiation into womanhood.”
“This seems to be a day of special events,” Shannon said in a calm and even voice, though I thought I saw a faint hint of a smile.
Lindrell nodded at that, then simply said, “Come.”
Lindrell didn’t lead us to one of the usual training areas, but instead, started for the central building that contained Freya’s throne room. I was a little surprised at that, and by the fact that there were more than a dozen Val Kyr already there, most of them ones I knew. I suddenly felt a powerful sense of deja-vu as I was reminded of my first time in this room.
“What’s going on?” Julie asked before I could.
“Come on,” Lindrell said, giving both of us an amused look and gesturing for us to continue.
Julie and I shared a confused look as we continued to the front of the throne room, stopping in the area right in front of the throne. Freya was already there, as were her three generals. I noted that Julie’s mentor Natalie was standing up front as well, with a broad grin on her face.
Freya stood up from her throne and looked over the throne room, smiling faintly as she settled her eyes on Julie and me. “Julie. Michelle. There is an ancient tradition among the Val Kyr…one which has existed for nearly as long as our order.”
I blinked at that, still feeling confused by what was going on. I’d already had enough surprises today and wasn’t sure I was up for handling yet another. However, from the way Lindrell was smiling, I was pretty sure that at least this one wasn’t going to be nearly as bad as the last.
Natalie came forward, holding a spear in her hands, though it wasn’t her usual spear. It looked nice, much nicer than the training spears that I’ve practiced with, and more along the line of what most notru used for real.
“When your mentor has determined that you are qualified for battle,” Freya continued, looking to Natalie and smiling faintly, “It is our tradition that they present you with the gift of a weapon.”
With that, Natalie held the spear sideways and presented it to Julie, doing so in a formal…almost ceremonial way. Julie gasped, staring at the spear for a moment before taking it.
“Thank you,” Julie said, her voice choking up a little from emotion.
“Use it well,” Natalie told her, looking quite proud.
“But Julie is not the only one to have earned their weapon,” Freya said, turning her full attention to me and having a proud smile of her own. “Michelle, as your mentor, I am proud to present you with a weapon of your own.”
Freya…Ionne reached behind her throne and pulled out a bow…a black compound bow that looked just a little different than any I’d ever seen before. She presented the bow to me in the same way that Natalie had given the spear.
As I accepted the bow, feeling a little overwhelmed by the present, Ionne continued, “This bow is custom made for someone of atra strength.”
I stared at Ionne for a moment, then held out the bow and drew the string back. It definitely offered more resistance than any of the bows I’d used in Val Halla, but it wasn’t too much at all. In fact, it was nearly perfect.
“Thank you,” I told her, my voice choking just as Julie’s had. Then, I was embarrassed to realize that tears were starting to flow down my cheeks, though no one said anything about that, much to my relief.
“You’ve earned this,” Ionne told me with a smile. “Use it well.”
“I will,” I promised, wiping the tears away and looking forward to trying out this new bow.
“Congratulations,” Bethany called out from the crowd while Lei, Fleur, and Nicole all echoed this.
Gretchen, who stood near the front of the crowd, bowed her head, saying, “I look forward to seeing you use such a weapon.”
“As do I,” Shannon agreed, giving the bow a curious look.
Lindrell just stood there with a proud smile, probably because she was our primary trainer and there was no way that either Julie or I would have earned our weapons without her. I had to wipe the tears from my cheeks again, and before I could think of what to say, Lindrell put an arm over my shoulder, then reached over to grab Julie as well.
“I am quite proud of both of you,” Lindrell said. Then she added, “But do not think this means your training is over.”
“I fear their training will have to wait,” Ionne stated, her expression turning serious again. With that, she was once again Freya, and she was all business. “I have a mission for your triad.”
--------------------
I felt a strange sense of the surreal to be sitting on a hotel room and watching TV. Though I would have expected something so ordinary to be rather comforting, instead, it just reminded me that this wasn’t my life anymore. My life no longer included such things as sitting around and watching TV or reading my Kindle, and I was starting to realize that I never would again. I’d seen and done too much to be satisfied with the same entertainments I used to love.
My triad had arrived here last night, with the four of us splitting up into two rooms. Julie and I were sharing this room, which at one time, would have been a dream come true. However, in spite of the fact that I was still attracted to Julie, she was no longer interested in me in that way. And as for the opportunity to see her getting dressed and undressed, that was nothing unusual either, not after the baths we’d taken together in Val Halla.
Being able to take a shower by myself this morning had been nice, or at least the fact that I could do so in private was. One of the things I missed most was simply be able to get clean in private, though admittedly, now that I finally had my privacy back…I really missed the giant bathing pools where I could really stretch out and soak.
“You can’t have everything,” I muttered to myself, turning my attention back to the TV.
Lindrell and Shannon were gone, having taken off earlier for some mission related business, while Julie and I had been told to wait in the room. We had been in Val Halla for weeks, and now that we were finally back on Earth, back where we had electricity, malls, and computers…we were confined to a motel room with nothing to do but watch TV. Fortunately, we’d found an old sword and sorcery movie on one of the channels, that I’d always enjoyed…or at least one that I had before my recent experiences.
“You call that a monster?” Julie heckled the monster on the screen. “Come on…that thing is barely any bigger than a lesser daemon…”
I nodded agreement, finding the movie monster to be laughable. I couldn’t really think of that monster as being a threat anymore, not after having seen and killed much bigger and scarier ones for real. I had a feeling that after my trip to Australia, I’d have a hard time taking any movie monster seriously from now on.
“Come on,” I blurted out at the hero in annoyance. “You left yourself wide open there… That thing should have torn out your entrails…”
“Tis but a flesh wound,” Julie joked in a bad English accent, earning a snicker from me.
I watched the movie for a few more minutes before shaking my head in disappointment. I’d always loved these kind of movies, but that had obviously changed. The monsters were little more than jokes, and I knew that if I faced something like that, I could kill it in only a few minutes. And the hero…it was obvious that the actor didn’t have any idea of how to use a sword. In fact, with the way he was holding the sword, it should have been knocked out of his hands half a dozen times already.
“I’m almost afraid to watch Lord of the Rings again,” I finally admitted.
Julie nodded agreement. “I know what you mean…” Then she gave me a grin and added, “But at least Legolas will still be hot…”
“I don’t want to hear that,” I announced, putting my hands over my ears and going, “La la la la,” to drown out the sound of her describing just how cute she thought he was.
In spite of the fact that neither of us could take the movie seriously anymore, we continued to watch it, mostly so we could heckle it. One thing that I’d learned from Mystery Science Theater 3000, was that no matter how bad a movie was, there were still ways it could provide entertainment.
While Julie and I tried to distract ourselves with the movie, my thoughts kept turning to the reason we were there…our mission. From what I’d been told, the Val Kyr usually only recruited one or two new members a year, but with daemon and daemonite activity on the rise…and especially after what had happened in Australia…recruiting efforts had been increased. Unfortunately, as I’d already seen first-hand, the daemonites had been attacking the new recruits…and had recently killed three women before they could be brought to Val Halla. Our mission was to act as bodyguards, protecting a potential recruit in case the daemonites tried coming after her.
When the movie was over, I went to the bathroom and locked the door, then went through the disgusting, humiliating, and extremely uncomfortable process of changing my tampon. I grimaced as I went through the process, silently cursing the fact that this was now a part of my existence, and that I’d have to go through this every month for the rest of my life. And to make it even worse, being Val Kyr meant that things like Midol and other pain relievers wouldn’t really work for me anymore.
“If any of my old friends at school ever found out about this,” I muttered to myself, actually feeling thankful that none of them would ever know. Well, none of my old friends but Julie, and she’d already gotten the teasing out of her system…mostly.
Once I was finished, I washed my hands in the sink and looked myself over in the mirror to make sure I was presentable. In Val Halla, I hadn’t worried about my appearance too much, mostly because I was constantly training and getting sweaty, and everyone expected me to look like a mess. However, now that we were back in the real world, my appearance was a little more important…for my pride if nothing else.
Though it was still a little strange to see a girl staring back from the mirror, I was starting to get used to it. I just didn’t know how long it would take before I thought of that girl as being ‘me’ rather than the way I used to be. Admittedly, it was getting easier and easier to think of myself as a girl, and that kind of scared me.
I was currently dressed in a casual outfit of jeans and a t-shirt, which gave me a girl-next-door look. My shirt showed off my assets just a little more than I was comfortable with, but I certainly wasn’t flaunting them or even showing them off. It was just that I had such a great figure that it would stand out no matter what I did.
I ran my fingers through my hair, neatening it up a little. I could have just put my hair into a pony tail, which was what I usually did during training, but I kind of liked it hanging loose like this. And it looked a lot nicer this way too.
“I am NOT getting vain or girlie about my appearance,” I quietly told myself, feeling a little self-conscious about it at the same time.
When I left the bathroom, I saw Julie was putting on a new shirt, one that exposed her midriff and showed a little cleavage. She was also wearing a skirt, which I found rather odd for her. Julie never used to dress like this before she’d become Val Kyr.
As if reading my thoughts, Julie gave me a grin and said, “I didn’t have the body to wear this kind of stuff before… But now that I do…I want to show it off.”
“Well, it looks good on you,” I told her with a smile, appreciating the view while trying not to be obvious about staring.
“You know,” Julie told me, giving me a thoughtful look that set off warning bells. “You’d look totally awesome in clothes like this too… I mean, you’ve got a totally killer body so you’ve got to show it off…”
“I don’t think so,” I responded.
However, Julie just watched me with a predatory grin that told me she’d already made her mind up about something and wasn’t about to give up on the idea so easily. “And makeup… You’ve got to try some…”
“Maybe,” I agreed, more to get her to stop pushing than for any other reason. Besides, I knew quite well that she hadn’t brought any makeup.
“You know,” Julie mused thoughtfully, still giving me an evil grin, “I’m pretty sure Shannon brought a makeup kit…”
I gulped at that, having a feeling that once Shannon and Lindrell got back, I was going to be in trouble. Fortunately, Julie didn’t have access to their room at the moment, which meant I was safe…for now.
A short time later, there was a quick knock on our door, and before we could answer it, the door opened and Lindrell came in. She was dressed much like she had been in school, with a professional looking outfit that included high heels. Seeing her like this again was a little strange, and it was easy to start thinking of her as Ms. Lindrell again.
Lindrell wasn’t alone, but the woman who entered behind her wasn’t Shannon. The newcomer looked to be in her early twenties and was cute, maybe even pretty, with short auburn hair and a black leather jacket.
The newcomer was Connie, the Val Kyr recruiter we’d come to help. Her job was to try recruiting the potential new Val Kyr, while we were just there as backup and extra protection. We’d met yesterday, right after we’d arrived, but I didn’t really know her.
“Shannon is keeping an eye on the girl,” Lindrell told us, though it wasn’t necessary. I’d guessed as much from Connie’s presence and Shannon’s absence.
“The girl has a name,” Connie said, sounding faintly annoyed.
Lindrell smiled faintly at that. “Shannon is with Cindy.”
“And what are we supposed to do?” Julie asked.
I nodded at that since I’d been wondering the same thing. “I don’t think we came here just to sit around a cheap motel room and watch bad TV…”
“Or even good TV,” Julie joked, though her eyes were serious.
“No, you didn’t,” Lindrell responded, looking at Julie and then me. “You two are going to the mall…”
“WHAT?” Julie and I blurted out simultaneously.
I stared at Lindrell, feeling hurt and insulted by that, not to mention a bit offended. Sure, I’d love a chance to go to the mall, get new clothes and just be a normal person again for awhile, but that wasn’t why we’d come here. I hadn’t spent all that time and effort training…becoming Val Kyr…just so Julie and I could sit around while Lindrell and Shannon took care of the mission. And I sure as hell hadn’t given up my old gender just to be some kind of tag along.
“Michelle and I didn’t come along just to go on vacation,” Julie protested in frustration, echoing my own feelings exactly. She gave Lindrell a defiant look as she stated, “We’re Val Kyr too…”
“Good,” Lindrell responded, looking somewhat amused. “Because you aren’t here for vacation.”
“Cindy works at the local mall,” Connie told us with a chuckle. “Her shift starts there in about an hour…”
“No one will think twice if a pair of teenage girls spend the entire day at the mall,” Lindrell explained, her eyes going from Julie to me. “In fact, that was one of the main reasons our triad was chosen for this mission. The two of you can guard Cindy without anyone noticing.”
Julie and I shared a chagrinned look before Julie said, “Sorry… I thought…”
“I probably would have thought the same thing in your position,” Lindrell told her, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “I didn’t bring you two here for shopping…though admittedly, you’ll have plenty of time for that as well. Shannon, Connie, and myself will rotate as her primary guard while you two will be roving guards and backup. Your job is to make your rounds through the mall and look for any indication of daemonite activity.” She looked straight at me as she said that last, obviously due to the fact that my senses were much sharper than Julie’s.
“Yes ma’am,” Julie exclaimed enthusiastically, snapping to attention and giving a salute.
Connie smirked and announced, “Your salute needs work.”
Lindrell didn’t respond to that and instead handed Julie and I each a cell phone. “If you see any sign of possible daemonite activity, call us immediately. If the daemonites make any move in our direction, we’ll call you to come running as backup.”
“Okay,” I told her, though I immediately recognized one problem with her plan. “But somehow, I don’t think we’ll be able to get away with carrying those through the mall…” I gestured to where my armor sat in the corner, along with my bow and sword. “Especially if the idea is not to stand out.”
“Good point,” Julie said, looking at the weapons in realization. “And I REALLY don’t want to run into a daemon without a weapon.”
“That’s the problem with recruitment and low visibility work,” Connie said with a sigh. “You can’t carry the best equipment, but there are ways around it…” With that, she reached behind her and pulled out a short sword which had apparently been strapped to her back, beneath the leather jacket.
“You won’t be unarmed,” Lindrell assured us.
With that, Lindrell held out a pink backpack, which she then unzipped to reveal the contents. Without a word, she pulled out a one handed battle axe, one which just barely fit into the backpack, along with a short sword. And then, just to prove that we wouldn’t have to rely only on those, she also pulled out a pair of large caliber hand guns, the kind that would have way too much recoil for normal girls our age to use. Fortunately, neither of us were normal.
“These will probably be of limited use since you won’t have time to charge them up,” Connie said, gesturing to the sword and axe.
“I’m notru,” Julie responded cheerfully. “Not a problem.”
“Nope,” I added, picking up the axe and charging it with my essence. A moment later, the entire blade was covered with a thin layer of frost. “Not a problem.”
Connie stared at me in surprise, looking a bit confused as well. “Michelle is atra,” Lindrell explained with a faint smirk. “She can adapt.”
Connie gave me another odd look, obviously not understanding what it meant to be atra, but not wanting to embarrass herself by asking. Instead, she shook her head and then turned her attention back to the business at hand. “The daemonites are extremely unlikely to attack in such a public place,” Connie told us. “They don’t want to be outed to the public at large any more than we do. In fact, they want it even less. The absolute last thing they’d want would be to have the entire world knowing they exist and hunting them down. It’s easier to operate when no one suspects who and what you really are.”
“From what I’ve seen,” I commented wryly, thinking about my old school and the town in Australia, “they don’t seem to really have a problem about attacking people in public…”
“Not when they don’t plan on leaving any witnesses,” Lindrell agreed grimly.
“If daemonites do try anything, I don’t expect it to be at the mall,” Connie said again, looking back and forth between Julie and me. “But it’s better to be safe than sorry.”
We sat down and continued talking about this for a little longer before Lindrell abruptly held out two credit cards, one to Julie and one to me. I was a bit surprised at that, and by the fact that mine had the name Michelle Sorensen on it. I gave Lindrell a curious look.
“If you two are going to be at the mall for half the day,” Lindrell said with a faint smile, “it would look suspicious if you weren’t doing a little shopping at the same time. Besides, you both need clothing and other supplies, and this is an ideal time to purchase them. Both debit cards currently have five thousand on them, but don’t get carried away. This is your money, so you can spend it however you wish, but this does come from your personal accounts.”
“We have personal accounts?” Julie asked in surprise.
“Of course,” Lindrell responded with a chuckle. “We all have personal expenses, so we each receive a monthly stipend.”
“As hard as it is to believe,” Connie added with a faint smirk, “killing monsters and saving the world isn’t really very profitable. Fortunately, we own several companies and have a lot of investments that are.”
“That’s how we afford all the supplies we ship in to Val Hall,” Lindrell said. “And the various properties we own here on Earth.”
I was curious about what kind of businesses and properties they meant, but Connie distracted me by pulled a silver lighter from her pocket and casually flicked it several times. “The Val Kyr have existed for a very long time, and we’ve built up a lot of resources. We aren’t expected to live like we have vows of poverty, especially when we’re not in Val Halla. You’re here on business, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy yourselves at the same time.”
“Just remember,” Lindrell reminded is firmly. “Guarding Cindy is your top priority. The shopping comes second.”
“Understood,” I responded, sure that I’d have no problem remembering something like that. I might need a few more things for my new body, but that didn’t mean I was really very interested in shopping.
However, Julie seemed to have missed the point because she exclaimed, “This is gonna be so fun… I’ve always wished I could wear some of those sexier clothes, and now I’ve got the body for it…”
I nodded at that, letting out a sigh at the same time. It seemed almost painfully ironic that I’d been dating her before, but now that she suddenly got the physical upgrade, the two of us were no longer an item. However, at least I could console myself with the knowledge that I could see her naked in the baths…along with a lot of other hot women. I just tried not to think of the fact that I was now one of them.
“Come on,” Lindrell said, giving Julie a faintly worried look. “Let’s get to the mall so we can introduce you to Cindy, and then you can get to work.”
“This is the kind of work I can sink my teeth into,” Julie said with a broad grin.
I grabbed the backpack that contained our new weapons, though I gave a disappointed look to my new bow, wondering when I’d get a chance to really use it. However, with a shake of my head, I followed Lindrell and Connie out of the room.
As soon as we were out the door, Connie pulled a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket and lit one. She gave Julie and I each a curious look, her expression a little guarded. Then she looked to Lindrell and I could see the unspoken question of whether or not we were really up to this. I grimaced, standing up a little straighter, and just as silently, promised that I wouldn’t let them down.
--------------------
Cindy didn’t look anything like a Val Kyr, but neither had Julie or I before our Val had been awoken. She was short, petite, and had shoulder length purple hair and several piercings on her face. Between that and her dark clothes, she definitely radiated a ‘goth’ vibe. However, Cindy was also about the same age as Julie and I, less than a year older, which meant that the two of us were excited about the idea of having Cindy join the Val Kyr. Of course, Cindy had to accept the invitation first, and at the moment, she was still considering it.
“So, you two are really Val Kyr?” Cindy asked, giving Julie and I suspicious looks.
I quickly glanced around us, making sure that no one was listening in on our conversation. We’d just arrived at the mall a short time ago, having been introduced to Cindy by Connie, who’d immediately taken off again with Lindrell. Now, Julie and I were now standing in the jewelry store where Cindy worked. It wasn’t one of the high end jewelry stores that sold a lot of wedding rings and such, but one that was aimed more towards teenagers and young people. Fortunately, the store was mostly empty at the moment.
“Yeah, but only for about a month,” Julie admitted.
“Connie said you two are supposed to be my bodyguards or something,” Cindy said a little skeptically.
“We’re mostly here as backups,” I admitted with a shrug. Then I gave her a defiant look and added, “But we’re still more than able to deal with any daemons we run into.”
Cindy snorted at that, though I had the feeling that her reaction was less about her lack of faith in us and more of a skepticism that she was really in any danger. It was a little annoying that she wasn’t taking this seriously, but I couldn’t blame her for it either. From what I understood, she was lucky enough to have never seen a daemon before in her life, which meant that she still didn’t know what she was getting into.
“You know,” Cindy said, giving Julie and I each a speculative look. “I’ll get in trouble if I’m just standing around talking to people…unless they’re customers…” It was clear that she was trying to talk us into buying something, which made me wonder if she got a commission.
“We were just leaving,” I responded, gesturing to the door. “Now that you know we aren’t a couple of crazy stalkers, we should let you be.”
“Hey,” Julie protested, giving me a mock glare. “We were told to go shopping, so I’m going to start my shopping here…”
I rolled my eyes but didn’t protest as Julie began walking around the store, looking at the various pieces of jewelry. However, it only took a few minutes before she began pointing out, “You know Michelle, I think this one would look good on you,” and, “This one is just your style.”
“I’ve never worn jewelry before,” I pointed out wryly, “so it can’t really be my style…”
“You’ve never worn jewelry?” Cindy asked, giving me a curious look.
I didn’t want to go into the whole thing about being a convert so I just shook my head. “Not my thing.”
Cindy gave a gasp of mock horror and gasped, “Blasphemy…”
“I know,” Julie exclaimed with a giggle. “We must punish the heretic…unless she repents…”
I saw where this was going, and I was more than a little tempted to point out Julie’s hypocrisy. After all, before this, she’d never really worn much jewelry either, at least not unless it was as part of a cosplay.
“Well,” I joked, “do you have something in the way of the One Ring?”
Cindy stared at me for a moment, then gave me an evil grin. “As a matter of fact…”
Cindy rushed to a jewelry case and pulled out a gold metal ring with writing along the side, a replica of the evil ring from the Lord of the Rings movies. It wasn’t one of those expensive and high quality movie replicas, but it looked pretty decent. I stared at the ring for a moment, then began to grin.
“I’ll take it,” I said, deciding at the same time that I might as well give in to the inevitable. After all, it was only a matter of time before Julie talked me into it anyway. “And those earrings over there…”
A short time later, Julie and I left the store, each of us with new earrings…and freshly pierced ears. Julie’s old piercings had sealed up when she became Val Kyr, and this had been a first time for me. Cindy was pretty quick about it, though I was quite aware of the fact that as soon as I took the rings out for more than half a minute, the holes would close back up again. However, since I’d picked some small stud earrings, they wouldn’t get in the way during my training so I wouldn’t need to remove them very often.
As soon as we stepped out of the store, I adjusted the backpack I had slung over one shoulder and looked over to where Shannon was working at a small kiosk. I wasn’t sure how they’d arranged for her to have a job so quickly, but she was currently selling small knick knacks, and doing so in a position where she could keep a close watch on Cindy.
“Nice earrings,” Shannon said with an amused look. She spoke in a normal tone, and she was far enough away that I never would have heard her if it wasn’t for my enhanced senses.
“Thanks,” I responded, speaking at the same volume and earning a curious look from Julie.
Julie and I started walking, having already decided to make a full circuit of the mall before we stopped at another store. “I’m surprised you bought that stuff,” Julie finally told me. “I mean, I thought I was gonna have to nag you a little more before you’d get your ears pierced…”
“It’s not like it really hurt,” I pointed out wryly. That little pinch in my ears was absolutely nothing compared to what I got every day during just five minutes of my training.
Julie grinned at that. “Yeah, but I thought you’d protest about it being too girlie…”
I gave her a flat look and reminded her, “I’m having a period. You can’t get much girlier than that.”
“True,” Julie agreed. “And the bling looks good on you.”
I snorted at that since I didn’t really consider one ring and a pair of simple earrings to be much in the way of bling. “You too.”
As we walked around the mall, I kept my senses wide open so that I could detect any signs of daemons or daemonites. However, this also meant that I was even more aware of the fact that a lot of guys kept staring at me with obvious attraction.
I squirmed uncomfortably, feeling weirded out by all the male attention. I knew exactly what I looked like, and had no doubt that if I’d seen a girl who looked like I did, I would have stared too. However, that didn’t mean I liked the way they kept looking at me…or what I knew they were thinking.
Though I’ve been a girl for almost a month, this was actually the first time I’ve had to deal with guys…as a girl. Until now, I’ve been in Val Halla, surrounded only by women. Sure, there had been a lot of suspicion and hostility at first, but it hadn’t taken long before most of them accepted me as ‘one of the girls’. And to my surprise, I suddenly realized that I’d begun to think of myself as one of the girls too.
I felt a chill run down my spine as I looked around, catching sight of a man who was staring at me. I immediately looked away, feeling embarrassed and really wishing he’d stop that. It was strange…and very uncomfortable to find myself on the other side of the gender divide. Of course, I’d been on the other side of the gender divide for weeks, but suddenly having guys around me somehow emphasized this even more.
Between the attention and the discomfort from my period, I really wanted to just grab what I needed and go. However, in spite of how we were going to be spending our time, this wasn’t really a shopping trip. Or more accurately, the shopping trip was just a cover for our bodyguard work. I grimaced and did my best to ignore the cramps and stares, because I knew that neither was going to go away anytime soon.
After our initial walk around the mall, Julie and I started off in a video game store, which immediately lightened my mood. At least this was the kind of store I was familiar with and comfortable in. It was enough to let me forget just how weird my life had become, at least for a few minutes.
“Oh my God,” Julie blurted out, rushing to the latest Playstation. “I’ve been wanting to upgrade for awhile now, and I finally have the money…”
“But where are you going to play it?” I asked her, thinking about the lack of power outlets in Val Halla. Julie seemed to deflate a little from that, then looked around again. Her eyes settled on a Nintendo DS3 and her eyes lit up again. I rolled my eyes and reminded her, “You know electronics don’t work right in Val Halla…”
Julie glared at me and said, “Way to ruin the mood.”
“It’s a gift,” I told her with a grin, earning a chuckle in response.
“Over here next,” Julie insisted, half dragging me to a shoe store. I had absolutely no interest in shoes, but I didn’t resist. After all, we had an entire day to kill at the mall, so there was no reason not to go.
“I didn’t take you for a shoe hound,” I told Julie after we’d been looking around for a few minutes.
Julie hesitated a moment, then admitted, “I never really dressed up or had any interest in fashion… But now that I look like this, I want to take advantage of it a bit more. I mean, maybe I could start wearing high heels a little…”
I looked Julie over and nodded my understanding. I’d always thought she was pretty, but she’d never stood out as one of those gorgeous girls that all the guys drooled over. However, now she had the kind of body that girls would envy…and guys would drool over. I felt a stab of sadness as I remembered the fact that we were no longer dating.
“I know you aren’t enjoying your new body as much as I am mine,” Julie said, giving me a sympathetic look.
“I’m getting used to it,” I responded self-consciously.
“You know,” she said, giving me a thoughtful look. “You should think about all the cosplay options this opens up for you…”
“Cosplay options?” I asked her suspiciously.
“Well,” Julie told me with a grin, “there are a lot of characters I’ve always wanted to dress up as, but never had the figure for. Now that I do, I can’t wait to try some out… Maybe the next time we go to a con, I’ll dress up as the Black Cat…”
“That would look good,” I admitted.
Julie grinned happily at that. “And I know you might not be ready for it, but think of all the costumes you can pull off now. You can try all the sexy girl costumes you always liked staring at…”
“Don’t remind me,” I said with a roll of my eyes.
“You’d make an awesome Supergirl,” Julie insisted.
I wanted to protest, but when I considered it for a moment, I had to nod agreement. “Probably.” Then I pointed out, “And Lindrell would make a great Power Girl…”
Julie nodded her own agreement at that. “Shannon would make a great Black Widow… I think Bethany would be perfect as Red Sonja…”
“Yeah, but she wouldn’t really need a costume,” I pointed out since Bethany already had her own sword and armor, which she used every day.
We continued talking about cosplay options for the next hour, sharing what costumes we’d like to try, suggested a few more for each other, and of course, coming up with more costume ideas for the various Val Kyr we knew. I was a little embarrassed to admit a few of the costumes that I thought would look good on me now, like She Ra, or that I was seriously thinking about trying them out.
While we were doing this, we continued shopping, going from store to store and killing time. In spite of the conversation and the stores, I kept stretching my senses out so that I could catch any signs that our enemies were near.
Eventually, Julie and I ended up in the food court, where we both stocked up on greasy junk food. It was funny to watch Julie, who was actually excited about the meal. “You don’t realize how great this is,” she told me with a broad grin. “I mean, I don’t have to worry about calories or feel guilty at all…” Her grin broadened even more, though I hadn’t thought it was even possible. “Being Val Kyr is totally awesome…”
“It does have its good points,” I admitted. But just then, I felt another knotted cramp, which reminded me quite firmly that there were serious downsides as well.
I scowled as I looked over the purchases I had sitting next to the table. Most what I’d bought was just clothes, and I hadn’t even gotten carried away in the least. Since I didn’t have much in the way of clothes that fit my new body, or at least not clothes that I could wear out in the real world, I was almost starting from scratch. A few shirts, a couple pairs of pants, and some socks. I still needed to get some more bras and underwear and then I’d be done, at least with the things I could really justify buying.
With that, I thought about the other purchases I’d made, a couple of graphic novels. Right before coming to the food court, Julie and I had stopped at the comics and collectibles shop to look around. I’d missed out on all the resent new releases, so I’d just wanted to see what had come out recently. However, instead of the nice comforting return to normalcy that I’d expected, I found myself being stared at by every guy in the place. It was as though they were shocked to see a girl who looked like me, in a place like that. And when I’d gone to pay for the graphic novels, the cashier had been patronizing, asking if I was buying them for my boyfriend…assuming that a girl couldn’t possibly read comics.
“Are you okay?” Julie asked me, giving me a worried look over the hamburger she was in the middle of eating.
“Yeah,” I responded with a sigh. But after a few seconds, I admitted, “It just feels…weird being back.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
I wasn’t sure how to put what I was feeling in words, but I tried anyway. “It’s just…the way everyone treats me. I mean, the way guys keep looking at me now…and the way they were acting in the comic shop…”
Julie gave me a blank look for a moment, then her eyes widened in understanding. “You’re not used to having people treat you like a girl…”
I nodded at that. “I thought I was getting used to this, but now I’m back in the real world and its suddenly like I’m having to start all over again.”
“Yeah,” Julie said with a sigh, putting down her hamburger. “There aren’t any guys in Val Halla, so you got to skip out on all this lovely social interaction until now. You know, it isn’t going to go away. You are a girl now so you’re going to have to get used to being treated like one.”
“I know,” I admitted with a sigh. I looked around the food court, noticing that even now, there were two guys who were staring at me…though they were trying hard to appear as though they weren’t. “It just feels weird to me.”
Julie and I ate for a minute in silence, then she gave me an odd look and asked, “Would you go back…I mean…if you could? If you could give up being Val Kyr and become a normal guy again, would you?”
My first impulse was to say, “Of course,” but I hesitated and actually considered the question. There were definitely a lot of bad things about my situation, though at the moment, I thought that the worst one was definitely having a period. Having people treat me differently was annoying, but nothing that I couldn’t live with and even get used to in time. I missed the real world, but that no longer even felt real to me. I’d gotten a look behind the curtain, and instead of a harmless con man, I found something much scarier. And of course, I missed my dad, but I hadn’t really seen the dad I knew and loved in quite some time.
“I don’t know,” I whispered, trying to think about what I’d gained by becoming Val Kyr.
I had new friends, ones who’d already proven that they had my back when it really mattered. Sure, I’d lost some of my old friends when I’d become Val Kyr, but Julie was the one I’d always been closest to, and she was still with me. In some ways, our shared experiences had made us even closer than we’d been before. I was stronger, tougher, and more powerful than I’d ever thought I could be, and I was part of something amazing. I was Val Kyr…a being out of myth and legend…and I had a purpose to my life…to protect the world from being overwhelmed by monsters.
When I’d gotten a look behind the curtain, I’d been both amazed and terrified by what I saw. Reality wasn’t what I’d always thought it was, and I couldn’t imagine what it would be like, going back and trying to pretend it was. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like, knowing that daemons were out there and that I had the power to fight them…and I’d given it up to hide my head in the sand because it was more comfortable. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to walk away from all this, both the good and the bad, and to pretend that none of it existed. And then there was my training… I’d put a lot of time, effort, and pain into learning how to fight, just as Lindrell had put the effort into training me, and there was no way I could simply walk away from that and let it go to waste.
“No,” I finally answered Julie, in a tone so firm that I even surprised myself. “I wouldn’t go back.”
I was a little startled to realize that even if I could undo this and change back, I wouldn’t. I might have lost a few things, but they were nothing compared to everything that I’d gained. And though it might be nice being a guy again, I wasn’t sure I’d really be comfortable that way anymore. I was still trying to adjust to being a woman, but I didn’t really think of myself as being a guy anymore either. This was an uncomfortable realization, and I wasn’t sure what to think of it.
“Then what’s the problem?” Julie asked me with a grin.
I hesitated a moment, then shook my head and let out a sigh. “I guess there isn’t one.”
“Great,” Julie told me, looking rather smug. “In that case, once we’re done eating, let’s go drop these bags off at the rental car, do another sweep of the mall, then go get some makeovers…”
“Makeovers,” I blurted out in surprise.
“Of course,” Julie responded with a smirk. “We have full bank accounts and half a day to kill. What else are two hot girls supposed to do?” Then her smirk faded and her expression softened as she gave me a hesitant look. After a few seconds, Julie quietly admitted, “I’ve never had a makeover before, and I really want to try this but… But I don’t want to do this by myself.”
I stared at Julie for a moment, trying to ignore the puppy dog eyes she was giving me. I finally let out a sigh and grumbled, “Fine… But you’ll owe me…”
Julie jumped up and threw her arms around me in a hug, exclaiming, “You’re the bestest best friend ever.” However, all I could think about were her breasts pressed up against me and how I still wanted to be more than just her best friend.
--------------------
One thing I’d learned from my many years as a teenage slacker, was the fact that most mall food courts were interchangeable. Half the restaurants in these food courts were from the same chains, while the other half might as well have been. So even though I was eating a greasy slice of pizza from a restaurant that I’d never even heard of before, it was virtually identical to the cheap greasy pizza from the mall back home.
Julie sat at the table beside me, making exaggerated ‘nom nom’ sounds as she ate her own pizza. I watched her with an amused smile, knowing how much she was enjoying this. Not the pizza…but the freedom to eat it without guilt or fear of getting fat. Julie had never been one of those girls who always turned her nose up at junk food in order to only eat tofu and salads, but I knew that she’d been concerned about her weight anyway…mostly due to the fact that she tended to put it on so easily. But not anymore. I was pretty sure that this was her favorite part about being Val Kyr.
While we ate, I carefully watched our surroundings. The mall wasn’t very busy at this time of day so there weren’t as many people as there could have been, but there were still a couple guys who kept looking over at us. I was uncomfortable with this attention, though Julie seemed to alternate between enjoying it and feeling embarrassed. However, I did my best to ignore the stares and appreciative looks, and instead tried to see if anything stood out as possibly being related to a daemonite.
“You know,” Julie said with a sigh. “I never thought I’d say this, but I am sick and tired of the mall…”
“I know what you mean,” I agreed, letting out a sigh of my own.
It was the second day that Julie and I had been wandering around the mall, keeping watch for any daemonite threats. And in that time, we’d checked out every single store at least twice, including the ones that neither of us had any interest in at all. It would have been great if we could have at least gone and caught one of the movies that had recently come out, but we couldn’t do that and do our real job at the same time.
Yesterday, I’d bought everything I really needed…and then some, which left me little to really shop for today. I’d been tempted to buy a new Kindle to replace the one I’d lost, but that would have been useless once we returned to Val Halla. Instead, I settled on buying a few real books, which I could still read in a place where electronics were useless.
I let out another sigh, eager for Cindy to finish with her shift so we could leave, though that wouldn’t mean the end of our bodyguard duty. Yesterday, once Cindy was done with work, Connie and Shannon took over as her primary bodyguards, taking turns with the duty, while everyone else took turns walking around her apartment complex. Since Cindy’s apartment was right across the street from our motel, we could get to her pretty quickly if someone did spot a daemonite.
“I wonder how long we have to keep watching her,” Julie mused aloud.
With a shrug, I answered, “Probably until she either agrees to become Val Kyr…or we figure out a way to make sure she’s safe after we go.”
Admittedly, that did bring up a few questions about what we would do if Cindy said no. We certainly couldn’t guard her for the rest of her life, nor could we guard every other potential Val Kyr. There were far too many out there who carried a spark of val, and Val Halla didn’t even know who half of them were. A lot of bloodlines had never been recorded for one reason or another.
Just then, I noticed two boys walking directly towards us, making me groan in anticipation. They were about the same age as Julie and I, and I’d seen them staring at us a short time ago. In fact, I’d even listened in on their conversation, and I wasn’t exactly happy about their crude descriptions of hot they thought we were and what they wanted to do to us.
“We’re not interested,” I said, before either boy could open his mouth.
“But you don’t know what we have to say yet,” the taller of the two boys responded with a grin, apparently deciding that I was just playing hard to get. “I was just going to ask if it hurt when you fell from Heaven…”
I glared at the boy while Julie snickered. “Actually,” I responded with an evil smile, “my fingers do hurt a little from digging my way up from Hell…” Julie burst out laughing.
“Hey, give me chance,” the shorter of the two boys said, giving a smile which I thought was supposed to be charming.
“I’m sorry,” Julie said, giving them both an obviously fake smile. She reached out and grabbed my hand, then gave me an exaggerate look of adoration that almost made me burst out laughing. “But my girlfriend and I were trying to have lunch in peace…”
The two guys both looked embarrassed and quickly hurried off much to my relief. I rolled my eyes in exasperation, then told Julie, “That was the third time today…”
“Yeah,” Julie responded with a shake of her head. Then she brightened up, “But at least this wasn’t as bad as that old guy… I mean, he was almost old enough to be my grandpa…”
I shuddered at the memory. Getting hit on by guys was awkward enough as it was, but when I had some creepy old guy asking me out on a date, that had been downright disturbing. I couldn’t wait until we could get away from the mall, and away from all this unwanted attention.
“You are getting better at handling those guys,” Julie pointed out, reminding me of how I’d frozen like a deer in the headlights the first time a guy had hit on me. I shuddered at the memory.
I pulled out my cell phone and checked the time, saying, “Lindrell should be here any time…”
Lindrell had called a little earlier, saying that she was going to come and see how we were doing. For the most part, I suspected that she’d realized just how bored the two of us were, so she was coming to break up the monotony a little. I made a mental note, that once we were done with this mission, to avoid going to any mall again for a long time.
We didn’t have to wait much longer before Lindrell arrived. She saw us across the food court and immediately came to where were sitting, taking a look at the few bags we’d collected today, then taking a seat.
“No makeup today?” Lindrell asked me with a faint smile.
I turned bright red and self-consciously touched one of the earrings I was still wearing. Yesterday, when she’d seen me in jewelry and makeup, she’d been amused, though she had complimented me. I had to admit, that after the time Julie and I spent in the makeup shop getting makeup and lessons, I had looked pretty good. However, I wasn’t really comfortable with wearing makeup yet…though Julie had talked me into buying a small makeup kit for the future.
“Not today,” I responded, trying to play it off as though the makeup had been no big deal. I glanced over to Julie, who actually was wearing a little makeup, though it was done pretty lightly.
“There is no shame in looking beautiful,” Lindrell assured me. “Or in taking pride in your appearance. In fact, it pleases me a great deal to see that you’re starting to experiment with such things.” With that, she put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a gentle smile.
“I was thinking of dragging her in for another makeover today,” Julie said, giving me a teasing smile.
Lindrell chuckled at that. “Just do not get distracted from your true mission here. You must be ready to respond in the unlikely event that daemonites do make a move in this place.”
I nodded at that, then said, “We’ve been keeping a close watch.”
“Good,” Lindrell responded, looking pleased. Then she looked around for a moment before musing, “Now, for something to eat…”
A short time later, the three of us were all eating ice cream sundaes from Baskin-Robbins, with mine being smothered in extra chocolate sauce. Once again, Julie was making exaggerated ‘nom nom’ sounds, and I was pretty sure she was doing this for my benefit. Lindrell just gave her an amused smile, the same kind you might give a little kid who was doing something silly but cute.
Then I suddenly felt a small surge of val energy, coming from Lindrell’s purse. Lindrell frowned as she reached into the purse, pulling out a golf ball sized stone that was carved into an odd shape. This was a key stone, though most Val Kyr just called them keys for short. I wasn’t sure exactly how, but this stone was somehow linked to the three stone pillars that surrounded the anchor in Val Halla, and because of that, this allowed for communications between the two realms. From what I’d been told, these keys were also how the anchor guardians knew when and where to open portals so that Val Kyr could return to Val Halla.
Lindrell clenched the key tightly in her hand and quietly said, “I’m here…” I could feel the strange mix of val energies from the stone, energies that synchronized with Lindrell and allowed her to communicate. Since I wasn’t touching the key, I couldn’t hear what they were saying, only what Lindrell was whispering in response, which wasn’t much. Then she finally did the equivalent of hanging up and putting the key back into her purse.
“What’s wrong?” Julie asked.
Lindrell sat there for several seconds with a grim expression before she finally answered, “There’s been another incursion…”
“No,” I gasped, remembering what the daemons had done to that town and everyone in it.
“Daemons destroyed a village in Kenya,” Lindrell stated with a dark expression. “Apparently, they’ve been there for about a week…” Julie and I both let out a gasp of horror at that as we realized just how much damage the daemons could have done in that time. “They’ve started to get entrenched, so Freya sent six triads to deal with it.”
I grimaced, clenching my fists in anger as I thought about all the people those daemons must have killed. “Are we going?”
“No,” Lindrell shook her head. “For the moment, we’re staying here. The daemonites are becoming more brazen…and seem more willing to operate in the open.”
I nodded at that, feeling a knot in my stomach as I considered what she’d told us. “Two large incursions in less than a month…” From what I’d been told, large incursions were a rare thing, and when they did happen, they usually occurred in the middle of nowhere…well away from any populations that could report their presence…at least until they were fully entrenched. “This isn’t good…”
“At the rate the daemonites are moving,” Lindrell said, nodding agreement, “it will only be a matter of time before they launch an incursion in a large populated area.”
After hearing that news, I no longer felt like finishing my ice cream, and neither did Julie or Lindrell. All three of us threw away what was left of our sundaes and started walking across the mall, towards where Shannon and Cindy were busy working.
“I have bad news,” Lindrell told Shannon once we arrived at her kiosk. Shannon’s expression immediately turned grim and wary, but before she could say anything, Lindrell told us, “You two can go back to keeping a lookout…”
“Sure thing,” Julie responded, looking just a little disappointed that we were being sent back to work. I couldn’t blame her since this was a lot more interesting than walking around the mall yet again.
“You know,” I told Julie to cheer her up, “there is that cookie shop on the other end of the mall…”
“If I was in the mood for junk food,” she told me, “I would have finished my ice cream.” However, I noticed that she was already starting to walk in that direction anyway.
I stretched out my awareness as we walked, something that I’d practiced with enough over the last few days that I was now able to do this without much thought or effort. A middle-aged man was watching us with an appreciative look while a woman, who I assumed to be his wife, glared alternately between us and him. A woman at a kiosk watched as we went past as well, though from the look on her face, I assumed she was deciding whether or not she could talk us into buying the cutesy hair brushes that she was selling. I let all the details from my enhanced awareness come and go.
Suddenly, I felt something at the edge of my awareness, something which felt…wrong. I froze and immediately focused all my awareness in that direction, and I could feel the sense of wrongness even more clearly. It was the same sense of wrongness that I felt all over the place in Australia. A daemon. And as I focused on it, the feeling of wrongness grew stronger and stronger. More daemonites were appearing.
“They’re here,” I blurted out, my heart jumping in my chest.
“Oh shit,” Julie exclaimed, already pulling out her cell phone to call Lindrell while I began opening the backpack that had been slung over my shoulder so I could pull out the weapons.
Before I’d even finished undoing the zipper, I heard the first scream, which told me that I wasn’t the only one who’d noticed the daemons. However, that was immediately followed by more screams of terror, which told me just how bad this was. A moment later, the first daemon came into view, racing down the hallway and looking mean and nasty. It looked something like a bald rodent, that was covered with scabs and warts, and was about the size of a large dog.
“I’ve got the rodent of unusual size,” I snarled, pulling one of the guns from the backpack and opening fire. My fighting lessons in Val Halla hadn’t included firearms of any sort, but I’d done enough practice shooting with my dad that I had no problem hitting what I aimed for. It took six shots, but the daemon fell to the ground dead. Without a word, I handed the other gun to Julie.
“I’ve never used one of these before,” Julie admitted, though she had a grim look on her face. “But I’ll figure it out…”
“Point this end to the monsters and pull the trigger,” I said, handing her the short sword while keeping the axe for myself. After all, the axe was already charged with my essence.
Thick gray mist began to pour down the hallway where the daemon had come from, and several people came running in our direction just ahead of the mist. It only took a few more seconds before I saw the figures walking down the hall, half obscured by the mist. There were four figures in red cloaks and at least a dozen daemons.
“Oh shit,” I gasped. Three daemonites had completely destroyed that town, and now there were four of them here in the mall. I gulped, having a very bad feeling about this.
My eyes were immediately drawn to a short and stocky daemonite who was actually riding on the back of a hellhound, and who was most likely a binder. Every daemonite had a psychic ability to communicate with daemons, which is how they were able to be near the creatures without being torn apart themselves, but binders took that ability even further, being able to create a powerful psychic link that let them control the daemons completely. Only a binder would risk riding a daemon.
The next daemonite was a middle-aged black man with a beard, who was obviously a summoner. He held out his hand and summoned a daemon that was the general size and shape of a pony, but it was covered with dark gray scales and had a head vaguely resembled that of a crocodile. I wasn’t at all surprised to see a summoner among them, or even a binder, since I’d been told that those were the two most common types of daemonites.
The third daemonite was a young woman with dark hair, and she was holding a sword in each hand. I wasn’t sure what kind of daemonite she was, which made her an unknown threat. I just hoped that she wasn’t a channeler, because the one we’d faced in Australia had been something of a nightmare.
And then there was the last daemonite, another attractive young woman…and one I immediately recognized. She was the ripper who escaped from us in Australia, which meant that she was the one who’d provided this group transportation, and the one we couldn’t afford to let escape again. I grimaced at that, knowing that taking her out wouldn’t be quite that easy, not when she was surrounded by lethal daemons.
As always, the daemons were varied, and included not only the hellhound that was being ridden and the hideous lizard pony, but a few other daemons that I’d never seen before. One had a squat but muscular body, with two heads that each spat out a stream of fog. This one was the source of the thick mist that had come pouring down the hallway. And then there was one daemon which seemed to have the head and wings of a large vulture, while the rest of its body looked like some kind of mangy lion. It looked like some kind of sick and twisted parody of a griffin.
But of all the daemons present, the one that caught my attention the most was one that could almost be mistaken as human from a distance…a great distance. He was seven feet tall, with long limbs and a very gaunt build. His skin looked almost like white wax, his hair…what little there was of it…was long and greasy. And unlike any other daemonite I’d ever seen, this one was actually wearing clothes…or at least rags that looked like they had once been real clothes.
“The Val Kyr,” the summoner exclaimed, pointing straight at Julie and me.
The ripper snarled, glaring at us with a look of pure hatred and spitting out, “I think they were some of the ones who killed Bobby and Jerome…”
“Kill them,” the one with the swords commanded. “Find any recruits they have and kill them…”
“Kill everyone here,” the binder exclaimed. “To make certain…”
The gaunt daemonite stared at us with black hollow eye socks, then opened his mouth, revealing sharp black teeth. “Gladly…,” he said, his voice quiet and raspy.
“It talks,” I Julie blurted out. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this…”
I stared at the approaching daemons, my heart racing with terror. Though some of the others were undoubtedly more dangerous, my eyes went to the hellhound. That was the one I was most afraid of, simply because of what a hellhound had done to me. However, I didn’t waste time staring at the approaching monstrosities, and instead, I opened fire with the hang gun.
My first shot hit the summoner who was more dangerous than any individual daemon. I followed that up by shooting at the other daemonites, hoping that if I could take them all down, then the daemons themselves would be easier to clean up. Unfortunately, after I hit the summoner, the rest dove for cover behind daemons. Julie and I backed up, emptying our clips at the daemons and daemonites, killing several of the smaller daemons and hitting the binder in the leg. Then the daemons reached us and we had to drop our guns and use our other weapons.
Julie bent down and put her hand on the ground, causing the ground to shake and shatter, knocking several daemons back. She immediately leapt at one of the daemons who was off balance and sliced her sword through its neck, yelling, “There can be only one!”
I swung my axe at the nearest daemon, noting that the gaunt one was keeping back, being more careful than the rest of the daemons, who seemed to be nothing but mindless rage and hunger. I slammed the blade of my axe into the head of another daemon, driving it in as hard as I could. While I was doing this, the gaunt one suddenly launched himself at me, reaching out with his clawed fingers.
“NO!” Lindrell screamed, charging into the fight and throwing a one handed axe that was nearly identical to the one I was currently using. The axe hit the gaunt daemonite in the side with enough force that he was thrown back. “Don’t let those that thing touch you. Their touch is deadly.”
“Thanks,” I told her, warily watching the daemon get back to his feet.
Most of the people nearby had run away in terror, though a few had been stupid enough to stick around to watch. One teenage boy, maybe a year or two younger than me, was standing in the doorway of a store, watching everything with his mouth open. Suddenly, the gaunt daemon charged at the boy, grabbing him before I could get there. The boy let out a scream and tried to run, but he couldn’t move fast enough. As soon as the daemon got hold of him, the boy collapsed to the ground.
“I’ll deal with that one,” Lindrell stated grimly, her expression cold and angry as she picked up the axe from where it had fallen to the ground after hitting the daemon. “I can handle getting touched by that thing a little better than you can.”
Julie destroyed the mall floor, sending a wave of tiles and concrete at the daemons. Her range definitely seemed a little shorter than normal, but she was still doing a good job of keeping daemons from coming around and hitting me from the side or back. And when I saw the pony daemon was knocked over and vulnerable, I slammed my axe into its side. Then, I turned and leapt back to avoid being chomped by the hellhound.
“Kill the Val Kyr,” the binder yelled to his mount.
The ripper just stood back, yelling out, “Yeah, kill the fucking bitch… For what she did to Bobby…”
The hellhound leapt at me, but I jumped to the side. However, the hellhound was already shifting position, apparently guessing what I was going to do. Or more specifically, the daemonite controlling it guessed what I was going to do. The daemon snapped its jaws at me, and as I jumped back, it lunged forward, watching my arm in its jaws and biting down. I screamed in pain, then slammed my axe into the side of its head, thankful that my axe was in the hand it hadn’t grabbed. The hellhound shook me and let me go.
“Michelle,” Julie cried out in fear.
I grimaced, desperately trying to ignore the pain in my arm, which was probably broken at the moment. Fortunately, getting the crap beat out of me every day during training had given me a bit of practice in fighting on in spite of pain. When the hellhound lunged again, I released the essence in my axe, which became covered in frost. I suddenly dodged to the side, moving as quickly as I could, then hitting the creature in the shoulder, cutting him deeply but also leaving a deep patch of ice. I pulled my axe out and hit the daemon several more times, leaving deep gashes each time along with a nasty case of frostbite.
Then the two-headed daemon came at me, obviously under control of the binder as well because it was acting to help the hellhound, and I’d never seen daemons actively help each other this way before. In spite of the pain, I stretched out my senses and used every bit of the skill Ionne had taught me to dodge and weave around the attacks. Then, I used every ounce of strength I had to bring the axe down, right through the one of the two-headed daemon’s necks. It screamed in pain and I followed that attack up by driving the axe right into the other skull. I’d removed both heads, but the creature still stumbled around, though it was no longer a threat.
Suddenly, there was the sound of a gunshot along with a burst of pain in my side. I yelled and fell to the ground, grabbing at my side and looking up to see the hellhound about to lunge at me. The binder sat on its back, with a gun held in his hand. It suddenly struck me as unfair that someone who controlled daemons would use a gun to fight...but they may have thought the same thing about my using a gun earlier.
“No you don’t,” Julie cried out, just as a burst of concrete and tiles erupted right beneath the daemon’s feet. I looked to Julie, who’d crept up on the daemon from the other side and was crouched down nearly beneath it. She was wincing in pain, apparently having been hurt when I hadn’t been paying attention to her.
“Thanks,” I told her, getting back to my feet with a grimace.
I clutched my axe tightly, fully aware of the fact that the essence charge had already burned off. However, that wasn’t really a problem as I took another swing with my axe. The daemonite rider saw me coming and moved to change positions, but I was expecting that and had begun to leap to the side, almost the second he’d made the decision to move. Before the hellhound had even finished its move, I was on the binder, hitting him in the side with my axe instead of his daemon. He screamed as he fell from the creature.
“I’ve got this one,” Julie said, driving her short sword right into the side of the hellhounds head and killing it.
Until this point, the ripper and the woman with the two swords were holding back, watching but not fighting. From the shotgun that the ripper was holding in her hands, she might have made a difference in the fight if she’d actually contributed, just as those swords might have.
Lindrell had finished, with not only the gaunt daemon, but with two smaller ones that had attacked her at the same time. She came up and joined Julie and I, preparing to charge the two remaining daemonites.
“Lindrell,” the daemonite with swords spat out, pulling back her hood and giving me a better look her face…and the look of cold hatred she was giving us. “It has been a long time…”
“That it has,” Lindrell responded grimly as she glared at the other woman. “Estrid.”
--------------------
Estrid, the infamous Val Kyr whom I’d heard so much about, stood in front of me, holding two swords and wearing a daemonite cloak. With the hood pulled back, I could see that she was attractive, with dark hair and appeared to be in her early twenties.
When Estrid shifted positions, the rest of her cloak was knocked back as well, revealing the black armor that covered her body from the neck down. It seemed to be made from a mixture of leather, scales, and chitinous pieces. It took me several seconds of staring to realize that her odd looking armor was actually made from daemon hides, and from what I’d seen, some daemons could have very though hides indeed.
“Estrid,” Lindrell spat out the name from beside me.
“That’s Estrid?” Julie blurted out, staring at the woman in disbelief.
I’d heard stories about the renegade Val Kyr, the convert who’d murdered five other Val Kyr before fleeing into the mists of the Twilight Realm. It was due to this woman that converts had been completely banned for the last three hundred years. It was largely because of her that I’d been met with such hostility and suspicion.
Lindrell put a hand on my shoulder and I suddenly felt jatta energy flowing into me, helping to ease the bullet would in my side as well as my shattered arm. I wouldn’t heal instantly, but this would definitely speed the process up a great deal. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be nearly fast enough.
“A full triad,” Estrid said, looking over us with a look of hate. “When I saw these two, I knew there would be a third nearby...so I held back until you revealed yourself.”
“When I heard you’d betrayed us to the daemonites, I hadn’t truly believed it,” Lindrell said in voice filled with cold anger. “I’d thought that even you wouldn’t go so far…”
Estrid just sneered at that. “Unlike the Val Kyr, we daemonites are honest in our intentions…”
“Can we just kill them now?” the ripper demanded. “Those fuckers just killed Marcus and Sebastion…”
I stared at the ripper, noticing that she hadn’t done anything to contribute to the fight, but now she seemed eager for revenge. It was the same in Australia, she hadn’t actually done any fighting herself, but seemed more than happy to see others kill for her.
Estrid seemed to ignore the ripper and just continued. “Once, I was foolish enough to sell my soul to a false god, just as every Val Kyr has. For my sins, I was cursed and damned…cast down into Hell. But I am not content to remain there. I will be free… All the denizens of hHell will be freed…”
“That isn’t going to happen,” Lindrell responded firmly. “We won’t allow you to release the daemons onto this world.”
“You have no choice,” Estrid stated with a smirk.
I glanced to Lindrell, who was making no move to attack Estrid, the ripper, or the vulture griffin that was holding back. We had the advantage at the moment, but she wasn’t attacking. Then I realized, she was trying to buy time…probably so everyone else in the mall could escape.
“This many daemonites and daemons,” Lindrell continued. “All for one potential recruit… Why would this recruit be so important to you?”
“She isn’t,” Estrid answered, still smirking, though her eye glared at us with raw hatred in them. “I decided that it was time for us to announce our existence to the world, to make the world fear us…and see what failures the Val Kyr are. As this can be done while slaying Val Kyr, so much the better.”
“You’re fucked up,” Julie blurted out.
“Fuck you, you little cunt,” the ripper spat back.
Again, Estrid didn’t react to those comments. Instead, she watched Lindrell with narrowed eyes. “You have a full triad guarding a single recruit… Why would this recruit be so important to you?”
“All of our potential recruits are important to us,” Lindrell answered. “We’ve decided that you aren’t going to find any of them as easy to get to anymore.”
“Pity,” Estrid mused.
“We’re gonna kick your asses,” the ripper exclaimed.
This time, Estrid smiled in response and it wasn’t a nice smile. “Indeed we are.”
With that, Estrid let out a whistle and the vulture griffin launched itself at us. Lindrell, Julie, and I all dove out of the way as claws and beak came snapping at us. And while we were doing that, the ripper held out her hand and formed a tear in space, an opening to the Twilight Realm.
“They’re gonna get away,” Julie called out.
However, Estrid made no move to go through the portal, and instead, she let out another shrill whistle. A moment later, a daemon came through, followed by a second and then a third. They immediately began to rush towards us, making it very clear that this fight wasn’t over just yet.
“Oh shit,” I blurted out, wincing in pain as I tried to fight a daemon, that would normally be pretty easy to deal with. Unfortunately, being as injured as I was, it slowed me down a great deal. Still, I was able to slam my axe into the daemon’s head, repeating this several more times until it finally collapsed.
Lindrell cut one of the daemons as well, then leapt to the side. In a swift move, she grabbed the gun that the binder had dropped and opened fire on the ripper, obviously remembering that the ripper was actually the greatest threat. However, the ripper quickly jumped behind the portal, keeping it between her and Lindrell and using it like a shield.
Another daemon emerged from the portal, one which was humanoid but definitely not the same species as the gaunt daemon that Lindrell had dealt with earlier. This one was even taller than the gaunt daemon, being nearly eight feet tall. However, this creature was neither pale-skinned or gaunt. It was wide and bulky, with rough looking gray skin, and face that even a neanderthal would have thought of as being brutish looking.
“A troll,” Lindrell exclaimed with a worried look on her face.
The new daemonite…the troll gave a deep throated growl, then in a low rumbling voice, he said, “Hungry…”
The troll didn’t come towards any of us, and instead, started towards one of the stores. I was relieved at that, until I saw that there was a teenage boy, just a couple years younger than me, who’d been hiding inside the store, peeking out from around the entrance in order to watch the fight. The troll had seen the boy and was going straight towards him.
“No,” Lindrell screamed, shooting at the troll, which only made it pause and turn to glare at her. Lindrell muttered a profanity and tossed the gun aside, then charged the troll with her axe.
Julie’s short sword had a glow of raw essence around it, and she sliced into a daemon who was torn open where her blade hit. Most of the time, I only saw notru using their essence to manipulate the environment, not to enhance their weapons, so this was a bit different. Julie flashed me a grin, then dropped to her knees and channeled more of her essence into the ground to drive back another daemon that was starting to get too close.
I was about to help Julie when I noticed Estrid was charging right towards Lindrell, apparently planning on hitting her from behind. I couldn’t let that happen so ran towards Estrid, yelling to catch her attention. It worked as she stopped and turned to look at me, her expression filled with a dark hatred. I suddenly wished that I had my sword and armor, because this wasn’t the kind of situation I wanted to be in when I wasn’t at my best. Unfortunately, we’d expected that if the daemonites did try anything at the mall, it would be with one or two daemons at most. We definitely hadn’t expected a full incursion.
Without a word, Estrid swung one of her swords at me, though this obviously wasn’t at her full speed or strength. I blocked with my axe and kept an eye on her second sword, which came at me in a follow-up strike. Again, she didn’t hit me as hard or fast as she could have, perhaps because she was trying to gauge my abilities.
“So, you’re Estrid,” I said grimly, taking a swing at her, which she blocked. She immediately responded with a counter attack, but I had my senses and reflexes on full alert and was able to avoid it. “I’ve heard about you…”
“You know NOTHING about me,” she spat out, suddenly lashing out at me much more quickly than before.
Estrid began driving me back with one strike after another, while I desperately tried to keep up, dodging and blocking. She had two weapons while I not only had only one, but one of my arms was nearly useless at the moment as well. Fortunately, all that practice with Ionne was coming into play and I was able to keep up…though barely. And though I hated to admit it, I knew that Estrid still wasn’t coming at me with everything she had, at least not if she was atra.
“Lindrell is jatta,” Estrid said with a sneer. “And your teammate is notru…so obviously, you are kaern.” Then she smirked and said, “Compared to me, you are soft and weak. Your perception tricks won’t work on me, so don’t bother trying. The only thing you can do against me is die.”
The instant the last word left her lips, the essence stored within her swords suddenly blazed to life. Both her blades glowed blue and crackled with electricity, which made me gulp and back up. I had a feeling that it would be an extremely bad idea to have any contact with those blades now, even with using my axe to block. Now, I not only wanted my armor and sword, but also my bow.
Estrid came at me with the glowing swords, and instead of blocking, I focused on dodging and backing away. I was scared, but knew from experience that she wouldn’t be able to keep the manifestations on her swords active for very long before they burned out. I just needed to keep my distance until then. However, after half a minute, she touched the tip of one blade to the ground, and suddenly a glowing blue bolt shot along the ground and hit me. I screamed in pain and dropped to the ground, feeling as though I’d just been hit by a taser. And while I was trying to regain control of my muscles so I could get back up, Estrid came straight at me.
“Now you die,” Estrid stated grimly.
But suddenly, a wave of essence charged air hit Estrid and sent her flying back. Julie’s attack caught Estrid by surprise and off balance, otherwise it wouldn’t have been nearly as effective. Julie came forward with a fierce look of determination on her face, glaring at Estrid as she said, “You aren’t going to touch Michelle…”
“We shall see,” Estrid responded, getting back to her feet and picking up one of the swords that she’d dropped. The other one was out of easy reach, so she didn’t bother retrieving it.
“Are you okay?” Julie asked me with a worried look.
“Just peachy,” I responded with a wince of pain as I slowly got back to my feet. “I’ll be a lot better once we take care of this sith…”
“May the force be with us,” Julie joked weakly.
Estrid glared at Julie and then me, not seeming the least concerned about the fact that she was now outnumbered two to one…or that she had been reduced from two swords to one. In fact, she’d already burned up her essence charge as well, so the blade was no longer crackling with electricity. Estrid let out a whistle, and suddenly the vulture griffin, which I’d lost track of until now, came flying right at us, hitting Julie and yanking her back.
“Let me go, you stupid buzzard,” Julie cried out as she struggled with the daemon.
I was about to jump to Julie’s aid, but Estrid came at me again. This time, she only had a single sword, which meant that she was easier to bock. However, she was obviously pissed and was coming at me hard, which took everything I had just to keep from being overwhelmed.
“You are going to die, kaern,” Estrid spat out. “You may be fast, but you are also soft and weak.”
Estrid let out a loud yell, which I assumed was some sort of battle cry, and she came at me, swinging her sword as hard and fast as she could. I could have tried to dodge or divert the attack, but instead, I used my axe to block it, though it was extremely difficult to do so with only one good arm. The blow was powerful enough that any kaern would have been thrown back from the force, though I’d braced myself for it and only took a single step back.
“What…?” Estrid gasped in clear surprise.
“I’m not kaern,” I said with an evil grin as I charged my axe with essence. Her eyes went to my now frost covered axe, widening in surprise as they did so. “I’m atra.” And with that, I kicked Estrid as hard as I could, catching her in the gut and sending her flying back.
Estrid quickly got back to her feet, not even having lost her sword this time. She stared at me for a moment with an expression that I couldn’t quite read before she sneered and said, “Atra… I didn’t think there were any left…”
“I’m the first one in three hundred years,” I responded grimly. “Thanks to you and your betrayal.”
“You know nothing,” Estrid spat out as she began approaching me again.
“I know you murdered five Val Kyr,” I stated.
Estrid snorted at that. “Is that what they told you?”
Then before I could respond, Estrid flung herself at me again, lashing out with a series of strikes that came fast and hard. Until now, she’d thought I was kaern and had been coming at me as if I was one. But now, now she knew I was really atra, the same as she was, so she changed the approach of her attacks. Instead of trying to just overpower me, she was relying on her greater skill and experience.
I frantically dodged, blocked and attacked, suddenly feeling almost like I was sparring with Ionne when she was feeling particularly vicious. I yelped as her blade nicked my thigh, drawing blood but not going deep enough to drop me. I got through her defenses and nicked her upper arm, though her armor kept my blade from really getting through. However, I could sense my icy manifestation getting through and into her flesh, giving her a nasty bit of frostbite, though she just grimaced and remained eerily silent.
All my attention was so focused on Estrid that I was barely aware of what was going on with Julie or Lindrell, as they each fought their own daemons. But then there was the sound of a gunshot, which made me jump for a moment. I quickly glanced over, horrified to see that Lindrell was covered with blood from the shotgun blast she’d taken to her backside. Fortunately, the ripper was standing far enough away that the damage had been spread out and limited. However, it was obviously enough to distract Lindrell long enough for the troll to backhand her, sending her flying through a display window. The troll let out a roar and charged after her.
Now I was so distracted by what was happening with Lindrell that I wasn’t paying enough attention to Estrid. Estrid’s blade was filled with a fresh charge of essence and once again crackling with electricity. It was also coming straight at me. I instinctively went to block the attack, but the moment my axe connected with the sword, I was struck with a painful shock that shot straight through my body, causing every muscle to spasm at once.
“If you’re atra, then you’re a convert,” Estrid said as she stood over me. She stared down at me with a grim look as she raised her sword for the final strike. “You’ve been cursed enough, so I’ll give you the mercy of making this quick.”
Estrid started to bring her sword down to my neck when I suddenly heard the sound of another gunshot. She froze, letting out a gasp of pain. Then she snapped around, revealing that her cloak was shredded from where she’d been shot in the back by a shotgun blast...at a much closer range than Lindrell had been.
“I’ve got you now you fucking Val Kyr cunt,” the ripper yelled out, glaring furiously at Estrid.
“WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?” Estrid screamed, her voice filled with both fury and pain.
The ripper raised her shotgun to take another shot, but Estrid rushed towards her, screaming in rage. It was only then that the ripper’s eyes suddenly went wide and she stared at Estrid in shock…
“Boss?” the ripper gasped, looking completely confused.
I was confused as well, until I heard Shannon’s voice call out, “Michelle…”
I winced and struggled to get to my feet again, though my muscles were still a bit rubbery. That second contact with Estrid’s charged sword had been much worse than the first one. Shannon was by my side and helped me to my feet, shoving a sword in my hand at the same time.
Estrid grabbed the ripper by the throat and lifted her off the floor with one arm, doing so with ease. She was furious and spat out, “Nessa, you shouldn’t have done that…”
“I thought I was shooting one of the Val Kyr,” the ripper…Nessa blurted out with a look of terror on her face. “I shot one of them… I swear…”
Estrid snarled, looking like she was about to kill Nessa. “Fortunately for you, I need you alive.” Then she turned and looked back at me, though her eyes locked on Shannon and she sneered. “Shannon… So this was a kaern trick…”
“Estrid,” Shannon stated, her voice cold and hard. “I never thought I would see you again…”
“A little help, please,” Julie called out.
I tore my eyes away from Estrid and looked to Julie, who was still fighting with the griffin. She was all bloody and torn up, but she had given as good as she’d gotten because there were gashes and cuts all over the griffin as well. It lashed out at her with beak and claws, though the ground rose up between them, blocking the daemon.
“There is no purpose in remaining,” Estrid told Nessa, not looking away from us. “We’ve made our presence known. The Val Kyr can be dealt with another time.”
With that, Estrid turned and walked to the portal, though she was limping and moving as though in a lot of pain. I wasn’t sure how much of the shotgun blast had made it through her armor, but obviously it hadn’t been enough.
“But our friends,” Nessa protested, making me think that she wanted revenge for the other daemonites we’d killed, until she gestured to the shop where Lindrell was still fighting the troll.
“We don’t have time to recover them,” Estrid responded. “They will enjoy their freedom in what time they have. Come.”
“Oh no you don’t,” Shannon yelled, charting right at Estrid. However, Estrid stepped through the portal and vanished, and a moment before Shannon reached Nessa, she jumped through as well. The portal disappeared the instant she was gone. “NO! She escaped…”
I muttered a profanity, but was already turning to help Julie. Shannon snarled furiously but hurried over to help as well. It took the three of us about fifteen seconds to kill the daemon, then we went to help Lindrell, who was still struggling with the troll.
“They have tough hides,” Lindrell commented as we rushed and began to swing at the creature. “Like rock…”
“It’s daytime,” Julie suggested as she swung her short sword at the daemon’s legs. “Why don’t we lure it out into the sunlight so it will turn to stone…?”
Lindrell gave her a curious look and asked, “Where did you hear that nonsense?”
The troll roared and lashed out with his massive arm, hitting Lindrell and sending her flying back through a display rack. She got back to her feet, covered with bruises, cuts, and scrapes from the fight, but obviously not about to quit.
“I hate trolls,” Lindrell snarled.
“They’re difficult to kill,” Shannon added, though I’d already seen that much myself.
The troll had numerous cuts and gashes around his body, and nasty green blood was leaking out of most of them. However, the daemon didn’t look like he was about to go down anytime soon.
“The eyes are the most vulnerable,” Lindrell pointed out, seeming to ignore the fact that the creature was nearly eight feet tall and his eyes were a bit out of range. It would be hard getting to his eyes without getting within his reach.
With that, the troll snarled, “Crush you… Eat bones…”
“No,” Julie joked weakly. “It’s supposed to be Hulk smash…”
That joke suddenly reminded me of something else from the comic books and gave me an idea. I looked to Michelle and said, “Cannonball special…”
“We don’t have any cannons,” Lindrell reminded us in annoyance, obviously missing the X Men reference.
“It’s a comic book thing,” I told Lindrell, jumping to the side as the troll threw a display case in my general direction. “It means, you could throw one of us towards him…towards his face.”
“I might be able to distract him for several seconds,” Shannon announced. “Make them count…”
“Very well,” Lindrell agreed, giving me a nod.
I went over to Lindrell, holding my sword tightly and wishing I had enough essence ready to charge it up. I felt Shannon pushing kaern energies at the troll, and it paused to look around with an expression of confusion. While it was distracted, Lindrell held her hands down, clasped in a classic position for giving someone a lift up. But when I put my foot into the step she offered, she threw me up at the same time I jumped. I was thrown right towards the troll’s head, and I drove my sword straight into one of his eyes. The monster staggered back, then dropped to the ground, finally dead.
“Well done,” Lindrell said, giving me an approving nod.
“Holy shit,” a new voice said, drawing my attention to the teenage boy who was cowering in the corner. Lindrell had kept him from being killed by a daemon, but instead of taking advantage of the opportunity to run away, it seemed that he’d remained behind to continue watching. Obviously, this kid was a Darwin Award waiting to happen.
“This…complicates things,” Shannon said with a shake of her head.
“Are you all right?” Lindrell asked the boy, who stared at her with an expression of mixed awe and fear. She crouched down beside him and gave him a gentle smile. “Go home and try to forget you ever saw this. Trust me, you’ll sleep much better if you can.”
The boy nodded fearfully at that and didn’t say a word, not even a ‘thank you’ as he got up and raced out of the store as quickly as he could. I just wondered why he hadn’t done that when the daemons first appeared…or when the troll was smashing things up.
I stood there, feeling a bit dazed as I held my injured arm and looked around the scene of carnage that surrounded us. Between the blood, bodies, witnesses, and security footage from the mall, I realized that there was no way to cover this up. There was far too much evidence. Estrid might not have killed Cindy like she’d intended, but she had accomplished one of her goals. She’d just revealed the existence of daemons to the world.
“Cindy?” Lindrell asked Shannon.
“I got her out of the building,” Shannon answered grimly. “Once she was safe, I came back to help…” She paused for a moment then said, “I’d called Connie for backup, and she should have picked Cindy up in the parking lot…”
“I don’t think so,” Julie said, looking as exhausted as I felt. She pointed down the hallway, where Cindy stood, looking at the dead daemon and daemonite bodies with a look of shock on her face.
“No fucking way,” Cindy gasped. “They’re real…”
“Far too real,” Lindrell agreed, giving Cindy a disapproving look.
Cindy slowly moved a little closer to one of the daemons, still looking like she couldn’t quite believe it was really there. I wasn’t sure how much of the fight she’d been present to watch, but considering the fact that Shannon hadn’t arrived until the end, I doubted that she’d seen very much of it. Still, that little bit had to have been more than enough.
“I told you to get to safety,” Shannon told Cindy with scowl, definitely not looking happy.
“I had to see,” Cindy answered awkwardly. “I had to see for myself…”
“Are you okay?” Lindrell asked, looking between me and Julie. Both of us were pretty torn up from the fight, which was no surprise since we were unarmored and under-armed. We hadn’t expected such a large fight so hadn’t come fully prepared for it, and were lucky that we’d come out as intact as we had.
“We’ll live,” I said with a sigh.
Just then, Connie came running down the hall with her sword in hand, yelling, “Cindy!”
“Oh shit,” Cindy muttered, giving Connie a worried look.
“It seems I missed the excitement,” Connie said once she’d reached us. She looked around at the dead bodies, then at Cindy. “And the person I was supposed to pick up in the parking lot…”
“Sorry,” Cindy responded with a shrug.
Connie shook her head, then told Lindrell, “There’s damn near a whole army of cops outside the mall. They looked like they were about to rush in, so I created a bit of a distraction to keep them back for a bit longer. I don’t know how long that will last though.”
“Good,” Lindrell said with a sigh. “That will give us time to get out of here…”
Without saying a word, Lindrell put a hand on Julie’s shoulder and on mine at the same time, then I felt a surge of jatta energy. It was a pleasant warmth that flowed through me, giving me that extra jump in vitality that would help me heal and recover much faster for a short time. I definitely needed it, but looking at Lindrell and how torn up she was, I feared that she probably should have kept the energy for herself.
Connie and Shannon both froze and turned to look down the hall at the same time, and a moment later, I felt it as well…something odd on the edge of my awareness. I looked down the hall too and gulped at the sight of a new figure, which was vaguely human in shape…but apparently made entirely of smoke and shadows. The figure hovered several inches off the floor, seeming to stare down at one of the dead daemons rather than us.
“It’s another one,” Cindy blurted out, jumping back and behind Connie.
“No, that isn’t a daemon,” Connie told her with a grim expression. “It’s a haunt.”
None of the older Val Kyr made a move to either attack or defend against the strange shadow person, so I made no move either. Lindrell had mentioned haunts during our lessons, saying that they were known by various different names…and that they were no threat. According to her, they were another leftover from the gods, though no one knew if they were humans who’d been enhanced the way the Val Kyr were, or if they were something else entirely.
“Kind of creepy,” Julie said with a snort. “I don’t trust anything that looks that much like a dementor.”
“Ditto,” I agreed.
As I watched, the haunt bent over and touched the body, which seemed to turn into shadow and smoke as well before being absorbed by the creature. In moments, there was no trace of the body, not even the blood it had been sitting in. Once it was done there, the haunt moved over and repeated the process with the next body.
“Think of it as a janitor,” Connie explained to Cindy. “They clean up daemon bodies and get rid of the evidence. By the time this thing is done, there probably won’t even be any security footage left…”
“What about the witnesses?” I asked, suddenly having a sinking feeling as I imagined this thing hunting down all the people who’d seen the daemons and killing them. I grimaced, determined that I’d fight the thing if it tried that.
“They never bother humans,” Lindrell said with a scowl. “Or Val Kyr. Most people don’t believe monsters exist, so without evidence, everyone will assume this was some sort of hoax or that the witnesses were hallucinating.”
“Either way,” Connie pointed out grimly, gesturing towards the mall entrance. “We need to get out of here before the police decide to come in. Fortunately, Shannon and I can get us past them without their noticing us…”
I nodded at that, eager to get out of here and to somewhere I could get a nice hot batch. I thought of the hotel room, feeling disappointed as I realized that I’d probably have to settle for a lukewarm shower instead.
“I’ve decided,” Cindy abruptly announced, giving the haunt a wary look before turning her attention to Connie. She took a deep breath and stood up straighter, looking determined as she said, “I want to join you.”
“Are you certain?” Connie asked her gently. “Once you awaken, there is no going back. Your old life will be over and you will be Val Kyr for the rest of your life.”
Cindy nodded at that, then gestured towards the scattering of bodies. “Those things are… Those things shouldn’t be here. I want to help stop them.”
“Then as soon as we’re safe,” Lindrell told Cindy with a faint smile, “we can awaken your val. Freya has already given her blessing.”
“If you don’t mind,” Connie said, giving a wry smile. “I’ll do honors…” With that, she put her arm around Cindy’s shoulder and proudly added, “After all, her father was my baby brother…”
“WHAT?” Cindy gasped, staring at Connie in surprise.
“Wow,” Julie commented. “A surprise family reunion.”
“You’re my aunt?” Cindy asked, looking like she wasn’t sure if she believed it. Then she paused for a moment before saying, “Dad told me he used to have a big sister who disappeared when he was just a kid… He said she was named Constance…”
Connie shuddered at that. “Please…just call me Connie…”
“As heartwarming as this family reunion is,” Shannon reminded us impatiently, “we need to leave…immediately.”
“Agreed,” Connie responded, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a pack of cigarettes. She remained where she was long enough to light one, then started walking down the hall, asking, “Are you guys coming or what?”
--------------------
I was sitting at the table in Ionne’s private quarters, eating dinner with her like this for only the second time. The first time we’d eaten together like this, I’d just learned that she was my mentor and I’d been a bit intimidated. But now, I’d known Ionne long enough to be a bit more comfortable and relaxed in her presence, at least when we weren’t in the middle of a brutal training session.
Ionne took a long drink from a cup of booze, something that smelled a lot stronger than the ale I was drinking. “After three hundred years,” Ionne finally said, her voice sounding tired, “Estrid has finally emerged from hiding.”
I took a sip of my ale, still not sure I really liked the taste, though I appreciated the fact that I was being treated as an adult and offered alcoholic drinks rather than soda. I watched Ionne, not sure what I could say at the moment. After all, when we’d returned to Val Halla three days ago to present Cindy to Freya, we’d also gone through an official debriefing. At the time, Freya had been completely professional, so I realized that she’d invited me to dinner so we could talk about this again at a more personal level.
“She seemed pretty…bitter,” I finally said.
Ionne nodded at that. “From what you’ve told me, Estrid has grown much stronger over these centuries. It seems that she may have paid more attention than I’d realized, and learned more than I’d suspected.” She paused at that, staring off into space before musing, “Of course, three centuries would have been a great deal of time for her to practice and discover her atra abilities on her own.”
“She’s better than me,” I admitted, staring down into my food. Sure, I’d fought her while injured and without my armor and preferred weapons, but she’d been holding back for most of our fight, and she’d been fighting under the mistaken assumption that I was kaern. I had a feeling that if I fought her again, even going into it prepared, she’d still win. As Ionne had just pointed out, three hundred years was a long time to practice and grow stronger.
“You will continue to improve,” Ionne said, giving me a faint but reassuring smile. “It merely takes time, training, and experience.”
I nodded in agreement, remembering Lindrell telling me the same thing a couple days ago. Ever since we came back from the mission, my triad had been taking it easy, resting and recovering. My injuries were now fully healed, and just in time since tomorrow we were going to go back to training. Lindrell had said we were going to be putting a little more focus on working together and fighting in formation since our teamwork had failed during the fight, and I didn’t know whether to dread this or look forward to it. Though Lindrell had admitted our failure to work as a team was her responsibility, her solution was for all of us to work harder.
“Estrid never should have been made Val Kyr,” Ionne told me quietly. “I take full responsibility for that.” She paused to take another drink, then added, “I have lived a very long time and what happened with Estrid is one of my greatest regrets.”
Ionne and I were both silent, and I felt just a bit uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was going. Ionne was confiding in me, and I suspected that she hadn’t really talked to anyone else about this in a long time. I felt honored that she would trust me her personal feelings this way, though I wished I knew what I could say or do make her feel better.
“She seems to really hate the Val Kyr,” I finally said. “Why would being a convert make her so angry?”
“I have asked myself that question many times,” Ionne admitted. She stared at me for a few seconds, then said, “At one time, Estrid…Erik at the time…was a proud young soldier. One day, he suffered an injury that ended his military career and left him a cripple.”
I scowled at Ionne’s use of the word ‘cripple’, thinking of my dad and how he’d bitterly called himself the same thing when he was at his worst. I’d never liked that word, or at least not the negative connotations associated with it, but Ionne didn’t seem to realize or care that it wasn’t politically correct. In fact, I wondered if she even knew about the modern ‘politically correct’ movement.
“One of our recruiters kept watch on that bloodline,” Ionne continued with a frown. “She told me of Erik’s heroism and injuries, so I gave permission to recruit him.” She paused at that, taking another drink and seeming to completely ignore the plate of food in front of her. “Unfortunately, I allowed my personal feelings to influence that decision. I overlooked his pride, rigid outlook, and inflexibility. After he became Estrid, she was unable to adapt or accept her new life…so rejected it…the Val Kyr…and our purpose.”
“I think I know how she felt,” I admitted quietly, then quickly added, “At first. If it wasn’t for Julie and Lindrell…” I shuddered at that, finding it far too easy to imagine myself in Estrid’s place, in rejecting my new body as well as my place among the Val Kyr.
Ionne gave me a knowing look and a faint smile. “There are few men who actively desire to change genders, and few of those are fortunate enough to also carry a seed of val. For most converted, becoming Val Kyr is a challenge…and has only become more so over the last seven centuries. Perhaps I could have helped Estrid more, but I dared not do so. I kept my distance, for longer than with you, In order to give her opportunity to show her strength and independence…to show our sisters why she’d been recruited to join our ranks.” Ionne paused at that, frowning sadly and taking another drink. “I dared not approach her sooner, for I could not afford to show special treatment to a fresh recruit…especially one of my own bloodline.”
“Your bloodline?” I gasped, staring at Ionne in surprise.
“Yes,” Ionne responded with a sad smile. “Estrid is one of my descendants. Her grandfather was my great grandson.”
I continued to stare at Ionne, suddenly understanding why she had been so disappointed about what happened with Estrid. It wasn’t just a missed opportunity to bring back the atra…or even the feelings of guilt for failing as a mentor. This was even more personal, so I was a little confused about why she was telling this to me.
“I…I didn’t know,” I responded quietly.
“Very few do,” Ionne told me with a faint smile. “I would prefer if it remains that way.”
“Of course,” I immediately agreed. “I won’t spread it around.”
As I stared at Ionne, I continued to wonder why she would confide in me this way when I was one of the newest Val Kyr, but the answer was obvious. It was because we were both atra. Every other Val Kyr had others of their own pillar to talk to, and until very recently, Ionne had been alone.
For the rest of dinner, there were no more revelations and the conversation focused more on my training than on my encounter with Estrid. However, there was still the undercurrent which indicated that my encounter with her had changed things, and not just for me.
“You can expect more Val Kyr requesting to spar with you,” Ionne told me with a thoughtful look. “Most have never had the opportunity to spar with atra until recently.”
I understood exactly what Ionne meant, and what she hadn’t actually said. Now that everyone knew that Estrid was back…that she was with the daemonites…and that she was an atra…they wanted to know how to deal with her. And though I was still fairly inexperienced, I was still the best chance that most Val Kyr had to learn how to deal with an atra opponent.
“Well,” I responded with a chuckle. “I can always use more practice.”
“Good,” Ionne told me, seeming amused by my reaction. “It is wise to consider this another opportunity to improve your skills.” Then her expression turned grim again as she added, “And should you ever encounter Estrid again, you will need to be at your best. I doubt you would be so lucky a second time.”
I just nodded again, not sure what I could say to that. On one hand, I hoped that I did run into Estrid again so I could have another chance at her, but on the other hand, she sort of scared me. It wasn’t just the fact that she’d come extremely close to killing me, though that certainly was a part of it. What really bothered me was that everyone kept comparing me to Estrid, so I couldn’t help but thinking about her as what I might have become if things had only been a little different.
When we finished with our meal and conversation a short time later, I thanked Ionne and then started back towards my own quarters. I was still reeling a bit from everything that Ionne had told me, especially the admission that Estrid was one of her descendants. It was obvious that Estrid’s betrayal hurt Ionne far more than anyone else realized, and I couldn’t help but feeling sorry for my mentor and what she had to be going through.
I was halfway back to my quarters when I saw Jass walking down the hall towards me from the other direction. She was in the middle of a conversation with two of her friends when she stopped and stared at me with a sneer. “I’m surprised you didn’t run off to join that traitor Estrid when you had the chance.”
“Fuck you,” I spat out, getting more than a little tired of her insults.
I tried to continue on my way, but Jass blocked my path. Her friends didn’t look thrilled by this confrontation, but they made no move to stop Jass. “Did you hear?” Jass asked her friends, though her eyes were still locked on me, filled with a hateful expression. “When her triad ran into Estrid…she let Estrid escape.”
“From what I heard,” a new voice announced, “that isn’t what happened at all.” I glanced back and saw two more Val Kyr had been coming up the hallway behind me. The one who’d spoken was Bethany, who gave Jass a flat look and silently dared her to continue. “From what I’ve heard…by someone who was there…Michelle fought Estrid one on one…and was nearly killed by her.
“That’s what Shannon told me,” one of Jass’ friends said, only to get a glare from Jass in response.
“Obviously, that was just for show,” Jass insisted, still glaring at me. “They’re both atra…”
I snarled, growing angrier by the moment, and I was more than a little tempted to punch that bitch as hard as I could. For most of my life, I’d been conditioned not to hit girls, but just one day of training in Val Halla had almost completely wiped that away. Almost. I had no problem fighting a woman for real, or giving it everything I had when we were sparring, but I still hesitated to make the first move when she hadn’t done anything but insult me.
“I’m sure Freya would appreciate that reasoning,” Bethany pointed out with a smirk, which made Jass pale a little in realization.
“They’re both converts,” Jass spat out, saying the word ‘converts’ as though it was a profanity. “They can’t be trusted…”
I bit my tongue, struggling desperately to keep from saying anything about that as well. The last thing I wanted to do was to blurt out Ionne’s secret, even if it would have been REALLY satisfying to see the look on Jass’ face.
“Come on,” one of Jass’ friends said, grabbing her by the shoulder and scowling. “You’re making a fool of yourself…” Jass gave me a dirty look but didn’t resist as her friends led her away from us, though the one friend did give me an apologetic look as they left.
“Thanks,” I told Bethany, glad for her assistance since I had no doubt that if she hadn’t been there this time, Jass and I would have gotten physical.
Bethany just gave me a grin and said, “You certainly have a way of making friends.”
“I’ll say,” the Val Kyr beside her added, speaking for the first time. Then she grinned at me and announced, “Hey…shorty.”
I looked Cindy over, hardly believing that this was the same girl we’d recruited a few days ago. After her val had been awoken, she’d gone through a massive growth spurt, growing taller, bustier, and more athletic. She finally stopped growing at a height of 6 foot 2, and she seemed to delight in the fact that she was now taller than I was.
My eyes went to Cindy’s waist and the red sash that was now tied around it. Cindy had gone to the scales this morning, then she’d spent the rest of the day with her new mentor…Bethany. Of course, no one was really surprised that Cindy was jatta…not after seeing how much she’d grown. It was the jatta part of the val that caused all Val Kyr to undergo our physical changes and improvements, and since those of the jatta pillar had more of that particular energy, they tended to get a little more in the way of physical changes. As I’d finally noticed, the average height for jatta was a couple inches taller than for the other pillars.
“What was that about anyway?” Cindy asked, gesturing in the direction Jass had gone.
“Jass has issues with my being a convert,” I answered with a sigh.
Bethany nodded at that. “She’s pretty decent most of the time, but whenever it comes to Michelle here, she lets her bitch flag fly.”
Cindy chuckled at that, then gave me a curious look. “So, what is a convert?”
I let out another sigh, suddenly feeling a bit self-conscious. But while I tried figuring out how best to answer that, Bethany went ahead and did so. “You know how you just finished changing?” When Cindy nodded, Bethany continued, “Some Val Kyr change a lot more than others. Converts, like Michelle here, started off as guys before they changed…”
Cindy stared at me, her eyes going wide. “You’re shitting me…”
“No,” I responded with a weak smile. “Two months ago, I was a normal guy…”
“All Val Kyr are women,” Bethany explained with a chuckle. “Even if they weren’t before.”
Cindy just continued staring at me, making me blush and feel even more self-conscious. After a few seconds, she finally said, “I saw you in the bath last night, and you sure as hell don’t look like a guy to me…”
“I’m not,” I told her with a sigh. “Not anymore.”
“So, you’re completely female?” she asked, seeming to become more amused by the idea. “I mean, you have periods and everything?”
I nodded at that, blushing even more brightly, much to Bethany’s amusement. I wasn’t about to tell Cindy that my first period had just ended because I didn’t want to encourage any more questions in that direction. In fact, I didn’t want to even think about it, at least not until next month when I’d have no choice.
“So, how did you like your first day of training as a jatta?” I asked Cindy in order to change the subject.
“It was…interesting,” Cindy answered, giving Bethany a dirty look.
Bethany just laughed and slapped Cindy on the back. “We went easy for today, just to give her an idea of what being jatta is all about…”
“You call that going easy?” Cindy blurted, giving Bethany a look of worry.
“Don’t worry,” Bethany assured Cindy, giving her an almost evil grin. “We’ll go pretty easy for a day or two, then we’ll ramp up to a normal training regimen.”
Cindy gulped at that, then nearly squeaked out, “I can hardly wait…”
“I’ll leave you here,” Bethany told Cindy with a grin. “I’m sure you’ll be wanting a good bath after that workout, and I’ve got a few things I need to take care of before I can enjoy that luxury. You girls take it easy…and I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow.” She gave Cindy another evil grin before she casually walked away.
Once Bethany was gone, Cindy turned to me and demanded, “Tell me she’s just fucking with me…”
“No,” I responded with a grin, making a show of holding my nose. “You really do need a bath…”
Cindy punched my arm, obviously not used to her new strength because it really hurt and was bound to leave a nice bruise. If I hadn’t been Val Kyr, it might even have broken my arm.
“I meant about the training,” she insisted, still looking a little worried.
“Oh that,” I responded with an evil grin of my own, rubbing my bruised arm as I did so. “You jatta are pretty sturdy and you heal real fast, so your training can get kind of…brutal.” Cindy went a bit pale at that while I slapped her on the back and said, “Come on, let’s get the others and get to the bath house before all the good spots are taken…”
Half an hour later, I stepped into the bath house along with Cindy, Julie, and Nicole. Since the four of us were the youngest Val Kyr and the closest to the same age, it was natural that we’d hang out together. Of course, Cindy didn’t really know a lot of other people around Val Halla yet, but I knew she’d make more friends soon…especially among the jatta.
“Congratulations,” Nicole told Cindy with a broad grin. “I’m glad you made it into the best pillar…”
“Oh, I didn’t know you made it into the notru,” Julie joked.
Nicole pointedly ignored Julie and continued talking to Cindy. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you got the tour of our hall, but I spent the whole day training with my triad.” Then she grinned and added, “We’ll definitely have to spar…”
“You’re just happy that you’re not the newest jatta anymore,” I pointed out to which Nicole just grinned.
When we reached one of the pools, Julie, Nicole, and I all undressed and climbed into the water. Cindy hesitated a few seconds before she began to get undressed, obviously self-conscious about doing so in front of other people. I could definitely understand that, but it amused me to realize that she was more embarrassed about it than I was.
“Come on in,” Julie teased. “We won’t bite…”
“Much,” I added with a grin.
“You don’t have anything to be embarrassed about,” Nicole assured her. “Not with that body. Besides, we’re all girls here…”
Cindy’s eyes immediately went to me as she was obviously reminded of our previous conversation. I blushed at that and carefully avoided looking at her, not wanting to make her any more uncomfortable with me than she already was.
“Great,” Cindy exclaimed in annoyance, tossing her clothes aside and quickly getting in the water. “Now you guys are making me feel like a fucking prude.”
“You should have seen Michelle when we first got here,” Julie pointed out with a giggle. “I thought I was embarrassed, but she wanted to wait until there was no one else in here at all…”
“That would have been a long wait,” Nicole added with a smirk.
“I just feel like people are staring,” Cindy muttered self-consciously.
Nicole snickered at that. “Probably because some are. You’ve got a great body now and there are more than a few ladies around here who appreciate that…”
I nodded at that, having noticed quite a few Val Kyr checking me out at one time or another. And then there was the fact that it wasn’t at all uncommon for women to be making out with each other while bathing, or doing even more…while other people were in the room. I blushed at the memory, thankful that no one was doing that at the moment. It was pretty embarrassing…and admittedly…kind of a turn on at times.
“Are there a lot of lesbians around here?” Cindy asked, sounding more curious than anything. Then she quickly added, “Not that I have a problem with it or anything…”
Nicole snickered again. “I don’t know about being lesbians, but I think most Val Kyr are at least bi-curious.”
I nearly choked at that while Julie blurted out, “You’re exaggerating…”
“Not really,” Nicole responded with a smirk and a shrug. She looked Cindy and explained, “The val in your body really pumps up your vitality and everything that goes with it. I mean, you’ll notice that your appetite is a lot bigger than before…and not just for food. You’ll probably get turned on a lot more easily...”
Cindy’s eyes widened at that. “You mean I’m gonna turn into some kind of nympho?” However, instead of looking horrified, she almost looked intrigued, which made me blush.
Nicole snorted. “Nothing like that. You’ll probably just have a bigger appetite and enjoy it a bit more.” Nicole shrugged at that, smirking a bit at the same time. “It’s different for everyone. Anyway, when I first came here, I was straight as an arrow, but now I sometimes fantasize about girls…” She gave Cindy an exaggerated lecherous look that made Cindy turn bright red and shift position to try covering her body. The rest of us just burst out laughing.
“Quit teasing her,” Julie told Nicole, blushing bright red herself.
“Okay okay,” Nicole responded with a roll of her eyes. Then she changed the topic and said, “Anyway, I heard that Bethany is your mentor…”
With that change of subject, the awkwardness began to fade and soon we were all caught up in a conversation about our training and what each pillar did. Cindy paid close attention when Nicole told her about jatta training, though she looked a little worried as well. However, she also seemed pretty curious about the atra and how we did just a little bit of everything.
“But we don’t just do weaker versions of the other pillars tricks,” I had to add, showing my pride at being atra. “We have a few tricks of our own too.”
“Not that I’ve ever seen them,” Nicole teased.
“Not surprising either,” Julie reminded her just a little smugly, “since you didn’t even know the atra existed a month ago.”
Eventually, we’d finished bathing and slowly climbed out of the hot and comforting water. I was the last to leave, taking advantage of my position to watch Julie, admiring her gorgeous body and letting out a faint sigh. At times, it was really hard to remember we were just friends, and depressing as well.
Nicole leaned over and whispered, “You want to tap that ass, don’t you?”
“What?” I gasped, staring at Nicole in horror…or at least embarrassment at being caught.
“Don’t worry,” Nicole smugly added before she went over and picked up a towel and winked, “I’ve seen her check you out too.”
And with that, Nicole picked up her clothes and walked away, leaving me standing there and feeling stunned. After a few seconds, I shook my head to clear it, telling myself that Nicole was just messing with me. In fact, she’d probably made up that whole conversation just to mess with me. But on the other hand, I couldn’t help but wondering…what if she wasn’t?
--------------------
“Come on,” I argued, giving Julie a steady look. “You’ve got to love a guy whose answer to the zombie apocalypse is to create his own zombie T Rex…”
“Yeah, Dresden would be pretty useful,” Julie admitted, “but I’d still rather have Anita Blake… I mean, not only is the Executioner a total bad-ass, but she’s also a necromancer…”
I snorted at that. “Not to mention, she’s a borderline psycho who’d probably shoot you if you even looked at her wrong…”
“What in the world are you two arguing about?” Lindrell demanded, looking at Julie and I as if she suspected we were crazy…or as if she was sure if it and was just looking for proof.
I looked to Julie, suddenly feeling embarrassed at having been caught like this. This morning, we’d been doing light training, which mostly meant classroom work and learning more about previous daemonite incursions so we knew more of what to expect. When we’d taken a break from this just a short time ago, Julie and I had gotten caught up in an old discussion that we occasionally went back to.
“We were discussing our ideal zombie apocalypse teams,” Julie volunteered, looking just as embarrassed as I felt. I groaned since it sounded even more geeky when said aloud. “I mean, which fictional characters we’d pick for our teams…”
“I see,” Lindrell responded, though the look on her face clearly indicated that she didn’t.
Julie and I looked at each other, then burst out laughing. Shannon, who’d been sitting on the other side of the courtyard from us, came over and commented, “The only name they gave that I recognized was Gandalf.”
Lindrell gave us an amused look and said, “I would have thought that preparing for real monsters and battles would have been enough to satisfy you, without resorting to make believe ones.”
“It’s a hobby,” I responded with a shrug.
“I know,” Lindrell responded with a faint smile and a shake of her head. “You’ve disrupted my classroom with that same conversation once before.”
“Oh yeah,” I muttered, turning bright red as I remembered how she’d called me out in front of the entire class and humiliated me because of it. I’d gotten so used to Lindrell the Val Kyr that I’d almost forgotten that she was also my old bitch of a teacher. Of course, her teaching methods hadn’t really improved since then, though now she used physical pain rather than embarrassment in order to drive home a point. As I’d learned, that was the Val Kyr way.
I let out a sigh, knowing that Lindrell was right, that after dealing with real monsters, the fictional ones were no longer nearly as exciting. That wasn’t actually any surprise though since I’d realized the same thing when we’d been back on Earth during our mission to help Cindy. However, our conversation about zombie apocalypse teams actually had little very little to do with the zombies and was more about just having fun, the way we used to before the strangeness came into our lives.
“Has there been any news of the incursions?” Shannon asked Lindrell, her expression going grim.
The daemonite incursion into Kenya had been completely cleaned out after four days, but just two days ago, we’d learned of two more incursions. One had been in Ontario Canada, while the other had been somewhere in Romania. Teams had been immediately dispatched to both places, each of which was composed of five triads. Because of that, Val Halla was starting to feel just a little empty compared to normal.
“The campaign in Romania is making good progress,” Lindrell told her with grim look of her own. “But the one in Canada is having difficulty due to daemons scattering into the nearby forests. They’ve requested reinforcements, so two more triads are being sent.”
“Not ours, I assume,” Shannon said.
“Not yet,” Lindrell agreed. “But with the current level of daemonite activity, we need to be prepared.”
With that, Lindrell and Shannon wandered off, talking about how we could improve our training so our triad would be fully ready the next time we were sent on a mission. So far, we’d done pretty well, but I was under no illusions and knew that a lot of that was luck.
“So,” I started, looking back to Julie. “Where were we?”
“Zombie apocalypse teams,” Julie reminded me with a grin.
A short time later, Julie and I got up and started back towards the library again so we could meet up with Lindrell and Shannon, when I once again found myself having to walk past Jass. As usual, when she saw me, she sneered and gave me the stink-eye. I was used to that reaction from her, so I did my best to ignore her as I went past.
But then, Jass said, “Julie…you shouldn’t associate with that convert…” As always, she said the word ‘convert’ as though it was a profanity. “She’s just like Estrid, and it’s only a matter of time before she shows her true colors…”
Julie froze at that and glared at Jass. “I’ve actually met Estrid,” Julie told her in a cold tone, “and I have to say…you’re a lot more like her than Michelle is…”
Rage flashed over Jass’ face, and she was suddenly in Julie’s face, demanding, “What did you say?”
“Come on,” I told Julie, having a very bad feeling about this. “We don’t have time for this…”
“You’re right,” Julie agreed and started to turn, though Jass grabbed her arm and snarled, “Don’t walk away from me…”
Dealing with Jass always left me angry and frustrated, so as soon as she’d grabbed Julie, I immediately snapped and shoved her away. “Leave her alone…”
Jass reacted with all the speed a kaern was capable of, and I barely registered she was moving before she’d punched me in the face. She hit me a second time, splitting my lip, before I was able to start defending myself. It was difficult to focus and stretch my awareness under the onslaught of her attacks, but Ionne had given me plenty of practice so there were only a couple seconds of delay.
I snarled as I threw myself at Jass, feeling pissed off, though a part of me was almost happy since I finally had an excuse to beat the crap out of that bitch. I slammed into Jass with my shoulder, driving her back. However, she grabbed my hair and pulled, yanking me off balance and then kicking me in the face. I returned the favor by punching her in the gut, making her double over as she tried to catch her breath.
“Stop that,” Julie yelled at us, though neither Jass or I listened. This had been building for too long.
For a brief moment, I thought I saw someone jumping at me from the side, but when I snapped around to block, there was no one there. Even as I realized that Jass had just used one of her kaern tricks on me, she was hitting me in my now exposed side. I grunted and snapped around, using my leg to sweep her leg from beneath her, though she was almost immediately back on her feet.
Suddenly, the ground beneath us exploded and we were both thrown back. I managed to land on my feet, though Jass landed on her ass. I looked to Julie, just a second before a voice yelled, “ENOUGH!” Then I snapped around and saw that it was Sharra who’d interrupted out fight, not Julie. And she did NOT look happy. “What is the meaning of this?”
“I was wondering the same thing,” a familiar voice added. A knot of dread formed in my stomach, and I stared at the ground in shame as Freya walked towards us. From her body language and expression, she was in full Freya mode.
“I found the two ladies fighting and had to break them up,” Sharra told Freya.
Freya stared at me with her intense gaze, making me feel as though she was looking right through me. I squirmed uncomfortably, suddenly feeling like I was a kid again and had been caught fighting on the playground over who had the best crayons. From the corner of my eye, I could see that Jass looked like she probably felt the same way I did.
“Explain,” Freya commanded in a calm but firm tone.
Ionne was my mentor, and though she could be brutal in our training, she was still approachable and human. Freya, on the other hand, was still pretty damn intimidating. In a way, it was almost as though I thought of Ionne and Freya as being two different people, and at that moment, I definitely would have preferred to be dealing with Ionne.
Julie glared at Jass and was about to say something, when I answered, “We were just sparring and got carried away.”
“Just sparring?” Freya repeated, her expression shifting subtly so that I caught a glimpse of Ionne.
“Yes ma’am,” Jass answered quietly. “We were just sparring.”
Freya stared at Jass for a moment, then back at me. She obviously didn’t believe that in the least, but instead of calling us out on the obvious lie, she simply stated, “You know it is against the rules to spar outside the designated sparring areas.”
“Yes ma’am,” Jass and I responded simultaneously.
“Then it is fortunate that you were…just sparring,” Freya said. “It would be inappropriate for two Val Kyr to resolve their differences by acting like drunkards in a tavern brawl.” Her expression went back and forth between Jass and I again, making us both sink down in shame. “As Val Kyr, it is likely that you will one day have to fight shoulder to shoulder…and rely on each other to guard your lives.”
Jass grimaced and tensed up, obviously not liking that idea. I was pretty sure that if Freya hadn’t been standing in front of us, she would have gone off on some rant about how she’d never fight alongside me, or something else like that. I certainly didn’t like the idea of having to rely on her to watch my back, but like Jass, I was smart enough not to say what I was thinking right then.
“Since you were…just sparring,” Freya continued, once again looking back and forth between us with a flat expression, “You will continue to spar in a designated sparring area…with neither armor nor arms…until dinner.” The tone of her voice made it very clear that this wasn’t a suggestion. “Consider this an opportunity to improve your unarmed combat skills…and your self-discipline.”
With that, Freya turned and walked off while I just stood there in surprise, not sure if I’d gotten off easy or not. Instead of getting punished for fighting with Jass, Freya had not only given me permission to continue doing so, but had effectively ordered me to keep fighting her. However, we were supposed to spar until dinner…and it was only halfway to lunch.
Then with my enhanced awareness, I was able to overhear Sharra talking to Freya as they walked away together. To my surprise, Sharra was actually chuckling, and told Freya, “You know, I remember a time when you rather enjoyed a good tavern brawl…”
Jass and I glared at each other, though neither of us said anything since there were now other Val Kyr around, curious about what was going on. Julie gave me a worried look, glared at Jass as well, and then went with Jass and I as we went to the fourth courtyard where we could continue where we’d left off.
“Now I’ll teach you a lesson in humility,” Jass announced once we were in the chosen area. Then she spat out, “Convert…”
“Bring it on, bitch,” I responded.
Julie stood back, well out of our way, while Jass and I slowly began circling each other. I stretched out my awareness, knowing that I couldn’t afford to get distract while dealing with a kaern like Jass. Distraction would leave me open to her perception tricks, as well as to her fast paced attacks.
Jass made the first move, charging at me and throwing a series of punches. I began reacting to each move the instant she started to make it, allowing me to block most of her attacks, though she reacted to mine even more quickly. Eventually, she managed to grab hold of my hair again and yanked, but I followed up with an elbow to her side.
“Go get her, Michelle,” Julie cheered from the side.
As we went at it, the differences in our fighting styles became pretty clear. Jass had better reflexes than I did, but not by much, while I was noticeably stronger than she was. Since we were fighting unarmed, I couldn’t use a rapidly charged weapon, which normally would have been a major asset against a kaern. I realized that this was probably one of the reasons Freya had instructed us to fight without weapons.
I felt a surge of satisfaction as I punched Jass and felt her nose break beneath my fist, though seconds later, her nails dug deeply into my cheeks and left painful and bloody gouges. We backed off from each other for a moment so we could each catch our breaths, then we went at it again, renewing our attacks with whatever strategy we thought would work.
While we fought, other Val Kyr came to watch, stayed for awhile, then drifted away. I barely noticed who most of our visitors were since I was keeping most of my attention on Jass, but Lindrell and Shannon arrived early and remained for most of it.
After two hours, I was tired, my whole body was covered with bruises and scratches, and I was sick of looking at Jass much less fighting her. However, when we paused to rest for more than a couple minutes, our audience yelled at us to continue, reminding us that Freya hadn’t just given us permission to fight…this was also our punishment for our earlier fighting.
Eventually, our time was over and I just collapsed to my knees, feeling utterly exhausted. I didn’t quite feel like I’d been hit by a car, but it was close. On top of my entire body being bruised, I had two black eyes, a broken nose, a busted lip, two missing teeth, and two of my fingers had had actually been broken as well. I was amazed that Jass had been able to do this much damage without using any weapons at all, but at least I’d given just as much as I’d received.
“Michelle,” Julie exclaimed rushing over to my side and giving me a worried look as she helped me back to my feet. “You look like crap…”
“That’s appropriate,” I joked weakly. “Because I feel like crap.”
“I’m certain a hot bath and a few hours of rest will do wonders,” Lindrell said as she came over and gave me a reassuring smile. “We’ll get you an ice pack to help for now…”
“Can you help me out?” I asked Lindrell hopefully. “A little extra jatta…”
“I’m sorry,” she responded with a sigh. “But Freya gave orders that you were both to heal normally…without assistance.”
Julie gasped. “That’s just mean…”
“Perhaps,” Lindrell agreed. Then she had a strange look on her face before adding, “Some of Freya’s punishments can seem cruel, but she always has good reason.”
I grimaced and looked over to Jass, who was a bruised and bloody mess, which was probably about how I looked. She was being helped to her feet by Shannon, while one of her other friends was handing her a bottle of booze, which suddenly made me realize that I was thirsty too…and starving. We’d fought straight through lunch and without any real breaks.
“I think that next time,” Lindrell told me with a faint smile, “you and Jass should resolve your dispute with an archery contest instead.
I nodded agreement with that, dreading the idea of ever having to fight Jass like this again. Then again, that was probably Freya’s purpose in making us fight for this long…to get it out of our systems. I had to admit, Freya knew what she was doing, thought that certainly didn’t mean my issues with Jass were over. Not by a longshot.
Though I needed to get cleaned up, I was also hungry and wanted to eat first. We went to the cafeteria, and it said something about the Val Kyr training methods that most women there didn’t even give me a second look. If I’d gone into the cafeteria of my old school like this, people would have freaked out and called immediately called 911.
While we ate, Julie kept giving me worried looks, though Lindrell acted as though my beating was nothing unusual. Then again, this certainly wasn’t the first time I’d come to dinner all bruised and battered from training, so I guessed this really wasn’t any different after all.
“I think you really need to work on defense a little more,” Julie said, cautiously reaching out towards my face but hesitating just short of touching me. “Damn, that bitch really did a number on you…”
Lindrell smiled faintly, then pointed out, “Michelle held her own against an opponent with a century of experience.” There was a note if pride in her voice as she said this.
Once we were finished eating, we started for the showers. I was more than eager to get out of my training uniform, which was so torn and soaked with blood that it would have to be thrown away. All I could think of was how good a nice hot soak would feel.
As we arrived at the bath house, Jass was just on her way out, obviously having decided to clean up before eating instead of the other way around like I had. She gave me a glare and muttered a profanity under her breath, but she made no effort to approach me, much to my relief.
Shannon had made it to the bath house ahead of us, probably having gone in with Jass, and she was already soaking in one of the pools. I felt a little betrayed as I remembered how she’d immediately gone to check on Jass instead me when we were in the same triad, but I squashed it down. After all, not only were Shannon and Jass both kaern, and friends long before I’d ever come to Val Halla, but they were also related somehow. I couldn’t really blame Shannon for wanting to check on her.
“Jass didn’t seem all that happy,” Julie commented as she climbed into the water, gesturing in the direction the other Val Kyr had gone.
Shannon just leaned back in the water and didn’t even look at Julie as she answered, “I just finished listening to her rant about how converts always cheat…”
Julie snorted at that and proclaimed, “She used just as many dirty tricks as Michelle.”
“More,” Shannon agreed with an amused smile.
“There is no such thing as a dirty trick when you’re fighting for your live,” Lindrell reminded us, which was something she’d said more than once during our training.
I just climbed into the water and let out a long sigh, “That feels good…”
“Definitely,” Julie agreed, giving me a grin.
After a minute, I turned to Shannon and asked, “Why does Jass hate converts so much anyway? I mean, the whole thing with Estrid happened way before she became Val Kyr.”
At first, Shannon didn’t answer, nor even look at me. Instead, she just stared off into space before finally said, “That isn’t really my story to tell…”
I nodded faintly at that, a little annoyed and even disappointed, but not surprised. After all, I wasn’t sure I’d want my friends to talk about me behind my back either.
But to my surprise, Shannon continued. “But perhaps you do have a right to know why she is so hostile towards you…” She finally looked at me, scowling a little as she added, “It isn’t personal. Her problem is with men in general…and extends to former men.”
“It certainly looks personal to me,” Julie said.
“In her old life…before becoming Val Kyr,” Shannon explained with a sad look, “Jass was mistreated by nearly every man in her life…including her father and brothers.”
“Oh,” I responded quietly, not sure I really wanted to know what Shannon meant by ‘mistreated’.
“At the age of thirteen, her father sold her to a brothel,” Shannon grimly told us. “At the age of fifteen, one of her…customers…” She spat the last word out, anger flashing through her eyes as she continued, “became too rough and she was forced to kill him in defense. Law enforcement cared little for the fact that he’d taken a knife to her skin, only in that a whore had killed the mayor’s son.”
Julie blurted out, “Holy shit,” while I just stared at Shannon in horror. I never would have imagined it, but I suddenly very sorry for Jass. And I could sort of understand why she disliked converts as well. She’d been given good reason to distrust men, and I imagined that she saw what had happened with Estrid as proof that converts couldn’t be trusted either.
“I saved her from execution and recruited her,” Shannon said, shaking her head sadly before fixing her eyes on me. “She’s earned the right to her anger, though sadly, it has been misdirected as of late.”
I nodded at that, not asking any more about Jass. I’d just learned much more about her than I ever really wanted to know, and it only made me feel more uncomfortable with our feud…almost as though I had somehow started it. I snorted at that, having to remind myself that she was actually the one who kept insulting me, not the other way around.
The four of us sat in silence for the rest of our long bath, and by the time we climbed out, much of my bruising had already healed. At this rate, by tomorrow morning, I’d be good as new and ready to start another brutal day of training.
We were in the process of getting dried off when another Val Kyr came into the bath house and walked straight towards us. “Lindrell,” she announced, looking straight at Lindrell. “Freya wants you and your triad to report to her office as soon as possible.”
“Did she provide a reason?” Lindrell asked.
“I’m not at liberty to say,” the messenger answered before she hurried off again.
“Then I suppose we should go see what Freya requires,” Lindrell mused.
We finished drying off and got dressed as quickly as we could. A short time later, the four of us reported to Freya’s office. She was inside, standing up and looking over a large table which had numerous papers and maps spread across it.
“Freya,” Lindrell greeted her. “You summoned us?”
“Yes,” Freya responded, turning and sweeping her eyes over each of us. Her expression was grim, so I knew that whatever this was, it was bad. “We’ve just learned of another incursion.”
“Oh shit,” Julie whispered from beside me, obviously remembering the town she’d seen wiped out.
Lindrell’s expression was just as grim as Freya’s now, though the mention of another incursion had immediately done that to all of us. “Then I assume we are to deploy.”
Freya nodded faintly. “I am dispatching five triads, and you will be leading this response team.”
“Understood,” Lindrell said. Then she gestured to the rest of us and added, “You summoned the whole triad…not just me.”
“Yes,” Freya agreed, a strong note of sadness slipping into her voice. Her eyes darted to Julie and then me before she turned her attention back to Lindrell. “Your triad will be critical in this mission as three of you are already familiar with the terrain…”
For a moment, I felt a little confused, wondering where Freya could possibly be referring too. After all, I couldn’t think of anyplace that three of us were familiar with when the fourth wasn’t…except maybe the area outside of that town in Australia. The others had explored that area, but I’d never left the town itself. But then, I suddenly realized what Freya meant and let out a gasp of horror.
“Oh no,” Julie gasped with the same look of horrific realization that I had. “We’re going home…”
--------------------
Home. Home wasn’t exactly a small town where everyone knew everyone else, but neither was it a large city. Instead, home was more like a moderately sized town, or more accurately, a suburb of one.
Just a minute earlier, I’d stepped through the blurring in space that was formed by the anchor, and arrived home. I stood in the middle of the street, right in the center of downtown. However, there were no cars racing past, nor where there people going about their business. I was immediately struck with the similarity to Australia.
“Oh shit,” I whispered, feeling a knot of cold dread forming in my stomach.
I felt a surge of worry as I knew full well that nearly everyone from my old life might very well be dead and gone, torn apart by an army of daemons. My friends at school…my teachers…and of course…Dad. I grimaced, clenching my teeth and gripping my bow more tightly.
I’d arrived fully armed and armored. I had my bow in hand with a full quiver on my back. My sword was strapped to my side, ready to be used the moment a daemon got within close striking distance. And I’d also taken a lesson from Ionne and had come with several backup weapons. I had a short sword strapped to my quiver as well, one that was just a little longer than a good dagger, and I had a small axe as well.
When Freya had told us about our mission to my own home town, she’d given Lindrell permission to heal me from my fight with Jass so that I’d be in better shape to fight. After an infusion of jatta, all my bruises were completely healed, as were my broken fingers. Even my missing teeth had partly grown back, but they felt weird and uncomfortable as they continued to do so.
We hadn’t departed immediately, not when we had five triads to gather and prepare. That gave me enough time to charge all my weapons with essence, getting them ready for use.
I glanced around at the other Val Kyr who’d arrived with me. There were sixteen of us in total, though Lindrell was in charge of the entire group. Gretchen and Lei were there, along with Natalie, who was filling in for their fallen notru. Bethany and Fleur were present as well, along with Jass.
Earlier today, Freya had pointed out that Jass and I might one day have to fight side by side, so I wasn’t sure whether Freya had assigned Jass’ triad to this mission in order to prove a point…or whether it was just coincidence. When Freya was involved, I wasn’t sure that I really believed in coincidences.
“Our information says that the incursion began four days ago,” Lindrell pointed out with a grim expression.
“Four days is a long time,” Natalie said, giving Julie and I sympathetic looks.
“I believe you are familiar with the area,” Gretchen said, looking to Lindrell who nodded.
“Yes,” Lindrell answered with a deep scowl. She glanced to Julie and I, adding, “And I’m not the only one.”
There was a moment of silence before Lei pointed out, “What are the odds of the daemonites just happening to launch an incursion in the same place where two Val Kyr had recently been recruited?”
Julie and I shared a worried look at that. Lindrell didn’t answer that, only taking her axe and using it to point at several of the Val Kyr.
“We’ll split into two groups for now,” Lindrell said. “Gretchen, your triad is with mine. The rest of you, search down there…” She used her axe to point down one of the other roads. “We’ll stay close enough to reinforce each other if necessary.”
Our groups had barely split up and gone our separate ways when I saw the first daemon. Shannon gave warning just a second before I sensed it as well. It was a fairly small daemon, something that looked a bit like a two headed hairless cat with a ridiculously long tail. I raised my bow but Gretchen beat me to it, sending an arrow right through the creature and killing it. We continued on our way, keeping a close watch for any other daemons.
A minute later, we encountered our second daemon…or at least what was left of it. The daemon had been a unicorn, but was badly torn up and had been left in the middle of the street. My first thought was that it had been taken out by another daemon, but then I looked closer. There were bullet holes all through the thing, as well as through some parked cars and the sides of the nearest building.
“This is fairly recent,” Shannon said as she looked down at the daemon. “The haunts haven’t come for it yet.”
“Then there may be survivors,” I whispered, feeling a surge of hope. Obviously, someone had killed the daemon, and I seriously doubted it was the daemonites.
Shannon nodded faintly at that, then pointed out, “But we don’t know how many…or if they survived this encounter.”
“At least this is one less daemon for us to deal with,” Lei commented, casually holding her massive Warhammer over her shoulder. “I hope that whoever did this is still around.”
We all nodded agreement at that, though Julie and I shared a hopeful look. Lindrell reached out and put a comforting hand on my shoulder, then nodded to Julie. “If there are any survivors, we’ll find and protect them.”
Just then, I noticed something else on the edge of my awareness and turned to look, only to see a shadowy figure gliding across the road. It was a haunt, and it was going straight towards another daemon body, one that I hadn’t even noticed before since it was mostly hidden behind a car.
“A haunt,” Julie said unnecessarily. She clutched her spear tightly, though she knew as well as I did that the haunt was no threat to us. Still, it looked pretty freakish so I was a bit tempted to shoot at it too.
The haunt reached down and touched the daemon’s body, and it vanished, just as the daemons had at the mall. Once the haunt was finished, it looked in our direction though made no move towards us. It was obviously waiting for us to move away from the unicorn corpse. Once we all backed away, it came over and made that daemon body vanish as well.
“Let’s continue,” Lindrell said, already continuing down the street.
We’d barely gone a dozen yards when Gretchen suddenly snapped around and fired an arrow at a building. A daemon, that looked something like a slime covered monkey, fell from the wall of a building where it had been climbing. A moment later, as if using this as their signal, a half dozen more daemons burst out of shattered shop windows and open doors.
“Nasty,” I said with a sneer, firing an arrow at a small flying daemon, hitting it and pinning it right to the wall.
“Agreed,” Lindrell commented, charging forward and swinging her axe at a spider daemon.
Julie touched her spear to the ground and one of the Pac Man daemons which had been rolling towards us, began to sink into the concrete. The concrete hardened again, leaving the daemon trapped as Lei smashed it with her hammer. At the same time, Natalie was performing a similar maneuver on the other side, causing one daemon to start sinking into the ground, then impaling it with her spear.
“Watch the sky,” Gretchen stated, right as she fired an arrow at one of the flying squids. However, that squid thing wasn’t alone and had another one with it, so I shot the second one.
A moment later, I snapped around and fired another arrow at an approaching mass of tentacles and spikes. My arrow went straight through its body, but didn’t seem to hit anything vital. However, Lindrell cut it in half with her axe and the two halves continued to move, so I didn’t feel quite so bad. She chopped at it a few more times, cutting it into half a dozen pieces before it finally stopped moving.
“Persistent pests,” Lindrell commented, making a show of kicking one of the pieces, which squirmed a little in response.
Suddenly, the sound of a gunshot echoed through the air, making all of us freeze and look in the direction the noise had come from. It was the opposite direction from where our other group of Val Kyr were, which meant one thing.
“A survivor,” Natalie said, absenting impaling a dead daemon with her spear and then looking to Lindrell.
Lindrell brought two fingers to her lips and let out a loud whistle in order to signal the other group. A moment later, she let out two more whistles, using a whistle code to communicate with them. I’d heard about the whistle code and how scouts would often use it to communicate with their triads, but I hadn’t yet been taught the code so had no idea of what Lindrell was saying.
“Come,” Lindrell said, starting to run in the direction the gunshot had come from. The rest of us ran behind her.
Several more gunshots led us straight to the source of the noise, which was only half a block away. There was a three story building with a prominent sign for a real estate office hanging off the front. The gunshots had come from the roof, and the target of those gunshots was obviously the large manticore that was trying to climb the side of the building.
“Watch the stinger,” Lindrell warned us. Then she looked straight at me and said, “Now would be the time to use your bow.”
“Gotcha,” I responded, notching an arrow and transferring most of the charged essence from the bow into the arrow, and then releasing it. The manticore moved at that moment, so instead of hitting it in the neck like I’d intended, I caught it in the shoulder, creating a large hole but not killing it. “Damn…”
The manticore roared in pain and immediately started charging towards us. Gretchen fired a shot at the creature, and her arrow glowed with charged essence as well. As soon as her arrow struck, the daemon was thrown back, as though hit with a massive amount of force. This was the first time I’d seen Gretchen use her special trick, and it was rather impressive. The manticore was still moving, but I had the feeling that half the bones in its body were shattered.
“That’s one way to do it,” Lei said before she charged forward with her hammer. The manticore made a weak attempt to strike at her with its tail, but she easily avoided that and slammed her hammer into its head, killing the daemon.
“That was a nice demonstration for the civilians,” Shannon commented, gesturing towards the roof of the building where several faces looked down at us. “But we aren’t finished…”
I didn’t bother asking Shannon what she meant about us not being finished since I was already aware of the other daemons approaching. They’d been gathered nearby, apparently keeping their distance from the manticore until it was killed. Now they were starting to emerge, with half of them coming towards us while the other half seemed intent on following the manticore’s example and tried going for the people on the roof.
Julie cried out, “Sandworm,” using her spear to gesture towards the daemon she was referring to.
The daemon was a massive snake, with a two foot diameter, crimson scales, and a large toothy maw that looked a bit more like a shark than a snake. The daemon was slithering towards the large front window of the real estate office, obviously intending to get into the building that way. Without a word, I raised my bow, released the rest of the stored essence into my arrow, and fired a single shot. The daemon’s head exploded and the body collapsed, much to my relief.
Gretchen let out what I thought had to be profanity, though I didn’t know enough German to be sure of what she said. One of her arrows struck a daemon and bounced off its thick hide. I charged my bow again and fired another charged arrow, blasting a nice hole through the daemon but not enough to kill it. My second charged arrow added to the damage, but the daemon continued coming towards us, at least until it was close enough for Lindrell and Lei to both hit at once.
“Look,” Gretchen said, gesturing to several smaller daemons that were climbing the wall, obviously trying to get to the people on top of the building.
I readied my bow to fire another shot, but the people on top of the building took a part in their own defense and opened fire as well. One of the small daemons fell off and then a second. Gretchen released an arrow to take out a third and I followed her example, catching one of the small flying ones that looked to be ready to dive at them from above.
Gretchen and I continued focusing on our ranged attacks, killing the daemons who were going after the people on top of the roof, or at least drawing their attention to us instead. While we did that, Julie and Natalie took positions to the sides of our group, creating walls, sink holes, and waves of concrete to slow the daemons and channel them towards Lei and Lindrell, who tore through them with ease. Shannon didn’t have a bow so used her sword, dodging in to quickly strike at a daemon, then backing up again out of range.
All the noise and bloodshed was drawing even more daemons out of the woodwork, and they kept arriving and swarming towards us. Fortunately, the other group arrived to reinforce us, and without a word, joined in the fight. More arrows flew through the air, and Jass managed to hit another of the flying daemons, which fell to the roof, and from the sound, was quickly finished off with a shotgun.
“I haven’t had this much fun in ages,” Bethany called out cheerfully as she tossed a grenade towards a cluster of daemons. “We can’t play with the fun stuff back home…”
“Only you would call this fun,” someone else called out to her.
With sixteen Val Kyr, we quickly took care of the daemons that were swarming us, and all the remaining ones either ran away or realized it would be too dangerous to attack. I looked around, sensing a few daemons in surrounding buildings, but they were no longer an immediate threat.
“It looks like we took care of this batch,” Bethany commented with a grin, using her claymore to poke at a dead daemon. “The haunts will feast tonight.”
“We aren’t finished until we’ve taken out the daemonites,” Lindrell reminded her. Then she looked around, scowling intensely as she did so. “So far, we haven’t seen any daemonites. Have you?”
“Oui,” Fleur answered, gesturing off to the side. “I saw one watching from a distance, though the fiend appears to have fled.”
“The rats won’t abandon this place that easily,” Natalie pointed out. “They’ve invested too much in this incursion to abandon their foothold.”
“There are other survivors,” Jass volunteered. “I spotted people watching us from windows when we came to join you.”
“And speaking of survivors,” Shannon said, gesturing towards the survivors we’d just helped.
We waited for several minutes as the survivors made their way down from the roof and finally came out the front door. There were four of them, three men and a woman, and all were armed with rifles or shotguns. They came out cautiously, watching us with expressions of mixed curiosity and suspicion.
The man in the front wore a dirty and torn police uniform, and from the way he was approaching us first, I assumed he was acting as their leader. The woman also wore a police uniform, though hers was a bit cleaner than his, though not by a lot. Of the remaining two, one was a stocky guy with a hunting rifle held firmly in hand, while the last was a middle-aged black man who looked familiar, though I couldn’t place where from.
“Thank you for your help,” the cop said carefully as he looked us over. I could imagine how odd we all looked to him, a small army of women wearing armor and wielding medieval style weaponry. “If you don’t mind my asking, who are you ladies…and what are you up to?”
“Who we are is a little complicated,” Lindrell told him with a sigh. “But as you can see, we were sent here to hunt down and kill the daemons.”
“Sent by who?” the cop asked suspiciously.
Lindrell smiled faintly and responded, “As I said, that is a little complicated, but we are here to help.”
“You know what these things are,” the female cop stated, giving Lindrell a suspicious look.
“Are there many other survivors?” Julie abruptly asked, her voice filled with both hope and worry. That seemed to make the survivors relax a little.
“A lot of people are still alive,” the female cop answered, much the relief of both Julie and myself.
Shannon nodded, then added, “Most places don’t do so well during incursions like this…” I nodded at that, remembering Australia. Obviously, I wasn’t the only one either as Gretchen, Julie and Shannon all tensed.
The cop snorted. “We had a bit of a warning…but not much.”
Lindrell gave him a sharp look. “What do you mean?”
“About a month and a half ago,” the male cop explained grimly, “one of these things attacked the local high school…”
Julie and I shared a look at that and I noticed Lindrell tense as well. “Continue,” she told him.
“One of the teachers saw the thing and hid in a classroom until it was gone,” the cop continued the explanation while Julie and I both listened intently. Ever since I’d been taken to Val Halla, I’d been curious about what had happened afterwards. “Afterwards, two teachers were found dead…torn to pieces…and there was the body of another man we couldn’t identify.” He paused at that, then shook his head, “Another teacher was also missing…along with two students.”
Suddenly, the bald black man blurted out, “Ms. Lindrell…”
Lindrell turned to look at the man, recognition appearing on her face before she said, “William.”
It was then that I suddenly recognized him as well. This was Mr. Decker…one of the math teachers at school. I hadn’t been in any of his classes so hadn’t recognized him until just then.
“She’s the teacher that disappeared,” Mr. Decker told the cop, who suddenly stared at Lindrell with a look of surprise.
“Indeed I am,” Lindrell told him, gesturing to Julie and adding, “And Julie here is one of the students who escaped the daemon with me.” I noticed that she hadn’t included me in that, which was no surprise. My changes would have been a bit much to explain, not to mention really embarrassing for me.
The cop’s eyes went wide and he demanded, “What’s going on?”
“Please, tell me of what happened after that,” Lindrell gently insisted. “I’ll answer what questions I can afterwards, once I have a better idea of the current situation.”
“No one believed Jacobs,” Mr. Decker announced, apparently deciding to give Lindrell the benefit of the doubt. “I mean, there was plenty of evidence of some kind of wild animal, but no one imagined it was something like this…” He gestured to the dead daemons that were scattered about.
“Most people don’t believe in daemons,” Shannon agreed. “It lets them sleep better at night.”
“The evidence was…confusing,” the male cop admitted reluctantly. “Everyone had their theories, and some were pretty wild. People became afraid that some rabid bear or dangerous monster might still be around, so began to load up on weapons… And when the first reports of these things came in…”
“We were ready for em,” the stocky man added with a look of smug satisfaction. I looked at him, imagining that people must have been calling him paranoid, so the appearance of the daemons had just proven him right.
“And we were quicker to believe the reports and respond to them,” the female cop said with a deep scowl. “Not that it did a lot of good. We lost power, the cell phone towers went down, and those things have completely cut us off from the outside…”
Gretchen looked at Lindrell and simply said, “The daemonites…”
“This is the most populated area they’ve ever tried launching an incursion,” Shannon said with a nod of agreement. “And it seems that they planned ahead…”
“Daemonites?” the female asked with a suspicious look.
Lindrell looked to the other cop. “Please continue.”
The male cop nodded at that and reluctantly continued, “It was pretty damn bad, and probably about half the town was killed before we really got organized…” He paused as a haunted look passed over his face. Then he shook his head, as if that could clear out the images. “Once we started getting organized, we got as many people as possible to the school to hunker down until this is all over. We’re pretty heavily guarded, but we still need to go out for supplies…”
“We have a lot of mouths to feed,” the stocky man added.
Lindrell stood there with a thoughtful expression, then said, “If you’re organized, then I assume you have a leader…”
“Yeah, we do,” the male cop answered, still looking just a little suspicious. “Back at the school.”
“I’ve always wanted to say this,” Bethany abruptly blurted out. Then she smirked and announced, “Take me to your leader…”
Lindrell glared at her but it was Fleur who pointed out, “I hardly thing this is a time for levity.”
After a moment, Lindrell turned her attention back to the cop. “As my tactless companion indicated, we do need to speak to your leader so that we may coordinate your defenses. I know you have many questions, but I’d prefer to wait until then before answering them as I don’t want to have to keep repeating myself.”
“I guess I can understand that,” the male cop responded, though he was obviously frustrated by the wait. He looked like he was bursting with questions, as were the three people with him.
We all started walking in the direction of the school, but it was obvious that our four survivors were impatient for answers. Mr. Decker asked Lindrell and Julie, “What happened to you…? Why in the world are you dressed like that?” However, Lindrell merely gave a few vague promises of answers once she’d talked to their leader.
Several times, we saw daemons, and the archers amongst us quickly either killed them or discouraged them from approaching. I had to admit that Jass was a pretty good shot, though she was obviously ignoring my presence as much as possible. She refused to look at me or acknowledge my existence in any way, which was perfectly fine by me. As long as she ignored me, the two of us should be able to get along just fine.
One of the smaller daemons moved fast and wasn’t discouraged, and it made it all the way to us before several notru responded at once, sending a wave of concrete to knock it back. It went to lunge again, but Fleur hit it with an arrow, which was immediately followed by three more arrows from other archers.
“How the fuck did you do that?” the stocky man demanded, staring at us in stunned disbelief.
“You aren’t normal,” the male cop accused us, pausing to give us another suspicious look. His hand was clenching his rifle tightly, as if he was thinking about using it.
“No, we aren’t normal,” Lindrell admitted, already continuing on her way. “But we aren’t your enemies either. In fact, we are your best chance at surviving this incursion.”
“She’s telling you the truth,” Julie added.
We made it the rest of the way to the school without further incident, other than a few minor daemons being killed. The sight of my old school made me gasp in shock. The fence around the school had largely been knocked down, but there were a lot of trucks and busses parked in front of it, forming a sort of wall. People were crouched down on top of the vehicles, and on top of the school building itself, some of whom were holding binoculars but all were armed.
“This looks like a scene from one of those apocalypse movies,” I whispered to Julie, who nodded agreement. I half expected to see Mad Max around somewhere.
“We found these ladies wandering around,” the male cop called out to the guards. “I’m taking them inside.”
Lindrell turned to some of the other Val Kyr and said, “If this is where the survivors are gathered, then we need to help secure them.”
“I’ll run a roaming patrol around the school,” Gretchen volunteered, gesturing to Natalie and Lei, indicating that she meant her triad would.
“They’ll need a couple kaern to help keep watch for daemons,” Lindrell added.
With only a little more discussion, ten of our Val Kyr split off to help guard the school while the rest of us went inside. I immediately noticed that there were obstructions in the hallway, obviously intended to slow down any daemons who made it this far as well as to provide cover for the guards, who were armed with everything from shotguns to a machete.
As we walked down the hallway, I looked into several open classrooms, which were filled with people. I was amazed at the number of people hiding in the school since I’d never imagined there would be so many survivors. And even better than that was the fact that I recognized some of them.
“I just saw my neighbor, Mrs. Kravitz,” Julie whispered to me, right before peeking into the next classroom, obviously looking for her family. I did the same.
When we reached the gym, I saw that the floor was covered with cots, sleeping bags, and blankets. A lot of people had been sleeping here and were still gathered around, sitting around and talking. However, half of the space was obviously being used as a hospital, as everyone in that area appeared to be injured or patched up.
In the middle of the gym, several tables had been set up in what looked like some kind of command center. Standing behind one of the tables, while bending over and looking at a map, was the man who was obviously in charge. He looked gruff and grizzled, radiating an air of dangerous competence. Of course, I instantly recognized my dad, though this wasn’t the drunk who’d sunk into self-pity but the man I remembered from my childhood.
As I stared at my dad, I was struck with relief, fear, and guilt, all at the same time. It was an unbelievable relief to see him alive, to see him healthy and in better condition than I could have hoped for. But I was also afraid of how he’d react to the new me, to having me become a girl. And of course, I was also guilty over the way I’d run off without even letting him know I was alive.
“This is David Sorensen, the man who’s been leading us,” the male cop said, gesturing to my dad.
“What’s this?” Dad demanded, looking up at us.
“We found these ladies out fighting the monsters,” the cop told Dad with a shake of his head. “Using swords and axes…”
Dad’s expression was unreadable as he looked us over, then his eyes went to me and suddenly went wide with a look of shock and recognition. After just staring with his mouth open for a moment, he blurted out, “Lynn?”
“Hello David,” Lindrell quietly said from beside me, suddenly making me realize that she was the one Dad was staring at…not me. Lindrell turned to stare at me for a moment with a strange expression, before returning her attention to my dad. She almost looked afraid as she took a deep breath, then announced, “It has been a long time…my husband.”
--------------------
I stared at Lindrell with my mouth open, feeling stunned and utterly shocked. It would have been weird enough to find out that she and my dad actually knew each other, but she’d also just referred to him as her husband.
“Lynn,” Dad said, covering up his own look of stunned disbelief and giving her a much more controlled look that didn’t quite cover the mixed relief and suspicion. “What are you doing here…and dressed like that?”
I continued staring at Lindrell, feeling as though my heart had jumped up into my throat. Lynn was my mom’s name…not that I really remembered her. She’d left when I was only about two years old, and we didn’t even have any pictures of her in the house. I was bursting with questions, but I was too overwhelmed to speak at the moment.
“Where you aware that Lindrell had a husband here?” Shannon whispered to Julie, though with my enhanced senses, I could hear it perfectly clear.
“No,” Julie whispered back, her eyes darting back and forth between Lindrell and my dad. “And it’s even stranger than that… That’s Michelle’s dad…” Now Shannon was staring at us with a look of surprise.
“That…explains a few things,” Shannon quietly mused.
“You know her?” the male cop who’d brought us here asked Dad with a look of surprise.
“She’s my wife,” Dad answered with a scowl, now glaring at Lindrell. “Ex-wife.”
Mr. Decker gasped at that, then exclaimed, “You never told us your ex was the teacher who disappeared from school after that attack…”
“What?” Dad demanded, looking at Mr. Decker and then Lindrell. His expression was starting to turn hostile. “My son disappeared during that attack…”
“Michael is alive and well,” Lindrell assured him, her voice being carefully controlled though I could hear the quaver in her voice and saw how tense she was. She didn’t even look at me though. “But his situation is…complicated.”
“Hi, Mister Sorensen,” Julie said, giving my dad a nervous wave and suddenly drawing his attention to her.
Dad stared at Julie for a moment without before his eyes suddenly flashed with recognition. “Julie?”
Julie nodded, then gave him a self-conscious grin. “As you can see, we survived that daemon attack…”
“You’ve…changed,” Dad pointed out suspiciously.
“I did not know if you would still be alive when I came,” Lindrell told Dad in a tired sounding voice, “though I had hoped. I certainly hadn’t expected to encounter you so soon…”
“Where is Mike?” Dad demanded in a cold flat tone that usually got people to do whatever he wanted immediately.
Lindrell seemed unaffected by Dad’s glare, which was no surprise because as good as Dad was, he couldn’t compare to Freya. “You have many questions,” she told him with a sigh, “and you deserve explanations. I will answer as many of your questions as I am able…in private.”
“Where is Mike?” Dad repeated.
Lindrell met his gaze without flinching or looking the least bit bothered by it. “Michael is alive and well, but has gone through things you could not imagine…and changed in ways you would not believe. I will answer no further questions about him, save to tell you that he will face you only when he is ready.”
Lindrell didn’t look at me, but there was a pause so that I could announce my presence if I wanted. However, I was too embarrassed for that, not sure that I wanted Dad to see what I’ve become. And I certainly didn’t want to announce to everyone in the gym that I used to be a guy. These were the same fears that kept me silent in spite of Lindrell’s revelations.
“Lynn,” Dad started, looking haggard, weary, and…worried.
“We will speak again in a little while,” Lindrell assured him with a faint smile. “And I will explain what I may. But for now, there are things I must discuss with my people.”
With that, Lindrell turned and walked out of the gym, gesturing for Julie and I to follow after her. As soon as we were out of the gym, I grabbed her arm and demanded, “What’s going on?”
Lindrell finally looked at me, but her expression was strangely sad. There were tears in her eyes, which I’d never really imagined possible for the tough Val Kyr. “I cannot answer that.”
“Are you really my mom?” I pleaded with her, desperate to know the truth.
For a moment, Lindrell just stared at me, then she quietly responded, “I cannot answer that.”
“What?” I gasped, letting go of her arm and stepping back. I stared at her, feeling betrayed that she’d been lying to me all this time and now she wouldn’t even give me a straight answer.
“Come,” Lindrell instructed us. “I need you to trust me.” At the moment, I wasn’t really sure I did trust her anymore, but I followed her anyway. We went down one of the halls and to a classroom where she gestured for me to go inside. “Wait for me here while I consider our next move.”
I went inside the empty classroom, and Lindrell closed the door behind me. I looked around, realizing that this was the class where I used to have history…Lindrell’s old classroom. However, all the desks had been moved off to the side and much of the space was being used to store supplies.
“DAMN,” I exclaimed in frustration, slamming my fist down on the top of a desk…which cracked under the impact.
Just then, I heard Lindrell speaking from outside the classroom, raising her voice just a little, “Julie, there is something I must speak with you about.”
“Shouldn’t you be talking with Michelle?” Julie responded in an accusing tone. I froze and stretched my senses out, trying to hear what they were saying.
“This is something that I cannot speak to Michelle about,” Lindrell explained, her voice sounding sad. Her voice was moving as she spoke, and a moment later, I heard her voice coming from the next classroom over. “There… Now we can speak in private…”
“Lindell,” Julie exclaimed, “What the hell is going on? Are you really Michelle’s mom? She’s totally freaking out…”
“And I regret that deeply,” Lindrell told her. “But at the moment, the best thing you can do for Michelle is to just listen to what I have to say.”
“Okay,” Julie answered slowly, sounding a bit skeptical.
I clenched my fists in frustration, wanting to hit something. I was the one who had all the questions…who appeared to be Lindrell’s son…daughter…and she wouldn’t even talk to me about this. But rather than answering my questions, she put me in time out and was talking to Julie instead.
“Twenty years ago,” Lindrell started, “I was in South America, chasing a daemon that had somehow slipped across. It was killing villagers, though most assumed the deaths were guerilla atrocities. While there, I saw a soldier…a man who stood out as something special and who caught my attention. His government had sent him and his team on a mission, much like I had been sent with my triad. He never saw us or knew what we were about, courtesy of our kaern, and when our mission was complete, I departed, never expecting to see this man again.”
“I’m assuming it didn’t go that way,” Julie commented.
“Indeed not,” was Lindrell’s reply. “After this mission, I went on a sabbatical so I could refresh my education and renew my understanding of civilian life. While I was doing this, I encountered the soldier again. I decided that this must be fate, so I pursued a relationship with him.” The tone of Lindrell’s voice changed and this sounded more like fond reminiscence. “We enflamed each other’s passions, and in time, we married…and had a son.”
Julie interrupted again, exclaiming, “So you really are Michelle’s mom…”
Lindrell didn’t answer, though she did continue with her story. “I enjoyed this new life and loved having my own family. Perhaps I was naive, but I allowed myself to forget of the daemon threat, or at least to put it out of my mind. Some Val Kyr have been able to spend decades away from the fight, but I was not so fortunate. One day, the daemonites found me. Without warning, we were attacked by a daemon. Though I was able to protect my son, my husband was not so fortunate. The daemon took his leg…”
“I thought it was a car accident,” Julie blurted out while I just gasped in surprise.
“The daemon struck so quickly that David never saw what hit him,” Lindrell explained quietly. “He had no memory of the attack and believed it to have been a car accident, so I allowed him to continue thinking so. At the time, I believed this to be kinder than letting him know what monsters truly existed in this world.”
“Damn,” Julie and I both said at the same time.
“The daemonites had found me,” Lindrell continued sadly, “and I knew they would send more daemons. It was I the daemonites were after, so I chose to protect my family the only way I could…by leaving and returning to Val Halla…”
“But why didn’t you say anything?” Julie asked, while I silently demanded the answer as well.
“Patience,” Lindrell told her in a gentle tone. “These things must be explained in order.” Then she paused for several long seconds before going back to her story. “Over these years, I thought often of the family I was forced to abandon. And when I heard that a potential Val Kyr recruit had been identified in this area, I pleaded with Freya to send me. Though I could not afford to get close to my husband and son, I’d hoped that at least I would be able to see them again.” She paused again before adding, “I had never expected that you would not only know my son, but that I would end up teaching him…” There was another pause before she quietly added, “Nor did I expect the pain that came from having my own child not recognize me.”
“Then why were you such a bitch to Mike?” Julie asked. “I mean, the way you kept picking on him in class…”
“Michael was…unmotivated and gave minimal effort,” Lindrell answered, sounding almost amused. “As both a teacher and mother, it was my responsibility to provide motivation to do better…”
“You’ve got to love Val Kyr motivation techniques,” I muttered bitterly, thankful that at least in class, she hadn’t used those painful pop quizzes that she liked to give during our combat training. Of course, back then, I hadn’t been able to heal as quickly either, or she just might have.
“When Michael saved your life,” Lindrell told Julie, “I could not have been prouder…or more desperate. I could not allow him to die in my arms…especially after demonstrating the virtues we Val Kyr prize.”
“So you converted him,” Julie finished. “But why…”
“I knowingly violated our rules in order to save my child,” Lindrell stated. “I recruited a Val Kyr without permission…I made a convert against long standing rules…and I disobeyed the orders that Freya had given me to not interfere in his life. For these violations…Freya punished me in one of the cruelest ways possible. She gave me a geis…”
I gasped at that while Julie asked, “What’s a geis?”
“Something that only Freya can do,” Lindrell answered. “Or at least, only the atra. She forbade me from telling Michelle of our relationship, of letting her know what I am to her.” She paused at that, her voice was cracking a little and was somehow certain that she was actually crying. “After fifteen years, I finally have my child back, but I am forbidden from actually being her mother…”
“Oh shit,” I whispered, feeling stunned by this revelation. This explained why Lindrell never told me…and why she wouldn’t even answer my questions a short time ago. It wasn’t that she was refusing to tell me…it was that she couldn’t.
“Then Freya gave me a surprising gift,” Lindrell continued. “She assigned Michelle to me for training and for my triad. She allowed me to spend time with Michelle, even if not as her mother, giving me the opportunity to know the child I’d thought lost. If I was able to speak of such things to Michelle, I would tell her how much this means to me…and how proud I am of the woman she is becoming.”
“My God,” Julie exclaimed. “I can’t believe Freya would do something like that… I mean, forbidding you from telling Michelle…”
“Yes, Freya’s punishment seemed cruel to me,” Lindrell said with a sigh. “But I have come to understand her reasoning, and believe that this geis has less to do with punishing me and more to do with protecting Michelle…”
“Protecting her?” Julie asked, sounding about as confused as I felt.
“From me, ironically enough,” Lindrell admitted. “I believe Freya did not want Michelle to be coddled, or for there to be any appearance of her receiving special treatment. I believe that Freya intended to give Michelle the opportunity to stand on her own, to prove herself as Val Kyr without the interference of being known as my daughter. And though this was painful for me, I have come to realize that this may indeed have been what was best for Michelle.”
There was another long pause before Julie cautiously asked, “Why tell all this to me? I mean… Wait… You can’t tell Michelle…but I can…”
“True,” Lindrell agreed, sounding almost amused again. “But I suspect you won’t need to.”
I blinked at that, suddenly realizing exactly why Lindrell had told all this to Julie instead of me. Lindrell might be forbidden from talking to me about these things, but she could arrange for me to ‘overhear’ her telling someone else.
The conversation was over but I remained where I was, feeling shaken as I tried to absorb everything I’d learned. Lindrell was my mom. The very idea seemed ridiculous and impossible. My mom had been a normal woman who couldn’t handle the stress of her husband becoming handicapped, or at least that was what I’d always believed. Tears were flowing down my cheeks, and once I noticed them, I wiped them away, feeling embarrassed for crying like that. I was Val Kyr, not some little girl.
Once I was ready, I hesitantly stepped out of the classroom, finding Lindrell and Julie waiting for me in the hallway. Lindrell had an expression that seemed to radiate a mixture of hope of and shame, and she wouldn’t quite meet my eyes. This was a far cry from the Val Kyr I knew, who was always confident and in control. Without saying a word, I grabbed her in a hug. After a moment, she hugged me back, firmly enough that if I hadn’t been Val Kyr, it would have squeezed the air out of me.
“Just don’t expect me to call you Mom,” I told her quietly. “At least not right away. It’s just too weird…”
“Weirder than turning into a girl?” Julie asked me with a smirk.
“Almost,” I responded, looking at Lindrell and trying to think of her as my mother. It was just too weird.
“I can accept that,” Lindrell responded with a gentle smile. She looked like she was about to say something more, but then stopped, with a look of frustration passing over her face.
I hesitated a moment before asking, “Can I…?”
With that, I reached up and touched her forehead with one finger, sensing the fusion of essence and kaern energies which made up the geis that Freya bound her with. When Ionne had been teaching me about how to create a geis, she’d told me that they always faded away over time. I could tell that this one was weak and starting to break apart.
“I think your geis will be gone on its own in only a week or two at most,” I said, while Lindrell gave me a look of surprise. “I can hurry that up…”
Though I wasn’t confident in my ability to create my own geis, I was quite capable of dealing with this one. I released my own essence and kaern energies, carefully blending them and then stretching them out until they touched the geis. At that moment, it was like popping a balloon as the geis burst and vanished.
“There,” I announced.
Lindrell gave me a look of surprise, then cautiously said, “I am…your mother.” Her eyes widened in delight as she got the words out. I gulped at hearing those words actually being said directly to me. “Thank you…” This time, she was the one who grabbed me in a hug. “But I fear that Freya may not be pleased with you for removing the geis…”
“It’s not like it matters anymore,” Julie pointed out. “I mean, the cat is already out of the bag and all.”
“Indeed,” Lindrell agreed, smiling and looking quite pleased.
“So…what now?” I asked awkwardly.
“Now,” Lindrell said carefully, giving me an odd look. “I must go have another conversation, one which I believe is long overdue.”
“With Dad,” I whispered, cringing a bit at the thought of how he’d react to my changes. I was actually afraid of having him see me like this, or at least of having him see me while knowing who I was. Facing down a daemon hellhound would be easier than that.
Lindrell put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a reassuring smile. “I won’t tell him until you are ready to do so yourself.”
“Thank you,” I told her self-consciously.
Lindrell gave me another quick hug and whispered, “I am proud to call you daughter,” before she hurried off to go see my dad.
Once Lindrell was gone, Julie said, “Wow, who would have thought it…?”
“Yeah,” I responded with a shake of my head. “I’m having a hard time believing it…”
“It’s a regular, Luke, I am your father moment,” she joked weakly. Then in a bad Darth Vader voice, she announced, “Michelle, I am your mother…”
“Don’t make me hit you,” I told her, only to get a grin in response.
Just then, a voice yelled, “Julie,” from down the hallway.
I snapped around and saw a middle-aged woman running towards us, immediately recognizing her since I’d spent countless hours at her home. Of course, Julie recognized her just as quickly, if not even more so, and loudly exclaimed, “Mom…”
When Julie’s Mom, Mrs. Rosewald was closer, she came to a sudden stop and just stared at Julie with her eyes wide open. “Julie?” she asked with a mixture of delight and confusion. “Is that really you?”
“Yeah, it’s me,” Julie assured her, giving her mom a hug, which seemed to confirm her identity. “I’m so glad you were all right… I was so worried the daemons got you…” Then she stood back, looking self-conscious and relieved.
Mrs. Rosewald continued to gape at Julie, blurting out, “You’ve changed… And what are you wearing?”
“Yeah,” Julie joked weakly. “I don’t need glasses anymore…”
“We thought you were dead,” Mrs. Rosewald snapped at her, looking as though she couldn’t quite decide whether to slap Julie or hug her again.
Julie cringed at that, then said, “I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone…and I didn’t think you’d believe it if I did tell you.” Then she abruptly asked, “Is Dad…?”
“He’s all right,” her mom assured her, though she sounded a bit worried. “He’s out with a group looking for supplies…”
Julie and her mom wandered down the hallway, looking for a place where they could catch up in private. I watched them walk away, feeling a stirring of jealousy, though I wasn’t sure why. After all, I’d just had my own family reunion…of a sort. I’d seen my dad, but I hadn’t talked to him, and he didn’t even have any idea of who I was. And of course, I’d just discovered that my long lost Mom had actually been right under my nose for the last couple months.
“At least her family is alive and well,” I said, focusing on Julie’s good fortune and feeling happy for her. Ever since we’d gone to Val Halla, she’d felt guilty for the way she’d run off without being able to tell them, and of course, she’d been extremely worried once learning of the incursion. It was good that she was able to resolve both of those issues.
Unfortunately, I was still confused about my own family situation and had no idea how I really felt about it all, much less what I was going to do. With a sigh, I shook my head and decided to go see if I could do anything to help with security. Regardless of what happened with my parents, I was still Val Kyr and had a job to do.
--------------------
The school cafeteria looked much the same as it had the last time I’d seen it, but instead of teenagers, it was filled with people of every age. It seemed that the cafeteria was being used as a social and general gathering place for all the survivors, along with being a place to eat. It was loud and cluttered, but there was also something comforting about all these signs of life.
I was standing in a back corner with Shannon, Bethany, and Fleur, fully aware of the fact that many of the survivors were watching us. As far as they were concerned, we were a huge mystery, and most had no idea what to make of us. We were a group of women who were armed with medieval weaponry, and who had appeared just as suddenly as the daemons we were fighting. I could hear the whispers and knew that some of them thought that we were actually with the daemons, though most were logical enough to realize that this made no sense, not with the way we’d been helping to protect them.
I myself had just come back from spending the last two hours as part of a roving patrol around the school, along with a couple jatta. We’d killed a few daemons that got too close, but there were still a lot more out there…creeping around the edges and waiting for an opportunity. And though we were all eager to go out hunting for them, our first priority was protecting the survivors.
At the moment, Julie was out with all the other notru, building a wall around the school and making things a bit more defensible. So far, they were only about half finished, which wasn’t really a surprise. There were only five notru present, but a lot of wall to build. And while the notru were building the wall, the kaern archers had been taking turns standing guard on top of it.
“I’ve spoken to some of the locals,” Fleur said with a frown. “Power and communications have all been shut down. And I was told that when several groups attempted to leave the area, they were swarmed with daemons. It seems that the daemonites have truly isolated this town.”
“If it was just the daemonites,” Shannon pointed out thoughtfully.
Bethany gave her a curious look and asked, “What do you mean?”
“When we were engaged with Estrid at the mall,” Shannon explained, “she had no interest in keeping their existence a secret.”
I nodded at that as I tried to remember exactly what Estrid had said during her rant. “She said something about wanting to come out into the open…”
Bethany just shrugged at that. “Maybe the daemonites just want to get a solid foothold here before they announce their presence.”
“Perhaps,” Shannon agreed. “However, do you think that the daemonites are the only ones with an interest in keeping news of this from spreading?”
There was a long pause before Fleur quietly responded, “Non.” When Bethany looked to her, she explained, “The haunts are well known to remove evidence of daemon activities…”
“You think the haunts shut down the phone lines?” Bethany asked, looking a little surprised.
“Perhaps,” Shannon responded with a shrug. “We don’t know enough about the haunts or the current situation to know for sure. I’m just saying that this is a possibility we should consider.”
“Power is down except for a few generators,” Fleur pointed out. “Cell phones and landline are both cut off. It seems that who did this is less important than how to resolve the situation.”
“Simple,” Bethany stated, holding up the tactical shotgun she’d brought with. “We kill all the daemons and daemonites…just like always.”
Shannon abruptly turned and looked to the side, and when I turned to see what she was looking at, I saw a very familiar woman hesitantly walking towards us. Julie’s mom looked a bit nervous and intimidated as she came towards us, though I didn’t know if that was because we were all armed, or because of what we did for a living.
“Hello,” Mrs. Rosewald greeted us. “I was wondering if you young ladies know where I can find Julie…”
Bethany burst out laughing while Shannon and Fleur both looked amused. “Pardonnez moi,” Fleur told the confused woman. “Our amusement is not at you, but at being referred to as young…”
“We’re a little older than we appear,” Shannon answered politely. “Except for Michelle, that is.”
Mr. Rosewald looked a bit confused, which made me suspect that Julie hadn’t told her everything about the Val Kyr…such as how we don’t age. I certainly wouldn’t blame Julie for holding that little bit back since it would be bound to make other people jealous.
“Julie is out working on the wall,” I answered Mrs. Rosewald’s question, trying distract her. “I’m not sure how long it will be before she comes back in.”
Mrs. Rosewald shook her head, then said, “The things you ladies can do… Julie showed me some of her new powers…”
“Not all of us possess the same gifts,” Fleur told her with a smile. “But we all serve the same goal.”
“Thank you,” Mrs. Rosewald responded before she hurried away.
“She seemed like a nice woman,” Bethany commented with an amused look. “But why was she asking about Julie?”
I just chuckled. “That was Julie’s mom.”
“I knew you both had family in the area,” Bethany said, nodding in approval. “I’m pleased to see that she found hers alive…”
“She isn’t the only one,” Shannon responded, her eyes going to me.
Fleur gave her a curious look, then asked, “What do you mean?” I just squirmed uncomfortably, knowing that the Val Kyr gossip mill was already running. Then she abruptly said, “Oh, I have heard that Lindrell had been in a relationship with the leader of these survivors…”
“She was married to him,” I muttered self-consciously.
“Really?” Bethany asked in surprise while Fleur looked startled as well.
“You remember the last sabbatical that Lindrell took?” Shannon carefully started to explain, giving me a sympathetic look.
“Gotcha,” Bethany replied, before Shannon could finish. Then she looked at me and said, “You’re from this area, Michelle…so, do you know anything about this guy?”
I just groaned at that and announced, “I’m going to go help with security…”
“What?” Bethany asked in confusion as I started to walk away.
Shannon let out a sigh and said, “If I didn’t know better, I’d almost think you were male…”
I made my way up to the school roof, where I found several other people were already there standing watch. However, none of them was Val Kyr, so I was satisfied that I’d still be useful. I started towards the side of the building where the wall had yet to be built, which meant that we’d need to keep a closer watch for daemons.
As I reached the edge of the building and looked out, I turned and glanced towards the nearest guard, startled to realize that he was not only a teenage boy my own age, but also one who was quite familiar to me. Buff Grissom looked almost exactly the same as he had the last time I’d seen him, big and tough with close cropped hair, though he did look much more tired, and there was a haunted look in his eyes, as though he’d seen things no person ever should. It was the same look I’d had in my own eyes after Australia.
“Hey, I’m Buff,” he said, introducing himself. Then he quickly added, “I mean, that’s my name…short for Bufford…which I really hate.”
I chuckled as his nervousness, startled to realize that he was stumbling around a bit because I was a pretty girl. Even after my experiences getting hit on back at that mall, I still wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to people thinking of me as a pretty girl, much less someone I’d considered a friend.
“I’m Michelle,” I told him, relieved when he didn’t seem to recognize me. Then again, my own father didn’t recognize me either.
Buff looked me over, then gestured to the bow I was holding in my hand. “I don’t think that thing is going to do much against those monsters…”
My eyes went to his weapon, one of those military style rifles that seemed to be fairly popular among the guards. I didn’t know whether or not his had been converted to fire fully automatic or not, but I didn’t think it really mattered. I doubted Buff was a skilled enough a shooter to really hit anything unless it was right in front of him.
“This does well enough,” I said with a faint smirk.
Buff gave me a skeptical look but didn’t contradict me. “I’ve seen some of your friends fighting out there,” Buff said instead, towards the football field behind the school. “They tore those demon things up.”
“The Val Kyr have a lot of practice fighting daemons,” I responded. “Some have been doing it for a very long time.”
I stood watch beside Buff, stretching my senses out to catch any signs of approaching daemons while he used a pair of binoculars. After a few minutes, I saw a daemon in the distance and pointed it out to him. He used the binoculars to get a good look, gasping in surprise of how I’d seen the thing with my bare eyes.
“That thing looks like some kind of demon dog,” he observed.
“A hellhound,” I agreed, scowling as I remembered the first time I’d seen one of those things…inside this very building. I shuddered at the memory and drew an arrow from my quiver. “Keep watching it.”
I notched the arrow and drew back on the string, letting the stored charge of essence flow from the bow into the arrow as I aimed. Once I was ready, I released the arrow, which shot through the air with all the force my custom made bow could impart to it, in addition to the essence which gave it an even greater push. Moments later, the arrow hit the hellhound in the head and blew a hole straight through it. The daemon collapsed to the ground.
“Holy shit,” Buff blurted out, obviously surprised. “You one-shotted that mother-fucker… I can’t believe you even hit it from here…”
“That was quite an impressive shot,” a new voice said from behind us.
I looked back and nearly jumped at the sight of my dad, who stood there leaning on a cane, which helped support his prosthetic leg. He had a pair of binoculars in hand and very familiar looking rifle strapped across his back. It was one of the weapons that Dad had taught me to shoot with, a leftover from his days in the Army.
“Thank you,” I responded, trying to keep my voice calm and steady so he didn’t see how nervous I was.
“Go on and get some rest,” Dad told Buff. “I’m your relief.”
“Thanks, Mister Sorensen,” Buff said before leaving.
Without another word, Dad took Buff’s spot and began to look out with the binoculars, though I wasn’t sure why he bothered. I knew that the scope on his rifle would have been even better. Then after several minutes, Dad paused, lowered the binoculars and unslung his rifle.
When I saw what Dad was aiming at, I said, “Don’t bother…”
He paused at that, not even looking at me as he asked. “Why?”
“That’s a haunt,” I responded, staring at the distant shadowy figure. “You can’t kill them. They’re like ghosts.”
“Ghosts,” he stated simply. “I’d laugh at that if I hadn’t seen those daemons.” He absently felt his prosthetic leg, scowling as he did so.
“Haunts are pretty harmless,” I continued, watching the one dissolve a daemon body. “They’re like vultures…cleaning up the dead daemons. No threat to us.” Of course, I didn’t mention Shannon’s suspicions about the haunts being behind the communication shut down. After all, not only was that just a theory, but there wasn’t really anything we could do about the haunts if it was true. As I’d told Dad, they weren’t any direct threat, but we weren’t any threat to them either.
Dad nodded at that but didn’t say anything. However, a few minutes later, he opened fire, taking only a single shot. The target was three headed daemon that was coming in the direction of the school. He’d caught it right in the center of the middle head, but the daemon kept coming. Dad scowled in annoyance, probably wondering why a head shot hadn’t worked.
Without a word, I drew another arrow and charged it with the remaining essence from my bow, sending it right into the daemon’s torso. I blew a nice sized hole in the torso and the daemon fell over dead. I was just thankful that it wasn’t one of the larger or more heavily armed daemons, or I might not have been able to get it with one shot.
“Impressive,” Dad said, finally turning to look at me. “I wouldn’t have thought a bow would be that good for killing monsters…not when compared to this.”
“Under the right conditions,” I told him as I filled my bow with a fresh charge of essence, “I can shoot about as far as a good sniper rifle…and do even more damage.”
Dad grunted at that, then asked, “Do you mind…?” I nodded and handed him my bow, which he looked over with all the attention of a practiced bow hunter. But when he tried to draw the string back, he grunted and could only pull it back a couple inches, not nearly far enough to use it. “Damn heavy draw…” He gave me a curious look, obviously wondering how a girl like myself could possibly manage.
“Custom bow,” I admitted with a faint smile as I accepted it back. “Some Val Kyr like Bethany and Lei are strong enough that they could probably bench press a car. I’m not nearly that strong, but I’m still a lot stronger than I look.”
“And Lynn?” he asked me curiously.
I hesitated a moment, then admitted, “She’s one of the stronger ones.”
Dad scowled faintly at that but didn’t say anything, at least not at first. “So, you work with Lynn…”
“Lindrell,” I corrected him quietly, feeling uncomfortable with the direction this conversation was going. “She’s my…drill instructor,” I said carefully. “And my team leader.”
“The Lynn I knew,” Dad said as he stared out into the distance. “She was gentle and sweet…but she could be surprisingly hard at times. I can see her as a drill instructor.”
“I…should probably get going,” I said awkwardly. Though I was definitely curious about the relationship my dad had with Lindrell, it was just too weird to stand here talking with him like this. “I need to go see if I’m needed for another patrol…”
I turned and started to walk away, then Dad abruptly said, “You look so much like your mother…”
I instantly froze, feeling a cold chill of dread go down my spine. I slowly turned back towards him and saw that he was staring at me, but unlike when I’d first run into him in the gym, this time there was a look of recognition.
“She told you,” I said quietly, suddenly feeling even more self-conscious, as well as a little betrayed. Lindrell had told me that she wouldn’t say anything.
“No,” Dad responded, still staring at me with a strange look. “But I’m smart enough to figure things out on my own.”
I gulped at that, feeling almost as dazed and confused as when I’d found out Lindrell was really my mom. It took me several seconds before I was even able to open my mouth enough to speak, and then, the only thing that came out was, “How?”
“The way you reacted when Lynn and I saw each other for the first time,” Dad said carefully. “It struck me as odd.”
“I didn’t think you even noticed me,” I muttered, staring at the ground.
“Not consciously,” he admitted. “Not at first. But it stuck out…along with the other things. The way Julie acted like you were an old friend…and called you Michelle. The way you shoot…” He gestured to my bow and smiled faintly, “And then there’s the fact that you look a lot like Lynn.”
I was a little startled by that last one since I hadn’t realized that I looked much like Lindrell. Sure, we were both tall and good looking blondes, but so were a lot of Val Kyr.
“When I was talking to Lynn,” Dad continued with a shake of his head, “she said you’d joined the Val Kyr…but later…she said that only women could be Val Kyr. Then I thought about the way Julie had changed…” He paused at that, still staring at me with an odd look. “I still never would have imagined such a thing was possible, but I’ve seen so many impossible things lately that I’ve decided to remove that word from my vocabulary. Daemons, Val Kyr, ghosts, Julie using some kind of magic, and arrows that act like RPGs…”
“I didn’t know how to tell you,” I said quietly, forcing myself to meet his eyes. “This is pretty embarrassing…” I gestured down at myself. I hadn’t felt this self-conscious about my body in awhile, not even when I was dressed up in the mall and getting hit on by guys.
“Mike,” Dad started.
“Michelle,” I quickly corrected him. “It’s Michelle now.”
“Michelle,” he agreed, pausing to shake his head. Then he smiled at me, and his expression seemed to contain a mixture of relief and sadness. “I’m glad you’re all right… When I heard about the attack on your school…” He paused, looking just a little teary eyed. “I was so worried…”
“I’m glad to see you too,” I admitted, giving him a nervous smile. “When I heard that there was an incursion here…” I paused for a moment, smiling just a little wryly as I added, “I was pretty worried.”
Dad and I just stood there, staring at each other in silence. Neither of us was sure what to say or how to really react to each other. This was extremely awkward, but at the same time, I also felt a strong sense of relief that I no longer had to hide this from Dad.
“What happened?” he finally asked.
I let out a sigh, not sure where to begin. “I was at school, waiting on Julie, when two daemons came out of nowhere…” I told him about the fight, how Lindrell had suddenly charged in with an axe, and how I’d ended up being disemboweled. Dad watched me with an even expression, not acting surprise, though his eyes did widen a little when I described my injury. “I passed out, and the next thing I knew, I was in Val Halla and looked like this…”
“Val Halla,” Dad muttered with a shake of his head. “Have you seen Odin?”
“No,” I responded with a grin. “But Freya is my mentor.” That got a look of surprise.
“The way you dealt with those daemon things,” Dad abruptly said, gesturing out away from the school. “You didn’t act like a rookie.” He gave me a flat look and said, “You’ve fought them before…and not just that first time.” It wasn’t a question.
I nodded at that, not knowing what to say. My thoughts turned to Australia and all the death I’d seen there. The mall hadn’t been nearly as bad in comparison, but it had been quite a nasty little battle. And then, there were the daemons we’d faced her back home. I might not be as experienced as most of the other Val Kyr, but I wasn’t a noob anymore either.
“I see,” Dad said with a grim expression, perhaps regretting the fact that he used to push me to become a soldier.
The two of us just stood there, staring out at the distance for some time, neither of us saying a word. It was relaxing, and I felt myself becoming comfortable with Dad again. He definitely wasn’t the drunk I remembered, much to my relief. It seemed that the whole daemon incursion had been just the thing he needed to come back to life.
Eventually, Dad said, “I’m sorry…for everything.”
I just smiled at that, feeling delighted at having my Dad back again. Then without warning, I grabbed him in a hug, saying, “I’m glad you’re back.”
--------------------
The school was about as secure as we could make it in such a short amount of time, due mostly to the wall that the notru had spent the last day building around it. Of course, the wall wasn’t enough to stop all the daemons, not when some could climb it or simply fly over, but it could stop plenty of them and slow down a lot of others. It wasn’t a perfect defense, but it was the best available at the moment.
One thing we’d noticed was that the daemons hadn’t been swarming the school, possibly due to the fight that the armed guards had been putting up so far. Stragglers had been coming in, attacking in ones and twos, and they were relatively easy to fight off. However, from what I knew of daemons and their daemonite controllers, that worried us.
“I don’t like playing defense,” Lindrell had told everyone. “Because, while we stay secure behind our wall, the daemonites are probably bringing over more daemons and increasing their numbers. If we wait too long, they’ll probably swarm and overwhelm us with sheer numbers.”
“This isn’t the place to withstand a siege,” Gretchen had quickly agreed.
So far, the daemonites themselves had been pretty scarce, which made us even more suspicious about what they were up to. Because of that, Lindrell decided to send out a hunting party, which consisted of two triads…and a group of survivors who insisted on going along. Lindrell hadn’t been happy about taking non-Val Kyr, but it turned out that even she had a hard time dissuading my dad once he’d made up his mind.
I adjusted the quiver on my back, thankful that I’d been able to get a few replacement arrows, courtesy of a sporting goods store that had been scavenged a few days earlier. I had a feeling that I was going to need every arrow available for this little hunt. Then I looked over at the rest of the hunting party, which consisted not only of my triad, but also one with Fleur, Bethany, and a notru named Cassandra.
“You can’t go out with those things,” a man exclaimed from our group, drawing my attention to him. He was thin, with a Captain Picard haircut and a military style rifle in his hands. I knew for certain that his was modified to fire full auto since it had come from the local police department. Mr. Rosewald, Julie’s dad, was trying to talk her out of coming on this hunting mission. “You don’t know how dangerous those things are…”
“I know a lot better than you do,” Julie responded, giving him a level glare.
“You’re just a kid,” Mr. Rosewald insisted. “You’re too young…”
However, Julie was starting to get angry and snapped, “I am NOT a little girl. I am Val Kyr and this is what I do now…”
“You’re still a minor,” he told her. “And I forbid you from this nonsense…”
Julie was starting to get pissed, and though just about everyone else was uncomfortable with this fight, no one wanted to get in the middle of a family argument. “I am Val Kyr,” Julie told her dad in a cold voice, giving him a look that she must have learned from Lindrell. “I’ve been trained to fight these things, and I’ve done so several times before. And once we’re done here, I’m going to go back to Val Halla so I can fight them even more. Whether you like it or not, Daddy, this is who I am now.”
Mr. Rosewald stood there with his mouth open, obviously stunned at having Julie talk back to him this way. Then he finally demanded, “This is all because of those books you read, isn’t it…?”
“Yes, Daddy,” Julie responded sarcastically, rolling her eyes. “This is all because I read Harry Potter.” Then she stood up straight, held up her spear and looked her dad in the eyes. “Now enough of this. You’re embarrassing me.” And with that, she turned her back on her dad and came over to join me.
I actually felt kind of sorry for Mr. Rosewald, because he was just trying to protect Julie. He’d only just found her again, after a month and a half, and she immediately runs off into danger again. Obviously, he didn’t understand that Julie had grown more than just physically, but he’d see firsthand soon enough.
My eyes went to my dad, who seemed much more understanding about the situation than Mr. Rosewald was. Maybe it was because of his talk with Lindrell, or maybe it was just because he knew what it meant to be a soldier. At the moment, he was definitely in soldier mode, with the sniper rifle strapped across his back, a high caliber hand gun sitting on his hip, and he was holding some kind of small machine gun that he’d ‘borrowed’ from the police.
Standing a short distance away from my dad was Officer Kyles, the male cop we’d first run into. He was fully armed and ready to go, and he was even wearing some kind of bullet proof vest, which was obviously police issue. Fortunately for the other non-Val Kyr in the group, he’d shared the police gear with them, giving Dad, Mr. Rosewald, and the other two guys the same kind of protection. I just wasn’t sure it would do much good against a daemon.
I didn’t know the names of the last two men, but they were armed and ready to go. One was a stocky black man who’d proudly proclaimed himself to be a Marine, and the last was a guy in his late teens or early twenties, who seemed a bit out of his depth. From the way he kept grinning at Julie and me, I had a feeling that he was here more to try impressing us than anything else.
Just as I thought we were about to get going, Mr. Rosewald decided to make another scene. This time, it was directed towards Lindrell, though he spoke to the other men with him. He stared at my mother and announced, “I don’t know why we’re letting these people tell us what to do. I mean, what kind of lunatic thinks it’s a good idea to go after these monsters with just an axe?”
Lindrell gave him a flat look, seeming more annoyed than really bothered by it. “I have been fighting daemons for centuries,” she said in a steady voice, raising her axe and adding, “with this very axe.” Mr. Rosewald gasped at that while Julie cringed in embarrassment. “Our order…the Val Kyr…have been protecting the world from daemons for thousands of years. It is a testament to our skill and sacrifice that you have been fortunate enough to have never seen one until now.”
Mr. Rosewald looked like he was going to make some kind of response, which would have been a bad idea, when Dad suddenly snapped, “Walt!” He spoke in the tone of voice that demanded immediate respect, and it worked. Mr. Rosewald immediately looked to my dad. “Walt,” Dad said in a calm tone, but one that clearly wasn’t to be argued with. “I know you’re proud of your time in the Guard, but this isn’t like anything you’ve ever been trained for. It’s not like anything any of us have been trained for…”
“You’ve got that right,” the Marine agreed while Officer Kyles nodded along.
“In this situation,” Dad continued, not taking his eyes off Mr. Rosewald, “Lynn and her people are the experts, and we’d be damn fools not to listen to them. Lynn is in command of this mission, so unless you can accept that and be professional, you might as well stay behind. Otherwise, you’d just be a liability in the field.”
Mr. Rosewald glanced to Julie and grimaced, obviously being extremely embarrassed over getting called out by Dad. However, he nodded and simply said, “I’ll be professional.”
A minute later, we started on our way, with my triad in the front while the other triad brought up the rear. In between us were the men, who Lindrell had positioned so we could protect them. If any of their egos were hurt by being guarded by women with medieval weaponry, none of them said so.
“This is a regular family reunion,” Julie whispered to me with an exasperated sigh.
I nodded at that. “You’re telling me.”
It was actually a strange thought to realize that I was actually going out on a mission, with both of my parents. I felt just a bit uncomfortable with the thought that they’d be watching me…judging me. Of course, I knew that this was kind of silly since Lindrell was already quite aware of how I performed in battle. But for some reason, knowing that she was my mom somehow made it different. Still, I tried to put those thoughts out of my mind and just focus on the mission, silently telling myself that this was no different than any other time my triad had faced daemons.
We made slow progress as we walked, partly because of my dad and his prosthetic leg, but he made no complaints and wasn’t about to ask anyone to slow down even more. There were surprisingly few daemons in sight, and we’d gone about a hundred yards before seeing the first one. It was a small one, climbing up the wall of a nearby building. Fleur noticed it a second before I did and sent an arrow through its head.
Officer Kyles shook his head and announced, “These things are going to give me nightmares for the rest of my life…”
“I’ve had nightmares about one of these things for years,” Dad admitted, absently patting his prosthetic leg. I glanced back at him while he continued, “I thought it was my imagination…a bit of PTSD… But now…” He looked to Lindrell, who grimaced. It seemed that Dad had remembered a bit more about that attack than she’d thought.
“Consider this an opportunity for payback,” Lindrell said. Though her voice was calm and even, I caught the faint note of sadness in it.
Just a few minutes later, Shannon announced, “I just spotted a daemonite, watching from a window.” She didn’t look or gesture towards the daemonite, not wanting to give away the fact that she’d noticed him.
“Is he a viable target?” Lindrell asked calmly as we continued to walk.
Shannon shook her head. “No. Too much cover.” Then a few seconds later, she added, “We have incoming daemons…”
I noticed the first daemon just a second after she said this, a giant spider creature that had appeared in the roof of a building. Other daemons began to come out of the woodwork as well, crawling out from buildings and alleyways, appearing around us in every direction. We were about to get swarmed.
“They took the bait,” Lindrell said with a grim smile. “Set cover.”
With that, the whole group stopped, with Julie and Cassandra immediately touching their spears to the ground, forming rounded walls with openings so that the men had cover for the fight. The men split into two smaller groups, each going for the cover that was being made for them.
“Watch your field of fire,” Dad called out to them. “Don’t hit the friendlies…”
I took careful aim and then let loose with an arrow, hitting a mid-sized daemon through the eye and killing it. However, I didn’t waste time congratulating myself and immediately notched another arrow, charging it up from my bow and sending it flying right at a hellhound. I HATED those things.
While I was doing this, Fleur took aim as well, though she aimed high into the air, not at any specific daemon. I wondered what she was doing, until she released the arrow, which glowed with a white light. Once the arrow hit the arc and began to come back down, it seemed to split…creating two dozen identical glowing arrows around it…all of which rained down on the approaching daemon swarm. They didn’t seem to do any more damage than normal arrows, but with that many of them, there were a few dead and injured daemons.
Lindrell let out a shrill whistle, then jumped into the fight, swinging her axe at a daemon that had the general shape of a gorilla, but was scaled like some kind of reptile. It leapt at her with clawed hands, though her axe split the creature’s head in half. Without hesitation, she kicked the body away and used the momentum to swing herself at another daemon, one resembled a bald, six-legged mountain lion.
Dad and the other men were shooting at the daemons from behind cover, with Dad calling out, “Don’t go full auto… You’ll just waste ammo…”
Julie and Cassandra were offering the usual notru protections, trying to drive the daemons back and slow their approach. However, they were also staying close enough to the small bunkers they’d created in order to keep the daemons away from the men as well as the Val Kyr.
One daemon, that almost could have been mistaken for a bald and mangy dog with lots of sores, if it hadn’t been for the extra set of glowing red eyes, charged at Julie. She casually swept her spear along the ground in front of her and sent a wave of concrete at the daemon, knocking it back. Then she stepped forward, making it sink into the concrete before she impaled it with her spear.
“Disgusting,” Julie said with a sigh. I saw her dad watching from the bunker, his mouth open in shock as he watched her. My own dad, however, was focused too much on the battle itself to waste time watching me.
“I just saw someone,” the Marine called out in surprise. “A man dressed in red…”
“A daemonite,” Fleur responded, contempt dripping from her words.
“Daemons are like rabid dogs,” I stated, firing another shot at a lesser daemon. “Daemonites are the assholes who let the rabid dogs loose in a crowded building…just for entertainment.” Of course, there was a lot more to it than that, but it got the point across.
“Shit,” the Marine muttered.
“Kill any daemonites you can,” Lindrell called out, more to the men than the Val Kyr since we already knew this. “They are the ones who unleashed this plague on your town.”
Bethany opened fire with the tactical shotgun she held in one hand, shooting one daemon at point-blank range, then she used the claymore she held in the other hand to slash at the next daemon. She was grinning as she did this, as though she was having a great time. Then again, knowing Bethany, this was probably her idea of a party.
“Speaking of daemonites,” Bethany called, gesturing to a nearby building where a daemonite stepped out the front door. His cloak obscured his face and body enough so I couldn’t make out many details except that he was male. “I think it may be time.”
“Agreed,” Lindrell responded, right before letting out a shrill whistle that wavered a few times.
The daemonite held out his hands, and though I expected him to summon more daemons, instead a ball of green flame formed in front of him. I gulped at the sight, realizing that this daemonite had to be either a channeler or a host…either of which would be bad. He let out a loud laugh and threw the ball of green flame in our direction.
“Got it,” Cassandra called out, forming a wall of concrete, which rose up just in time to block the attack. However, the attack was strong enough to shatter the wall and knock her back. The daemonite just laughed again.
“Smug bastard,” Bethany commented.
I took aim, fully intending to put an arrow through his chest, but daemons kept getting in between us, preventing me from getting a clear shot. And unfortunately, what I did see of the daemonite revealed that his skin was turning a sickly green color and becoming scaly. He was transforming into a daemon.
Dad was clearly trying to take the daemonite out as well, and unlike me, he got a clear shot. The daemonite was knocked back a bit, but then stood up again laughed as he tore off his cloak. His newly grown scales had kept the bullet from penetrating, and he was still changing, growing an extra set of arms and becoming quite fearsome looking.
“They’re upping the ante,” Bethany exclaimed, using her claymore to gesture to some of the new daemons that were arriving
The new arrivals were some of the bigger and nastier daemons, or at least ones that weren’t these lesser daemon annoyances. One of the new daemons looked like a twisted cross between a turtle and a spider, and was the size of a Volkswagen bug. Another daemon was humanoid in shape, except he was also seven feet tall with lumpy gray skin. Then there was a daemon, who from a distance, almost looked like a naked human woman, though when I turned my attention to her, I noticed that she had no eyes, mouth, nose, or any other facial features.
“This is some freaky shit,” the Marine called out as he kept shooting.
Suddenly, the transforming daemonite was thrown back by an arrow in his head, but this one hadn’t come from either me or Fleur. I looked towards the source, and saw Jass, who’d taken up a sniper position behind a parked car. She fired two more arrows into the daemonite’s chest, and for once, I was actually grateful for her presence.
“Reinforcements are here,” I called out as more Val Kyr came rushing to our aid.
I grinned as I put an arrow through the eye of a daemon, glad that the reinforcements had arrived when they did since we were on the verge of being overwhelmed. Of course, that had been the plan from the start. We’d go out on a hunting expedition, playing the part of bait in order to lure out the daemonites, then Lindrell would call in the two other triads that had been following us from a distance.
Lei charged straight into the battle with a loud war cry, smashing one daemon in the head with her hammer, then kicking at a second to knock it back long enough for her to hit that one as well. The rest of the reinforcements came in right behind her, tearing through the daemon swarm from the other side. I grinned at the sight, wondering if the daemonites were shitting their pants at suddenly having twice as many Val Kyr in the fight.
A daemon about the size of a large dog, and which resembled some kind of twisted fusion between a rabbit and a piranha, suddenly hit Lindrell from the side. It’s large, toothy jaws snapped on her arm, though her armor seemed to prevent the teeth from really penetrating. She gave the daemon a look of annoyance, then used her free hand to smack it on the head until it let go. With one swift kick, she sent the thing flying, right into another daemon.
“Drive them back,” Lindrell called out. “I want to clear every last one of these vermin from this town.”
With that, Lindrell leapt at the turtle spider, swinging her axe at one of the legs and slicing it off. However, that only seemed to piss off the daemon, which spat some kind of spray at her. She ducked down to avoid it, but some of it caught her arm and shoulder, which began to smoke a bit. I wasn’t sure if any of it had penetrated her armor, but she continued to fight on. Then, I felt her unleash the essence in her axe, which became covered with frost. She leapt up and drove the axe right into the daemon’s head. Ice crystals erupted from where she’d struck, and when she pulled her axe away, the daemon collapsed to the ground. Without a word, she turned her frosty axe to the next daemon.
“Now she’s just showing off,” I muttered, glancing towards the shelter my dad was using as cover.
At this point, I’d completely run out of arrows, so I dropped my bow and drew my sword, which was immediately covered with ghost flames. Until now, I’d been staying back, letting the notru and jatta keep the daemons away from me while I acted as a sniper. However, it was time to be flexible and change tactics. With that, I charged at the nearest daemon, thinking that if Lindrell could show off for my dad, so could I.
“Eat burning steel,” I exclaimed, slicing at one daemon and then another, using my reflexes to slash and move as quickly as I could, just so I could damage as many daemons as possible before my sword ran out of essence. Each daemon I injured continued to burn after I hit them, and two of the smaller ones fell dead without my having to do anything more. But with the others, I went back to and finished them off.
“I think I might make this one into a necklace,” Bethany exclaimed, drawing my attention to the daemon she was fighting. It was a squat creature, looking a little like an anthropomorphic turtle, with a shell that was make out of crystal. I had to admit, those crystal spikes coming out of the shell probably would make for some interesting jewelry, though the idea of actually wearing part of a daemon was disturbing.
Bethany yelled out as she swung her sword at the crystal shelled daemon, looking as though she intended to cut the thing right in half with a single blow. But as her sword sliced into the daemon, it suddenly exploded, sending shards of crystal everywhere. Bethany was thrown back, her face and the front of her armor shredded from the crystal shrapnel. However, yells from Fleur, Cassandra, and one of the Val Kyr who’d just joined us revealed that she hadn’t been the only one in range.
“Oh shit,” I exclaimed, noticing that several daemons had been killed in the blast, but that hadn’t done much for our side. Fleur was clutching her side with a grimace of pain while Cassandra had dropped to her knees, appearing to be injured from several wounds. With this distraction, several daemons started to rush into the opening. And though I wanted to rush over and help, the gray skinned humanoid daemon was coming straight at me. “Bring it on…”
The gray skinned brute roared, making me gag from the stench. Then as he swung a massive fist at me, I quickly dodged back and out of the way, wishing that my sword hadn’t run out of essence. As it was, the residual essence left it a bit harder and sharper than it would have been otherwise, but I didn’t have the ghostly flames available. He swung at me again, moving slowly, though I could tell that if one of those punches connected, it would do some pretty nasty damage.
“Gotcha,” I snapped, lunging forward and slicing at his stomach. I cut into his flesh only about an inch, when I should have gone much deeper. And to my surprise, there was barely a trickle of thick green blood. The brute snarled, seeming angry but not really hurt as he lunged at me. “You’re a tough bastard.”
While I was fighting with the brute, I was aware of the fact that a slimy mass of tentacles had reached the shelter where my dad had taken cover, and bullets seemed to have absolutely no effect on it. The men scrambled back, continuing to shoot at the daemon as they retreated. My dad had a grim look of determination on his face as he snarled, “Fall back and find cover… I don’t want to be in the open here…” Then his eyes darted to me and then Lindrell, though I couldn’t make out what he was thinking. “Keep providing cover fire…”
I wanted to go help my dad, but I was too busy dealing with the brute. I sliced him several more times, but his dense hide kept me from doing too much damage, and it was starting to annoy me. I’d slashed him almost a dozen times, and he wasn’t even slowing down. I needed to hit him harder, or at least with something that could do more damage. After putting another slash across his chest, I had an idea.
With my free hand, I grabbed the small axe I’d brought with me, then unleashed the essence stored within. A moment later, I lunged forward and slammed the axe right into the middle of his face, letting the essence freeze him. I figured that even if he was tough enough to survive an axe to the face, frostbite probably wouldn’t be good for his eyes. He staggered back a little, then roared and began to swing his fists at random, blinded but still not down.
“What does it take to kill you?” I demanded in frustration.
“Just a little knock on the noggin,” Lei exclaimed as she leapt at the brute, bringing her massive hammer down on his head with all of her strength. The brute’s head caved in and he fell to the ground while Lei gave me a smug look and added, “Ogers are hard to cut through, but with enough force, you can still break their bones.”
“I’ll have to remember that,” I responded with a sigh.
Since the gray brute…the oger was down, I checked on my dad again, seeing that the slimy mass of tentacles that had been after them was now being dealt with by Lindrell, Shannon, and Julie. Julie kept the thing locked down while the other two cut at it, not that this seemed to bother the daemon. The pieces that were cut off continued to move on their own, leaving several tentacles writing around on the ground like snakes.
Then Julie suddenly released a massive amount of raw essence, which burst into flame as it slammed into the daemon. She had to be leaving herself almost completely drained with that move, but the essence napalm seemed to be doing the job of finally killing that thing.
Another daemon had gone around them and was slowly approaching my dad and the two men with him, almost as if it was stalking them. This daemon resembled a three-headed mountain lion, whose body was severely mangy and covered with disgusting sores.
Dad was shooting the daemon point blank, and had put bullets through all three heads, and he was still shooting at the middle one. I charged right at the daemon as quickly as I could, calling out a quick yell to get Dad’s attention so he didn’t accidentally shoot me. As soon as I reached the daemon, I swung my sword down through the nearest neck, then I took my short sword, which was burning with ghostly flames, and drove it right into the daemon’s chest. The daemon dropped to the ground and spasmed a few times as the flames burned it from the inside out.
“These ones have their brains in their chests,” I said, noticing that Dad was staring at me, and he actually looked impressed.
“Good to know,” he responded with a nod.
At this point, we’d severely reduced the daemon forces and the surviving monsters were starting to retreat. They began running away, jumping through open doors and windows, and in some cases, just climbing up the walls of the buildings.
One daemonite remained, standing back with two large daemons positioned on each side of her. Because of those daemon bodyguards, I was pretty sure she was a binder. She made no move to attack us, but when Dad took aim, both daemons moved in front of her, protecting her as she ran off along with the daemons.
“All that and we only got one daemonite,” Julie said in disgust.
As the last of the daemons fled, Lindrell said, “At least we lured them out and reduced their forces.”
“That won’t do much good if they have time to summon more,” Shannon pointed out grimly.
“Either way,” Lei said as she used a daemon body to wipe the blood and gore from her hammer, “the haunts are going to feast tonight.”
With all the daemons gone, the men came out from cover and looked around with haunted expressions on most of their faces. I could imagine what was running through their minds as they’d just been in the middle of a daemon swarm…and were still alive. Lindrell had tried to talk them out of coming with, and now they understood why.
“I’ve never seen a battle like that before,” Dad commented, giving Lindrell a thoughtful look. “So, this is the kind of war you fight.”
Lindrell looked just a little self-conscious and gave him a gentle smile before responding. “Yes. I’ve been fighting this war for a very long time.”
Dad turned and stared at me with an expression that seemed a mixture of pride and sadness. He shook his head, saying, “This isn’t the kind of life I wanted for you.”
I shrugged at that, not sure what I could possibly say. This wasn’t the kind of life I’d ever imagined for myself, and two months ago, I never would have chosen this. However, as I looked over the piles of daemonite bodies, I felt a deep sense of satisfaction. This kind of life might be gruesome, but I was doing something important…something worthwhile. I was helping to protect the world from these creatures.
“I’m Val Kyr,” I proudly announced, which was the best explanation I could give.
--------------------
The battle was over, at least for the moment. The surviving daemons and their daemonite controllers had fled, though I was under no illusions that they’d gone very far. I could still feel them watching us, peeking out from the buildings that lined the street.
Some of the Val Kyr had been injured during the fight, though fortunately, none had been killed. The jatta were quickly checking on the injured and infusing them with extra jatta energy in order to speed up the healing process. Most of the injuries would be completely healed by the time we returned to our fortified school stronghold.
The local men who’d come with us on this hunting trip were unharmed, except for a bruised knee and some scrapes that one of them got from falling while trying to run away from a daemon. However, all of them were stunned by the vicious battle that they’d just lived through, though my dad was showing it the least. Then again, my dad was a combat veteran, but even he was a bit shaken.
Mr. Rosewald, Julie’s dad was staring at her as though she was a stranger, and I could understand why. She wasn’t the same person she’d been the last time he’d seen her. She was Val Kyr now, and he’d finally gotten a glimpse of what that really meant. It was a lot to wrap your head around, and I was amazed at how well my own dad was managing to do that.
The Marine, whose name I’d learned was Jim, grimly looked over all the dead and dismembered daemons that littered the streets. A few were still twitching, but a couple of Val Kyr were walking through the mess to finish them off. “Damn,” he said, shaking his head. “I had no idea there were so many of those things in town…”
“They’ve been keeping a relatively low profile,” Shannon commented thoughtfully. “And building their numbers.”
“Those things are horrific,” Officer Kyles stated with a shudder. “It’s like they came right out of my worst nightmares…”
“Like Michelle said earlier,” Lindrell told him with a scowl. “Daemons are like rabid dogs.”
“How can anyone help those things and still call themselves human?” Officer Kyles demanded. “Those daemonites…”
“Most daemonites are…not quite sane,” Natalie added with a wry smile. “It’s the nature of their power…”
Cassandra nodded at that, looking sad as she explained, “They don’t start out that way. I knew a daemonite once…before she became one. She’d been a good woman…and accepted the offer to become a daemonite just so she could have the power to protect her family from the gangs that terrorized them. She did just this for a time, but that power meant she could see inside a daemon’s mind…feel their emotions as her own. Before long, she began to identify with daemons more than humans…began to see humans the same way the daemons did.” Cassandra shook her head sadly, making me suspect that I probably didn’t want to know what happened to this woman or her family.
After this, we all started the walk back towards the school, moving more slowly than we had while coming out. The men were all exhausted and shaky, and weren’t moving quite as fast. Admittedly, one of the Val Kyr had broken her ankle during the fight, and she was moving a little slower as well.
When we’d come out this way, we’d walked in two groups of Val Kyr, with the six men being in a group between us. But now, everyone was intermingled. I noted that Jim was walking beside Natalie, giving her sidelong looks of appreciation while trying to appear as though he wasn’t. Simon, the young guy who was barely older than I was, was doing something similar, taking a position right behind Julie and myself. And then there was my dad, who was walking by Lindrell’s side. Neither of them really said anything to each other though. I imagined that this reunion had to be pretty awkward for both of them.
We hadn’t even made it halfway back to the school when Gretchen exclaimed, “Sheisse!”
“Daemons are starting to gather again,” Shannon explained a moment later. Her expression was grim, and the moment she’d finished with those words, everyone else wore a similar one.
“Again?” Mr. Rosewald blurted out with a look of fear.
“We already kicked their asses once,” Simon stated confidently, conveniently forgetting that it was the Val Kyr who’d done most of the damage. “We’ll do it again.”
Suddenly, a gunshot rang out, and it hadn’t come from any of us. Simon let out a gurgling gasp and dropped to the ground as a rapidly growing pool of blood began to spread out around him. There was a second gunshot, then a third, coming from two daemonites who’d taken up sniper positions.
“This is a new tactic,” Natalie snarled, even as she was creating a wall of concrete to use as cover.
“Incoming,” Jass yelled, referring to the daemons that were rushing towards us.
There weren’t nearly as many daemons as with the last swarm, only about a dozen of them, but most of them seemed to be flying ones. I silently cursed the fact that I was out of arrows and drew my sword, hoping I could get within cutting distance.
One daemon made me think of a bloated squid that had been inflated with helium. It was a floating air sack with tentacles, and when Dad shot it, the thing exploded into a ball of fire. Everyone ducked down to avoid getting singed, and the rest of the daemons took advantage of that to rush in even closer.
“Oh no you don’t,” Bethany exclaimed, swinging her sword at a pigeon sized daemon that was buzzing back and forth. The thing wasn’t very large, but it was fast and maneuverable.
A winged daemon flew towards me, and as I began to swing my sword, there was another gunshot and a burst of pain through my leg. I gasped, and in that moment of distraction, the daemon spat out a spray of green goo. I saw it coming in time to dodge and avoid it…barely. The pain in my leg slowed me, but I was used to sparring while injured and in pain. When the daemon turned and came at me again, a single well aimed strike was all I needed to slice it in two.
“I got one of the snipers,” Dad called out.
“I just got the other,” Gretchen added a moment later.
Then there was a loud gasp of pain, drawing my attention to Jass, who had two daemons on her. One was a gaunt dog-like daemon that had charged in and tried attacking her legs, and while she’d been trying to deal with that one, a flying mass of tentacles had landed on her back and was beginning to strangle her.
Dad was close to Jass, and without a word, he opened fire on the dog daemon, killing it with several shots to the torso and one to the head. Then he used his weapon as a club to swing it at the mass of tentacles. It released its grip on Jass enough so that she was able to tear herself away from the thing.
“I’ve got it,” Julie called out, impaling the daemon with her spear, then sending a wave of essence down through the mass of tentacles and incinerating it.
Jass glared at the dead daemon and gave the body a swift kick before suddenly snapping around and glaring at Dad. “I didn’t need your help.”
“I never said you did,” Dad responded in an even tone.
The small swarm of daemons had already been wiped out, along with the two daemonites who’d been behind this ambush. However, I couldn’t feel very triumphant about this one when I looked at Simon, who was dead on the ground.
Julie suddenly cried out, “DAD,” drawing my attention to her dad, who was on the ground, crying out in pain as the gunshot wound on this thigh bled profusely.
With that, my dad looked to me, or at least to my bloody leg, and stated, “You’ve been shot…”
In spite of the pain, I gave him a forced grin and responded in a bad British accent. “Tis but a scratch.”
“She’s fine,” Lindrell assured Dad, rolling her eyes and putting her hand on my shoulder where she gave me a surge of jatta. “We give each other worse than that in our daily training.”
Dad gave me a look that was hard to read, then carefully said, “That sounds rather intense…”
“Puts that pansy-ass Army training to shame,” Bethany said cheerfully.
I might have had fun watching Bethany tease my dad, but my attention went to Mr. Rosewald…and to Julie who was bent over him looking frantic. Dad limped over to him, calling out for the first-aid kit.
“He’s losing blood fast,” Dad said grimly. “We need to stop the bleeding immediately…”
Officer Kyles pulled a first-aid kit out of a back pack and began pulling out bandages. I didn’t know if we’d be able to stop Mr. Rosewald’s bleeding fast enough with bandages or a tourniquet, but I realized that there was something I could do to help.
“I can stop the bleeding,” I announced, dropping down beside him.
Dad had already used a knife to cut Mr. Rosewald’s pants away from his wound so it could be bandaged, but it was hard to make out the hole itself through the blood. I gulped, feeling a little shaky as I tried to remember everything Ionne had taught me.
“What are you doing?” Officer Kyles demanded.
“Dad,” Julie cried out, tears running down her cheeks as she held his hand.
I took a deep breath, then began to push out a mixture of essence and jatta, trying to mix and fuse the energies evenly as I sent them into Mr. Rosewald’s leg. In just a moment, I could feel his flesh beginning to respond, the same way water did when I infused it with essence. The hole went all the way through, so at least I didn’t have to worry about removing the bullet.
Someone started to put a hand on my shoulder, but Lindrell snapped, “Don’t distract her.”
I continued to focus all of my attention on Mr. Rosewald’s flesh, concentrating on controlling both the energies I’d infused his leg with and on moving the flesh itself. I held back the blood, long enough to force the severed artery to heal. The muscle tissue and skin were next. By the time I was finished, his wound was closed and no longer bleeding, but it wasn’t fully healed. He’d have to be careful so as not to tear it open again while he healed the rest of the way on his own.
As soon as I released my energies from Mr. Rosewald, I collapsed, feeling badly drained from the effort. It was a good thing that his wound hadn’t been much worse, or I probably wouldn’t have been able to heal it.
“Are you all right?” Lindrell asked me, putting a gentle hand on my shoulder.
“Just peachy,” I responded with a wry grin.
“It’s healed,” Dad exclaimed in surprise. “It’s scarred over already…”
“Thank you,” Julie exclaimed, grabbing me in a hug, and to my surprise, she gave me a kiss on the cheek before quickly turning her attention back to her dad.
I slowly got back up, with Lindrell’s help. She gave me another surge of jatta, and it definitely helped me regain my strength again. I took a deep breath, then looked around, noticing that most of the people gathered were staring at me.
“How did she do that?” Cassandra asked, staring at me with a look of surprise.
“She mixed essence and jatta energies,” Gretchen answered, giving me a curious look.
“An atra trick,” I answered, feeling both proud and self-conscious at the same time.
Officer Kyle’s blurted out, “If you guys can all do that, then we have a lot of injured people back at the school who can use help…”
“That isn’t something most Val Kyr can do,” Lindrell told him with a shake of her head. “Some of us can help other Val Kyr heal more quickly, but our powers have no effect on those who are not Val Kyr. Michelle is…unusual.”
“A freak,” Jass muttered.
“I can try with a few of them when we get back to the school,” I told Officer Kyles, glancing to my dad as well. “But it took just about everything I had just to do that much.”
“My leg still hurts,” Mr. Rosewald complained weekly, though have gave me a look of gratitude and smiled at Julie.
Mr. Rosewald was no longer bleeding, but he’d already lost the blood and was too weak to continue walking back to the school. Several people quickly ran into nearby buildings and scavenged the materials to create a makeshift stretcher so we could carry him the rest of the way. By this point, my own leg was mostly healed as well and felt like no more than a bruise.
Just as we began to move again, a loud shriek filled the air. “Incoming,” Shannon called out a warning.
I looked up and let out a gasp of surprise at the sight of the daemon that flew through the air. It’s large scaly body and wide leathery wings was somewhat familiar from countless movies and books. It was some sort of sickly, greyish colored dragon.
“Wyvern,” Lei exclaimed with a look of annoyance, probably because her hammer wouldn’t do much good against something that far away.
The dragon…wyvern suddenly dove towards us, revealing that it actually had a human rider…a daemonite. Obviously a binder since they were the only people who’d think that riding a daemon was a good idea.
“Take them down,” Lindrell shouted, though guns and arrows were already being fired at the pair.
The wyvern swooped down and belched out a thick black smoke which flooded the streets as it dove past, making me gag at the stench. It was like rotten eggs, raw sewage, and the Bog of Eternal Stench…all rolled up into one ungodly scent. And while everyone was just trying to breath, the creature came back again.
Just as it was difficult to breath in this stench, the thick fog also made it more difficult to see through. Still, I kept my eyes on the daemon as it came down for another pass, letting out a second belch of this disgusting fog, which thickened it up even more.
“We’ve got another swarm coming,” Jass called out.
More daemons came swarming out of the buildings nearby, but there were only half a dozen lesser daemons, ones who normally wouldn’t be considered much of a threat at all. However, with this fog making it more difficult to breathe or see, these daemons were suddenly much more dangerous than they would be otherwise. I absently wondered why the daemonites hadn’t used the wyvern during the first swarm when it could have turned things in their favor…unless they hadn’t brought it over from the Twilight Realm until just now.
I had my sword out and was trying to deal with a Pac Man daemon when the wyvern came by for another swoop. I expected him to belch out more of that stench but instead, it suddenly came right at me, grabbing me in the large claws that dug into my shoulder. I screamed in pain as the claws tore right through my armor and my flesh, then yanked me right off the ground and into the air.
--------------------
Discomfort. Pain. Fear. I felt all of these as I struggled to move…to escape. I wondered how I could have possibly ended up in this situation, but I already knew the answer. A wyvern had dug its claws into my shoulder, carried me to the other side of town, and then dropped me from the air. I’d broken a few bones when I hit, and before I knew it, some daemonites had grabbed me, stripped me of my armor, and then chained me up to the car lift in an auto garage.
I didn’t know how long I’d been chained up like this, though it couldn’t have been too long. My bones were still broken and hurt like hell. However, I grimaced and tried to hold back the tears and screams of pain, not wanting to give my daemonite captor the satisfaction.
The daemonite responsible for capturing me was a binder, with his pet wyvern waiting just outside the garage. I could feel its foul presence out there, smell the stench of its breath every time I breathed in. The wyvern was a monster, but in the end, it was just a mindless animal following its instincts. As far as I was concerned, the daemonite was an even greater monster.
The hood of my captor’s cloak was pulled back, giving me a good look at his weathered face, as well as his greasy and unkempt hair and beard. If I’d seen him on the street, I would have just assumed he was some homeless guy begging for change. Perhaps, that was exactly what he’d been before he’d become a daemonite.
Without saying a word, the daemonite put his hand on my shoulder, right where his wyvern had torn into me. Then he began to slowly caress my skin, stopping with his hand right on my naked breast. I felt disgust and revulsion while he just grinned at my reaction. He was clearly enjoying himself, though I didn’t think it was sexual. Instead, I was pretty sure he just got his kicks from having me helpless and at his mercy.
“Val Kyr,” he said, his voice carrying the same contempt that any Val Kyr would have while saying ‘daemonite’. “I have always wanted to see one of your kind up close…”
“Let me loose, and you’ll see me really up close,” I responded sharply, thinking about just how much I wanted to break his neck.
The daemonite sneered at that, then suddenly punched me in the face as hard as he could. I spat at him in response, since it was about the only freedom of movement I currently had. That just pissed him off more and he punched me several more times, not that this really bothered me much except for when he hit me in the leg, right about where it was broken. After a dozen punches or so, he finally settled down, seeming satisfied with himself.
“You are more attractive than I’d imagined,” he stated, putting one of his hands on my breasts again and making my skin crawl.
As he stood there, hand on my breast and staring down at me with a sadistic gleam in his eyes, I suddenly felt a shiver of dread run through my body. It had been awhile since I’d really thought much about the downsides of being a woman, but now, one of them came directly to mind. Rape. This was something that most normal women had to be concerned about, at least enough to take precautions. But as a Val Kyr, this was the first time it had truly occurred to me that this was now a possibility. I struggled frantically against the chains that held me, trying to ignore the pain from my broken arm and legs while the daemonite just chuckled in amusement.
“My friend is eager to taste your flesh,” the daemonite abruptly said, giving me a look which suggested that he wondered how I’d taste as well. I shuddered at that and glared at him but didn’t say anything. “It was difficult to keep her from eating you, and she really wanted to do so…” He paused and licked his lips, sending a shiver down my spine.
“Then why am I still alive?” I demanded, glaring at him as if that would be enough to hurt him.
He just snorted as he turned away, answering, “Because our leader wants you alive…”
I gulped, definitely not liking the sound of that. My thoughts turned to my friends and the hope that they’d find me…that they’d rescue me. Of course, I’d never be able to live it down afterwards…but at least I’d still be alive. I just hoped that they’d be able to get to me in time.
While I waited, I tried to test my chains, but I was still too hurt and weak to do anything against them. They were pretty heavy chains, so I doubted that even if I’d been in top condition, that I’d be strong enough to break them. Maybe if I’d been jatta.
Suddenly, I felt a new presence, and I looked to the doorway at the daemonite who’d entered. She threw back her cloak, revealing a face I immediately recognized. “Estrid,” I whispered, feeling another surge of fear. Until now, knew that if I got loose, I was still strong enough that I could probably overpower the daemonite binder. However, in my current condition, I’d have absolutely no chance of doing so against the former Val Kyr.
“Fools,” Estrid exclaimed, glaring at the daemonite binder. “Do you understand what you’ve done?”
The binder looked confused for a moment, then responded, “I captured that Val Kyr like you ordered…” He gestured to me.
Estrid gave me a flat look, turning her attention back to him. “That is not what I was referring to. My orders were to hold the daemons back…to conserve their numbers until we were ready for them, yet you all decided to waste them against those Val Kyr instead.”
“But there were only seven Val Kyr,” he protested, clearly afraid of Estrid. “And a group of civilians… We thought it would be easy to overwhelm them…to destroy them.”
“It was a trap,” Estrid snapped at him angrily. “Now we’ve lost over half the forces we brought over…”
The binder cringed and said, “I’m sorry…”
“Indeed you are,” Estrid told him with a snort of disgust. “But fortunately, we have enough reserves gathered in the Twilight Realm that we should be able to replace most of those daemons in time…” She paused at that, then in a calmer tone, she continued, “But you should apologize to Nessa, who is working hard to make up for the mistake you and the others made.”
“I will,” the binder agreed.
“Then go,” Estrid told him. Once the binder had run out of the garage, Estrid turned her attention to me. We stared at each other in silence before she commented, “So, we meet again my young atra…”
I glared at her as I spat out, “Let me go and give me a sword, and I’ll meet you properly.” Of course, it was pure bluster, largely to hide how terrified I was at the moment.
“I think not,” Estrid responded, coming closer until she was standing almost right beside me. “I’d prefer not to kill you just yet, especially after I took such great effort to arrange this meeting.”
“What?” I gasped in surprise.
Estrid gave me an evil smile, then casually asked, “You did not think I chose this location by mere chance, do you?” She gestured around us.
“You…,” I gasped, staring at her in shock and horror. “The whole town…”
“This is the third time my people have had to come here,” Estrid stated with a grim look. “Years ago, I discovered a Val Kyr was residing in this place, so I sent soldiers to eliminate her. As you may know, they failed. Then more recently, I learned the same Val Kyr had returned to this town searching for a recruit…”
“You,” I blurted out, glaring at Estrid with growing anger. “You sent those daemons to my school…”
“And they failed,” Estrid responded with a look of annoyance. “Now, I learn that it was not just one recruit who escaped…but two…and that one of them is atra, like myself.” She stared at me with a cold, almost hungry expression.
I clenched my teeth, continuing to glare at Estrid with a hatred I’d never realized I was capable of. Estrid was responsible for my dad losing his leg, for my mother leaving us both, and for pushing Dad down the self-destructive path I’d been forced to watch him take. She’d been responsible for the attack on my school, for the death of Mrs. Clarence, and my being disemboweled. And, it was quite clear, she was also responsible for the incursion into this town…for the countless people her daemons had slaughtered.
“This town has been an annoyance,” Estrid continued, “and I suspected there may be other future Val Kyr present as well. And though these were considerations when I chose this as the location of my incursion, the truth is, my primary reason was so that I could lure you to me.”
“Me?” I exclaimed in shock and horror. “You murdered all those people, just to get me? WHY?”
“Because you are atra,” Estrid answered simply, continuing to give me a cold stare. “I have spent three centuries discovering what I am capable of…mastering my abilities on my own. But even now, I cannot help but wonder if there is something I have missed…some atra ability that I have yet to discover. Perhaps…something that may have been taught to you.”
“Fuck you,” I spat at her viciously. “If you wanted to learn how to be atra, then maybe you shouldn’t have murdered those Val Kyr…”
Estrid suddenly punched me, doing so much harder than the daemonite binder had. Two of my teeth broke loose in my mouth, one of them a tooth that had only recently finished growing back. I spat the teeth and blood at Estrid, who just glared at me with a look of hatred in her eyes.
“You know nothing,” Estrid spat at me. She just continued to glare for several seconds as she regained control over herself. Then in a cold tone, she said, “In my pride and fear, I made a deal with the Val Kyr…not realizing that I might as well have been dealing with Lucifer himself. I swore my service in exchange for health and power, only to discover that it also cost my wife, my son, and my honor. And for all I sacrificed, I was repaid with humiliation, contempt, and betrayal…”
“Betrayal?” I exclaimed with a snort. “You betrayed the Val Kyr. You murdered five Val Kyr…three of whom were converts…”
“No,” Estrid responded, sneering as she glared at me. “As I said, you know nothing. I killed only two Val Kyr…in self-defense. Neither was a convert.”
I stared at Estrid in surprise and confusion since there was absolutely no reason for her to deny her crimes back then, not when she’d just freely admitted to committing far greater ones. Still, I accused her, “You’re lying…”
“Believe what you like,” Estrid said, looking like she was about to turn and walk off. But after several seconds of hesitation, she explained, “Two Val Kyr attacked me in the baths without warning, attempting to murder me. They sought to end my life, but they underestimated me, so it was they who died instead.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, or even if I believed her claims. After all, Estrid was a monster of the worst sort, the kind who had just casually murdered hundreds of people just so she could get her hands on me. She certainly wasn’t a credible witness, but she acted as though she was telling the truth, or at least as though she really believed what she was saying.
I knew that some of the Val Kyr had been pretty hard on her back when she’d been in Val Halla, and I’d gone through some of that myself, but I had a hard time believing anyone would have tried to murder her like that. Maybe it was a misunderstanding, or the result of some kind of paranoid delusions on Estrid’s part. Maybe.
“Even before this, I’d already realized my mistake,” Estrid stated fiercely. “When I’d agreed to serve the Val Kyr and their goddess, I’d turned my back on God and had been cursed for this sin. Now freed of the illusion that the Val Kyr were anything but damned souls, I fled Val Halla and into the depths of Hell where at least my enemies would be honest.”
Estrid paused, staring off into the distance with a far-away look in her eyes. It was dark…almost haunted. In spite of myself, I actually started to feel sorry for her, at least a little bit.
“I have no idea how long I spent wandering hell,” Estrid continued, “fighting daemons, surviving by my strength and wit, and fearing the entire time that the Val Kyr would soon arrive to finish the task of killing me.” She gave me a cold look. “Then a small group of daemonites found me while I was injured, taking me prisoner. The ripper who served as their leader amused himself by infusing me with daemonite power, then watching as I rejected their power and expelled it from my body. Eventually, we talked and I realized that my captors and I shared a common enemy…the Val Kyr. After this, I willingly accepted the daemonite power…embraced it.”
With that, Estrid gave me an evil smile, one where her teeth were all just a little long and sharp. Her eyes were now yellow and slitted, making me gulp at the sight. Estrid wasn’t just allied with the daemonites…she was one of them.
“Now then,” she said as her features returned to normal, “there is the matter of what to do with you, my prisoner…”
Since she’d just finished telling me about how her own time as a daemonite prisoner led to her becoming a daemonite herself, it wasn’t difficult to figure out what she wanted. “You’re crazy if you think I’d join you.” Of course, she was already crazy anyway, so I shouldn’t have been surprised that she’d assume that I’d follow her lead.
“Of course not,” Estrid responded with a snort of distain. “You are still too blinded by Val Kyr lies to see the truth.” She reached out and grabbed my face in one hand, looking me right in the eyes. “I brought you here for the chance that you can help me unleash my full power, and you will do so…willingly or unwillingly. I do not have the time to either coddle or convince you of the truth, so I merely leave you to consider how much easier this will be for you if you simply give me what I require.”
With that, Estrid let me go and started to turn and walk away. I glared at her, afraid and angry at the same time. “You talk about how you’re damned because of your sins,” I spat out, hoping I could at least shake her up a little. “And you don’t think killing all those people is a sin?”
Estrid looked back at me again, her expression grim and resigned. “I am already damned for eternity, and nothing can change that. But what I can change is whether I spent it trapped in Hell…or fighting for my brethren and I to be free.”
“You’ll never get away with this,” I snarled, regretting the words the moment they left my mouth. I sounded like some kind of cliché damsel in distress, and I absolutely HATED that. Then I decided to bluff, adding, “Lindrell has already called Val Halla for reinforcements. By now, we’ve got a dozen more triads here to wipe you and your daemons out.”
Estrid just stared at me for a moment before she burst out laughing, though it wasn’t a nice laugh. “It is such a pity you are lying,” she told me with a smirk. “That would actually suit my plans quite well.”
“What?” I blurted out in confusion.
Estrid reached into a pouch on her waist and pulled out what looked like a necklace, made with a dozen oddly shaped stones. It took me a moment to realize that they were all key stones.
“It took me three centuries to acquire this many key stones,” Estrid commented as she held up the necklace to stare at. “I searched the sites of old battles, looking for fallen Val Kyr. I ambushed Val Kyr and took these as souvenirs…building my collection.”
“Why?” I demanded, having a bad feeling about this but knowing it was important.
Estrid gave me another evil grin before answering. “These key stones provide me with certain…leverage. They point me to their sibling stones as though a compass…and allow me to intercept communications through them. I am quite aware of the fact that there have been no such requests for reinforcements.”
I stared at Estrid, suddenly understanding exactly how the daemonites found all those new recruits they’d killed. The daemonites hadn’t been tracking down the recruits…they’d been following the recruiters.
“You…almost sound disappointed,” I said nervously.
“Of course,” Estrid explained, looking quite pleased with herself. “The more Val Kyr there are here…the fewer remain in Val Halla. I have created a number of distractions to lure as many Val Kyr away from your home as possible. You see, Val Halla is currently under siege from an army of daemons…and it is virtually undefended.”
“Oh shit,” I blurted out.
“Freya has called all available Val Kyr to return immediately,” Estrid said with a nasty smile, “but communications were…interrupted.”
I snarled, thinking about her conversation with the daemonite binder and how they were bringing more daemons over to replace the ones we’d killed. Not only was Val Halla under siege, but she had an army of daemons here as well.
“Let me guess,” I spat out coldly. “Now you’re going to overwhelm the school and finish wiping out this town.”
Estrid gave a dismissive snort before saying, “I have little interest in this town beyond using it to lure you to me. This town is merely a staging point for my forces, forces my ripper will transport directly into the center of Val Halla. By this time tomorrow, I will have full control over your fortress…and the anchor that resides within.”
“Why do you need the anchor?” I demanded, frantically trying to think of anything I could do to interfere with her plans. Unfortunately, being injured and chained up, my options were extremely limited. At the moment, all I could do was keep asking questions, trying to learn as much as I could. Fortunately, the old cliché about villains wanting to monolog was turning out to have a lot more truth than I ever would have imagined. “You already have a ripper.”
“True,” Estrid agreed. “But my daemonites are mortal…and their endurance is limited. With an anchor under my control, I can free the forces of Hell to overwhelm this world. We WILL be free.” There was a manic gleam in her eyes and I could tell that there was absolutely no reasoning with her on this.
“You’re insane,” I told Estrid, bracing for her to hit me.
Estrid just gave me a flat look before saying, “When I return, we will discuss what lessons you may have been given in Val Halla…and how you may assist me.”
With that, Estrid started to leave, meeting the returning daemonite binder at the door. As the binder stepped into the garage, he looked in my direction and asked, “You want me to question her?” He looked more than a little eager to do that.
“No,” Estrid responded, not bothering to look in my direction again. “I will take care of that myself when I have time.” Then she paused to give the binder a firm look, adding, “Do not even think of feeding her to your friend. I need her ALIVE.”
“Whatever you want,” the binder quickly said.
Once Estrid was gone, the binder turned his attention back to me. He stared at me with a dark gleam in his eyes, one that suggested that his imagination was working overtime on what he wanted to do to me. I tried very hard not to think of what those things might be.
I was in a bad situation, and though I didn’t dare let this animal see, I was also terrified. I was afraid of him, but what truly terrified me was Estrid and what she was really up to. Not only was she on the verge of taking over Val Halla, but also unleashing Hell on Earth.
“I have to get out of here,” I whispered to myself, desperately trying to think of how I could escape, or at the very least, get a message to Lindrell. “I have to warn them…”
--------------------
The air was filled with a hundred scents, most of them sick and unpleasant. From the garage where I was imprisoned, there were the remnants of grease, oil, and everything else that would be expected in a place that repaired cars. The smells of blood, sweat, and human body odor came from me, and from the daemonite who’d been keeping a careful watch on me to ensure I couldn’t escape. And then there were the hints of rotten stench which originated from the wyvern that was waiting outside the garage, carried in by its daemonite rider.
I distracted myself by focusing on these scents, as unpleasant as they were, because it kept me from dwelling too much on the fact that I was injured, naked, chained to a raised car lift, and surrounded by enemies who wanted me dead…or worse. I was angry, terrified, exhausted, and desperate…all at the same time. I wanted to escape…needed to escape, but it wasn’t going to be easy.
My eyes went to the daeminite binder, who was one of my biggest challenges. If I was somehow able to escape my chains, he was the biggest obstacle I currently faced to regaining my freedom. The problem wouldn’t be taking him out, it was the fact that he was the only one holding back the wyvern, who was apparently quite eager to eat me. At the moment, I wasn’t armed or in any condition to fight a daemon of that size and power.
And then of course, there was Estrid…who’d orchestrated my entire capture. She’d sent an army of daemons into my home town, slaughtering hundreds of innocent people, all to lure me into her hands. For some reason that I didn’t quite understand, she’d fixated on me. It was probably just the fact that like her, I was both a convert and an atra…the only other one she’d ever met besides Freya.
Estrid told me that she’d brought me here so she could learn ‘atra secrets’ from me, but she hadn’t actually asked me a single question, not even my name. Instead, she’d gone off into a monologue, telling me her life story and everything that she had planned. It didn’t make any logical sense to do that during an interrogation, but she had. Then it suddenly dawned on me why she’d done that. She’d been showing off how powerful she was…and trying to get me to understand her at the same time…because she saw me as a potential kindred spirit.
I felt sick at the realization that Estrid thought I might be like her, and even more so by just how much we did have in common. If things had gone a little different, if I hadn’t had the support I had in Val Halla…things could have gone quite different for me. I briefly wondered if I could use this to get through to Estrid, then discounted it. Maybe something like that would have worked before she’d become a daemonite, but I seriously doubted it would have an effect now.
Then I thought about what Estrid was up to, and the horrific nightmare she was trying to unleash on the world. She was launching a sneak attack into the middle of a nearly empty Val Halla so she could seize control of the anchor and cripple the Val Kyr. With that link between Earth and the Twilight Realm, she’d be able to send armies of daemons to anywhere she wanted, even more than she could with a daemonite ripper. And without that anchor, the Val Kyr would have no way of stopping those incursions. The world would be flooded with daemons.
Suddenly, my daemonite guard yelled, “Val Kyr…” He started walking towards me again with a sadistic smirk and a large wrench clutched firmly in his hand.
Two small daemons followed close behind the daemonite, one resembling a bald and slimy shrew with tentacles while the other looked almost like a two foot tall Furby. At first glance, it might have seemed cute…until I saw the eerie insectlike eyes and the jagged beak. And above all, both creatures simply radiated an aura that screamed ‘wrong’.
“I never imagined I would be lucky enough to get my hands on a Val Kyr,” the daemonite said, looking me over and licking his lips. I shuddered at the look on his face, feeling like I needed a bath just from that. “Our leader has rewarded my service…”
“Estrid wants me alive,” I reminded him, trying to sound confident in spite of the fact that I was ready to piss myself. In fact, my bladder was getting pretty full, so unless they released me to use the bathroom soon, I probably would end up pissing myself.
“You’ll be alive,” the daemonite responded with a nasty smile. “You Val Kyr are resilient that way…like cockroaches.”
The daemonite reached out and touched my shoulder, sending goose bumps all along my naked skin…and not the good kind. I pulled away from him as much as I could, but that only seemed to amuse him more. He slowly brought his hand down, caressing my skin as he did so until he was touching one of my breasts. For a moment, he held me in an almost gentle fashion, then he squeezed as though trying to crush me, causing me too gasp out in pain.
I spat at the daemonite and furiously snarled, “If you touch me again, you sick pile of shit…”
Before I could even finish the threat, the daemonite hit me across the face with the large wrench, grinning as he did so. I bit back my cry of pain and continued to do so as he hit me over and over. In a way, this felt a lot like one of my training sessions with Lindrell or Ionne, except that I wasn’t given a weapon to fight back with. And fortunately, this daemonite didn’t pack quite the same punch.
Once the daemonite was finished, he leered at me as he felt me up once again. This time, he brought his hand down further, stopping with it resting on my stomach. “I wonder if Val Kyr can become pregnant…”
I shuddered at the very idea, and even more at the thought of him being the one to do that to me. He delighted in my reaction, obviously enjoying my disgust and revulsion. Since I didn’t want him to enjoy this any more than he already was, I just snorted and taunted, “Sex with a woman is a lot different than banging one of your daemons. But you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”
There was a flash of rage before the wrench caught me across the cheek again. This time, it was my turn to grin in satisfaction. Of course, that earned me a few more hits, but it was well worth it.
The daemonite left a few minutes later, though the two smaller daemons remained, settling down to act like guard dogs. I watched them warily, but once I was sure they weren’t going to attack me at any moment, I turned my attention back to the task of escaping.
If I’d been jatta, I might have been able to use raw strength to break myself free, and if I’d been kaern, I probably could have messed with the daemonite’s perceptions and somehow tricked him into letting me go. Neither of those was a possibility for me, but the notru method might just work. Though I didn’t have enough raw essence to make the chains all melt off me like one of them might, I did have enough that I was slowly able to damage the chains in a few key spots.
Before long, the chains broke free and fell loose around me. I slowly got to my feet, wincing at the stabbing pain from one of my legs. My broken bones had already healed up a great deal…but not completely. I grimaced and tried to ignore the pain, telling myself that I was healed enough. I had to be.
The daemons snarled and started to approach me, so I tried to treat them like I would a pair of dogs. “Good daemons… Nice daemons… Sit. Stay.” Unfortunately, reasoning with daemons when you weren’t a daemonite was about as effective as trying to reason with a rabid Rottweiler…or a toddler throwing a tantrum. The daemons charged me, but I grabbed a length of the chain and swung it at them, smacking the furby right across the face. “Bad daemon. No biscuit.”
Though the furby was knocked back from the impact, the tentacle shrew came waddling straight at me. It was slow and clumsy enough that I had time to swing the chain and hit it as well. I grimaced as I clutched five foot length of chain tightly, wishing I had enough essence left to charge it up so I could see what the effect would be. I hadn’t ever trained with using a chain as a weapon, so this was a new experience for me.
Normally, neither of these daemons were dangerous enough to be much of a threat to me, but this definitely wasn’t a normal situation. I was naked, injured, and not only without my armor but also without a familiar weapon. I kept flailing the chain at the two daemons, taking turns at hitting them and driving them back. This was taking a toll on my injuries, which were screaming at me to just stop and rest. However, I didn’t dare do so. In my current state, if I stopped, these things would be able to kill me.
“Time for you little bastards to die,” I snarled, taking the opportunity to kick the furby once it got too close. It tumbled across the floor until it slammed into a garage wall. I grabbed the chain with both hands and tied it around the biting and snapping shrew, squeezing tightly until its neck snapped and it stopped moving. I dropped the body to the floor, then turned my attention to the furby, which was coming at me again. A minute later, I’d done the same thing to that daemon.
Since the daemons were dead, I dropped to my knees to rest, but only for a minute. As I got back to my feet, still clutching the chain, I heard voices from just outside the garage. I froze where I was and listened closely, stretching my senses so I could make out what they were saying.
“So, Estrid left you behind too,” the daemonite binder said.
“I’m fucking exhausted,” responded a voice I recognized. It was Nessa, the daemonite ripper. “I just spent the last tweleve hours bringing over more daemons because of your fuck up, and then I had to go and send them all to Val Halla. Now, as much as I’d love to watch Estrid tear those Val Kyr bitches some new holes, I’m too damned tired.”
“At least you got to help with the attack,” the binder told her, sounding more than a little annoyed. “I’m stuck guarding that Val Kyr bitch… We should just kill her and be done with it. Hell, my friend is chomping at the bit to take a nice bite out of her…” There was a sudden pause before he exclaimed, “I can’t feel the daemons I left behind…”
The binder burst through the door, though I was already rushing to that spot as quickly as I could, hoping to catch him by surprise. However, he came in with a gun in hand, so we were both surprised as we came face to face. He screamed like a little girl and shot, while I felt a burning pain in my arm and shoulder, causing me to stagger back.
“I’ve got you now, you fucking bitch,” the binder snarled, pointing the gun right at my face.
I glared at him, staring down the barrel of a gun but feeling more furious than afraid. After everything I’d gone through, all the daemons I’d faced, it would really SUCK to be killed by a slimy and pathetic freak like him.
“I can kill you while attempting escape,” the binder said with a cruel grin. “Estrid can’t blame me for that…for giving you what you deserve.”
“What I deserve?” I responded with a snort of contempt. “You bastards are the ones who just slaughtered half a town…”
“How many of my friends have you murdered?” he spat out furiously. I wasn’t sure if he was referring to how many daemonites I’d killed…or how many daemons.
I was wary of this binder, but still not really afraid. If I hadn’t been so injured, then my enhanced reflexes might have been fast enough for me to avoid getting shot, but I didn’t want to risk that in my current condition. It was frustrating, but at the moment, I didn’t dare do anything to risk getting shot in the face. Even a jatta wouldn’t survive that.
Just then, the goth daemonite Nessa came through the door, holding a shotgun in her hands. She took one look at me, her eyes went wide, and she snarled, “She’s the bitch who killed Marcus.” And with that, she immediately shot at me.
I saw what Nessa was about to do, so ignoring the other gun already pointed at my face, I reacted and started to dive to the side before she’d even pulled the trigger. I wasn’t quite fast enough as several pellets tore into my side and upper arm, but I avoided a direct hit. Unfortunately, as I hit the ground, I now had two guns pointed at me and no leverage in which to escape.
“I’m gonna blow her fucking head off for what she did to Marcus,” Nessa exclaimed.
However, the binder shook his head and reluctantly said, “Estrid would skin us alive…literally.”
“Then what?” Nessa demanded, glaring at me with an expression of pure hatred.
“We chain her back up,” the binder responded in a cold voice, though he was giving me a dirty leer. “Then I do what I’ve been wanting to do since I first saw her hot ass… And when I’m done, all the other guys can have her too… I doubt the boss will mind, as long as we leave her alive.”
I stared at the binder with a growing sense of dread, feeling my fear of him returning. I suddenly wondered if it was talking to daemons that made him so sick and twisted, or if he’d been that way before becoming a daemonite. Somehow, I suspected it may have been a bit of both. Did the daemonites intentionally recruit the crazies? In a way, that would make sense, because I couldn’t imagine many sane people would want to work with daemons. Even Nessa was staring at the binder with a disturbed look.
“That’s just…,” Nessa started, turning to stare at me again. The hatred seemed to waver for a moment, replaced with a flash of pity. “Even these evil bitches don’t…” Then she paused, taking a deep breath and shaking her head. She looked away from me and grimly told the binder, “Do what you’ve got to do. I won’t watch.” And with that, she started walking back towards the door.
“You’re a sick bastard,” I stated, refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing me afraid, no matter how terrified I actually felt. I was half sure my racing heart was going to burst out of my chest. Instead of letting that happen to me, I’d be better off jumping him…forcing him to kill me. “Let me guess, you got bored of banging daemons and decided to finally try something human…?”
His eyes flashed with hatred. He sneered, “I’m going to enjoy this… I’m going to enjoy giving you everything you deserve, you filthy whore…”
“No woman deserves that,” a voice exclaimed from behind me, an instant before an arrow suddenly appeared in the binder’s head.
For a moment, I just stared at the daemonite, who suddenly collapsed to the ground like a rag doll. Then I sat up and turned to look at the Val Kyr who’d entered the garage through another entrance I hadn’t noticed until now, one I hadn’t been able to see from where I’d been chained up. To my dawning horror, my rescuer was none other than Jass.
Jass notched another arrow and slowly walked towards me, keeping her eyes firmly locked on the door that Nessa had left through just half a minute earlier. When she was closer, she finally looked at me, and to my surprise, there was a brief look of pity before it vanished. I grimaced, not in pain, but in humiliation at being found in this condition and rescued by her. Out of all the Val Kyr who could have come to my rescue, why did it have to be Jass? She hesitated several seconds, then held out a hand to help me to my feet. I hesitated several seconds before accepting it.
“Thank you,” I grudgingly said. Then I looked towards the door she’d come through and started, “The wyvern…”
“Gretchen’s triad is taking care of it,” Jass responded grimly. “Along with the rest of mine. I was sent to scout ahead.”
“And my triad?” I asked hopefully.
“Searching another area,” she answered in a crisp tone. “We found you first.”
I nodded at that, relieved to find that my friend’s hadn’t just written me off as dead. Of course, I had a hard time imagining them actually doing that, especially now that I knew Lindrell was also my mother. That was still unbelievably weird.
After a moment, I asked, “And how thick were the daemons out there?”
Jass gave me a suspicious look. “There were very few.”
“Damn,” I muttered. Sure, the lack of daemons meant that it had been a lot easier for them to rescue me, but I knew where those daemons had gone, and that was very bad news indeed. “I have to warn the Lindrell…”
“Warn Lindrell of what?” Lei called out as she entered through the same door Jass had used, with Natalie right behind her.
Before I could answer, Nessa stepped back through the door that was close to me, freezing when she saw Jass and I standing there while the other daemonite was dead on the ground. A look of shock passed over her face as well as one of fear. She immediately dropped the shotgun and turned to run back out the door.
“NO!” I exclaimed, throwing myself at her in spite of my injuries. Nessa was the daemonite who’d opened the door…who brought the daemons to Australia…and here. She was probably the one who opened the way for all those recent incursions, so there was no way in Hell I was going to let her escape. As I grabbed hold of her arm, I snarled, “You’re not getting away again…”
Nessa screamed in terror and the air around us started to rip and blur. Jass jumped at me, grabbing my arm and starting to pull me back, but an instant later, all three of us fell through.
--------------------
The air was thin and stale, with hints of a foul stench that the air just wasn’t strong enough to support. There was a powerful feeling of everything being off somehow, much like what I felt in Val Halla, but much MUCH stronger. Then as I looked at the thick fog surrounding me in every direction, I knew without a doubt where I was. The Twilight Realm.
Only moments ago, I’d fallen through a portal that had been created by a daemonite ripper, and was then dropped onto the hard stone ground. As I got back to my feet and looked around, I saw no sign of the portal that had brought me here. That had brought US here. Nessa, the daemonite ripper responsible for this trip was lying motionless on the ground, looking as though she was either dead or unconscious. Jass, who’d been pulled through as well, was already on her feet and drawing her sword. Without hesitation, she started towards Nessa.
“Wait,” I exclaimed, feeling a moment of panic.
Jass paused, giving me a dirty look and demanding, “What?”
“We need her to get back,” I quickly pointed out, knowing that if I was going to get Jass to listen to me, I’d have to give her a good reason…one she wouldn’t just shrug off just because I was the one who’d given it.
Jass scowled at that and looked around. “We’re in the Twilight Realm. We should be able to find Val Halla…”
“Do you know where it is?” I asked doubtfully, gesturing to the fog around us. “Or how far? For all I know, it could be a thousand miles in that direction.”
For a moment, I was sure that Jass was going to argue with me, but then she shook her head. She didn’t look happy about having to agree with me. Instead of putting her sword away, she carefully brought it down and used the flat of the blade to tap Nessa’s shoulder. Nessa still didn’t move.
“Unconscious,” Jass said, which was a relief. If Nessa was dead, I had no idea how we’d get back.
“I overheard her talking earlier,” I said grudgingly. “She said she’d exhausted herself moving daemons…so I guess this just pushed her over the edge.”
“Wake up,” Jass exclaimed, giving Nessa a bit of a kick, though it didn’t do any good. After a few more ‘gentle’ nudges to try waking the daemonite, Jass looked at me and scowled. “You need a jatta.”
I nodded at that, thinking about my growing collection of injuries, which included broken bones that hadn’t fully healed yet, a nice collection of bruises and lacerations over much of my body, and of course a couple bullet holes. Thankfully I was Val Kyr, because if I didn’t have my enhanced constitution and healing, I’d probably be dead now…or at least in the process of bleeding to death.
“Or some bandages and pain killers,” I muttered.
With a grimace, I slowly looked at our surroundings again, noticing for the first time that there were silhouettes in the mist around us, shapes for buildings. I was a little started at that, but stretched out my senses as far as I could, which increased my visibility from about fifteen feet to fifty, though barely.
Now, I could make out that I was in some kind of courtyard, surrounded by stone walls and buildings. From what I could see of the closest one, they were in bad shape, little more than ruins. However, I also noticed a large structure just beyond the courtyard, though I could only make out a vague shape through the mist. It looked like a pyramid…one of the layered types from South America rather than the Egyptian ones I usually think of.
“Where the hell are we?” I muttered as I looked around.
When I’d first come to Val Halla, Lindrell had told me that there had once been other places in the Twilight Realm, other anchors and fortresses scattered about, created by the various gods. I felt a chill go down my spine as I realized that this might be one of those places, a long forgotten fortress. For all I knew, I might be standing in Asgard or Olympus…though from the nearby pyramid, I rather doubted it.
In spite of the fact that I was standing in the middle of what appeared to be ancient and abandoned ruins, I noticed one thing that didn’t fit with that. There was a beer bottle on the ground just a short distance away from me. In fact, as I looked, I saw other bits of litter scattered about. There was an empty water bottle, a candy bar wrapper, and even a tennis shoe. Obviously, we weren’t the only ones to come here, which shouldn’t have been a surprise. After all, we’d been brought here by a daemonite, so this may very well have been one of their bases.
I turned back to Jass, hating the fact that I was trapped here with her of all Val Kyr. Being trapped in the mist with no company except for Jass and a daemonite was like my worst nightmare come true. I was in Hell…literally. The only thing that could make it worse was if some daemons showed up to attack me while I was naked and unarmed.
“Do you see anyone here?” I asked Jass, knowing that as a kaern, her senses were even sharper than mine, though not by much.
With a shake of her head, Jass responded, “No.” But then she tilted her head a little as if listening carefully. “But there are a couple daemons at the edge of my limits…though they don’t seem to be coming this way.”
“Stragglers,” I muttered, thinking about all the daemons that had been shipped off to Earth. “It looks like they left a few behind.”
Jass gave me a suspicious look. “You know something.” It sounded almost like an accusation.
I nodded weakly at that. “Estrid is making her move. She pulled all those incursions to get the Val Kyr out of Val Halla...then she used our little friend here to send the daemons to Val Halla.”
For a moment, Jass had a look of skepticism on her face, though it quickly flashed through shock and horror. “Get up,” she snapped, kicking at the daemonite again. “Take us back NOW!” The daemonite still showed no signs of waking, much to the mutual annoyance of my unwanted companion and I.
“It looks like we’re going to be here for a bit longer,” I pointed out reluctantly. “We should probably look around while we have a chance.” I started to talk towards an open doorway, but after taking several steps my leg started to collapse beneath me. My injuries were taking a toll.
“Useless,” Jass muttered. Then she drew a dagger from her belt and tossed it to me. She gestured to Nessa, saying, “For her.” The meaning was clear. I was to stay and guard Nessa in case she woke up and tried to escape while Jass looked around. I nodded agreement.
Jass started for the same doorway I’d planned on checking out, not looking happy about having to go. I suspected that she was probably about as thrilled with being trapped here with me as I was with her. I felt a little satisfaction in that since if I had to be miserable, she should too. However, I did feel a small twinge of guilt for wishing any ill on her after she’d just saved my life…and possibly saved me from something worse than death.
“It looks like it’s just you and me,” I said as I moved over and sat down beside Nessa, keeping the dagger firmly in hand. I wasn’t too worried about her, but Jass had pointed out that there were daemons in the area too. I definitely didn’t want to run into one of them unarmed.
Just sitting still like that and resting was good for me, and I felt my strength returning a little. A jolt of jatta and a nice hot soak in the baths were what I really needed, but at least I was away from Estrid and that psycho binder. I shuddered at the memory, still not completely sure if he meant to rape me or eat me. He was proof positive that sharing headspace with a daemon was NOT good for your mental health.
When Jass returned, she unceremoniously dropped a small pile of clothes onto the ground in front of me, followed by a first-aid kit. “This is a daemonite camp,” she said gruffly. “Or at least it was. Everyone departed very recently.”
I grunted at that, already knowing where the daemonites had gone. Estrid was making her move against Val Halla, and it looked like she hadn’t left anyone behind. That was good news for us, because things would have been even worse if we’d found ourselves surrounded by a bunch of daemonites.
I cleaned up my wounds and bandaged the worst ones while Jass kept poking at Nessa, trying to wake her up. She finally gave up and sat down on the ground a short distance away, opening up some canned chili she’d found among the daemonite supplies and began eating. When I was finished getting dressed, I helped myself to a can of soup. I hadn’t eaten anything since well before my capture, so I was starving.
Jass and I ate in uncomfortable silence, each of us doing our best to ignore the other. Eventually, I noticed that she kept glancing at me, scowling as she did so.
“What?” I demanded, expecting yet another snide comment about how I was inferior or couldn’t be trusted.
For several long seconds, Jass just stared at me with an unreadable expression. “When they had you,” she started quietly, tearing her eyes from me and staring at the ground. “Did they…?”
I was startled by the question since that wasn’t what I’d been expecting. I was silent for several seconds before quietly answering, “No. It was only torture.” I gave a wry smile at using the word ‘only’ when referring to torture.
“Good,” Jass said, and I knew she didn’t mean it was good I was tortured. Neither of us said another word for a couple minutes, then she abruptly said, “Sorensen.”
“What?” I asked in surprise since no one in Val Halla called me by my last name.
“He saved my life,” she grudgingly admitted, making me blink for a moment until I realized that she was referring to my dad. Jass scowled, looking oddly conflicted about having her life saved like that. There was a long pause before she said, “He and Lindrell have some kind of past together… What do you know of it?”
I just stared at Jass in surprise since I’d thought that by now, all the Val Kyr with us would have heard about it. However, Jass obviously hadn’t been told all the details, perhaps because the others knew the kind of issues the two of us had.
“They were married,” I finally answered, trying to keep my voice calm and even. “They had a kid together.”
This time, it was Jass who gave me a look of surprise, which confirmed just how much she’d been left out of the gossip loop. “I assume it ended because he couldn’t deal with her bring Val Kyr.”
I shook my head at that, wondering why I was bothering to tell any of this to Jass. It certainly wasn’t any of her business. However, I could see that she was curious about Dad, which I suppose was understandable considering the fact that he’d saved her life.
“Daemonites tracked her down,” I explained grimly, “and a daemon bit off his leg.” Jass gave me another look of surprise. “She returned to Val Halla to keep the daemonites away from her family.”
Jass bowed her head faintly, then quietly asked, “And do you know what became of their child?”
“He was disemboweled by a daemon,” I answered in a flat tone as I stood up and looked around our surroundings again. Jass let out a faint gasp at that. Without looking at her, I quietly added, “And then he became Val Kyr.”
I could feel Jass staring at my back in realization, though I made sure not to look at her. Instead, I stretched my senses as far as I could, trying to take in as much as I could of our surroundings. I did this as a distraction from the conversation more than for anything else.
Then I noticed something and looked down at Nessa. “Our ride home is starting to wake up.”
“Good,” Jass said, seeming just as relieved for the distraction. “I’m tired of being here.”
After a little ‘gentle nudging’ from Jass, Nessa woke up and stared us with a look of hatred and fear. She tried to scramble to her feet, but Jass immediately had a sword to her neck.
“Take us back,” Jass ordered. “Now.”
“Fuck you,” Nessa responded with a sneer. However, Jass pressed the blade against her neck just enough to get the point across. Nessa paled. “Fine…” She had a look of concentration on her face, but nothing happened.
“Now,” Jass repeated.
“I…I can’t,” Nessa blurted out. “I’m tapped out…” When Jass snarled and pressed the blade close against her skin again, she blurted out, “I’m too fucking exhausted… I need to recharge…”
“Then we’ll just have to keep you close until you can take us back,” Jass told her. Nessa gulped, obviously not liking the idea of being stuck with Jass’ sword at her neck the entire time. However, we couldn’t afford to let her escape, not while we were trapped in the Twilight Realm.
“Since our dead weight is now mobile,” I said, gesturing around us. “I’d like to look around a little.”
Jass nodded at that and the three of us started to walk in the opposite direction Jass had gone exploring in earlier. Since Jass had a sword to Nessa’s neck and I was moving slowly due to my injuries, we didn’t make very good time, but we were able to see a little more of this abandoned daemonite stronghold.
On the far end of the courtyard, we found something that immediately caught my attention. There were three familiar looking stone pillars, or at least two and a half. The pillars looked just like the anchor in Val Halla, though one of the pillars had been broken in half and destroyed. There was no hint of the blur in between them that would have marked an anchor still being there.
Jass and I shared a look, but neither of us said a word. This was just confirmation that at one time, this place had been much like Val Halla…and it had been destroyed, just as the daemonites might be doing to our home at that very moment.
Nessa seemed to realize what we were thinking, because she smirked and said, “By now, Estrid has your anchor…” Jass slapped her, knocking her to the ground. “You Val Kyr are done for… We’ve won.”
I glared at Nessa, realizing that we couldn’t keep going like we have been. Sure, having her walk with Jass’ sword at her neck would keep her from trying to escape, but all it would take was one trip, one time trying to attack Jass to escape, or even one daemon attacking us…and we could lose our ticket home.
“I want to try something,” I announced, going over to Nessa and reaching out for her.
“Don’t you fucking touch me,” she snarled.
“It’s either this,” I pointed out in a cold flat tone, “or Jass keeps holding her sword to your throat.” Nessa glared at me with a look of hatred but didn’t say anything.
With that settled, I reached out again and touched her forehead. I tried to remember everything that Ionne had taught me about this as I stretched out both my essence and my kaern energies, merging them and infusing them into the daemonite. I was careful to build the geis the same way my mentor had in the daemonite prisoner…and in Lindrell.
“I lay a geis on you,” I told Nessa in a firm tone. “You will not try to escape from us.”
“What did you do?” Jass asked, staring at Nessa in surprise. “You mixed essence and kaern…”
“I put a geis on her,” I explained with a sigh, feeling just as worn out as I had after healing Mr. Rosewald. “A compulsion.”
Jass stared at me with a skeptical expression. “Only Freya can do such a thing…”
“She’s the one who taught me,” I pointed out, reminding her of who my mentor was. “It’s an old atra trick.”
“And she will not try escaping?” Jass asked, staring at Nessa with a skeptical look.
I shrugged at that. “Not if I did this right. It’s the first time I’ve ever made a geis.”
“Then make her obey all our commands,” Jass told me. “It may be useful having a ripper in our service…”
Nessa stared at me with a look of fear as she realized I might be able to actually enslave her. However, I shook my head, then admitted to Jass, “It doesn’t work that way. A geis can only give a single command…or forbid one. If I try making it too broad or general, it won’t take…and I can’t give her any other geis either as long as she has this one. At least, that’s what Freya told me.”
Jass grunted at that, obviously disappointed, though Nessa was clearly relived. She was also relieved to find that she was allowed to walk on her own after this, without a sword being constantly held to her neck. However, our daemonite prisoner didn’t show any gratitude for this. Instead, she kept muttering insults about the Val Kyr as we walked around.
Most of the ruins were just that…ruins, but we did find more signs of daemonite activity. There was an area they’d converted into outhouses, what was obviously a kitchen area, and there was a trash pile, large enough to show that the daemonites had been here for years. And through all of this, there were plenty of signs of daemon activity as well.
After awhile, Jass froze and said, “There are a couple daemons coming in our direction…”
“Good,” Nessa responded with a smirk. “They’ll tear you fuckers to pieces… You’ll pay for murdering my friends.”
“If the daemons find us,” Jass threatened, pointing her sword at Nessa’s throat. “You’ll die before we do.” Nessa paled at that.
“Are you recharged enough to take us back?” I demanded.
“No,” Nessa started, though I was sure she was lying…as was Jass who took a step closer to her. “Fine… I might have enough built up to make a small portal…”
I nodded faintly at that, pretty sure that she’d been planning on keeping that bit of information to herself. If she found an opportunity, she might have attempted to use a portal to escape, in which case she probably would have found that she couldn’t even go through it without us. Or maybe, she’d just planned on holding off, on keeping us here long enough for daemons to arrive and kill us for her.
“Even if you do get back,” Nessa announced, “It won’t do a bit of fucking good. It’s too late… You bitches are finally going to pay for what you’ve done.”
“For what we’ve done?” I demanded. “You’re the monsters who keep murdering innocent people…”
“They’re just humans,” she responded with a snort of disdain. “They’re soft and weak…prey. The strong eat the weak. It’s just nature.”
I stared at Nessa, horrified by her attitude. But of course, all daemonites seemed to be that way. She had been in daemon headspace, so she saw the way they thought and felt…and had picked up on it. In a way, I actually felt sorry for her, because whoever she’d been before becoming a daemonite was gone. Of course, she may have been a psychopathic bitch then too. I’d never know.
“You bitches are the real fucking monsters,” Nessa spat out furiously. “You murdered Bobby and Marcus… You’re the ones who’ve been keeping the daemons locked up here…for thousands of years. All they want is food, freedom and territory, and you keep them locked up as if they’re fucking animals…”
“Daemons are worse than animals,” Jass stated grimly.
“They’re nothing but monsters,” I agreed.
“You don’t understand,” Nessa snapped angrily, glaring back and forth between Jass and me. Then she suddenly grabbed my arm and exclaimed, “But you will…”
The moment Nessa grabbed me, I felt a surge of something rush into my arm and flood through my body. I let out a gasp of surprise and yanked my arm away from the daemonite, but it was too late. Whatever she was doing to me, she’d already done it.
Jass immediately had her sword at Nessa’s throat, demanding, “What did you do to her?”
“I just opened her eyes,” Nessa responded with an evil grin. She stared at me, looking surprisingly smug for someone who had a sword at her throat. “Let’s see you murder daemons when you can hear them…”
“Oh shit,” I exclaimed in understanding and horror.
“She’s turned you into a daemonite,” Jass hissed, glaring at me with a look of suspicion and pity. “I can feel the power settling in…”
“SHIT!” I repeated even more emphatically, using my senses to feel the foreign energies spreading through my body, trying to take hold. They hadn’t taken hold yet and I wouldn’t be a daemonite until they’d done that and transformed me. I grimaced, trying to remember what Estrid had said. Then before Jass could do something impulsive like ‘put me out of my misery’, I quickly blurted out, “Estrid said that this could be fought off…that you couldn’t become a daemonite unless you willingly accepted it.”
Jass seemed skeptical of that, and I couldn’t blame her. Any information that came from Estrid would have to be taken with a grain of salt, though in this case, I was REALLY hoping she’d been honest. In fact, was sure she’d been telling the truth. I refused to believe otherwise.
I wasn’t sure how to fight back against this infection of daemonite energy, but I tried pushing it away, tried willing my val to reject it. I felt it starting to happen, but the daemonite energy wasn’t going that easily. This wasn’t going to be quick and easy.
Nessa just grinned, not seeming to care that she had a sword at her neck. “It won’t be long, then you’ll see…”
“Shut up,” I snapped at her, knowing that if I hit her like I REALLY wanted to do, I’d probably end up breaking her neck. It took nearly every ounce of willpower I had to keep from doing that. It was bad enough being infected with this daemonite energy, but I refused to deal with that while being stuck here at the same time.
“I think you’re about recharged enough,” Jass snarled at Nessa. “Take us back…NOW.”
Nessa gulped, looking terrified again. She nodded and had a look of intense concentration on her face. The energies in my body seemed to respond a bit and I could feel what she was doing in an odd way. A moment later, the air ripped and tore, creating a portal.
“Come on,” I told Jass, grabbing Nessa firmly. “I’m not staying here a moment more.” And with that, I stepped through, dragging the daemonite with me.
I found myself standing back in the garage where I’d been chained up and held prisoner by the daemonites. The body of the daemonite binder was still there, right where we’d left it after Jass had put an arrow through his head. I stared at the body for a moment, thankful that I hadn’t imagined the part about his being dead.
“Fuck this shit,” Nessa gasped, collapsing to the ground a moment later. She was still conscious, but she looked completely and utterly exhausted. It seemed that we’d pushed her to open a gate back to Earth before she’d really recovered, though I didn’t feel the least bit guilty about that.
“The body,” Jass announced from behind me, gesturing to the dead daemonite. “It’s still here.”
For a moment, I wondered why she was pointing out the obvious, then it dawned on me. If the body was still where we’d left it, then no daemonites had moved it. But even more telling than that, no daemons had come by to eat it either. Daemons were ravenous and didn’t seem to care if they were eating their former allies. The fact that the body was still here meant that the daemons weren’t.
“The others must have cleared out the daemons in this area,” Jass said with look of satisfaction.
Jass and I carefully looked around, making sure that there were no daemons or daemonites still waiting for us. The wyvern they’d used to capture me was behind the garage, or at least what was left of it was. Half a dozen arrows stuck of the daemon’s head, and it looked like it had been cut up from swords as well. I was grateful for the chance to see the thing dead, just so I didn’t have to worry about it swooping down from above again.
While we looked around, we also found my armor and weapons, which had been casually tossed into a pile behind the garage. I was more than happy to put my armor back on, and just as thrilled about recovering my weapons. I’d dropped my bow when the wyvern had captured me, but I had the rest of my weapons back so I no longer felt so helpless.
“It’s going to be a bit of a walk back to the school,” I said, letting out a resigned sigh. “Especially dragging her.” I gestured to Nessa, who could barely stand, neglecting to mention that I still wasn’t in great shape myself.
“Why should we walk?” Jass asked with a snort, looking towards a pickup truck that was parked behind the garage. “With the daemons gone, we can be more flexible with our transportation.”
I nodded at that, feeling like an idiot for overlooking the obvious. The last couple of days had been pretty rough and I really needed to get some sleep so I could recover. Unfortunately, I doubted that would help with the worst thing I had to recover from…the daemonite energy that Nessa had infected me with. I could feel it burning inside me and I wanted it gone.
We didn’t have the keys for the truck, but that wasn’t much of a problem. To my surprise, Jass knew how to hotwire the thing, and a few minutes later, we were on our way. Jass was driving, I was riding shotgun, and a rather unpleasant Nessa was left in the back, letting out a nearly constant stream of profanity and insults. After what she’d done to me, I urged Jass to hit every bump and pothole she could find.
When we got back to the school, we parked our ‘borrowed’ truck in front of the main…and now only entrance. Three of the local guards came out to check on us, though I was pretty sure it was more out of curiosity than because they thought we were a threat. However, they scowled when Jass hauled Nessa out of the back, without being very gentle about it.
“She’s our prisoner,” Jass stated grimly, glaring at the men as though daring them to argue with her. Knowing Jass as I did, I suspected that it wouldn’t take much of an excuse for her to get physical with them.
“She’s a daemonite,” I quickly explained. When they gave me blank looks, I added, “She’s one of the people who brought the monsters here…”
Nessa smirked at that, then pointed out, “I’m also the one who sent them away…”
I glared at Nessa, grimly saying, “And I’m sure Lindrell will want to talk with you about where it was you did send them…”
“Like I give a fuck about your Val Kyr friends,” Nessa spat out. “Or these worthless fucks…”
Then Nessa suddenly lunged for one of the guards, or at least for his gun. I had no idea if she intended to shoot us, to shoot herself in order to avoid being questioned, or even if the geis I put on her would allow either of those options. However, it didn’t matter because Jass reacted the instant Ness started to move, grabbing the daemonite and yanking her back.
“It seems we’re back to this,” Jass snarled, holding her dagger to Nessa’s throat. From the look of hatred in Jass’ eyes, I could see just how much she wanted to go ahead and kill her.
“We still need her,” I reminded Jass, feeling more than a little tempted to just go ahead and let her kill the daemonite…especially after what that bitch had done to me.
Jass nodded reluctant agreement but pushed Nessa ahead of her, keeping her dagger handy. It seemed that Jass wasn’t going to trust the geis to keep Nessa from getting into any more trouble, and I didn’t blame her for that. We were just going through the gate when the first Val Kyr arrived to greet us.
Julie came charging straight at me, crying out, “Michelle… You’re alive…” She grabbed me in a firm hug, and before I’d even realized it, she was kissing me on the lips. “I was so worried…”
I was stunned by the kiss, but delighted as well. I kissed back, feeling my body starting to respond. I was suddenly reminded of what I’d been told, about how Val Kyr tend to be more…responsible than normal. It was with some difficulty that I broke the kiss.
“I was pretty worried too,” I admitted wryly while Julie just blushed.
As soon as Julie let go of me, Lindrell rushed in and grabbed me in a hug. I winced in pain as she was squeezing too tightly for my injuries, though she immediately seemed to realize that and not only relaxed her hold, but also gave me a surge of jatta energy.
“I’m relieved to see you’re all right,” Lindrell told me when she pulled back. Her voice was calm and controlled, but I could see the relief in her eyes. Then her eyes went to Jass and she frowned slightly, perhaps wondering how the two of us had made it back without killing each other.
“A daemonite,” Lindrell stated as her eyes went to Nessa. There was a look of pure hostility in her eyes, but that was the same reaction any Val Kyr would have to a daemonite.
However, before I could warn Lindrell about keeping Nessa alive, another voice said, “Two daemonites.” I looked over and saw Shannon staring at me with a grim expression.
“This one infected her,” Jass snarled, glaring at Nessa, who actually looked a little afraid. I guess being completely surrounded by Val Kyr who wanted to kill her was finally starting to make her nervous.
“Estrid said this could be fought off,” I quickly said, hoping that none of the other Val Kyr got the idea of trying to put me out of my misery. “She told me that couldn’t turn me into a daemonite unless I actually accepted the energies…”
“Estrid is here?” Lindrell asked sharply.
“She was,” I responded with a scowl. “She left with the daemons and other daemonites.”
“I noticed most of the daemons were gone,” Julie added, giving me a worried look.
Shannon nodded agreement, adding, “There are only a few daemon stragglers left, and all lesser daemons…”
“That’s because they send the daemons back to the Twilight Realm,” I said, glaring at Nessa, who had the good sense to cringe back a bit.
“Why would they bring all those daemons here,” Julie asked with a confused look, “just to turn around and send them right back?”
“They weren’t intending a full incursion,” Jass answered, glaring at Nessa again. “They were just marshalling their forces.”
Lindrell had a thoughtful look as she mused, “Marshalling their forces for what?”
“An attack,” I pointed out, probably unnecessarily…at least until I added, “On Val Halla.”
Suddenly, Lindrell, Julie, Shannon, and the other Val Kyr who’d began to gather around us, all froze and gasped in surprise. “Apparently,” Jass announced, gesturing to Nessa again, “all these recent incursions were for the purpose of drawing as many Val Kyr away from Val Halla as possible…just so they could invade.”
“I haven’t been able to reach Val Halla,” Lindrell told us, holding up the key stone that was our only way to communicate with our home…and the only way we could tell them to open a portal back for us.
“Estrid has a bunch of those,” I grimly explained. “Apparently, she can use them to listen in on our communications…and disrupt them.” I hesitated a moment before adding, “And she can use them to track down other keys… That’s how they’ve been finding the recruits… They’ve been tracking the recruiters.”
Lindrell’s eyes widened at that, and I knew exactly what was going through her mind. She was realizing that when she was here to recruit Julie, she’d inadvertently drawn the daemonites to us…allowing me to get caught in the crossfire. I didn’t blame Lindrell for that attack in the least, though from the look of guilt that flashed across her face, I suspected that she did.
Shannon cleared her throat to get her attention, then suggested, “Perhaps we should continue this inside.”
“Agreed,” Lindrell responded, giving me another quick hug as well as a worried look before she led the way inside.
We’d barely gone inside the school when my dad appeared, walking unsteadily and leaning on his cane. From the way he was wobbling, I had a feeling that he’d probably exerted himself a bit too much lately. Still, his face brightened when he saw me.
“You’re all right,” he said, sounding relieved and proud at the same time. “When that damn dragon took you…”
“Wyvern,” Shannon corrected him absently.
“She was trying to escape when I found her,” Jass added. She grabbed hold of Nessa again and added, “But this bitch sent us all back to the Twilight Realm…”
I nodded at that. “And not to Val Halla either.” There were a few gasps and looks of surprise.
“And why is she still alive?” Shannon asked in a cold tone that made Nessa turn pale and take a step back.
“Nessa here was our ride back,” I said with a nasty smile. Then I looked to Lindrell and added, “And she’s also our ticket back to Val Halla.”
“Then we’d better not let her escape,” Shannon pointed out.
Jass actually grinned, though it wasn’t a pleasant grin. “Michelle already took care of that…”
When everyone looked at me, I explained, “I gave her a geis.”
Lindrell looked surprised at that. “I didn’t think you were capable of creating one yet.”
I just shrugged and admitted, “I wasn’t sure I could, but it was worth the effort.” Then I looked back to Nessa and added, “She might not be able to escape, but we still have to keep a close eye on her so she doesn’t cause any trouble.”
“Fuck you, blondie,” Nessa spat at me. “I’m gonna laugh when some daemon eats your guts…”
“Been there, done that,” I responded wryly.
“Put her somewhere safe,” Lindrell stated, not looking to anyone specifically. Natalie came forward, grabbed the daemonite and began hauling her away. “And keep an eye on her.”
After this, we went to the cafeteria where I sat down at one of the tables, relieved for the chance to rest in a safe place. Without even having to ask, someone came and set some food down in front of me, so I eagerly dug in, still hungry in spite of the little I’d eaten back in the Twilight Realm.
While I was eating, I told them all about what happened after I’d been taken by the wyvern, filling in some details in the information I’d already provided. I glossed over some of the things, such as just how badly I’d been injured, but from the looks Dad and Lindrell gave me, I was pretty sure that they’d guessed most of what I was holding back.
Once I got to the part where I’d nearly escaped, Jass began to insert her part of what happened. Lindrell listened, though she kept giving me and Jass odd looks, probably still trying to figure out how we’d managed to work together that much.
“And now you’re turning into a daemonite,” Julie said, giving me a worried look.
“Estrid said she wanted to turn me into a daemonite,” I explained, feeling disgusted by the daemonite energy that was still burning in my body. “But she said that she wasn’t going to bother trying yet, because I’d just be able to fight it off. I think she wanted to try brainwashing me so I’d accept it…”
“And if Estrid was afraid you’d be able to fight it off,” Lindrell said with a look of relief. “Then that is a good sign.”
I nodded at that, not admitting just how worried I was about the daemonite energy. After all, I’d been injured and exhausted when Nessa infected me, and I hadn’t been able to focus on fighting it off yet. I was worried that I may have taken too long and had given it a chance to take hold. My stomach churned at the thought.
“There is one other thing,” I said, now that I was thinking about the conversation I’d had with Estrid. “Estrid said that the night she left Val Halla…that she only killed two Val Kyr…not five.”
Jass snorted in distain. “I wouldn’t believe that traitor if she told me the sky was blue.”
I nodded faintly at that. “She also told me that two Val Kyr had tried to murder her, and she’d killed them in self-defense before running away…and while she might be delusional or lying about that…I can’t think of any reason she’d lie about killing those other three.”
“Because she’s insane,” Shannon added grimly.
“And as you said,” Gretchen added. “She may have been attempting to make you sympathetic to her.”
“Perhaps,” Lindrell said, “but what happened three hundred years ago has little bearing on what is going on now.” She had a grim expression on her face as she looked around the table at the gathered Val Kyr. “If Estrid is invading Val Halla with an army of daemons, we have to go back…”
“The only daemons still here seem to be lesser ones,” Gretchen stated grimly, “but I would prefer not to leave them.”
While Lindrell and the others began making plans, I stood up and said, “Excuse me, but I’ve got something I need to take care of.” I tried keeping my voice calm and steady as I said this, though Lindrell gave me a worried look.
“Are you going to be all right?” Dad asked me with a worried look of his own. He stood back up and asked, “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Not with this,” I told him with a forced smile.
With that, I left the cafeteria and made my way to one of the smaller rooms at the back of the school, then I locked myself inside. Once I’d guaranteed my privacy, I collapsed to the ground, letting out a sigh of relief.
“Please work,” I whispered, closing my eyes and feeling the daemonite energy surging within my body. I braced myself, concentrating on my val energies, and then tried willing my val to expel the daemonite energies, because there was no way I could trust myself to go back to Val Halla and be surrounded by daemons while I was contaminated with this power. “I just hope I’m not too late…”
--------------------
I woke up on a hard floor and it took me a moment to remember where I was and how I’d come to be here. I was at school…in a classroom…where I’d been trying to get some privacy while I dealt with the daemonite energies I’d been infected with. I had no idea how long I’d been focused on that task before I finally collapsed from exhaustion and fell asleep.
As I sat up, I grumbled, “No more sleeping in armor…” I looked down at my armor and shook my head. “Good armor…uncomfortable pajamas.”
I got to my feet and stretched, relieved to find my injuries were completely healed. I felt great, back in top shape, much to my surprise. I would have expected that even with the jatta infusion Lindrell had given me, that I’d at least have a few aches remaining. However, there was still the matter of my daemonite infection…and the question of whether I’d successfully fought it off or not before I’d collapsed.
I closed my eyes and tried to sense the daemonite energies, and to my relief, I couldn’t find them. They were gone. I’d done it. I’d forced the daemonite energies out, cleaning myself from their infection. But at the same time, I could also feel that something else was a little off, though I couldn’t quite tell what it was.
“But I’m not a daemonite,” I said in relief. “And that is the important thing.”
The very idea of being able to hear daemon thoughts…to feel their emotions as they murdered innocent people and ate them… It was enough to turn my stomach, making me wonder how Estrid or any of the other daemonites could possibly stand that. It was no wonder they all seemed to go insane.
Then for a brief moment, I actually felt sorry for them, wondering how many of them had become daemonites against their will. How many had been infected without their permission and had never even been told they could fight it off… And perhaps, being able to fight it off was a Val Kyr thing, so most daemonites might not even have had that option to begin with. The truth was, I didn’t know. Unfortunately, regardless of how they’d become daemonites, they were daemonites now…and that meant that they were a threat to the world and everyone in it.
After taking a minute to fully wake up, and consider the fact that I really needed a shower and a change of clothes, I left the room. I found Julie sitting on the floor outside the classroom, looking like she was taking a nap. However, the moment I stepped out, her eyes popped open and she jumped to her feet.
“Are you all right?” Julie demanded, giving me a worried look. “If you’d stayed in there much longer, I would have broken the door down…”
“I’m fine,” I assured her, giving her a grin. “I got rid of the infection.”
“Good,” Julie responded, grabbing me in a hug. “You have no idea how worried I was…”
As we held each other tight, being so close together, I thought about the way she’d surprised me with a kiss when I came back. I blushed at the memory, feeling excited and hopeful from that since it had been the first time Julie had been willing to kiss me like that since I’d gone through my change.
“About when I kissed you,” Julie said quietly, as though reading my thoughts. She didn’t let me go though. “I didn’t really mean to do that. It just sort of…happened.”
“Oh,” I responded, trying to hide my disappointment.
“But I’m glad it did,” Julie blurted out, this time to my surprise.
I went to let go of Julie so we could have a proper discussion, but she continued holding me tight. “I don’t like girls like that…or at least I never did before. But now…” She pulled away, shook her head, and then gave me an appreciative look. “I guess I’m starting to realize just how hot you are like this…” Then she turned bright red and admitted, “And I really miss being able to kiss you and all…”
“I miss it too,” I assured her. I hesitated a moment, then quietly admitted, “You have no idea how hard it is taking a bath with you when I still want to…” This time, it was my turn to turn red.
Julie and I both stood there for a moment in silence, both blushing furiously. “This isn’t a good time to talk about this stuff,” Julie finally reminded me, letting out a sigh.
“You’re right,” I reluctantly agreed, looking her over and fighting back the urge to give her another kiss.
“Maybe once this is over,” Julie suggested awkwardly, “maybe we can try the dating thing again...”
“Are you sure?” I asked her, remembering that she was the one who broke things off since she couldn’t handle dating a girl.
Julie was still blushing as she nodded. Then she leaned forward and the two of us began kissing again, much to my delight. When we finally pulled apart, she gave me a grin and said, “Wow. I never thought I’d like kissing girls so much…”
“And I never thought I’d like being one,” I admitted with a self-conscious grin of my own.
After giving me another grin, Julie’s expression turned serious. “You got up just in time. While you’ve been resting, a couple triads have been out hunting the remaining daemons and everyone else has been getting ready for the attack.”
“How long was I out?” I asked, suddenly realizing that I had no idea how long I’d spent fighting the daemonite energy or how long I’d spent asleep afterwards.
“About eight ours,” Julie answered with a faint smirk. “Or at least, that was how long ago you locked yourself in there.”
I nodded at that. “And how long until we head back to Val Halla?”
Julie shrugged as she told me, “I’m not sure, but it won’t be long. Mostly, we’ve been waiting on that daemonite ripper you caught to get all rested and charged up again. We think she’s about ready, so I don’t expect Lindrell will want to wait for much longer than that.”
“Damn,” I muttered with a scowl. At Julie’s curious look, I explained, “I was just thinking about how much of a head start the daemonites have on us…”
“Yeah,” Julie responded with a grim look of her own. “There aren’t a lot of Val Kyr left to defend the place.” Then she quickly added, “But I’m sure they can hold out. I mean, Freya is there…”
“There is that,” I agreed, knowing that any daemons who tried facing Freya and her triad were sure to be torn to shreds.
Julie and I walked to the cafeteria, where the Val Kyr had taken over a couple of the tables to use as our command center. Lindrell was standing next to the table, talking to several other Val Kyr and even a couple of the locals, including Officer Kyles. However, my dad wasn’t with them at the moment.
“Bonjour, Michelle,” Fleur greeted me with a smile.
Lindrell gave me a worried look as she said, “I’m glad to see you’ve decided to rejoin us.” She hesitated a moment before asking, “Have you taken care of your problem?”
“I think so,” I responded with a sigh. “I think I managed to get rid of all the daemonite energy…”
Shannon stared at me for a moment with a look of concentration, obviously focusing her kaern senses on me. After several long seconds, she gave a smile of relief and nodded. “You’re clean of the infection.”
“Good,” Lindrell said, smiling in relief as well.
Officer Kyles gave me a curious look and said, “They said you caught some kind of disease or something from that prisoner…. So, you just fought it off that easily?”
“Of course,” Jass responded with faint hint of smugness. “She’s Val Kyr.”
Officer Kyles seemed a little surprised by but just shrugged it off. “Well then, I guess that’s good.”
“I did notice one thing that seems odd though,” Shannon commented, giving me a curious look. I felt a moment of worry until she said, “You have more val built up than is normal.”
“More val?” I asked in surprise.
Fleur stared at me for a moment before nodding agreement. “Oui. I see it as well. It does not appear to be anything harmful, just a greater amount of val than normal.”
Shannon continued to stare at me with a curious look that made me uncomfortable, until she abruptly announced, “You didn’t expel the daemonite energy…you converted it to val.”
I blinked at that, wondering if I should be worried. I glanced to Lindrell, who seemed just as confused as I was. “And what does that mean?”
“I have no idea,” Shannon admitted. “This is the first time I’ve ever heard of this… In fact, other than Estrid, you’re the only Val Kyr I know who has ever been infected with daemonite energy.”
“Well, I feel fine,” I said, giving a wry smile. “And I wouldn’t think that a little extra val would be a problem.”
“Me either,” Lindrell agreed with a chuckle. “And if you’re going to get a little more energy, right before a battle does seem like the best time.”
Just then, a little girl who looked to be about eight years old suddenly came over and ran into Julie, grabbing her tightly. “Julie,” the girl squealed. “Come on…” She grabbed Julie’s arm and started trying to drag her away, much to my amusement.
The girl looked vaguely familiar, but I had no idea who she was until Julie responded, “Okay Lili, but I can’t play with you for very long…”
As soon as I heard Julie call the girl Lili, I knew exactly who she was. Lili was Julie’s cousin, who Julie occasionally had to babysit, at least back before Julie had become Val Kyr. The last time I’d seen Lili though, had been about a year ago. The girl had grown a bit since then, and of course, the daemon apocalypse had been just as rough on her as everyone else in town.
Then I noticed that Shannon was watching Julie walk away with her cousin, smiling faintly. I gave her a curious look and she shrugged. “One day, that girl may make a fine Val Kyr.”
I blinked at that, remembering that the val was passed down through bloodlines, which meant that Julie probably had several other relatives who carried a val seed. Since Lili was Julie’s cousin on her mom’s side of the family, I realized that her mom must carry a seed as well.
“Would Julie’s mom be a possible recruit?” I asked, thinking that at the moment, we could use all the help we could get.
“Too old,” Shannon answered, which made me snort at the irony of that statement. Shannon caught that and gave me a faint smile. “What I mean is that we rarely recruit women of her age because they tend to have become fairly fixed in their attitudes and usually aren’t flexible enough to adjust.” She hesitated a moment, then admitted, “And when she was younger, we didn’t recruit her then because she just didn’t have the kind of fighting spirit we look for.”
I nodded at that, realizing that recruiting Julie’s mom would have been a bad idea anyway. First off, even if she had the right attitude, it was impossible for her to go through her physical changes in the time we had available much less even a fraction of the training she’d need. And then, there was the fact of what her awakening would mean to her marriage. Somehow, I suspected that Julie’s dad would have a hard time adjusting if his wife suddenly became an immortal warrior who was far more powerful than him. He was having a hard enough time just accepting that of Julie. That thought made me glance at Lindrell, wondering what it had been like to keep all that from Dad…and how hard it must have been for him when he finally found out.
After talking with Lindrell for a few minutes about what we had planned, I made my way to the other side of the cafeteria, watching from a distance as Lili showed Julie off to all her friends. I smiled at that, especially when the gathered kids kept begging Julie to show off some ‘magic’. Julie gave in after a minute and did a few small notru tricks such as making a rock reshape itself into a cube.
Then I noticed that there was one girl my own age, who was sitting back and glaring at Julie with a jealous look. She looked a bit dirty and worn down so it took me a few second to recognize this girl. This was Shelly Nelson, one of the ‘pretty girls’ at the school. She’d always been one of the girls who teased Julie for not matching up to her level of beauty and popularity, so it had to be killing her to see what Julie had become.
Shelly finally noticed me, and a calculating look passed over her face before it was replaced with a fake smile. She got up and started towards me, saying, “Hi, I’m Shelly…”
“Michelle,” I responded with a fake smile of my own. I was just glad that we’d kept the gossip to a minimum around the locals so that the only one who knew who I used to be was my dad. I shuddered at the thought of Shelly or Buff recognizing me from school.
“You know, you Val Kyr seem really interesting,” Shelly said. “I keep hearing that you all have super powers…and I’ve seen how much Julie changed since joining…”
“You know Julie?” I asked, pretending like I didn’t know.
“Of course,” Shelly assured me. “We’re old friends… I was wondering though, how I might be able to join you… I mean, do you accept applications?”
I chuckled at the greedy look on Shelly’s face, seeing exactly what she was after. She was jealous of Julie and wanted the same kind of enhancement to her own looks…as well as the power that came with being Val Kyr. Admittedly, I couldn’t blame her. If I’d still been my old self and saw Julie now, I would have been jealous of her power and immortality…not to mention the exciting life as a monster slayer.
“I’m afraid it doesn’t work like that,” I explained politely, trying to be gentle about this since I could see things from her perspective. “Becoming Val Kyr is a genetic thing. You have to have it in your DNA…sort of like being a mutant in the comic books. I mean, the X Men can’t just turn anyone into a mutant so they can join…you have to be born that way.”
Shelly gave me a look of annoyance and disappointment. “You sound like she does…”
“We are friends,” I responded, trying to remain cheerful while Shelly just grimaced and stomped away. I wondered if she was going to track down some other Val Kyr to ask about our recruitment methods. If so, Shelly was going to be pretty disappointed.
Once Shelly was gone, I let out a sigh and slowly looked around the cafeteria. I spotted Buff Grissom talking to one of my other old friends, though the sight made me feel a little sad. I couldn’t just go over and join them in whatever they were talking about, nor would I ever really be able to be friends with them again. This was a reminder that even though I’d gained a great deal by becoming Val Kyr, I’d also lost most of my old life too. Still…I wouldn’t go back if I could.
Thinking about the things I’d lost from my old life reminded me of my dad, and I smiled faintly at the reminder that at least he now knew about me. It was awkward and embarrassing, but I was glad he knew. After thinking about that for a few seconds, I decided to go talk with him while I still could…before we returned to Val Halla.
It didn’t take long to find my dad, who was in the old principal’s office, which he’d claimed as his own. He was sitting behind the desk, slumped over a bit and staring at a bottle of Jim Beam which rested in front of him. I gulped at the sight, which was far too familiar from the last couple years.
“Dad?” I asked cautiously.
Dad looked up at me with an expression that I couldn’t quite read. After several seconds, he cautiously asked, “Are you all right? That infection…”
“It’s gone,” I assured him. I gave a wry smile and added, “My immune system is pretty good now.”
Dad grunted at that, then turned his attention back to the bottle. “The world has turned upside down,” he finally said, sounding a little tired. “Monsters really exist. Those things from my nightmares are really out there…and they always have been. All those gods from mythology…they used to be real too.” He shook his head and picked up the bottle. “The world isn’t anything like I thought it was. It just doesn’t make sense anymore…”
“It is pretty weird,” I admitted, watching the bottle nervously. I’d been so happy to see my dad back to his old self, and I’d hoped it was permanent, but with the way he was acting now… “But there are some pretty amazing things out there…” I smiled faintly as I thought of Val Halla and how incredible it was that something like that even existed.
“There’s a war going on,” Dad stated. “The most important war that has ever been fought. I’m a soldier and my every instinct says that THIS is the war I should be fighting…” Then he paused, shaking his head and staring at the bottle in his hand. “But this is a war I’m just not equipped to fight anymore…” He hesitated a moment before adding, “If I ever was.”
“I don’t know what to say,” I said awkwardly, afraid that if I said the wrong thing, that Dad would go off. I’d hated seeing him as a drunk, and I was horrified that he was going back to being that. I didn’t want to be the one to push him back.
“You know, this is weird as hell,” Dad said, looking at me. “First you disappear, then you come back like this…with your mother beside you.” He chuckled faintly, then to my surprise, he smiled. “In spite of… You’re alive. And Lynn… I never thought I’d see her again…”
“I…I think she still loves you,” I told him quietly, remembering the way Lindrell had sounded when she’d been talking about him and how hard it had been to leave us behind.
Dad smiled faintly at that, then turned and dropped the bottle into the garbage can beside the desk. “I’ve seen you in action,” he told me with a faint smile. “And as hard as it was to believe…you impressed the hell out of me. I’m proud of you Mike…Michelle…so very proud.”
“Thank you,” I said, tearing up as I grabbed him in a hug. He grunted a bit so I loosened my grip, having gotten used to how tough the Val Kyr were and forgetting that he couldn’t take quite as much. Then, I giggled and told him, “Hey, I’m a girl now. I’m allowed to get all touchy feely…”
“You make a very pretty girl,” Dad told me, looking just a little awkward as he said it. “You look so much like Lynn…” He paused to shake his head, then joked, “Now I’ll have to start polishing my shotgun when you bring home your dates.”
I just burst out laughing at that. “Sorry, but the only person I see myself dating in the near future is Julie.”
“Then at least I know you won’t get pregnant,” Dad pointed out with a faint smile.
I started to chuckle at that, though it came out more as a giggle. “No, you won’t have to worry about that.”
Then Dad let out an exaggerated sigh, “But I did want grandkids someday…”
“Maybe one day I’ll be ready for that,” I told him, cringing at the very idea of ever getting pregnant. “Maybe in a hundred years or so.”
Dad gave me a faint look of surprise at the reminder of my new lifespan. He nodded faintly and said, “Just don’t get sloppy and let yourself get killed. You’re a soldier now, and that means you have to watch not only your own back…but those of your comrades as well. You have to trust that they’ll watch yours too.”
“I do,” I assured him. “I couldn’t ask for a better triad.”
Dad nodded at that, giving me a steady look that was difficult to decipher. However, I noticed a fierce determination in his eyes, one that was quite different from the shaken look he’d had a few minutes ago.
“You’d better go and prepare for your mission,” he told me, giving me a slightly awkward hug and adding, “I have a few things that I need to take care of here as well.”
“I’ll see you later,” I promised him before I left.
A short time later, all the Val Kyr had gathered together in the gym, and all of us were armed and ready to go. There were grim looks all around as we prepared to head back home…and to face the worst.
A number of the locals stood back, watching us all with expressions of curiosity. Julie’s parents were among the group, standing up towards the front and looking horribly worried. I glanced to Julie, knowing that she’d already said goodbye to them and that she was trying hard not to look in their direction.
“I believe you’ll need this,” Lindrell told me, handing me my bow, the one I’d dropped when the wyvern had grabbed me.
“Thank you,” I said, accepting the bow with a deep sense of relief. I hadn’t really owned this bow all that long, but it meant a great deal to me.
“I think you’ll need this too,” Shannon added, handing me a large quiver of arrows. They weren’t the usual Val Kyr made arrows, but ones that had probably been taken from the sporting goods store. However, they’d still work fine.
“Thanks,” I responded with a faint smile before slinging the quiver over my shoulder.
“Let me go,” Nessa snarled as Bethany pushed her into the room. Bethany was glaring at the much smaller woman, looking as though she was thinking of squashing her. “You fucking overgrown bitch…”
“Careful,” Julie said, looking a little worried. “Don’t let her infect you…”
“As if,” Bethany responded with a laugh, making a show of smacking Nessa in the back of her head.
Shannon gave Nessa a flat look and explained, “When a daemonite converts someone else, they give them half their energy. It takes months to build up enough to infect someone else.”
“Thank God,” Jass muttered. “Otherwise we’d be buried in daemonites.”
“After what she did to Michelle, she won’t be infecting anyone else,” Bethany agreed.
Nessa just glared at the Val Kyr surrounding her, then her eyes settled on me and she smirked. “Just wait until you start talking to the daemons… It’s a real experience…so freeing…”
“Not going to happen,” I pointed out smugly. “It didn’t stick.”
Nessa snarled, definitely not looking happy at that. I imagined that if she’d given me half her daemonite energy in order to convert me, then she probably felt like she’d wasted it. That was perfectly fine with me.
“Now, open a door to Val Halla,” Lindrell told Nessa, who just glared back.
Just then, a voice announced, “We thought you could use some help.”
I looked over and was surprised to see a group of the local men had entered the gym, all armed and ready to fight. Officer Kyles, Jim, and three other men stood there…including Dad.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Lindrell asked them in steady voice.
“We’re coming to help you,” Dad stated as though it was a simple fact.
“You helped us against those things,” Officer Kyles added, “so we figure we should help you.”
A look flashed over Lindrell’s face that I couldn’t quite make out, but I think she was both worried and impressed at the same time. “While I appreciate your courage and desire to fight,” Lindrell said carefully, “I cannot allow you to accompany us…”
Bethany said, “Where we’re going, guns won’t work.” She held up her sword and added, “There’s a good reason we use archaic weapons…besides habit that is.”
A look of disappointment passed over each of the men’s faces, or at least, each of them except for Dad. “I suspected as much,” Dad said, holding up a compound bow.
“David,” Lindrell started hesitantly.
“Lynn,” Dad cut in, using the tone of voice that indicated he’d made up his mind and it wasn’t about to change it. “I may not be in much shape to fight anymore, but I can still do my part with this. I won’t need to run around in order to shoot from cover.”
“He has a point,” Lei said with a chuckle, only to earn a glare from Lindrell.
Julie leaned over and whispered to me, “At least my dad isn’t with them.”
“I don’t think you understand how bad this is going to be,” Lindrell started, a faint hint of pleading in her voice.
However, Dad just responded, “I’ve seen combat before…more than my share of it. I might not have as much experience as you fighting these daemons, but I know combat and what I’m capable of. Those monsters destroyed this town, and if what you said is right, then if they get hold of that anchor of yours, then they could spread over the entire world. This isn’t just your fight. This fight affects everyone in the world…and I’ll be damned if I sit it out.”
I hesitated a moment, not wanting to see Dad getting torn up by daemons. I wanted to protect him, to keep him safe. However, when I looked in his eyes and saw that burning look of determination, I knew that there was no way I could keep him away. There was no doubt in my mind that Dad needed this.
“He’s a really good shot,” I told Lindrell. “He’s the one who taught me.”
“Two people I care about are going into this fight,” Dad said a little more gently. “I can’t watch you go while I stand back and do nothing…”
“But what about this town?” Lindrell asked, though I could see her determination was fading quickly. “They need you…”
“The monsters are already gone,” Officer Kyles said, looking to dad. “We can keep things running.”
“Damn,” Jim muttered, shaking his head with a look of disgust. “I have no idea how to use a damn sword, and I’m pretty sure this isn’t the time to learn.” He held up his gun and added, “But this thing will work fine here, so we’ll stay and hold down the fort.”
“Men are forbidden from Val Halla,” Jass said from the back. Then she gave Dad a grim look before telling Lindrell, “But in this situation…I believe Freya will allow an exception.”
“Fine,” Lindrell exclaimed, giving in to the pressure. Then she gave Dad a worried look and insisted, “You keep back behind the notru line with the rest of the archers. And don’t you dare get killed.” She stepped towards him and in a quieter voice, told him, “I couldn’t bear to see you get hurt again.”
“Now that this has been settled,” Shannon said, giving Nessa a flat look. “Open the way to Val Halla…”
“Fuck you,” Nessa exclaimed, looking like she was about to say more until Jass drew her dagger. The daemonite paled and snarled, “Fine…” She held her hand out and tore a rip in the air. She looked around at the gathered Val Kyr, then spat out, “I hope the daemons eat all of you…slowly.”
“And we love you too,” Bethany told her with a smirk before we all started towards the portal.
--------------------
A daemonite portal was literally a rip in the air, a tear in space between Earth and the Twilight Realm. Our scout tested the portal in front of us to make sure that our daemonite travel agent hadn’t decided to send us to the wrong place, stepping through, then coming back and giving us a thumbs up.
A moment later, all of our jatta rushed through to deal with any immediate threats, and they were followed close behind by the notru, who would be able to control the terrain and help fortify our position. The kaern held back until last since nearly all of them would be acting as archers, while Dad and I remained with them since we would be serving the same role.
I gave Dad a worried look, hoping that he was going to be all right. Though Dad certainly wasn’t a rookie when it came to fighting, this was the kind of fight he just wasn’t built for. He didn’t have the kind of strength and power that we Val Kyr possessed, and I seriously doubted his bullet proof vest would do much good against daemonite claws. However, there was a fierce look of determination in his eyes, one that wasn’t going to be denied. I watched Dad with a mixture of worry and pride, biting back my doubts and refusing to let him see them. In spite of how dangerous this was, I had no doubt that this fight was the very thing my dad needed.
Then it was our turn and all the kaern rushed through the portal. A moment later, I found myself back in Val Halla, standing in the back side of the main courtyard. Five jatta were lined up on the outside of our group with their weapons ready while the notru were already in the process of forming stone walls we could use for cover. Like all the kaern, I stretched out my senses as far as they could go and examined the area.
The main courtyard was infested with daemons, and I could even see a few daemonites scattered among them, though Estrid wasn’t one of them. The anchor had a massive snake daemon wrapped around it, confirming that they had either killed or chased off the Val Kyr who normally guarded that spot. And then I turned my attention to the buildings, noticing for the first time that the main doors and many of the smaller ones were gone, replaced with thick stone walls. I smiled faintly at that since it was evidence that the Val Kyr were still alive and bunkering down.
“Shit,” Dad said as he looked around with a grim expression. He was obviously impressed with the surroundings and the fact that he was in the mythical Val Halla…but he was clearly a bit overwhelmed as well to see just how many daemons there were around us. There were even more than there had been during that major fight back home, and back then he and the other guys had been armed with modern firearms.
“You should probably focus on the lesser daemons,” I told him as I picked out several of my own targets. Dad didn’t have the draw or boosted firepower that the rest of the archers possessed, so taking out the smaller and more vulnerable daemons would probably be the best use of his skills. “Keep them from overrunning us.”
Dad didn’t say a word in response. He merely nodded, notched an arrow, then took careful aim towards a small but fast moving rabbit daemon. The arrow struck the creature in the head, bringing it to an immediate stop.
At this point, the daemons had noticed us and were beginning to approach, but we were already prepared to deal with them. The air was suddenly filled with a shower of arrows, courtesy Fleur’s special attack, and she wasn’t the only one starting off with their strongest attack. A flaming arrow struck a hellhound, then exploded in a shower of napalm.
I’d already spotted my chosen target, but now there were too many daemons in the way. With that, I jumped up onto one of the newly formed walls, getting enough height so that I could see my target again…the snake that was guarding the anchor. It was no threat at the moment, but it was pretty nasty and I wanted to deal with it while I still had the energy. It only took a moment to aim, then to release the energy stored in my bow. A charged arrow flew through the air, and before it even struck, I sent a second one.
“Gotcha,” I snarled, right as the first arrow struck the daemon snake in the eye. The arrow exploded, taking the entire eye and a part of the head with it. The second arrow caught the snake in the neck, creating another nice hole. I watched intently, seeing that the snake was severely injured, but not dead yet. “Damn.”
I poured more essence into my bow, recharging it and then releasing another arrow. The snake moved, so my arrow missed the snake by several inches, much to my frustration. However, I bit back on that and released the next arrow. This one caught the snake in the head, right where the first arrow had already severely injured it. Seconds later, the daemon collapsed to the ground.
Just then, Nessa started screaming, “Over here… Kill these fucking bitches…”
“Shut up,” Jass snarled at the daemonite, who was currently sunk up to her knees in stone. One of the notru had made sure that she wasn’t going to try running away from us, though I wished someone had thought about gagging her as well.
With the giant snake dead, I turned my attention to the swarm of daemons coming at us. The notru were doing a great job of holding them back, using a mixture of walls and soft ground that acted like quicksand. Unfortunately, for every daemon that sank into the ground, another one would run over the top of them in order to get at us. The Jatta were going at it furiously, hitting one daemon after another. Lindrell’s axe sent one daemon’s head flying while another one was smashed in, courtesy of Lei.
“Those daemons don’t have any strategy at all,” Dad commented, right before letting an arrow fly. “They just charge straight ahead, so creating this bottleneck is working for now…”
“You haven’t seen any of the smarter ones yet,” Gretchen commented. “And their methods can also change if the daemonites take a more active hand in the attack…”
I glanced to my dad, then focused on my task…shooting any of the distant threats before they could become more immediate ones. I shot a flying daemon that was heading in our direction, then I aimed at a type of daemon that was known to explode when killed. I grinned as I timed that one just right, letting it explode in just the right place to take out two other daemons.
As I looked around, I saw that the daemon swarm was pushing down on us too hard, that they were on the verge of completely overwhelming our defenses. I switched gears, putting my bow away and drawing my sword instead. Then with a grimace, I charged one of the nearby daemons, impaling it with my sword before jumping back. I glanced over to Shannon, who was doing her usual lunge and dodge routine, and worked on doing the same thing.
“Are there any signs of survivors?” Lindrell called out.
“I haven’t seen anyone else,” Shannon responded. “But they’ve blocked the doors and locked themselves inside.”
“We need to get clear of here so we can get inside,” Gretchen pointed out. She gestured towards the nearest building, adding, “A notru can open a door in the wall…”
I nodded at that, releasing the essence stored in my sword. It burst to life with ghostly flames, and so I wouldn’t waste an ounce of that energy, I dove into the mass of daemons, swinging my sword. I moved as quickly as I could, lunging, slashing, dodging and leaping, slicing open as many daemons as I could before the flames went out in my sword. The flaming wounds on the daemons continued to burn for a little longer, damaging them further even after I’d moved on.
Once the flames had gone out from my sword, I jumped back, letting Natalie send a wave of stone towards the daemons, covering my retreat. Julie came in from the side, touching the ground with her spear and making spikes rise from the ground, impaling a daemon who was trying to crawl towards us. She followed that up with a spear thrust into its side while I lunged forward and removed the head.
Suddenly, I noticed a massive daemon coming towards us, one that had the general shape of a fat toad, but it was three times the size of an elephant. The thing’s sickly purple skin was covered with blisters and oozing sores, the sight of which was enough to nearly make me lose my stomach.
“Oh shit,” I exclaimed while Nessa laughed almost maniacally.
“You’re going down now, you evil bitches,” Nessa yelled out.
“A fulgroth,” Shannon exclaimed. “Look out…”
The toad…fulgroth took a giant leap, and I could see exactly where he was going to land…as could everyone else. In spite of the fact that we were surrounded by daemons, we scattered. I was already starting to run when I suddenly realized that Dad wouldn’t be able to run fast enough. But when I turned to check on him, I was relieved…and almost amused…to see that Lindrell had picked him up and slung him over her shoulder as she ran away. A moment later, the monster landed right where all the archers had been gathered, right behind the defenses we’d set up.
There was a loud thud as the daemon landed, as well as a sick squishing sound. It took me a moment to realize that we’d left Nessa back there…her feet embedded in the ground. I suddenly felt guilt for that, though only for a moment. As soon as I reminded myself of her role in all those incursions, including the one here against Val Halla, the guilt faded away entirely.
“My pride is never going to live this down,” Dad grumbled as Lindrell set him down, then stood in front of him with her axe ready, her expression daring anyone to even try getting through her to reach my dad.
“What is that?” Julie demanded, her voice shaking with worry, though she looked determined to take it down. Then in a swift movement, she snapped around, sending a wave of stony spikes at the daemons who were trying to rush in.
“Fulgroth,” Shannon answered grimly, swinging her sword at a lesser daemon. “The skin is poisonous, so don’t touch it. It won’t kill a Val Kyr, but it will make you too sick to fight…”
“And don’t forget,” Bethany added with a chuckle. “It pukes up this slime that’s about as sticky as tar… Don’t touch the stuff.”
Dad grunted at that and muttered, “I never thought I’d miss drug cartels and insurgents.”
“Welcome to my life,” Lindrell told him wryly.
The jatta lunged forward, striking at the most dangerous daemons while the notru were already working on trying to force them all back so they could create new fortifications. Unfortunately, the fulgroth’s charge resulted in our group being split, with half the Val Kyr on each side of it.
“If we had modern weapons, I’d recommend spreading out and creating overlapping lines of fire,” he pointed out, looking over our surroundings with a critical eye.
“That doesn’t work quite as well when you only have arrows,” Bethany pointed out. “But damn, I really wish I could use my RPG here…”
“Speaking of which,” Dad said, looking to me, obviously thinking of my charged arrows.
“I’m out of essence,” I responded, though I wasn’t sure if he realized what that meant.
Just then, a voice yelled, “Go get them Precious… Stomp those vermin flat…”
That drew my attention to the source of the yelling, an old woman who was sitting on top of the massive toad. She was wearing protective clothing and was actually sitting on some sort of tarp to keep from touching the fulgroth’s poisonous skin. The red cloak that marked her as a daemonite was immediately visible, though I hadn’t really needed it to know what she was. After all, only a binder would ride something like that.
The massive daemon turned and belched out a nasty green goo, which sprayed the ground in front of it. A shield of stone rose up to block the spray and prevent it from hitting any of us, but the whole area between us and the creature was now covered with it. That meant we couldn’t just charge the thing without getting stuck in the process.
“Go on Precious,” the old woman told her daemon. “Time to fill your tum tum…”
With that, the creature opened its wide mouth, revealing that while it resembled a toad, the inside of its mouth was filled with row after row of sharp teeth, more akin to a shark. A long tongue shot out from the mouth, revealing that the tip split into three barbed tendrils, which lashed right out at us. Jass dove to the side, just barely avoiding the tongue. The tongue snapped back onto its mouth before shooting out again, though this time, a catlike daemon got in the way and ended up being impaled by the barbs. The fulgroth snapped the tongue back into its mouth, daemon and all. There was a crunch as it chewed and black daemon blood oozed from the corners of the mouth.
“Sorry about that,” the old woman called out to the now eaten daemon.
In spite of the fact that we had a massive daemon in front of us, Dad looked calm and professional. He took aim with an arrow, but Jass said, “Don’t bother, Sorensen. The skin is too thick to pierce with any normal arrow.”
“Who said I was aiming for the frog?” Dad asked, though he raised his aim considerably before he released the arrow. The arrow hit the daemonite binder right in the chest.
The fulgroth let out a weird gurgling roar and was obviously pissed, then it snapped its tongue out again, this time hitting Dad in the leg. Dad was yanked off his feet as the daemon started to pull him back into its mouth.
“No,” I cried out, trying to rush to Dad’s aid, though I was too far away.
Suddenly, Jass lashed out with her sword, moving fast even for a kaern. Her blade sliced through the daemon’s tongue in an instant, causing the daemon to snap the rest of it back in and howl in pain.
“Now we’re even,” Jass told Dad.
As the daemon was letting out another roar, I could see that it was about to leap at us again. Without thinking, I charged my bow with fresh essence, then fired an arrow right into the open mouth. Several kaern followed my lead and immediately shot into that gaping maw as well. The massive fulgroth gurgled and staggered before it fell over, landing right on top of several smaller daemons.
“David?” Lindrell called back, sounding worried though she didn’t rush to him. Instead, she brought her axe down onto a somewhat humanoid shaped daemon, who I thought might be some kind of goblin.
“It busted my prosthetic,” Dad called back. “But I’m fine.” Then he looked to Jass and nodded faintly. “Thanks.”
Jass didn’t say a word in response, and she acted almost as though she hadn’t even heard him. She just turned and began shooting at the approaching daemons again.
I stared at my bow for a moment, sensing the essence that still remained within it…enough for one more shot. I was a little confused because I’d completely used up all my essence taking out that giant snake, and there was no way I should have enough essence to use again so soon.
“The extra val,” I whispered in realization, right before I turned around and fired a charged arrow right through the chest of an approaching troll. “Well, that sure is handy…”
In spite of the fact that I’d just charged my bow up, I had enough essence available that I was actually able charge it again, for the third time in a very short period. I grinned at that, deciding that I could definitely get used to having a little extra val available.
Just then, there was a rumbling in the middle of the courtyard, right before the ground suddenly collapsed. Half a dozen daemons dropped into the newly formed sinkhole, and a moment later, new figures climbed out of it. However, these weren’t daemons climbing back out. They were fully armed and armored Val Kyr.
“VAL KYR!” Freya yelled out from the front, holding up her spear. “CLEANSE THIS FILTH FROM OUR HOME!”
“They dug up from the halls below,” Shannon exclaimed with a laugh of delight.
Freya and her triad led the charge into the horde of daemons while the rest of the Val Kyr who’d emerged from their bunker followed right behind her. Nearly every Val Kyr who’d remained behind in Val Halla was there, doing their part to defend our home.
To my amazement, Hilde, who usually just ran all the kitchens, was wielding a massive two handed axe, one that was even larger than Lindrell’s. While she cut through the daemons, the slender librarian Moraigh stood behind her, using her bow to send arrow after arrow into the swarm. And then on Hilde’s other side was woman who ran the bath house, wielding a spear and sending a wave of stone spikes right into a mass of daemons. Even those three had come out of retirement and were now acting as a triad.
Ragnhild, the jatta general, leapt at troll who was armed with a massive club, driving her axe right into his neck. In a smooth follow up, Ailsa leapt onto the shoulders of the large daemon as he fell and used that momentary perch to fire several arrows over the crowd, striking a pair of daemonites.
At the same time Ragnhild and Ailsa were doing that, Sharra leapt up into the air, swung her spear around, then sent a wave of flames through the air, setting half a dozen daemons on fire. And as if that wasn’t enough, while the daemons were distracted, Freya leapt into the middle of them and swung her spear, slicing and impaling all of them in mere seconds.
“Damn,” I whispered, so impressed by watching Freya and her triad that I’d momentarily forgotten that I had my own daemons to deal with. Right now, I definitely couldn’t afford to get distracted.
Dad’s prosthetic leg had been broken by the fulgroth’s attack, so he’d perched himself on a small stone outcrop that someone had created as cover, and was carefully picking off daemons. I sent an arrow at daemon that had been trying to come at him from behind, putting an arrow through its eye.
“Don’t bother with that one,” I called out to Dad when I saw where he was aiming his next shot. The pile of slime and tentacles was disgusting looking, but wasn’t worth wasting an arrow on. “Those things shrug off arrows… You have to cut them to little pieces or burn them to death…”
Without saying a word, Dad shifted his target and shot a flying daemon that had been about to swoop down on Lindrell. He smiled faintly, then reached back to his quiver, only to realize he was almost out of arrows. Since I had other options besides arrows, I tossed him the rest of mine, then ran charging back into the battle with my sword drawn.
Now that the other Val Kyr had come out of hiding, the daemons were splitting their attention between them and us. That meant we had fewer daemons rushing us at one time and we started to make quicker work of them.
Then, there were several roars in the distance, some coming from outside the walls of Val Halla and some from within. I looked to Lindrell and the other more experienced Val Kyr, but none of them seemed to have any idea of what was going on either. However, from the grim looks, they seemed to have the same suspicions I did…that this wasn’t good news for us.
But in spite of my worry, the daemons seemed to finally realize that we were doing far more damage to them than they were doing to us. Daemons were vicious, stubborn, and stupid…but they did seem to get the point…eventually. They stopped throwing themselves at us and began pulling away.
“It looks like we have a reprieve,” Lindrell said. “But I wouldn’t count on it lasting much longer. Make use of it to increase our fortifications.” Then she looked over to Dad, who was completely out of arrows and was holding his shoulder. She gave him a worried look and asked, “Are you injured, David?”
“One of those flying ones just scratched me,” Dad responded gruffly, acting as though it was no big deal. However, with my enhanced senses, I could smell the blood and feel that it was a little more than a mere scratch. “Damn thing tore through my vest before I was able to kill it…”
My eyes went to the daemon that was dead on the ground beside dead, an ugly looking thing that looked sort of like a cross between a bat and a lizard. There was a nice gash, all down its side, obviously from the bloody knife Dad had sitting beside him.
“I can fix that,” I said, eager to show off my healing ability, especially now that I had a little extra val energy to use.
“Wait,” Lindrell snapped, holding her hand up to stop me.
“I’m just going to heal him,” I said, a little confused by her reaction. “I have enough essence and jatta energies at the moment that it won’t wipe me out…”
Lindrell gave me a strange look, then said, “Michelle, focus your senses on your father…”
I blinked, feeling a little confused but I did as she asked. I focused all my senses on Dad, and a moment later, I gasped as I realized that I felt something from him…something very faint and very familiar. Dad had a tiny amount of val smoldering inside of him.
“A val seed,” I blurted out in surprise.
“What does that mean?” Dad asked, his voice calm though I could see a little worry hidden behind that. “Did that thing infect me with something?”
“No,” Lindrell said with a forced smile. “It means that if Michelle tries to heal you, it will awaken your dormant val and turn you into one of us.”
“WHAT?” Dad blurted out in surprise. Several nearby Val Kyr turned to stare at him with looks of surprise as well.
“You’re descended from one of the lost bloodlines,” Lindrell explained, though Dad obviously didn’t understand quite what she meant. Then to me, she added, “The kaern in my triad pointed it out when we encountered his team in South America.” This got a look of surprise from Dad, who still didn’t know the full story. “This is what drew my attention the first time I saw him…”
I just stared at Dad in surprise, then my eyes went to his prosthetic leg and I exclaimed, “Then that night you were attacked…you could have healed him...”
“And converted him without his knowledge or consent,” Lindrell responded quietly, staring at Dad with a sad expression. “I…I had considered doing so.”
Dad stared at Lindrell with a grim expression, then asked, “What exactly does this mean?”
“It means that you are descended from Val Kyr,” Lindrell answered Dad. Then she looked to me and added, “And you are the child of two bloodlines...”
“Is…is that rare?” I asked, suddenly feeling a bit curious about that.
However, Lindrell gave a soft chuckle and admitted, “Not really.”
“Regardless of this whole val seed thing,” Dad said gruffly. “I’d still appreciate it if someone grabbed a first-aid kit for me…”
Just then, daemons started roaring and howling again, though this time, it sounded like all of them were freaking out. I looked back to the daemon swarm and saw that they had pulled back and were largely clustered together, just standing there as if waiting for something. Then the daemons began to split apart, as though creating a pathway.
Seconds later, a familiar figure emerged from the pathway, stepping out right in front of the daemon horde. It was Estrid, wearing her black armor and holding a sword in each hand. She had a look of hatred on her face as she looked across the open area and stared straight at Freya.
“I assume she’s this Estrid I’ve heard about,” Dad commented while Lindrell and I nodded. “What happens next?”
“Now,” Lindrell answered with a look of grim determination. “Now the real battle begins.”
--------------------
Val Halla was not just the home of the Val Kyr, it was also a fortress, one which had stood fast against the daemon forces for thousands of years. But now the daemonites had discovered how to breach the walls, leading an army of monsters into the very heart of the fortress that had been built to protect against them. Daemons infested ancient Val Halla, though the battle for her future was mostly contained to the large main courtyard.
There was an eerie break in the battle as both sides pulled back a little in order to catch their breaths. I never would have imagined the daemons had the intelligence to do that, and at first, I was sure they’d pulled back just because their numbers were being so badly reduced. However, that was before Estrid had arrived and the daemon swarm separated like the Red Sea, creating a path so she could walk through them to reach the front.
Estrid now stood in front of the daemon swarm, wearing her chitinous black armor with her red daemonite cloak flung back so it was more like a cape. She stood there with an expression of cold hatred on her face as she stared across the courtyard to where the other group of Val Kyr were gathered, the group that had been bunkered down inside the fortress until our arrival. Freya stepped to the front and met Estrid’s glare with her own look of fierce determination.
My eyes darted to the anchor, which no longer had the giant snake to guard it. I momentarily wondered if we could use it to contact some of the Val Kyr who’d been sent to Earth on various missions, then bring them back as reinforcements. However, there were still quite a few daemons between us and the anchor and I suspected the daemonites would do everything they could to prevent us from reaching it.
“Who is that?” Dad asked, looking towards Freya.
“That is Freya,” Lindrell answered. “She leads the Val Kyr.”
Dad had a momentary look of surprise when he heard the name, so I added, “Freya is her title, not her name. She isn’t the Norse goddess.”
“No,” Bethany agreed with a weak chuckle. “The original Freya left us a long time ago.”
“Estrid,” Freya announced, her tone and body language being powerful and intimidating. At the moment, she truly seemed more than human, and if I hadn’t known better, I would have sworn she really was the goddess. “You are no longer welcome in these halls. Begone.”
“I was never welcome here,” Estrid called back, her voice filled with bitterness and hatred. “You showed me that when you sent the assassins to murder me in the baths.”
“I have never done such a thing,” Freya responded grimly. If she was offended by the accusation, she didn’t really show it. “I allowed you to become Val Kyr because I saw a courageous warrior with great potential. When you were revealed as atra, I had hoped you would prove yourself worthy of becoming my student. But to my grave disappointment, you failed. And to my everlasting shame, you betrayed your sisters. Yet even then, I did not imagine you would prove yourself so foul as to ally with our enemy.”
“It was you who betrayed me,” Estrid exclaimed furiously. All the daemons began to grumble and tense, as though picking up on her anger. Since she was a daemonite with the ability to communicate with daemons, they probably were. “Yet you dare to stand there, acting self-righteous. HIPOCRITE! The Val Kyr are just damned souls with delusions of grandeur…”
Julie leaned over to whisper in my ear as she weakly joked, “When last we met, I was but the student. Now I am the master.” In spite of just how deadly serious this entire situation was, I still chuckled at the Star Wars reference.
Suddenly, Ailsa raised her bow and fired an essence charged arrow straight at Estrid, obviously seeing an opportunity she couldn’t ignore. The instant the arrow left the bow…it vanished…only to reappear in Estrid’s chest with no travel in between. Estrid was thrown back from the arrow while all the daemons roared, hissed, and shrieked…and then charged forward.
In an instant, our short break was over as the battle erupted into full force again. Gretchen let out a series of whistles, which were returned from the other group of Val Kyr. Then Gretchen called out, “They want us to reunite and form ranks.”
Our group began to leave our fortifications and move towards the other group, with the notru working hard to throw any approaching daemons back until we were better positioned. I had my sword out, clutched firmly in my hand, though I was acting as support for my dad so wouldn’t be jumping into a fight again quite yet if I could help it. To my surprise, someone had given Dad a sword so he was no longer relying just on his bow, though I wasn’t sure how well he could use it.
“Damn leg,” Dad grumbled, though his eyes were sharp and scanning the surroundings for any daemons that might be coming directly at us.
We had gone about halfway to the other group when Julie cried out, “Estrid…”
That drew my attention to Estrid, who was back on her feet and furious. Obviously, it took more than an arrow to the chest to take her down. Of course, her armor looked like it was made from daemon hide, and some daemons could shrug off arrows as easily as spitwads. It seemed that all Ailsa had done was to piss her off.
“You will all be food for the daemons,” Estrid yelled out, right before charging at Freya
Estrid’s two swords were met by Freya’s spear, just a moment before a bolt of lightning crashed down through the spear, killing and injuring several of the nearby daemons. However, Estrid seemed relatively unharmed from the powerful attack. She just lashed out with her swords, forcing Freya to react quickly to keep up with two weapons simultaneously.
Once we reached the area where the other group of Val Kyr had set up their own fortifications, Dad leaned up against a wall that had been set up, holding the sword firmly and looking determined to use it. But at the same time, even though he was clearly trying to hide it, I could see his frustration over the situation, over the fact that his leg limited how much he could move and fight.
“About time you all returned,” one of the other group called out. “We didn’t have the numbers to fight back effectively until now…”
Hilde pulled her axe out of a Hellhound and called back, “They started a siege against our walls just hours after your group left. We could have handled that, but then these vermin somehow found a way inside…” Then she let out a howl and yelled, “I’ll make a stew of you,” right before throwing herself against a spikey tortoise daemon that was about the size of a small car.
“Hold fast,” Lindrell called out to us. “Keep position…”
“Gotcha,” I said, lunging forward with my sword, doing the strike and dodge routine again. I held off from charging my blade with essence, not sure how much further the extra val would stretch.
Then without looking back, Lindrell asked, “How are you holding up, David?”
“Just fine,” Dad responded, notching his last arrow and firing it across the battlefield, striking a daemonite in the chest, just as he was charging forward on the back of a unicorn. “Good thing these daemonites don’t seem to have any combat experience or tactics.”
“True,” Lindrell agreed. “But they can still overwhelm us with numbers and raw power.”
Fleur suddenly yelled out, “There’s a hob…incoming from the fourth wall…”
I immediately looked in the direction of the fourth wall and saw a daemonite that looked something like a bald and slimy gorilla, with arms that were long bone blades, almost like swords. In fact, for a brief moment, I almost thought it resembled Golem from Lord of the Rings…but on steroids. It was racing over the battlefield, climbing over other daemons and quickly coming in our direction. To my surprise, nearly every kaern turned and started shooting at it simultaneously.
“Don’t let it reach us,” Gretchen snarled, just an instant before releasing another arrow.
The hob shocked me by moving fast, faster than I ever would have imagined of that thing, and it either dodged or used its bladed arms to block every arrow fired at it. And it still came in our direction.
“Don’t let those blades touch you,” Lei called out a warning for everyone who’d never seen or even heard of a hob before. “If it cuts you…you’ll never heal right…no matter how much jatta you have.”
The hob reached us just seconds later, leaping over both the sinking ground the notru had set up, landing on top of the wall, and then launching itself right into the middle of our fortifications. A kaern who I vaguely recognized was closest to the hob and sliced at it with her sword, but it reacted with nearly blinding speed, dodging to the side and attacking her at the same time. A moment later, the kaern’s head went flying and the hob turned to find the next target.
Just as the hob was about to leap at Moraigh, a massive axe suddenly came down on the creature from behind, splitting it completely in two. Ragnhild stood there with a look of grim satisfaction on her face as she announced, “I hate those things.” My eyes went to her eye patch, and I suddenly had a strong suspicion that she was wearing it because of a hob.
“This is fucking insane,” came a voice from behind me.
I turned and saw Cindy standing there, wielding a large two handed broadsword, the kind that I usually thought of as a Conan sword. She wiped the sweat from her eyes, then looked around her with a mixture of fear and determination that reminded me of the fact that she hadn’t been Val Kyr for very long at all. In fact, this was actually her first real battle as Val Kyr.
“What do you think about being Val Kyr now?” I asked her wryly.
Cindy quickly glanced to me and said, “Well, you did promise me excitement…” And with that, she jumped forward to hack at a daemon that had slipped through the outer defenses.
While this was all going on, I’d completely lost track of the fact that Freya and Estrid were still going at each other, viciously striking back and forth in a way that was only possible when the issues were personal. I could only imagine how much Estrid’s betrayal hurt Freya, especially since Estrid had not only been her potential student…but was also her own descendant.
“You have become stronger,” Freya grimly admitted to Estrid. “And more skilled…” Then Freya suddenly did a fast spin move where she caught Estrid’s ankle with the spear, knocking it out from beneath her and sending the daemonite to the ground. “But not skilled enough…”
Then as Freya was about to drive her spear down to impale Estrid, the daemonite shrieked with rage, making all the nearby daemons go into a frenzy, or at least more of one than they were already in. A batlike daemon swooped down to attack Freya, but the Val Kyr leader responded in a snap, impaling the creature and then returning to the job of finishing Estrid off. However, Estrid took advantage of that momentary distraction to roll out of the way and was already in the process of returning to her feet by the time Freya was ready to deal with her again.
“I will burn this place to the ground,” Estrid hissed. “We will feast on Val Kyr flesh and crush your bones beneath our feet. And then, we will use your prized anchor to free every last daemon from Hell.”
Freya merely looked sad as she said, “You have no idea how disappointed I am in you…in what you have become.”
Estrid just snarled with an expression of hatred, then she gave Freya an evil grin before lunging forward with her swords. Freya went to block, but Estrid opened her mouth and suddenly spat out a stream of flames…right into Estrid’s face. Estrid immediately took advantage of the distraction to drive her sword right into Freya’s stomach.
“Now I end you,” Estrid stated as she swung the sword at Freya’s neck.
Suddenly, Sharra was there, blocking the attack with her spear and kicking Estrid back. Before Estrid could recover, Sharra swept her spear along the ground between them, sending a wave of ground and spikes at Estrid, who was forced to leap back to avoid being struck. Without a word, she grabbed the injured Freya and pulled her back to the fortifications, throwing another wave of stone out to throw back the daemons.
Ragnhild rushed forward, obviously intending to strike at Estrid, but several large daemons came at her from the side. A moment later, she was so busy dealing with the daemons that Estrid was able to back up and prepare herself. The daemonite leader glared at Ragnhild and then at the rest of the Val Kyr with a look of pure hatred. Unlike the daemons themselves, which were mostly by primal and vicious instincts, for Estrid this was very personal.
I remained close to my dad, guarding him from the onrushing daemons while simultaneously watching the fight between Freya and Estrid. A flying daemon dove down towards us but I quickly sliced at the thing a moment before it could strike, sending the body to the ground. Dad remained leaning against the support, looking grim with frustration practically rolling off him. Without any more arrows, he’d not only become virtually useless in this battle, but he’d also turned into a liability since he couldn’t properly defend himself against the daemons. But in spite of that, he still clutched his borrowed sword firmly and was clearly ready to strike out at any daemons that got close.
There were enough Val Kyr in the fight now that the daemons were being decimated, with their numbers dwindling further and further with every minute the fight continued. The notru acted to pen the daemons and herd them into place for the slaughter, which the jatta and kaern eagerly provided. A few Val Kyr had been badly injured so far, but they would all recover, or at least, all of them would but the one that had been decapitated by the hob.
Then Estrid let out a strange shriek, one that drew my attention back to her. To my surprise, Estrid was changing, just like she’d begun to do back at that garage where I had been held prisoner. However, that time, she’d only changed enough to show me that she could, while this time, she didn’t appear to be stopping. Estrid grew larger, splitting out of her armor which broke apart, leaving her naked and giving me an even better look at her changes. Her skin was darkening, becoming an odd glossy black that made me think of oil. And still, she continued to grow and change.
“Estrid is a channeler,” someone yelled out in shock, reminding me that I hadn’t had a chance to tell anyone from Val Halla about what I’d learned as a prisoner.
At ten feet tall, Estrid was still shaped mostly like a human woman, though there was no doubt she was no longer human. Not only did she now have the glossy black skin and hair, she also had a long thin tail, spikes all down her spine, vicious looking claws on her fingers, and a pair of curving horns. And to my stunned disbelief, she was still growing larger as I watched, stopping only when she was nearly twenty feet tall.
“This is what your lies and treachery have made of me,” Estrid yelled out in an odd and raspy voice. Then she snarled and opened her mouth again, only to breath out a long blast of flames, much like a dragon. “YOUR DOOM!”
“She’s no channeler,” Lei snarled as she readied her blood and gore covered hammer. “She’s a host…”
“Bloody hell,” Bethany commented with a grim look.
“A host?” Julie asked, looking like she was suddenly going pale. “Not good…”
Hosts were the rarest of the daemonite pillars, which was fortunate because they were also some of the most dangerous. According to what I’d been told by Lindrell, at first glance, channelers and hosts appeared to be the same thing since they could both use daemon powers and actually transform into daemons. However, the way that they did this was quite different. Channelers had a link to a specific daemon and they could channel that daemon’s powers and form for a short period of time, but hosts somehow merged with a daemon…permanently absorbing the daemon into themselves. As a result, hosts could access their powers more directly, which not only made them more powerful, but also removed the time limit that channelers had.
Estrid let out a loud howling roar into the air and every daemon suddenly paused and did the same thing, howling, roaring, shrieking, or whatever it was they could do…at the same time. A cold chill ran down my spine at that since it reminded me about one other aspect about hosts…that daemons truly saw them as one of their own, far more than they did any other daemonites. As a result, if a host was strong enough, any weaker daemons would treat them as if they were some kind of alpha…as their leader.
Before Estrid had even finished her howl, three triads charged her at once, including Freya’s triad…though she’d been left back behind the fortifications to recover from her injuries. Sharra tried to soften the ground beneath Estrid’s feet while Ailsa took aim with her bow and Ragnhild simply charged while swinging her axe. Estrid moved far more quickly than I would have imagined someone her size was capable of, shifting position to avoid getting an arrow in the eye while simultaneously leaping over the soft ground and avoiding Ragnhild’s charge. In spite of her massive size, Estrid was still moving like an atra. Then she responded by spitting out a massive wave of flame while the Val Kyr leapt out of the way.
“Tiny little hellspawn,” Estrid hissed, suddenly snapping her long tail out and sending several Val Kyr flying. She snapped it out again, this time using the sharp bony tip to impale Ragnhild, who she casually tossed aside.
“I have always known you to be a traitorous beast,” Ailsa exclaimed, firing another arrow at Estrid’s face, though without essence to enhance her shot, the daemonite leader was able to avoid being hit. “You converts are the rot that festers within Val Halla, so it pleases me to see your true face revealed for the world to see. “
“And it will please me to end your existence,” Estrid responded, lunging at Ailsa, though the kaern general was too quick to be caught so easily. However, Estrid followed that up by spitting out more flames, but Sharra was suddenly by Ailsa’s side, forming a stone shield to protect them both from the fire.
“Today, you finally die,” Ailsa exclaimed, emerging from behind the shelter that Sharra had created. “This time, you shall not escape…”
Estrid merely responded by spitting out more flames, surrounding her with fire that drove all the Val Kyr back, at least for a few seconds. Then she let out another howl, and suddenly, every daemon turned and launched themselves at the Val Kyr near their leader. Even the daemons that had been attacking the fortifications abruptly turned and joined in Estrid’s defense.
“Change position,” Gretchen called out. With that, most of the Val Kyr began rushing out from our fortified position to aid those who were still being attacked by daemons.
I glanced to Dad, not about to leave him alone. “I’ll be fine,” Dad assured me. “Watch Julie’s back.”
“Be careful,” I warned him, knowing that the daemons were no longer coming in this direction but still being concerned.
In spite of the swarm of daemons, several Val Kyr were able to reach Estrid and attack her, though it didn’t seem to do much good. Not only did she have her size and daemon power, but she still seemed to have all the power of an atra. She dodged, avoided being hit, and when she was hit with blade or arrow, the injuries didn’t seem to penetrate very deeply.
Estrid spat out another stream of flame, then suddenly leapt forward, slashing out with her claws and tail. Sharra was hit with the tail and was thrown twenty yards, though she was in one piece. Another Val Kyr wasn’t so lucky as her arm was sent flying.
“Freya,” Estrid snarled, “we are not finished…” With that, Estrid charged at the fortified area, easily clearing the spiked wall and landing inside. Her eyes went to Freya, who was being guarded by Cindy and a Val Kyr I only vaguely recognized. “Now to finish what I began…”
“I don’t think so,” I yelled, charging towards the massively terrifying Estrid. There was no way I was going to stand back and let her kill Freya, especially when Freya wasn’t in any condition to fight back.
Freya stood up, though one arm clutched her injured stomach. Her face was blistered though she acted as though this was no problem as she held her spear, clearly ready to fight to the death without showing any signs of fear.
However, Estrid was no longer looking at Freya. Instead, she was staring at me with a look of surprise. “You,” she snarled. “You escaped…”
“Thanks for leaving Nessa behind,” I said, trying to hide how afraid I felt at the moment. “Without her, we never would have been able to come back here…”
“Surrender now and I’ll let you live,” Estrid told me, which was something she hadn’t offered anyone else.
I stared at Estrid, remembering our conversation back at the garage. She could have killed me then but hadn’t done so. At the time, I’d thought it was because she saw me as a kindred spirit, someone who might be able to relate to her and understand what she’d gone through. Now I was even more certain of that.
“I don’t think so,” I responded grimly, holding my sword firmly and bracing myself for her attack.
But to my surprise, Estrid didn’t charge at me. Instead, she looked over at Dad, staring at him with an expression of surprise. “A man in Val Halla?”
A second later, Estrid suddenly lashed out with her tail, hitting the injured Freya who’d been trying to catch her while she was distracted. Freya was thrown back from the impact, but Estrid didn’t even turn to go after her. Instead, she leapt over me and landed right beside Dad, who immediately tried to hit her with the sword. She casually knocked the sword from his hand and grabbed hold of him. Without a moment of hesitation, Dad pulled pistol from the holster on his belt and tried to shoot Estrid in the face, though the gun didn’t fire.
“A man in Val Halla,” Estrid repeated with a snarl, lifting Dad up from the ground and then exclaiming, “And a cripple as well…”
“Dad,” I called out, rushing closer, but hesitating since Estrid had him firmly in her grasp. If I attacked her, she could kill him before I ever reached her. My heart raced in fear, not for me but for him. Dad just glared at Estrid in cold defiance.
“You came to Val Halla to deal with the Val Kyr,” Estrid accused with an angry sneer. “To join them in exchange for health and power…”
“I came to Val Halla to fight the monsters who took my leg and destroyed my town,” Dad responded, dropping the gun since it wasn’t doing him any good. However, I could see from the look in his eyes that he wasn’t about to give up yet. He was waiting for an opportunity. “I came here to fight beside my family.”
“Do you think me a fool?” Estrid demanded, though Dad was wise enough not to taunt her by answering. “Long ago, I was a fool…fool enough to make that deal. I exchanged my service for health and power…but it cost me far more than I’d ever suspected. I lost my wife…my son…my honor…and even my very soul. I became a cursed and damned soul, just like every one of these lying Val Kyr filth…”
Estrid suddenly snapped around and spat out another blast of flames, aimed at the small group of Val Kyr who’d been in the process of charging her. As if that wasn’t enough to discourage them, she snapped her tail again, knocking Hilde off her feet. She lashed out with the tail again, using the bladed tip to tear at Sharra’s armor and then impale Zubell. A moment later, she casually snapped her tail again, sending Zubell flying back into a mass of daemons. Zubell screamed before suddenly going silent.
While all this was going on, I still held back, terrified that she’d kill my dad at any moment. Lindrell had approached as well, but like me, she was waiting for an opportunity to get my dad out alive. There was a look of furious determination on her face that spoke poorly for Estrid’s future if anything more happened to Dad.
“I will do you the mercy of killing you quickly,” Estrid told Dad. “You may die, but at least you will do so with your soul intact…”
“Go ahead, you ugly bitch,” Dad snarled defiantly. “A Sorensen doesn’t go down begging…we go down fighting.” With that, Dad pulled a combat knife from his belt sheath and drove the blade right into Estrid’s arm as hard as he could. It didn’t go in very deeply, but it did surprise her enough to make her let go of him.
“Sorensen?” Estrid demanded, sounding surprised. “I know that name…”
Dad’s prosthetic leg was busted, but he still managed to get himself standing, though he was extremely wobbly. He glared at Estrid defiantly, holding the combat knife as though ready to take her on. “You should… You send your damn monsters to attack my family… You took my leg from me…my wife…and even my son.”
Estrid snorted dismissively at that and lashed out with her tail again to drive the approaching Val Kyr back again. Then she snarled, “Sorensen was MY name… The name I passed down to my son…and his sons…”
“What?” Dad and I both blurted out simultaneously. I stared at Estrid in shock and horror, though when I glanced to Lindrell, she seemed just as surprised by that announcement as I was.
“Once, long ago…I was named Erik Sorensen,” Estrid exclaimed, not tearing her eyes away from my Dad. For a brief moment, I thought that this possible family connection had softened her heart and that she was going to let him go. But then she exclaimed, “I will not allow any of my bloodline to follow in my cursed path…”
Estrid slashed at Dad with her long claws, and the instant I saw her beginning to make that strike, I was in motion, running towards Dad as fast as I could. I reached Dad at the same time as Estrid’s claws and tried to throw him out of the way, but this resulted in the claws slicing along my side and tearing through my armor much more easily than normal claws should. I hit the ground with Dad, grimacing at the burning pain along my side.
“Are you okay?” I asked Dad, only to realize that I hadn’t protected Dad completely. Estrid’s claws had still caught him, leaving several deep gashes in his side.
Dad winced in pain and tried holding his bloody wound. “Get that bitch,” Dad told me with a pained grimace. He held up the combat knife he’d been using and pressed it into my hands. “Kill her.”
“Yes, sir,” I told him, fighting back the tears and fear that threatened to burst out.
I turned back towards Estrid, just in time to see Lindrell charging her with a furious battle cry. She leapt towards the daemonite leader, only to get back-handed and sent flying back. Three triads worth of Val Kyr were all trying to take down Estrid, coming from every direction, though her tail made attacking from behind every bit as dangerous as attacking head on. I had no doubt that every Val Kyr in Val Halla would be coming at her if they hadn’t all been focused on holding the remaining daemons back, giving us this opportunity.
I ignored the pain in my side, which was easier with every second as the pain was already starting to fade away. It was almost like I’d been given a nice infusion of jatta, which I realized was exactly what had happened. The val I’d gained from the daemonite infection wasn’t just giving me extra essence…it was giving me more jatta and kaern energies as well. I was suddenly struck by the realization that at the moment, I probably had enough of each that I might actually qualify as jatta, kaern, and notru…all at the same time. However, right now, I didn’t really care. All I cared about was that I had one more weapon to use against that monster.
“Why did I have to run out of arrows?” I grumbled to myself, thinking about just how much I’d like to plant an explosive arrow in Estrid’s eye. “I guess I’ll just have to use what I have…” I charged the combat knife with essence, then charged my sword as well so that both blades were covered with ghostly flames.
While Estrid was lashing out with her tail to take care of anyone behind her, she also bent forward and spat out another wave of flames. I just ran towards her as fast as I could, then jumped on top of the wall Julie had created to block the flames and used that as a ramp to fling myself at Estrid. I howled in rage as I hit, driving the knife into Estrid’s shoulder and then using my sword to slice her. The ghostly flames continued to burn her flesh, especially from the knife I’d left embedded in her shoulder up to the hilt.
“If he is your father, then it seems that you are my flesh and blood,” Estrid snarled at me, grimacing in pain but somehow managing to look as though I’d betrayed her at the same time. “Join with me…” For a brief moment, I thought I saw a pleading look in her eyes…and one of loneliness. I couldn’t imagine everything she’d gone through, though I knew most of the evil she’d done.
“I don’t care if you are my great grandma or not,” I responded with a glare. “You’ve got to be fucking insane if you think I’d ever help you… You’re a monster in every sense of the word…”
Estrid shrieked in rage, acting as though I’d somehow betrayed her with that statement. The remaining daemons started going into a frenzy again, though the rest of the Val Kyr struggled to hold them back, to keep them away so we could deal with Estrid.
“Then so be it,” Estrid responded, right before spitting out another blast of fire in my direction.
I had my senses fully extended and began to react the moment Estrid started to launch her attack. Before the flames even left her mouth, I was running out of the way, jumping and dodging behind the shelter that Sharra created.
As soon as the flames stopped, I leapt out from behind the shelter and charged at Estrid. I jumped at her, swinging my sword with every ounce of strength my extra jatta gave me, cutting deeply into her skin before she slashed at me with her claws. I barely avoided her claws but was in the process of doing that when she snapped around and hit me with her tail, sending me flying back.
“Michelle,” Julie cried out, looking as though she was about to run to my side though Shannon stopped her.
“Teamwork,” Lindrell called out to me.
“Lindrell is correct,” Freya stated, clearly hurt but obviously not about to stop fighting. “Val Kyr fight as triads…not individuals.”
I nodded at that, not about to point out the hypocrisy of her statement when she herself had been fighting Estrid one on one just a short time ago. Of course, Estrid had caught her by surprise and then overwhelmed her, so I could see she had a point as well.
“Notru,” Freya called out, gesturing to Estrid’s feet and adding, “Contain her tail…”
Sharra and Julie immediately went to work, jumping out and sending waves of stone at Estrid, then when Estrid was briefly knocked back, they both charged forward. Once they were close enough, Julie softened the ground beneath the daemonite’s feet so she began to sink. At the same time, Sharra sent another wave of stone at Estrid’s backside, washing it over the long whiplike tail and then making it solid again. Estrid was trapped in stone, at least for the moment.
Estrid’s feet and tail were trapped, but her claws weren’t and she was still able to spit out flames. As one, everyone rushed around to her back side where she couldn’t reach us with either claws or flame while Julie and Sharra sent more stone at her, both to try burying her further and to block any attempts to reach us.
“You will pay for what you’ve done to my husband,” Lindrell exclaimed as she ran up and slammed her axe into Estrid’s lower back
Estrid howled in rage and pain and flailed around frantically, breaking free from the stone holding her. However, Shannon, Freya, Ragnhild, Cindy and myself were already within striking distance and began slicing into her as well. My slice ran all down her back and continued to burn with ghost flames.
“You will all die,” Estrid screamed, leaping at Freya, only to be impaled with a spear and suddenly struck by lightning. She howled again, then began spitting flame in every direction, trying to drive everyone back. “DIE!”
Ailsa stood back and took careful aim, glaring at Estrid with a look of pure hatred as she coldly stated, “This time, you finally die…” And with that, she released the arrow which struck Estrid right in the eye.
“Got her,” Julie yelled out excitedly.
Estrid staggered for a moment, then finally collapsed to the ground, no longer moving. I stared at her body, feeling an immense sense of relief that it was finally over. This woman was responsible for countless deaths, for so many innocent people who’d been torn apart and devoured by her daemons. She’d even caused me a great deal of pain and trouble, before I’d ever met her…before I’d ever even heard of her. And when I remembered what she’d told Dad, that she might actually have been my ancestor, I felt sick to my stomach.
“You know,” I said in a tired tone as I moved forward for a closer look. “In a way, I feel sorry for her…”
Just as I reached Estrid’s body, Shannon yelled, “Look out…”
Estrid suddenly jerked up and lunged at me, grabbing me by the shoulder, digging her sharp claws right through the armor into my flesh, making me scream in pain. I dropped my sword, unable to control that arm anymore because of how severely she’d injured my shoulder. Then she stared at me with her remaining eye, which was filled with immense pain…and not just the physical kind.
“Let her go,” Lindrell commanded.
Estrid ignored Lindrell and the others, focusing entirely on me. “At least,” she in a grim tone, “I shall end my cursed bloodline and free you from your damned existence…”
At that statement, Estrid pulled me closer to her face, taking a deep breath in the process. My heart raced in terror as I realized that she was about to burn me to death, while I was unarmed and helpless to fight back. Of course, I still had my short sword and axe, but I couldn’t reach them at the moment, which only made me feel more helpless.
“Release her,” Freya commanded as she charged at Estrid again while Lindrell and Julie did the same thing from the other direction.
Estrid paused for a moment to lash out with her tail, then she turned her attention back to me to finish the job. But in that moment, I was suddenly struck by an idea. I had no idea if it would work, but I had to try. I had nothing to lose.
“Atra,” I announced, reaching forward to touch Estrid’s face, “adapt.”
As soon as I had contact with Estrid, I poured all the essence and jatta I had available into her, mixing and combining the two in the same way I had when I’d healed Julie’s dad. However, this time I had much more essence and jatta available, and instead of knitting the flesh back together like I had before, I instead used my power to tear the flesh apart. In an instant, her head ripped apart and exploded.
Estrid’s body collapsed motionless to the ground again, while I was still impaled with her claws and collapsed as well, completely exhausted and hurting like hell…but still feeling relieved. Lindrell was immediately by my side, infusing me with jatta and trying to pull the claws out of my shoulder.
“It’s over,” Freya announced in a sad tone. “Maybe she find the peace in death that she never could in life.”
--------------------
I was on my knees, kneeling in a pool of blood, much but not all of it was my own. I had numerous gashes, gouges, and bruises all over my body, though my worst injury at the moment was undoubtedly my shoulder, which had been both crushed and torn apart by Estrid’s clawed grip. I’d already been given an infusion of jatta in order to help me heal faster, but that didn’t do much for the pain or the exhaustion that filled me.
“Are you all right?” Lindrell asked me gently…almost motherly…as she crouched down beside me.
“Just tired,” I responded, wanting to close my eyes and go to sleep.
When I’d healed Mr. Rosewald, I’d used up a lot of essence and jatta, and it had left me completely exhausted afterwards. This time, I’d used the essence and jatta fusion to utterly destroy Estrid’s head so I could kill her, though like before, it left me completely wiped out afterwards.
“At least it’s over,” I said as I slowly got back to my feet with Lindrell’s help.
I looked around the battlefield that was Val Halla, seeing that with Estrid dead, all the daemons had turned and tried running away. Since the daemons were no longer attacking in a swarm, the Val Kyr were chasing them down and finishing them off, doing so much more easily than when they’d been attacking. Some of the daemons were so desperate to escape and return to the safety of the mists that they were even leaping from the walls.
Then I noticed that someone had made it to the anchor and had used it to contact some of the Val Kyr who’d been left on Earth. A couple fresh triads arrived through the gate and immediately joined in on cleaning up the remaining daemons. I just wished we’d been able to get them earlier, when the extra help would have been even more useful.
“You did well,” Freya told me, shifting into Ionne mode for a moment as she put a hand on my shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. Then she gave me a faint smile and added, “I am quite proud of how you handled yourself.”
“As am I,” Lindrell stated.
“I’m just glad you’re all right,” Julie exclaimed, grabbing me in a hug and making me wince as she’d put pressure on my injuries. As soon as she realized that, she relaxed her grip, then gave me a quick kiss on my lips, promising, “We’ll pick this up again later…”
“I’m looking forward to it,” I said, starting to grin until I suddenly remembered something important. “Dad.”
“David,” Lindrell gasped, letting go of me and rushing to go check on him.
Dad was on the ground where I’d left him, still alive, but with his back and side torn open from Estrid’s claws. But as bad as he was right now, I had no doubts that if I hadn’t knocked him away when I did, then he would have taken a more direct swipe from her claws and would have died immediately.
“Dad,” I cried out as I hurried over to him.
“Lynn,” Dad gasped weakly, holding onto Lindrell’s hand. He looked into her eyes and smiled faintly, the look in his own eyes being more than enough to assure me that he still loved her.
“I’m here, David,” she told him quietly, obviously pained to see him like this. At the same time, I knew it wasn’t the first time she’d seem him badly injured because of a daemonite, and I couldn’t imagine it got any easier seeing it again.
Then Dad’s eyes went to me and I gulped before saying, “I killed her…”
“Good,” Dad responded, giving me a faint smile as well.
I gave Lindrell a worried look, then fearfully asked, “How bad…?”
“He may survive his injury,” Shannon said as she bent over and examined him. I could feel her reaching out with all her kaern senses. “But if so, it will be with a damaged spine.”
“No,” I gasped in horror. Dad had already been living with enough problems, so he certainly didn’t need to add more to them. And especially not something like that.
Julie took my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, silently trying to offer what little comfort she could. My tears were starting to flow at seeing my dad like this, so I needed all the comfort I could get…though not as much as him. I just didn’t know what to do.
Lindrell stared at Dad with a worried look that turned to one of grim determination. “David,” she started, keeping her voice calm and steady. “I need you to listen closely… I can save you, but I need your permission…”
I stared at Lindrell, both surprised that she’d offer this to Dad after the way she’d been punished the last time…and delighted at the same time. However, Dad was obviously having a hard time focusing because I don’t think he understood what she was really asking.
“No,” Freya suddenly announced, coming towards us and stopping a few feet away, holding her spear against the ground as she looked at Lindrell and then my Dad. “You will not convert this man.”
Lindrell flashed Freya a look of anger while I just stared at my mentor in surprise, feeling hurt and betrayed by this refusal. Lindrell got to her feet, and for a moment, I thought she was going to attack Freya. Instead, she pleaded, “He’s my husband…Michelle’s father…”
“So your geis is broken,” Freya commented in a calm tone, though she didn’t sound surprised. Had she expected it would wear off on its own by now, or had she guessed that I was the one who’d removed it?
“He was injured while fighting alongside us…” Lindrell exclaimed in desperation. Then she grimaced and accused Freya, “This is because of what Estrid said…about him possibly being her descendant.”
“Lindrell,” I started awkwardly, knowing that she didn’t have all the information.
“His bloodline wasn’t listed in the genealogies,” Lindrell protested defiantly. “I thought he was from a lost bloodline…”
“His bloodline was never lost,” Freya responded, staring down at Dad with a sad and even worried expression that was more Ionne than Freya. “I have been watching this bloodline for centuries…for long before Estrid was born.”
Lindrell gasped in surprise at that. “What do you mean?”
“Your husband is not from a lost bloodline,” Freya repeated, raising her voice loud enough so that everyone nearby could hear. “He is from MY bloodline.”
There were gasps of surprise from nearly every Val Kyr within hearing distance. I just stared at Freya since she’d effectively just told everyone that Estrid was one of her descendants, and that was something she’d been trying to keep quiet. Then it suddenly dawned on me what that meant for me. Freya was MY ancestor.
“Yes,” Freya said grimly. “To my eternal shame, Estrid was one of my descendants…” Then she slowly looked around at all the Val Kyr, including the ones who were starting to come over and gather around to see what was going on. “But as Michelle has well proven, Estrid’s treachery has not tainted the bloodline.” Her eyes went down to my dad and she added, “And Michelle’s father has also proven this…”
“Then why stop me from saving him?” Lindrell demanded in confusion.
Lindrell looked as though she was about to say more, but Freya put up her hand and she went silent. “David Sorensen,” Freya said, speaking directly to my dad for the first time. “I am Freya…leader of the Val Kyr. You came to Val Halla to aid us in our time of need…fought with valor and skill against our ancient enemy…and have been injured grievously for doing so.” She paused at that, then in a slightly louder voice, she announced, “You have demonstrated not only great courage and fortitude…virtues that we Val Kyr value greatly…but you have also shown yourself able to adapt to a world you never before knew.”
I stared at Freya as she said this, though it was Lindrell who asked, “Freya, are you saying what I think…?”
Freya didn’t react to Lindrell’s question, and instead, continued focusing entirely on my dad. “David Sorensen,” she announced in a formal tone, “Father of Val Kyr Michelle and child of my own blood, you have proven yourself worthy of the greatest honor the Val Kyr can bestow. Will you join the Val Kyr and become one of our sisters?”
Many of the Val Kyr surrounding us gasped again at that, which was no surprise. Freya herself was the one who’d forbidden the recruitment of converts, and now she herself was trying to recruit one.
“Join you…?” Dad repeated in surprise, his voice weak and raspy. “Like Michelle…?” He looked to me, his eyes going wide in realization of what Freya was offering him.
“Indeed,” Freya responded. “Will you sacrifice your manhood and old life to join us, taking up arms against our daemon enemies and protecting the world from their evil? Will you dedicate your life to this purpose?”
Dad was silent for several very long seconds, merely staring at me and then Lindrell. Then in a quiet voice, he finally answered, “To fight those things…yes.” Though his voice was weak, there was a fierce determination in his eyes.
With those words, Freya smiled faintly, then bent down beside Dad and reached out to touch his chest. As soon a she put her hand on him, she pushed out with a small amount of val. I had my senses stretched out and saw the tiny amount of val inside of him suddenly flare to life in response, then begin to spread. The process had begun.
Suddenly, a voice cried out, “NO!”
Freya instantly shifted position, just a moment before an arrow struck her in the shoulder from behind. The arrow barely penetrated her armor, but I was stunned by this surprise attack, and by the fact that if Freya hadn’t moved when she had, the arrow would have missed her entirely. Instead, it would have hit my dad in the chest…right in his heart.
I snapped around, shocked to see Ailsa, Freya’s kaern general, standing back with another arrow already notched. She had an expression of cold fury on her face as she fired a second arrow, this one aimed directly at Freya’s head. However, Shannon was already in motion, swinging her sword and striking the arrow in mid-flight.
“TRAITOR!” Ailsa yelled out furiously, pointing at Freya in accusation.
Sharra, who was still clearly injured from the battle, suddenly had her spear tip at Ailsa’s throat. Her voice was steady and hard as she demanded of Ailsa, “What have you done?”
“She allowed Estrid to be created,” Ailsa exclaimed, still pointing at Freya, who stood there with a grim look on her face. “Estrid was of her blood… Our Freya betrayed the Val Kyr because Estrid was her descendant…and now she does so again.” Ailsa pointed to my dad and yelled, “Even now, she creates a new Estrid…” Then she glared at me with an expression of hatred. “She creates TWO new threats to the future of Val Halla…”
“Your betrayal is disappointing,” Freya said in response, her face and voice carefully controlled though some of the emotion still managed to slip though. “Though not fully unexpected.”
“It is YOU who betray Val Halla,” Ailsa accused, looking as though she would have attacked Freya again if it wasn’t for the spear tip at her throat, or the fact that several other Val Kyr had also drawn their weapons. However, several of those Val Kyr were watching Freya warily, obviously listening to her accuser’s words. “This is no surprise. You atra have always been tainted…as are all converts.”
There were further mutterings from among the Val Kyr as everyone heard what Ailsa said. Freya scowled, and I had a feeling that she was exerting almost inhuman self-control at the moment to only reveal that much, because I could tell she was pissed.
“I am atra,” Freya stated simply, keeping her voice calm and steady. There was no doubt that everyone gathered around could hear her clearly, in spite of the fighting that was still occurring in the background. “I am atra,” she repeated, “as were the three Freya before me. At one time, we of the center were a greatly valued part of the Val Kyr, adapting to serve in whatever role was most needed. And as we are of all pillars yet none…it was decided long ago, by the second Freya, the daughter of the goddess herself, that we were also the best choice to serve as her successors…to serve all pillars of the Val Kyr without favoring any one.”
Freya paused at that and slowly looked around, her expression the calm and regal one I’d always associated with her Freya side. Again, there were more mutterings from the Val Kyr at the revelation that the four of the six women who’d served as Freya had been atra, which was a surprise since some of these women had never even heard of atra until I’d become one. I stared at Freya, surprised by this latest revelation as well.
“The existence and role of the atra had been largely forgotten among us,” Freya continued in her steady voice, her eyes going to me. “Until recently. Only the eldest of us remember the reasons why there have always been so few atra, and understand why we have gone three centuries without a new one being created.” She paused to once again look around with a steady and forceful gaze. “Atra can only be born from the process of conversion.” There were even more gasps as the Val Kyr realized what she was saying. “I too am a convert, though I have been a woman for so long I no longer even remember what it was like to be male.”
At this point, nearly all the Val Kyr were staring at Freya in stunned disbelief. All of her secrets were now coming out, and I could see that some of the women present were having a hard time accepting them. There were also looks towards Ailsa, some of them suggesting that the kaern general might have allies.
“The Val Kyr have existed for thousands of years,” Freya announced, her expression daring anyone to interrupt or challenge her. “And during this time, converts have always been a valued and necessary part of our order…until the last seven centuries. As the number of converts has dwindled, so too has our strength. Without atra, our strongest triads are not as powerful as they once were.”
“She’s trying to trick you,” Ailsa exclaimed, glaring at Freya with a look of pure hatred. “These false women taint us and rot Val Halla from within… You all saw what Estrid’s actions have wrought today.”
Freya final started walking towards Ailsa, her expression grim. “For centuries, I suspected a viper was hidden amongst our number, though I could not be certain of her identity until now.”
Freya reached out for Ailsa, though the kaern general pulled back and would have fought if the tip of Sharra’s spear didn’t press up tightly against her throat. Several drops of blood came out, enough to make Ailsa hold still when Freya grabbed her. A moment later, I saw Freya combining essence and kaern energies, pushing them into Ailsa in a way I immediately recognized.
“I have placed a geis upon you,” Freya told Ailsa in a grim tone. “You will answer any questions I ask, as truthfully as you are able.” Ailsa just glared back at her without saying a word.
“Freya,” Ragnhild aside with a deep scowl. “Ailsa has been your friend for a thousand years. Is this necessary?”
“She tried to kill Freya,” Sharra pointed out in a cold tone. Ragnhild reluctantly nodded at that.
“Now then, old friend,” Freya said, staring intently into Ailsa’s eyes. “Have you ever attempted to murder another Val Kyr, before this?”
“Yes,” Ailsa answered, though she was clearly trying to fight the geis. But as I’d seen with Lindrell, fighting the compulsion was almost impossible. Then Ailsa quickly added, “But they were only converts…” There were gasps and looks of surprise from the surrounding Val Kyr.
Freya stared at Ailsa with a dark look, and for a moment, I saw a flash of intense sadness and betrayal behind her eyes, though it barely touched her face at all. “How many Val Kyr have you murdered? How many died because of your actions?”
Ailsa tried fighting back the answer again, but she couldn’t resist blurting out, “Seven. I’ve killed seven of those tainted converts myself…and I’ve arranged the deaths of five others.”
Ailsa looked pissed at being forced to confess her crimes, but not nearly as angry as some of the other Val Kyr. A minute earlier, some of those Val Kyr had obviously been sympathetic to her and her claims of converts being a corrupting influence, but she’d just admitted to killing twelve Val Kyr, and that had suddenly changed everything.
“You killed twelve of our sisters,” Gretchen snarled, drawing her sword, though she certainly wasn’t the only one who was readying her weapon.
“Freya,” I said, feeling more than a little stunned by the revelation that the head of the kaern pillar could commit such murders. Once Freya looked to me, I gulped and said, “When Estrid had me prisoner…she told me about the night she left Val Halla…”
“Continue,” Freya told me.
I nodded at that. “Estrid told me that two Val Kyr had attacked her…and had tried to murder her. She said that she killed them in self-defense, then ran off… At the time, I’d thought she was lying, but now…”
“What do you know of this?” Freya demanded of Ailsa.
“I sent my two most trusted to eliminate that filth…before she could betray us,” Ailsa responded with a sneer, no longer even trying to fight the compulsion. In fact, she almost seemed pleased to be able to brag about her deeds. “But when Estrid killed them instead, I took advantage of the opportunity to eliminate three of the other converts instead…”
“And you blamed their deaths on Estrid as well,” Shannon said in a cold tone, which reminded me that one of the women who’d died that night had been a friend of hers.
Julie leaned over and whispered in my ear, “And I would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for you meddling kids…”
I glared at Julie, who was only trying to deal with her own stress by joking around, but this wasn’t the time for it. I gulped, then half whispered, “So Estrid was telling the truth…”
“Who were the sisters you murdered?” Freya demanded, her voice cold and hard. “Name them…”
As Ailsa began listing the names, there were looks of shock and horror from those who knew the victims. There were also outbursts of rage, and I suddenly realized that Ailsa would be very lucky if she left this courtyard alive. Gretchen, Shannon, and several others had looks of deadly fury in their eyes, and they clearly wanted revenge for their murdered friends and relatives.
“Beatrice was of my bloodline,” Moraigh stated in a quiet but deadly tone.
“Molly was my niece,” Bethany added.
“I have long suspected such a threat from within,” Freya admitted, her voice still stead though now filled with a great sadness. “Converts had died on missions without proper witness or explanation. Others had vanished without a trace from within the walls of Val Halla itself.” Her attention settled firmly on Ailsa again as she added, “But I am gravely disappointed to find the threat was from one I once trusted…whom I had considered as a sister.”
“We may have been comrades, but you are no sister of mine,” Ailsa responded, giving Freya a look of defiance and contempt. “You are the cancer that infects Val Halla…that let this happen…” She gestured around the courtyard where the fierce battle had just been fought, then to Estrid’s body.
“Estrid was a broken woman,” Freya admitted, “but it seems your actions played a large role in driving her to this fate. It was your attempt on her life that drove her away from Val Halla and into the arms of the daemonites.”
“If you hate converts so much,” Sharra demanded, “then why not murder Freya as well?”
“Because I had no opportunity,” Ailsa spat out viciously. “If I had, I would have cleansed Val Halla of her presence long ago…” Then she glared at Freya with a look of hatred, explaining, “For seven centuries, I have watched in wait, seeking an opening to end your life without drawing suspicion... But always, you were on your guard or surrounded by those who would see. Always, you were within Val Halla, where the death of our Freya would not be ignored…”
“So, you truly would have murdered me as well,” Freya said in a flat tone. She stared into Ailsa’s eyes, then asked, “You had a plan in place, did you not?”
“Yes,” Ailsa admitted, her eyes darting too me. “When you allowed the new convert to remain, I saw an opportunity… My plan was to kill you, placing the blame on her…” Ailsa sneered as she proudly explained, “This would serve as a reminder of why we forbid recruiting converts…and ensure it never occurs again.”
“You are as mad as Estrid,” Ragnhild stated. She clenched her massive axe tightly, making it clear how much she wanted to use it at that moment.
That accusation just seemed to piss Ailsa off even more. “Estrid was a monster,” she snapped. “All that I have done was to protect our order from a threat that you were too blind to see.”
“You murdered Val Kyr,” Gretchen pointed out bitterly. “Just like Estrid.”
“I cleansed Val Halla of more traitors,” Ailsa exclaimed.
“Why?” Freya demanded. “What reason do you have for this hatred of converts? You did not always feel this way…”
“The coup,” Ailsa snarled again. “Seven centuries ago, the converts proved they could not be trusted when they attempted to seize control of Val Halla... They betrayed us, murdered true and loyal Val Kyr, yet you allowed those tainted traitors to remain…because you are one of them.”
I stared at Ailsa, having almost forgotten about that coup attempt, where a group of converts had tried and failed to take control of the Val Kyr. Everyone had been so focused on Estrid and what she’d done that they seemed to have forgotten about the coup, which was the event that had truly started the downfall of the converts.
“Six converts were behind the attempt,” Freya pointed out in a grim tone. “Each was a former knight or noble who believed that their former rank and titles meant that they were entitled to greater position and authority in Val Halla. These traitors conspired with daemonites and were slain for their betrayal, a betrayal the other converts had naught to do with.”
“THEY KILLED MY DAUGHTER,” Ailsa screamed at Freya, her eyes blazing with fury. “They murdered Ingi, and I swore over her body that I would make them pay…that I would drive every last one of you tainted false women from Val Halla…that I would cleanse our order of your treacherous kind…”
Freya just stared at Ailsa with a carefully controlled and unreadable expression. But in spite of that, I could see the anger and pain in her eyes…and perhaps even a hint of pity.
“Take Ailsa to a cell,” Freya commanded, once again in full Freya mode with her emotions under tight control. “She will remain there under guard until I have decided her fate.”
As Sharra and Ragnhild began to escort Ailsa away, their murderous triad member suddenly slipped loose from their grip and started to run towards the nearest wall, perhaps intending to follow Estrid’s example of long ago and escape into the mists. However, she’d barely made it ten yards before an arrow was shot through her knee, sending her face first into the ground.
Jass lowered her bow and bitterly muttered, “You’ve shamed our pillar.”
Ragnhild picked Ailsa up from the ground, not being very gentle about it. Then she unceremoniously tossed the murderous Val Kyr over her shoulder and carried her towards one of the buildings.
I watched them go in silence, not sure whether to hate Ailsa for what she’d done…and for the fact that she’d planned on framing me for Freya’s murder, or if I should pity her. It seemed that like Estrid, she’d been broken and twisted by the tragedies of her past. I briefly wondered if there was a lesson in there somewhere, but at the moment, I was too tired to consider that.
“Once,” Freya said, her voice firm but sad, “I was forced to ban new converts from our ranks…both to sooth Val Kyr fears and to protect those who would be unjustly accused and attacked.” She paused at that, slowly looking over all the Val Kyr present before loudly announcing, “This ban is now revoked, so let all Val Kyr know that once again, converts will be welcomed with open arms.”
There were a few cheers at that, though most Val Kyr were too physically and emotionally drained after the recent combat and shocks to show that much emotion. However, I had no doubt that once everyone had a chance to fully absorb what had just occurred and what it meant for the order, there would be more of a reaction.
“Our new sister will likely be dazed and confused when she awakens,” Freya announced to the Val Kyr who remained. “She will require understanding and support if she is to adjust and thrive as Val Kyr.”
I turned my attention back to Dad, who was still on the ground with Lindrell crouched down beside him, holding his hand. She looked up to me and gave me a faint smile, then turned her attention back to him. Without hesitation, I went over and crouched down on his other side, taking his other hand in mine and then sharing another faint smile with Lindrell.
“You’re going to be fine, David,” Lindrell gently told him, though I doubted he could hear her since he seemed to be unconscious.
Dad’s val was still growing and spreading through his body, but I could already tell that he’d been infused with jatta energy as well in order to encourage the healing. His recent wounds were indeed starting to heal up, though it would be awhile before the process was complete.
“How long?” I asked Lindrell. “How long before his body starts changing?”
“It won’t be noticeable for a few hours,” she answered. “The whole process will probably take longer than it did with you…”
She looked to his prosthetic leg, reminding me that he would actually have to grow a whole replacement. I felt a little excited at the realization that he would actually have his leg back, which would probably make his new body a little easier for him to accept.
“Lindrell,” Freya said, putting a hand on her shoulder and then looking at me. “Michelle…” Freya…Ionne gave me a gentle smile and assured me, “He will be a welcome addition to the Val Kyr, but for now, he needs to be taken inside and made comfortable.”
“I’ll take care of that,” Lindrell said. Then she bent over and gave Dad a gentle kiss on his lips before musing, “I wonder what you’ll look like once you finish changing…”
--------------------
I stood in the middle of the fourth courtyard, outnumbered and surrounded. My opponents had positioned themselves around me, making me stretch my senses as far as I could just so I could keep track of all three of them. Each of them was being cautious, trying to determine what I could do before they committed themselves to an attack. I just smiled faintly at that, holding my sword firmly and silently daring them to come at me.
My opponents were all new Val Kyr, having been recruited and brought to Val Halla within the last two months. Until now, they had mostly been training with their mentors and pillars, sometimes even sparring against experienced members of other pillars so that they could get a feel for them. But today, I had been asked to help with their training. I was here to introduce them to the atra fighting style, familiarizing them with what we were capable of and what we had to offer in battle.
I slowly swept my eyes over my students and opponents, settling on Megan, a muscular brunette who was only a hair shorter than I was. The red sash around her waist marked her as jatta, though the large axe she wielded also would have announced this. Just a month earlier, Megan had been a chubby college student, who had thick glasses, bad acne, and fit almost every stereotype of a female nerd. But now, she was growing into a capable Val Kyr warrior.
Erin was a willowy red head, with her long hair pulled back into a pony tail. Her blue sash and spear both served to identify her as notru, though she moved with such a smooth and graceful ease that it would have been easy to mistake her for kaern. Erin was from Bethany’s bloodline, and though you never would have guessed it from her bubbly and feminine personality, she was also a convert. When she’d been offered the chance to become Val Kyr, she’d jumped at the chance…not for the power, immortality, or even the chance to do something important…but for the opportunity to finally become female…which was the gender she’d always felt she should have been born as.
The last of my current opponents was Shauna, a dark skinned woman with short black hair, and like Erin, she was both notru and a convert. However, unlike Erin, she was less than thrilled about her new gender, though she was taking it one day at a time and learning to adjust. Before being converted, Shauna had been a rookie cop who’d been severely injured on the job, so she looked at becoming a woman as being the price she paid for still being alive, and for giving her the power to continue helping people.
Finally, Shauna took the lead and started the attack, trying to hit me with her spear. I immediately dodged to the side, then had to go into a swirl of motion, dodging, blocking, and avoiding their attacks. I was stretching my senses and enhanced reflexes to their limit, silently being thankful that none of them was kaern so I didn’t have to worry about one of them being able to match my reflexes.
So far, the two notru were avoiding their essence moves, so I only had to avoid their spears…not the ground itself. However, it didn’t take long before that changed and suddenly I had leap to the side to avoid the rolling ground. I did that, then lunged forward and grabbed Erin’s spear, yanking it from her hand and then using that to impale Megan in the thigh and push her away from me. I swung around and smacked Shauna on the back of her hand with the flat of my blade, forcing her to release her spear as well, though I followed that move up with a kick to her face.
“You’re fast,” Megan said, wincing from the wound in her thigh, though it would be fully healed in just a minute.
“And strong,” Shauna added with a scowl. “You hit pretty damn hard.”
“I am faster than all of you,” I agreed with a grin. “But I’m not quite as fast as a kaern…and I’m not as strong as Megan.”
Once the three of them had recovered their weapons and were ready, we began to go at it again, this time with me taking the offense from the start. None of them had ever been in a real combat situation, so that experience made a great deal of difference in our skills, which was why I was able to hold off against all three of them at once. This whole training situation was not only to teach them about what an atra could do, but also to help them learn to work together in order to defeat a stronger opponent. After all, teamwork was critical for any Val Kyr. However, I was fully aware of the fact that they weren’t the only ones benefitting from this training. I was getting more practice at fighting multiple opponents at once.
While we sparred, I noticed that we were developing a small audience. A few other Val Kyr had quietly shown up and were standing back, watching our session and apparently making a few bets. However, I remained focused and didn’t let them distract me, though Erin did…which was something I took immediate advantage of.
By the time we were finished, Megan, Erin, and Shauna all had some nice bruises and cuts for their efforts, while I’d been left with a few of my own. I still wasn’t a fan of Val Kyr motivation techniques, though I had to admit, the brutal training methods certainly made you work harder to improve. I gave my three opponents a few brief tips and suggestions for the next time they faced someone like me, then they all hurried off to the cafeteria for dinner.
I just remained where I was for a moment, wondering how I’d become the experienced veteran who thought of them as inexperienced rookies…when all three of them were older than I was. I hadn’t even been a Val Kyr for all that much longer than they had either, though admittedly, a lot had happened to me in the months since I’d been converted.
It had only been six months since the battle in Val Halla, though sometimes it seemed as though it had only been last week, yet other times, it felt as though it had been years ago. I frowned sadly as I remembered the courtyard after the battle, and the fact that daemon and daemonite bodies had been scattered everywhere. Since the haunts never collected daemon bodies in the Twilight Realm, we’d spent days cleaning them up by hand, tossing them from the walls and letting the daemon scavengers have them. And though we’d cleaned up the mess, and the physical damage to Val Halla had been quickly repaired, the emotional scars that now ran through the Val Kyr would remain for a very VERY long time to come.
That final battle had been brutal, with Fleur losing an arm, Natalie having both legs bitten off, and Lei had been so badly torn up from Estrid’s claws, that even as a jatta, they weren’t sure she’d make it. However, they had all recovered, though not everyone was as lucky. Seven Val Kyr had died in Val Halla during that incursion, with four of those deaths having occurred during the daemon’s initial surprise attack. That didn’t even take into account all the other Val Kyr who’d died in the months before then, during the numerous daemonite attacks, or the ones who’d been removed from service since.
Ailsa had been executed just one week after her crimes had been revealed, but before then, Freya had interrogated her further, learning all the details of the kaern general’s betrayal. Under the influence of her geis, Ailsa had reluctantly revealed the identities of her three accomplices, Val Kyr who’d willingly assisted her in ‘cleansing’ Val Halla of converts.
Though one of these accomplices had been killed in a recent incursion, the remaining two were currently locked up in Val Halla’s dungeon. I suspected that the only reason Freya hadn’t ordered them executed as well was because neither had murdered a Val Kyr with her own hands, though that didn’t lessen their crimes. Both women had betrayed converts within their own triads, intentionally abandoning them in combat so that they were torn apart by daemons.
Six new Val Kyr had been recruited in the six months since that battle, including my dad, which was quite a record. Normally, the Val Kyr only recruited one or two new sisters into the ranks a year, but with all the losses that had been suffered over the last year, everyone considered it urgent to build up our strength and numbers again. That very urgency was one of the reasons the new converts had received a warmer welcome than I first had.
After my sparring partners had completely departed, I turned my attention to the few members of our audience who remained. My eyes first went to Julie, who was dressed in normal street clothes, the kind that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a mall, though they would have helped earn her some appreciative attention from any guys. I grinned as I went over, then gave her a passionate kiss.
“Welcome back,” I told my girlfriend, who’d just spent the last week visiting with her family. I looked her over, looking forward to a somewhat more private and intimate reunion later tonight.
“Glad to be back,” Julie told me with a broad grin of her own. “Though I will miss having a cell phone that works…”
Then my eyes went to Dani, the lean kaern with the short brown hair who stood a short distance away. She radiated a sense of alert competence and tightly controlled danger, so that anyone who didn’t know her would probably assume that she’d been Val Kyr for decades…if not centuries…instead of only six months.
Dani, formerly known to me as Dad, was doing quite well among the Val Kyr, though it hadn’t been easy for her to adjust to her new gender. Still, she had plenty of reasons to enjoy her new life and these had all played a part in helping her accept the body that came with it. Not only was she young, healthy, enjoying the use of all four limbs again, and had a purpose in life, but she and Lindrell had also resumed their relationship…though I tried very hard to avoid learning any of the details.
Dani gave me a faint look of amusement, then asked, “How did you enjoy playing the teacher?” She gestured to where I’d been sparring a short time earlier.
“It’s different,” I responded, giving her a grin. “But not the first time. If you remember, I helped to teach you how to use a sword…”
“That you did,” she agreed with a sigh. “Of course, you know I have improved a great deal since then.”
I nodded at that, fully aware that she was now just as good with a sword as I was, and even faster. I let out a faint sigh, wishing I still had all that extra val I’d used back in that fight against Estrid, but unfortunately, unlike my natural val, that stuff hadn’t recharged once I’d used it up. Now I was back to my normal val levels, though admittedly, when I’d stepped into the scale to test myself again, each of the pillars had flickered just faintly…enough to suggest that I might have come out of the experience with just a little more val than what I’d started with…but still not quite enough to qualify for any of the pillars.
Of course, I might be able to recharge that extra val by letting a daemonite infect me again, but there was no way in Hell I would ever do that again…at least not willingly. After all, there was no guarantee that I’d be able to fight that energy off a second time and I didn’t want to risk even a small chance of becoming a daemonite.
“Let’s spar tomorrow,” I told Dani, grinning in anticipation.
I’d been practicing a little with a dual wield sword style, similar to what I’d seen Estrid use, because I thought it would be a great way to deal with either multiple opponents or the speed advantage that any kaern would have over me. Ionne had told me that dual wielding was a tactic that many atra had used in the past, which was where Estrid had picked it up. I was looking forward to trying it out against Dani, especially when I released essence from both swords at the same time.
Dani gave me a suspicious look, then said, “Your mother told me that you’ve been up to something…”
I nodded at that, still finding it odd to think of Lindrell as my mom, even after six months. Of course, thinking of Dani as my dad was even stranger, and I’d actually seen her go through her transformation. It had looked pretty uncomfortable and had made me grateful that I’d been unconscious for my own changes.
“I might have something new to show,” I responded with a grin.
Dani rolled her eyes, then looked to Julie, who was trying to hold back a laugh. “I don’t know,” she finally said. “I’m looking forward to seeing what Michelle has been up to while I was gone.”
“That reminds me,” Dani said, giving Julie a curious look. “How are your parents doing?”
“They’re doing all right,” Julie responded with a shrug, though she grinned as she added, “But Mom has been teasing my dad, saying that if he doesn’t help with the chores more, she might run off and join the Val Kyr.” I chuckled at that, mostly as I imagined Mr. Rosewald’s reactions.
This was the second time Julie had gone back home to visit everyone in the last six months, not counting the time we were all there to deal with the incursion. However, neither Dani or I had gone back at all. She was too embarrassed to let anyone there know about how she’d changed and what she’d become, so as far as anyone back home knew, David Sorensen had died heroically on the battlefield. I certainly couldn’t blame her for this since I’d done the exact same thing.
From what I’d previously heard from Julie, her parents were doing pretty well, but the town itself was not. Once the daemons were gone and people were finally able to leave, a large portion of the survivors had done just that, trying to get as far away from the scene of their living nightmare as possible.
With no daemon bodies or video evidence of what had really happened, all the outside investigators had were a lot of witnesses, all of whom were yelling about monsters. Of course, that hadn’t gone over well and the official report was that the town was the victim of a terrorist attack, which had included a suspected chemical weapon that caused massive hallucinations.
There had been a few who were willing to at least consider the truth, but all the reporters who went there and tried to report the daemon story found that their video cameras and footage kept blanking out and being deleted. It seemed that the haunts were still at work, limiting how much this incident exposed the existence of the daemons.
Julie told Dani and I the latest news about back at our old home as we walked across Val Halla, and when she was done, she asked, “So, what has everyone else been up to while I was gone?”
“Ionne has been teaching me a few new tricks,” I responded with a grin, intentionally teasing Dani with that fact since I still planned on showing them off to her tomorrow during our sparring. “I’ve been practicing with more fighting styles and tactics as part of the whole atra versatility thing.”
“And don’t forget your training team,” Dani pointed out, looking rather proud.
“Training team?” Julie asked, giving me a curious look.
“Freya is sending me out in a couple days for a training mission with a few of the new recruits,” I explained, feeling just a little self-conscious. “She put me in charge of the training triad, saying that she wanted me to give them a little practical experience in working with an atra.”
“Considering that you and she are the only atra around,” Dani pointed out, “and you already have a permanent triad, I suspect her real goal is to give you an opportunity for leadership experience.”
Julie nodded thoughtfully at that, then pointed out, “Knowing Freya, it’s probably both reasons…and something else that only she knows.”
“Probably,” I agreed. Freya usually had multiple reasons for everything she did, and they weren’t always obvious ones.
“Either way,” Dani said, giving me a thoughtful look. “I think she’s grooming you.”
I nodded uncomfortably at that, not sure what I could say since I suspected she was right. During that big confrontation with Ailsa, Freya had revealed that three of her predecessors had been atra, and suggested that an atra would probably be her successor as well…if possible. Though Freya and I hadn’t actually talked about this, I’d paid enough attention to realize that she was training me to one day be a possible successor. Of course, if that day ever did come, it would be a long time in the future.
The title of Freya was not an inherited one that was passed down through a family line, but one that would only be given to a Val Kyr who’d proven herself to be extremely capable and experienced. Even though I was the only other atra, I knew that if Freya somehow died tomorrow, I would not be her replacement. That was something I would have to spend centuries earning and proving myself worthy of, and by the time that occurred, there might very well be other atra who were even more qualified. Still, I couldn’t help but feeling honored that Ionne would even consider me worthy…or at least of one day being worthy…of such a thing.
“But what about you?” I asked Dani in order to change the subject. “I know Freya has been giving you some training assignments too.”
Dani grunted faintly at that, though I could tell she was actually pleased. Once Dani had gone through all her own initial training, Freya had tasked her to do a little teaching as well. For the last two months, Dani had spent a lot of time on Earth, in a Val Kyr training facility where she taught groups of women about modern weaponry and tactics. A lot of Dani’s experience would be useless against daemons or in the Twilight Realm where firearms and explosives didn’t work, but some of it could still be integrated with the Val Kyr fighting style, helping us all improve and become more effective.
“And I heard you talking with Mari about sniper tactics as well,” I added with a grin, remembering how much the two of them had gotten caught up in the conversation.
“She has an interesting perspective,” Dani responded with a chuckle. “Of course, she’s been doing it for a thousand years, so she has a few tricks I’d never even heard of before.”
Mari was the new kaern general, who Freya had called back from of a long sabbatical so she could take over Ailsa’s responsibilities. At first, Mari seemed to resent her sudden promotion, or at least the end of her fifteen year vacation, but to her credit, she also approved of bringing converts back into the Val Kyr and had gone out of her way to make Dani feel welcome among the kaern.
When we walked past Jass, I was still a bit startled to have Jass give a friendly wave in our direction, or at least to Dani. Strangely enough, Dani and Jass had become friends, which I never would have expected from the woman who used to constantly insult me because I was a convert. Of course, learning the truth about Estrid’s ‘betrayal’ and seeing the damage that Ailsa’s hatred had caused, had not only softened some of Jass’ views, but those of a lot of other Val Kyr as well.
Though my own relationship with Jass had definitely improved, I still wouldn’t say we were really friends, and I doubted we ever would be after our previous issues. However, there was courtesy and respect between us, and that was much better than I ever would have imagined at one point.
A short time later, the three of us ended up at the bath house, though none of us had actually said that this was where we were going. However, after sparring with those three new recruits, I’d built up a nice sweat and was looking forward to just relaxing in the hot water. I glanced over to Dani, who was very carefully acting nonchalant and pretending she didn’t notice the naked and very attractive women who were already present. However, I knew her well enough to know that she’d definitely noticed them, especially one in particular.
I just took a casual glance around the pools, curious about who was currently present. In one of the closest pools, I noticed Nicole, soaking alongside Cindy and Megan…who’d somehow beat us there. When Nicole noticed us and gave an inviting wave, I waved back but gestured to indicate that we’d already found another spot to soak.
Without a word of discussion, the three of us went straight to a pool where Lindrell and Shannon were already soaking. Dani immediately slipped into the water beside Lindrell, then they greeted each other with a passionate kiss. Julie giggled at that, grabbed my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, then we kissed each other as well before climbing in.
“Welcome back,” Shannon said to Julie who just grinned in response.
“Yes,” Lindrell added once she and Dani had finished their greeting. “Now that you have returned, we can get back to training…and your schooling.”
Julie and I both groaned at that, rolling our eyes simultaneously. Now that Julie and I had finished with our initial training, Lindrell had decided to go back into teacher mode and had begun assigning us homework…the math, history, and English kind we used to get back in school. Apparently, now that we knew enough to fight effectively, she thought we needed to work on our regular education too.
“And Michelle,” Lindrell told me, “do not think you will be allowed to skip your own work just because you will be off training with the new recruits.”
“Of course not, Mom,” I said with another roll of my eyes, intentionally calling her Mom just to test it out. I still had a hard time thinking of her as being my mom, but it was getting a little easier. She smiled in response, definitely looking pleased.
Ever since I’d learned about my relationship with Lindrell, I’d been getting to know her as more than just a teacher, trainer, and teammate, though I doubted we’d ever have any kind of traditional mother/daughter relationship. Still, we had been bonding a little, with much of it occurring in her workshop where she showed me some of the wood working skills that her father…my grandfather…had taught her a few centuries ago.
“Oh, that reminds me,” Julie abruptly told me with a broad grin. “I picked up a few more things for our costumes…”
“Costumes?” Shannon asked, giving us both curious looks.
“They’ve been going to fantasy and comic book conventions for years,” Dani explained with a faint chuckle. “And they always go in costume…”
“We’re going to a convention next month,” I explained with a grin, definitely excited about going. After all, this would be the first convention that Julie and I had gone to since becoming Val Kyr, and we were both eager to show off our new bodies…and how well our costumes would look on us. “It’s going to be a blast…”
“Why don’t you both just wear your armor?” Dani asked. “I’d think that would look impressive enough…”
“That’s just cheating,” Julie responded with a dismissive snort.
“The point is to go in costume,” I explained. “Not in something we wear all the time.”
“I see,” Lindrell commented with a faint smile. “So, what kind of costumes will you be wearing?”
“I’m going as Batgirl,” Julie exclaimed excitedly.
“Supergirl,” I added with a grin.
This was the first time I’d be able to go to a convention as a girl, and I was really looking forward to it. Well, I had done crossplay once before, but this was the first time I actually had the right body for a sexy girl costume. I was going to totally rock the spandex.
Julie and I talked about our costume plans for a few more minutes while Lindrell, Dani, and Shannon all looked vaguely amused. Once Julie and I realized that the others weren’t really that interested, we finally dropped the conversation, at least for the time being.
I smiled as I sank down into the water, all the way up to my neck, enjoying just how nice the warm water felt. It felt so good to just sit there, soaking while being surrounded by those I cared for…by my family.
When I’d first come to Val Halla, it had only been to save my life, and it hadn’t even been intentional on my part. And on that day, I’d lost nearly everything I knew and cared about. I’d lost my girlfriend, my dad, my body, and even my own identity. At the time, I hadn’t imagined that I’d ever get used to this new life.
But to my surprise, it hadn’t taken long before I learned that I’d gained far more than I’d ever lost. I’d discovered a new world, a world of nightmares and wonder, where things from myth and legend really existed. I’d found a strength, power, and confidence that I’d only imagined myself capable of in my wildest dreams. And in these things, I’d also uncovered an ancient and worthy purpose that I was honored to dedicated my life to.
Of course, being converted and coming to Val Halla had also led to my finding the mother I’d never known, the father I’d thought was lost to me forever, distant relatives I’d never known existed, and even the kinds of friends I could literally trust with my life. I now lived a live that I never would have imagined possible for me, yet one I wouldn’t surrender for anything. And though there were unbelievable dangers and fears, I would never give up my new life among the Val Kyr.
The End