Thunder cracks in the distance.

Sweiza looks up. Her eyes adjust to the moonlight. Wait, moonlight? Her left hand instinctively raises to shield her eyes from the light of more lightning. She can see stars veiled through the nightsky. There are clouds, but they appear as dense fog. How is this possible?

The stars. They look beautiful. She can see the rings of the planet Avalan. Several of the moons are out. One is a half moon, but it is the crescent moon that is of interest; there are two other moons behind it.

A smirk creeps up on Sweiza’s face.

“I wouldn’t be smirking right now.”

Sweiza turns around to the familiar voice.

“And just where have you been? There were those two men and… oh goddess…”

Demi’s head nods with closed eyes and crossed arms. “They are using the lighthouse…” He motions with his hand below them, “…to capture the moonlight for some kind of experiment.”

Sweiza’s hands drop in surprise. She looks down at the lighthouse and fumbles in the air. She can’t quite get use to hovering in this dreamstate. “How do you know this is true?”

Demi nods once more. “I can feel the rhythm and momentum of the moonlight in my… I mean your armor. I think they are trying to open somekind of gateaway. I’m not sure how…”

Demi’s train of thought is interrupted as he looks up at the sky and sees multiple auroras appear. A red one is easily discernible as Salmira’s aurora; however the other colors of yellow and a bright orange make no sense; Avalan doesn’t typically have these colors of aurora.

Demi’s ears perk, as do Sweiza’s, at the sound of several voices. Sweiza struggles to find the voices’s origin.

Her attention jumps to the glowing moons as a narrow beam of light jumps from them to the light house. There is a flash. A beam of light shoots from the lighthouse to Demi. He is thrown backwards as it hits him. He regains his footing. However, he is starting to fade to black.

“Demi!”

Sweiza runs towards him as he finally vanishes. The scenery and landscape soon follows and she is brought back to the land of the living.

—

Sweiza’s eyes bolt open. Right away she knows something isn’t right. She can feel her hands behind her, but she can’t move them. Something is binding them together. The same with her feet, but her legs are spread apart; they have something holding them down.

Her mind rushes, could they have… no, she’s in a sitting position and her head is slouched forward. She pulls her head up. Her neck is sore. Is she in a chair?

She can feel something wrapped around her mouth. She has a hard time breathing through her nose. She can feel the familiar texture of a burlap bag on her face.

At this point she has a fairly good idea of what happened. She’s been gagged with a sack over her head and bound to a chair. She’s not going to be much good in this position.

She doesn’t chance moving much so as not to draw attention to ‘wherever’ she is, but she suddenly freezes when she hears voices. She struggles to make out what they are saying, they do not sound happy.

“…get.”

“…disect to…”

“…dra…”

“…elis…”

“…cryst…”

“…serable…”

She can’t make out what they are saying. She wiggles around to test her bindings. She can hear the legs of a chair, but it is no use. She is careful not to fall over in said chair, but this time she moves around more vigorously. Perhaps the bindings around her are not too tight. It is no use. They are not slack. She is just thankful they are not chains.

“Sera!”

Sweiza’s head perks up. She recognize’s Sprite’s voice.

“You’re in a real one now.” His voice seems chipper, if not worried. “I’ll…”

There is a metal latch and sliding of metal in the distance. She can hear Sprite’s wings start to beat furiously and then the sound ceases. She has an idea and lets her head slump forward and her body go slack. Hopefully Sprite has hidden himself well. The creek of a door on bad hinges and then a noise of something hitting something else. She hears footsteps. She keeps her body slack, but remains frozen. She can feel something push the burlap bag into her head. She rolls her head with the motion. She can hear a slight hum to the other side of her head.

She hears a rustling.

There is a hum to the other side of her head. She doesn’t know what it is. She can feel her heart rate pick up. The humming stops. She can hear rustling again.

Her head snaps when she feels a sharp pain to the opposite side. She winces from the pain as she sees stars in front of her otherwise covered eyes. She resists the urge to cry out in pain. This isn’t the time. She’s in real danger now.

“For you sake, you better not wake up. He’s not as lenient as I am.”

It is a man’s voice.

She hears a shoe shuffle against the ground and then footsteps departing from her location; they walk back towards the direction of the door. They stop. She can only assume the ‘man’ has turned around to stare at her. Perhaps he is trying to inspect her? She doesn’t know for certain. She hears the foosteps of stairs and then the creek of a door and then metal sliding. At this point she assumes she is in some kind of shed or basement.

Sprite’s voice pipes up lower than normal, but with some excitement, “I’ll take care of the ropes.”

She knows what he means. He’s going to bite through them with his teeth.

She tries to speak, but it comes out muffled. She forgot about the gag around her mouth.

She feels part of the rope around her left hand loosen; it finally goes slack and her hand is free. He must remember which is her dominant hand. She reaches her hand up to the bag and rips it off as fast as she can.

She still can’t see. She can feel her chest bringing in more air; her heartrate increases. She slowly reaches up to her eyes. She feels something covering them. It feels like some kind of cloth. She pulls up on it. It definitely is a cloth. To her horror as she pulls up on it she still can’t see.

Sprite’s voice chimes in, “Cool it! It’s just a blindfold!”

She can hear his beating wings next to her ear. He must have flown up to her head?

She tries to speak, but again it comes out muffled. She reaches up to the gag and pulls it down. She feels her right hand suddenly break free from the rope. Was it tied to the chair?

“Sprite, you’re a darling. Where are we?” She says it in a low but playful tone.

She suddenly sees him glowing blue in front of her.

“Some kind of basement.” She sees him fly down to the ground. He literally bites into the ropes near her leg. Outside of the dull blue light, she feels her eyes strain, but fail to see anything around her.

“No windows?” She tries to assess their situation.

Sprite flies up to her face and shakes his head. He flies back down and the left rope breaks free.

Sweiza wiggles her foot on instinct. She can feel herself smile. She is glad this little one is her friend. For once the troublemaker is helping her ‘out’ of trouble.

She says nothing as he tends to the binding on her other foot. She starts making plans. They’re going to need to escape. Surt hasn’t come by looking for them; he would have most likely caused a racket if not burned the whole building down (she thinks) if he did anything at all. It is most likely before noon. Strife is probably still on the sloop (single masted ship). She (Sweiza) can probably send Sprite to fetch her if she is awake; it would probably take him about a quarter of an hour to get there and then Strife a halfhour… wait, how far inland are they?

She remembers the dream.

“Sprite how far inland are we?” Her voice sounds unusually kind to him.

He doesn’t question it, “Not far. Beyond some trees. You saw the lighthouse?”

“I can’t see as well as you in the dark, you know that.”

He flies up to her face. A smile creeps on his face as he claps his hands together. The glow coming from him brightens. “How’s this?”

“Dewey, you’re a darling, please light the way!”

Sprite takes a second to react at the use of his name; it’s not often she uses it. He nods once and starts flying around the room. The walls illuminate with a dull and dim blue afterglow. She sees different tools that she can’t identify. It is the different gears and cogs that get her attention. Her mind shifts back to Sprite’s words about the lighthouse; she remembers seeing one in a dream. Didn’t Demi say that it was being used as a beacon? What kind? She remembers the moonbeam touching the lighthouse. Maybe something to do with the dreamworld?

Didn’t Salmira say that there were people kidnapping others and using them fore experiments? What kind of experiments? The words, “A fate far worse than death awaits you.” flash through her mind. She shudders and cups her left hand around her right wrist and rubs it. She has better things to do than die, and refuses to be a victim of fate. Perhaps this is what it means to be a Valkyrie; she doesn’t care, she’s getting out of here. She stops herself. These two are kidnapping people. Didn’t Salmira say something about the future and fate? She clicks her tongue and curses her luck.

Her attention focuses back on Sprite flying around the walls. They are clearly cinder blocks of some sort. He circles the room a few times, hovering here and there on occasion before carrying on. He flies back up to her and shrugs. “No windows, no exits.”

Sweiza looks at the door. She kicks the ground once in frustration.

“Sprite, I know this is asking a lot of you…” She tries to sound cheerful, but knows what his reaction will be.

He flies up enthusiastically.

“…how soon can you eat and digest your way through those bricks?” She points at an area towards the ceiling and the wall. She knows it is coming.

His enthusiasm fades.

He flies up to her and crosses his arms and turns his head away from her.

“You remember all of the honey and sweet things on the ship?” She tries to sound enthusiastic to him.

His head slowly comes around and one of his eyes opens at her. “What about it?”

“I’ll also need you to get Strife. I don’t know if she’ll be awake. Oh, I hope she is… You’ll need to eat through her ropes. Send her here, you can stay back at the ship then Dewey. I’m sure you’ll have a tummy ache.” She tries to say the last part as nice as possible.

“Dewey, I need you.”

His other eye opens and he narrows both of them at her. “I can have whatever sweet things I want?”

Sweiza nods.

“Deal!” Is all he says. He flies to the opposite side of the room and literally darts into the area where the ceiling and wall meet.

To Sweiza, it looks like the wall is starting to melt due to a blue orb. She resists the urge to muse to herself. In reality Sprite is changing the properties of the cinder blocks by channeling some unforeseen force into them through his body and hands. Every bite to him is a satisfying crunch; but he knows (as does as Sweiza) all to well he will need to be quick before the inevitable sluggishness and stomachache set in.

It takes some minutes for him to finish the job.

He flies up to her. “Dig.”

“Oh, come on!”

Sprite shakes his head. “I’m not eating dirt. I still have to make it over water.”

Sweiza’s head tilts as she lets out a sigh. She looks up towards the hole in the wall. It’s dim shape is illuminated only by Sprite. It looks big enough she can fit through it. She looks down at the shelf below it. She should be able to get to the hole if she uses the chair.

She needs something.

She tries her best to remember if she ever kept a shovel in her rucksack, which would now be an item ‘within her being.’ She doesn’t remember. There might be an easier solution. She whisks her hand out at arm length and wills a shovel to appear in her hand. Nothing happens.

“Ah!” She is so disappointed in herself for not being prepared.

“Sprite, be a dear. I need a shovel.”

He flies up to her with curious eyes. She waves her hand at him. He nods once and slowly flies from one shelf to the next to find something she might be looking for. He suddenly stops and flies back up to her. He starts motioning towards one of the shelves. She follows him back. He hovers in front of one of the layers of shelving. His glow illuminates an odd looking tool. It appears to be a large flat knife, but it has several notches in it. She grimaces at it and cocks her eyesbrows up at him.

“Whatever.”

“You promised, sweetthings.”

“We need to get out of her first.”

“Sweetthings!”

She ignores him and heads back for the chair.

Sweiza motions with the knife towards Sprite. He flies up to her. She motions towards the hole in the wall, now visible due to Sprite being closer.. He flies up next to it. She drags the chair over and props it up on the shelf with some difficulty. She had best be careful, or it might fall off. She thinks about how the man from earlier might react if he hears a noise. She dismisses it. It’s more important to escape.

She has an unsteady stance on the chair with it leaning against the wall; her frontside leaning against the wall isn’t much better. She hooks and claws at the open dirt in the wall with the notched tool. She sniffles from the dust; she forces herself to continue at a faster pace. This time she covers her mouth and nose. Her nose runs and she still coughs. She muffles it as good as she can. She can feel her eyes starting to water. She keeps at it. She needs to get out. She -wants- to get out.

She digs and digs and digs with every ounce of her being. Eventually the minutes pass; twenty minutes and she breaks the surface of dirt with some difficulty. No plants or grass roots to break through, so it must be sand or some kind of clay. Another ten minutes and she has a hole big enough to get herself through. She doesn’t bother dusting herself off. She throws the tool up through the hole and then pushes her hands through; the hole is just barely big enough for her to wiggle through, but she is lean enough to make it happen. It takes some difficulty as she pulls and wiggles herself through. She hmeets more resistance in clearing the hole. Her shoulders finally break through and she pushes with all of her being to pull the rest of herself through. After a few minutes the job is done..

She is tired and gasping for air. Her eyes sting. She looks down at the ground and sees the tool. She kicks it out of the way. She looks up at the sky once. She can see the three moons in alignment through the trees; they match the way they looked in her dream. It’s an omen; she used to call it ‘triple moon’. Her running nose catches her attention. She holds her fingers up to one nostril and blows.

“Gross!” Sprite flies up in front of her. “You’re messy!”

Sweiza does the same to the other nostril and wipes her nose with her hand and then to her pants. Sprite looks down at it absolutely bewildered. “Messy!”

Sweiza then dusts herself off. She crosses her arms and falls back to the wall of the building behind her. She lets herself slide down and to the ground. Her breathing slows after some minutes.

“Sprite, please get Strife.” She says it weakly at him.

He flies up to her once, nods and then takes off.

She follows his flight path until he disappears behind the building.

She follows the wall until she sees the ground. There is a small area of dirt circling the building. There is grass further out. She got lucky. Whoever maintains it, goes to some effort to keep it looking nice.

She cranes her back and head around and looks up at the wall. It is brick. It extends some range up. She assume’s this is the lighthouse, or at least the base of it.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

At this point she knows she has work to do, but she feels weak. If she falls asleep now it could cost her. She lets her body slack into a sitting position and rests for a spell until she catches her breath.

This is going to be a long night.

Wait…

She thought she was out for only a few hours. It is past noon and well into the night; why didn’t Surt come to fetch her? She’ll need to have a word with him about that.

But for now, resting comes first.

—-

After about ten minutes the girl is well enough to start her mission. First by exploring. She has no way of scaling the wall of the lighthouse; at least not easily. Perhaps with some rope and a grappling hook. She snaps her fingers. She extends her hand and wills the hook into existence. It doesn’t work. She remembers always keeping one in her rucksack; why isn’t it working? She shakes her hand again, and nothing. She tries a third time, same affect. She snaps her lips once in contempt and turns around and looks up at the wall. It is looks much taller and more foreboding than before. Her small hook and rope wouldn’t make it anyway.

Climbing a tree is out of the question, it might leave her exposed. Could someone see her from them? She could creep along the walls, but might encounter the same problem. She remembers these games of hide and seek from her youth. She chooses to hide amidst the trees; she chooses to bolt towards them crouched to the ground. It is an odd crouched run and something she is not used to. She feels so useless, but at the same time embarrassed. Does Strife also have to do stuff like this as a Valkyrie? Good grief!

She circles the perimeter of the lighthouse a few times using the trees. It isn’t particularly big. There is a red tower some two hundred feet in the air, but the tower isn’t very wide, maybe forty feet at the base at best. She thinks the basement is probably all of that. She spies the front of the lighthouse as having several rooms. This must be the living quarters. She does note the lighthouse does having a working light. She wonders if it is enchanted or not.

She freezes when she sees the front door open. She ducks down behind a tree trunk. She hears their voices again. It is the same ones from before. She thinks better of staying crouched and drops flat to her belly. They walk in their original travel path without noticing her. She waits for several minutes and nothing happens. She looks up to the thing in front of her and feels her hair stand on end.

“I hate spiders.” She says it to no one in particular.

She shoos it away with her hand (being gentle so as not to kill it) and waits a few more minutes grounded on her belly.

They do not come back.

She uses this chance and is up to her knees. At first she breaks into a stride while still crouched over. She admits this is stupid to herself, she’s out in the open. She runs quickly to the entrance of the building. The entrance door is weird; it has clear glass built into the frame. She can see inside. She peaks through it once, but only sees another door - this one doesn’t have glass on the inside. Is this like a lobby? She takes one look back towards the clearing in front of her. It must weave, she cannot see the beach. Both doors click behind her.

She still gives her rear one last look and quickly realizes her mistake once inside. She bolts her head around and is dumbfounded at what she sees. There is what she can only describe as a transparent triangle in front of her, but she has to look at it several times to understand what she is looking at. It looks more like a pyramid. It is slowly rotating at the base. It is big, easily ten feet from one corner of the base to the top and then some; it seems to be perfectly symmetrical. She resists the urge to step forward, but does it anyway. She hears the floor creek under her; she looks down. It is wood. She looks back up. The pyramid is still rotating; she realizes the base is a couple of inches from the floor. More importantly, there are smaller versions of it - some several inches, to a foot in size, that are floating around the thing. They are -all- ‘floating’ and they all appear to be transparent.

“Enchanted?” She asks the question to herself. If there was someone here, they would have heard her by now.

She walks up to it. She knows better than to touch strange things, but it is definitely radiating some kind of energy. Thae temptation is there. Papa would never approve, she needs to be a good girl; she shakes the temptation off. She wanders around the room a bit. The transparent pyramids continue to rotate; but as she gets closer she notes they make a distinct harmonic hum. She gets closer to the smaller one; the hum is slightly different than the larger one. She tries blowing at it once, but nothing happens. She shrugs. How disappointing. Maybe she’s not in as much trouble as she thought. Maybe. Best to keep her guard up.

Towards the right side of the room she sees no windows. She does see towards the back middle of the room there is an odd mix of desk and angled counter with a chair behind it. It looks funny to her. She sees a door behind it. She stifles her curiosity and goes for the less offensive door to the right of it. She opens the door carefully without so much as a noise. She feels her hairs stand on end when she hears it creek open. She lets out an audible ‘eep!’. She claps both hands on her cheeks and tells herself to get it together. She finally peaks inside the room. She sees a few beds, clothing and a closet. She quickly shuffles her way to the closet and peaks inside. More clothing. She rummages through the ‘bedroom’. She finds nothing except for stuff like personal items - combs, tobacco, ‘adult’ magazines… she wrinkles her nose at that last one. So typical of men. Why not have the real thing?

She shakes her head in disappointment after investigating the room. Some detective she is. What would Strife say about such a poor Valkyrie that turns back with no results? She dismisses the thought. She makes sure everything is as it was before her ‘digging’. She closes the door behind her. It creeks. This time she is ready for it and gives it a ‘shh’ with her finger to her mouth. It seems her childish ways will always come back. She stops at the pyramids again. She eyes them up and down once. They’ll be the last thing she investigates, but she needs something to poke them with first.

She heads for the room behind the desk. She finds herself in a galley of sorts. Rather, it is a small makeshift kitchen. There is a sink. It does have running water. The cupboards are full of food. There is nothing unusual about it. Further back are a set of stairs. They taper off in two directions. One direction leads up in what she assumes is the lighthouse, the other the basement. She sees a lantern next to the lower door. She looks at the door and sees the latch. She fiddles with it once. It makes the same noise from before. No point in checking that one out.

She heads up the stairs. It is several flights, she doesn’t bother keeping track. After a good few minutes she is at the top. Where she is expecting a lighthouse beacon, she sees a similar transparent pyramid. This one is upside down with the base towards the roof. It is slowly rotating. She sees the moons reflect off of it. She turns in the opposite direction and sees them. She swears she can see a beam of light. Just her imagination. She claps her cheeks again. Her left cheek still a little sore from earlier from the man punching her.

Down the flight of stairs again.

Towards the left side of the building she sees a large portrait window with curtains in front of it. It looks to be more modern with metal edging. Her hands are soon feeling it. It is definitely metal. Weird.

She jumps back when she sees a pair of orbs flutter into existence. They have cat eyes. She stairs at them once. Are they a pair of eyes? They glow at her with the strangest yellow she has ever seen. She grimaces at it once. She will not be spooked by some vigilante or enchantment.

…or perhaps it is some kind of guardian beast. She doesn’t know. She didn’t see it before and quickly dismisses the idea of it being able to get inside; it would have done so by now. She sticks her tongue out at it and flips her finger to her eyelid at it. The curtains are quickly pulled over the portrait window and she makes her way to a door on the backside of the wall. She opens it. Paydirt.

She sees a small room that looks like a lab. It is completely white; there are white coats on the side of the wall. Several shelves with containers and test tubes and different colored liquids capture her attention. She’s heard of mad scientists conducting experiments, and perhaps that is what Salmira meant about these two men. She focuses on the other wall. There are more of those strange floating shapes (cubes, triangles, spheres, etc) rotating in the different directions. She chooses not to investigate them. Something tells her it is a bad idea. She leaves the room and the door follows suite with a close. This one doesn’t creek.

She lets out a breath.

She is back in front of the pyramid. Her curiosity finally gets the better of her and she touches it. It reverberates with a hum as many different colors alternate over its different faces; it moves back slightly by an inch and then moves back into position. The other pyramids do the same with a reverberating hum, alternating color sequence, and shift of movement. All of the pyramids reverberate a different harmonic hum before returning to their original tune. The ‘master’ pyramid finally stops rotating. Inside it shows a picture of the lighthouse, but the scenery is different. It shows snow on the ground and frost covering the trees. Almost on instinct, she touches it again. As the same reaction before, a different hum, color patterns and a shift in position; the smaller pyramids do the same. This time the view is of the light house in the autumn. She now has a hunch. Same steps as before and it shows the lighthouse in the summer. She gets the idea. Her hunch is if what Salmira says is true, “future generations” depend on stopping ‘these two’ (individuals), then these pyramids are like a ‘scriving mirror’, but allow people to communicate through time.

“That doesn’t explain why they are kidnapping people…” She mutters it to no one in particular. She muses in thought with her arms crossed. Can these pyramids do more than just predict the future? She chooses to picture ‘Demi’ in her mind. She stoops over at the master pyramid and flicks it with her finger once. This time it does something different. Another triangle, this one upside down appears in it. She steps back. The two triangles start to rotate independent in opposite directions of each other. They start to speed up. The pyramids around the master pyramid follow suite. They make a whirring noise they are moving so fast. She doesn’t know what she did, but she doesn’t like it. She starts to back up. She shakes her head and tells herself to stand her ground. If she’s going to be a Valkyrie, she better act the part.

She stands there a few more seconds with her arms crossed. The pyramids start to slow down. They do not freely rotate this time, but almost move back and forth while rotating. All of them finally stop rotating all together and give a different and strange hum compared to before. She peeks into the pyramid. She sees Demi staring back at her.

“Sera, behind you!”

Sweiza turns around at Demi’s warning too late. She turns around and her spirits sink. She sees two supernatural beasts staring her down. One a man built like a bat with the face of one and his arms paired with wings the same; the other what she would expect from a werewolf.

“What do you two want?” She says it defiantly as if she has done nothing wrong.

The manbat looks at the werewolf. “I told you she’d be trouble.”

The werewolf looks at the manbat, “So it seems.”

They are approaching her now.

She shrinks as she walks backwards, “What are you going to do?”

The werewolf seems to be the original instigator in how he speaks, “You will not have to worry about it for long.”

Sweiza takes one step forward in defiance and holds her hands forward. Her armor and sword doesn’t appear. She swings her hands once as if to summon both again. Nothing happens.

The manbat lets out a chuckle at her. Sweiza turns around and breaks into a run towards the bedroom. She is tackled before she makes it three feet.

Her screams fill the room as she is repeatedly manhandled and frisked. She is finally bound and gagged to the chair behind the desk.

After all that she feels as if the life will drain from her. The two men in front of her continue to talk to each other. They appear to be talking about her, but she cannot make out what they are saying. It will probably be a punishment, or worse the end of her. How could this have happened?

She winces from the bruise on her face as her body slouches forward and her head slacks. She sees the two men are facing the pyramid. Demi’s silhouette is visible in it. All the good he did. Maybe those pyramids could have brought him to this world or acted as a way for her armor to communicate. She doesn’t know. She can feel the life continuing to drain from her. She can’t figure out why. Is this going to be her end? What a stupid way to go!

Just as she finally feels ready to pass out, she hears the two men suddenly stop talking. They alert to something and whisper something she can’t make out. One of them nods and they walk around the master pyramid. There is yelling. She swears she recognizes the voice, but her mental faculties are too far gone. She sloops forward. Not like this. “I still have too much to live for…” the thoughts erode from her mind as she finally sloops forward to the sound of yelling and screaming. However, at this point she’s too far gone to make out who it is. Her body slackens as the last of her life is drained from her…

—

Muffled voices.

She feels a dull ache in her body. She tries to move, her muscles feel weak. Her eyes finally shutter open slowly and she blinks. Her vision is groggy. Light from a lantern greets her. She sees the shape of two people hovering over her. She tries to jolt herself to a sitting position, but her body doesn’t respond. She finally hears a voice yelling.

“Lady Strife, she’s awake!”

She hears the familiar voice of Strife from above deck. Her positioning becomes known, she’s back on the ship. Her back tells her she is in the bed. Another ache and then a tremor hits her. Her vision slowly returns to normal with each blink. A man with a beard, glasses and a funny hat is to the left side of the bed hovering over her. He seems familiar. The person to her right she doesn’t recognize; but he has elven ears. His skin is light. He must be from Vanir or Alfgard. The elf eared man raises his voice again towards the stairs. Strife’s voice again. Strife is soon down below deck. She ushers the two men away; they bow at her before dismissing themselves above deck. Strife walks over and gentle-like sits in the chair previously occupied by the bearded man. She peaks down over at Sweiza.

“How are you feeling?” She has a smile on her face.

“I feel like Spr… Dewey after he eats too much.” Sweiza has a feeling it was a combined effort that got them to this point. Perhaps Sprite is in need of more respect than she gives him credit for.

“Good. It means you are back with us. You were passed out.” Strife seems to be delighted by something.

“I think so. How long?” Sweiza lets it out of her throat, it feels weak still.

“A couple of days.” Strife is definitely wearing a smile at the girl.

“What?” Sweiza lets out a light cough, more for effect.

“Well down Vorkera. The Valhall Militia has been hunting those two outlaws for years.” Strife raises her hand to Sweiza’s shoulder and nudges it lightly.

“What do you mean?”

“Desil and Alcon are wanted fugitives in crimes of high treason, among other things conspiring against the Kingdom of Valhalla and plotting to overthrow Lord Odin.”

Sweiza’s eyes open wider at the woman.

“That’s okay, you wouldn’t know. I’m sure you are wondering what happened, yes?” Strife gives her another nudge on the shoulder. Sweiza nods, then further pulls herself into bed. Strife seems not to notice the last motion.

Strife stands up. There is a type of giddiness in her voice. Her movements are almost childlike with enthusiasm. “When your spritekin found me, I had been up for an hour or two. He seemed pretty weak. Perhaps those men chased him?”

She looks down at Sweiza. Sweiza lets out a smirk and a light chuckle, but nods again at Strife.

“…anyway, like all spritekin, he put that hunger of his to work. He had my blessing of the honey stores and I was off.” Strife looks down at the girl. “There was no boat, and my wings were still exhausted from that ordeal in Jotunher, so I made a dashing show of it and swam to shore. It was a good swim. It reminded me of my school days. Anyway, I saw the boat at the shore. I saw your footsteps in the sand. There was another set that approached; yours disappeared, and then the two footsteps walked back towards the clearing. I saw the lighthouse in the distance. It only made sense. I had my armor on in a heartbeat. I found Surt waiting outside just in front of the door. He said he saw you through the large window, but you preferred to handle things on your own…”

Sweiza looks up at the ceiling lightly and then to Strife. That would explain the eyes attached to the supernatural beast. It wasn’t some killer demon serving as a guard. Her imagination sometimes, she swears. Strife continues, “…after Surt gave me a description of the two, I had a feeling who we were dealing with. Two scientists were ejected from the kingdom due to their hearsay and dabbling in the forbidden occult and enchanted.”

Strife’s eyes are glazed over as if she is in love. “Those two had gained some notoriety in those kinds of affairs. They were also rumored to be ‘enhancing’ individuals with berserker like traits. Not that they were as strong as a berserker; my blade felled them easily enough.” Strife’s body tremors and then visibly shakes. She is clearly happy about something. “Regardless, alchemy is banned in the kingdom. Their ways were soon found out, but they fled before they could be brought before Odin. We’ve been hunting them for years. There have been many rumors about them throughout the kingdom since then.”

Strife again looks absolutely delighted.

“You clearly want to talk about them.” Sweiza turns her head to the ceiling. This isn’t a conversation she is sure of.

“Absolutely dear. Those two are absolutely atrocious, don’t get me wrong. But I cant help but admire their work. I can only guess how many years they were at it. They were much further along than…” Strife stops herself. She clears her throat. “Those two were rumored to be researching and conducting experiments in the occult with very illegal results. I heard rumors about shapeshifting, turning lead into gold, all manner of things where alchemy is concerned.” Strife sways back and forth with a type of grace, albeit giddy in nature, “This area around Bothnin is of particular interest to me. I had heard rumors about entire ships running aground with noone on board and entire cargo holds emptied. Naturally contraband…” Strife clears her throat once, “…such as enchanted items, will be smuggled on board, if not in the holds themselves.”

“Strife… what does this have to do with anything?” Annoyance is clear in Sweiza’s voice.

Strife stiffens herself up and clicks her heels together. She conducts her voice with more seriousness. “If I were to take a guess, these two ‘alchemists’ were in the middle of experimenting with creating the ‘Philosopher’s Stone’.”

Sweiza’s eyes widen. Even a backwater girl like her has heard legends about the mythical, yet mystical stone.

“Those two had created some interesting artifacts. I’m sure you saw the floating pyramids?”

Sweiza remembers the floating triangles. She nods.

“Well, it didn’t occur to me at first what they were. But then I remember reading some texts about certain types of enchanted items such as ‘Hypercubes’ and ‘Soul Mirrors’.”

Sweiza can slowly feel some curiosity creeping over her, “Like a ‘Scriving Mirror?’”

Strife nods enthusiastically. “Correct. After some investigating, it turns out they are activated by touch, thought, mood, voice, anything attached to an individual really; and I would wager and then some.” Strife’s voice continues to sound chipper, “…I spoke with your armor’s spirit also.”

Sweiza looks at the woman without saying anything. Strife goes on, “…a rather interesting individual. He seems to be looking out for you. Anyway, I feel these ‘Soul Mirrors’ or more accurately as they are known, ‘Tesseracts’, can be used as an omnipresent viewing angle.”

Sweiza blinks once. Strife laughs, “Meaning it can be used to view long distances in short order.”

“Oh.” Sweiza turns once again in bed and looks at the ceiling. “What does this have to do with those two?”

Both of Strife’s hands clasp together and there is giddy enthusiasm again, “If I were to hazard a guess, those two had learned the age old alchemist prize, ‘turning lead to gold’ and used it to fund mercenaries that were raiding ships. Specific cargo is sought after for fueling certain ‘experiments’, namely human beings.”

Sweiza jolts her whole body over alarmed, “What!? I didn’t see anyone!”

“Easy dear, you are still weak. After we dispatched those two, I checked the whole facility. It took me some time to figure out there were people’s forms, or rather their essence or ‘soul’ if you want to call it that, contained in those ‘Soul Mirrors’. There were nine survivors. They are on the ship with us. You saw two of them. To be mindful of it, we have a crew until we get to Bothnin, then it will be just us again.”

Sweiza blinks once while looking up at the woman, “What happened to all the other people then?”

Strife acts more serious and turns more grim, “Supposedly it takes a human will to power those kinds of devices. I’m not sure to what end. I’d have to study their research in order to know for certain.”

“Re…search?” Sweiza asks it dumbfounded. She remembers the lab, and then having what felt like the life being drained out of her… was it the pyramids?

“After they were dispatched, their dwelling and everything in it became the property of Valhalla. Naturally it will all be turned over the high lord himself, but we won’t be going that way anytime soon. There will be some time to investigate that duo’s work.”

“It’s onboard?”

Strife’s fist comes up to her mouth to block out her laugh as she nods. It comes out stifled as she points to the front of the ship, “There is a cargo hold there full of their stuff.”

Sweiza’s body and gaze shift to the front of the ship. She never thought much about it. It would explain why the room below deck always felt so small.

“There was one other thing…” Sweiza finally pops her question.

“Anything dear.” Strife beams at her, swaying from side to side.

“You said you dispatched those two…” Sweiza looks a bit forlorn at the thought.

“You were quite weak by the time I got to you. I would wager they tried to drain you of everything you had. Did you try to summon your armor with no luck?” Strife’s hand comes down to the girl’s shoulder again.

Sweiza nods. Strife’s tone changes to something serious again, “You had looked like you were in danger. I assessed the situation, they were a threat and I took action accordingly; they did -not- go with us willingly. Therefor, I acted out my role as Valkyrie. There is a reward out for them. You will get part of the bounty.”

Sweiza looks up at the woman, uninterested.

“You’ll thank yourself for this turn of events in the future, of this you can be certain. For now, get some rest, you’ve earned it.” Strife says it almost teasing before backing up a few steps towards the stairs.

“There was one other thing dear.”

Sweiza’s head sways in what little way it can on a pillow. There is more to this ‘event’? “More?”

“Yes dear. Those two had done experiments to their bodies. To what effect I don’t know, save for the animal effects. However, Surt was more than interested in the enchanted air they gave off.”

“Enchanted air? This keeps getting better and better.” Sweiza says it lightly and sarcastically.

Strife’s fist comes up to her mouth to stifle a laugh; her other hand waving at the girl dismissively. “Yes dear. They had a similar affliction to that of Lukas. Surt was more than delighted to fireball and eat them up. Nourishment and all. The two of us have been hunting members of that cult for some time.”

Sweiza blinks awkwardly at the woman. This is the same Strife from before? Good grief, she is acting so different now!

Strife clicks her heels together while holding her hands clasped together in front of her. “Vera, I am very happy fate has brought us together, Salmira or otherwise. You have been a fortunate thing indeed. Until waking, I bid you goodnight.” Strife lets out a light bow and turns around for the stairs.

Sweiza pulls her body away from the stairs and in the opposite direction. Her gaze focuses on the cargo hold at the opposite side of the room. She finally turns around and looks up at the ceiling. In her mind, in some ways, Strife is no better than this cult or Odin himself. However, she can’t deny that Strife isn’t against her (Sweiza). She’ll need to ask Salmira about it. Her last thoughts turn towards Sprite, whom she hopes is okay, and then Demi, whom she is thankful is looking out for her.

Sleep finally takes her and she sleeps blissfully without a care or worry about the journey ahead.