Chapter 15:

I made my way into the hall, grabbing a tankard of ale and looking for my friends. In a few minutes, I found a table with only Mark and Hugo sitting there eating some chicken breasts rolled in ham and bacon. I walked up to the table, and Mark looked up and smiled, "How's it going?"

Returning the greeting, I sat down and set my drink on the table. "You've seen Rolo or Jonas?"

Hugo shook his head wordlessly, and Mark said, "Nah, I've only been here a few minutes, though, so surprised you're here this early? Normally you take a little bit longer."

I shrugged, "I don't understand how Bjorn keeps getting here ahead of me. He always gets further."

When Rolo and maybe Jonas showed up, I would tell them that Bjorn moved on. The two of them just shrugged, not wanting to question the magic of this place. No one had been willing to question, and I hadn't even thought of it until recently. Still, I was getting used to pretending like everything was normal again.

"You think Jonas moved on?" I asked.

After a couple of moments of silence, Hugo shrugged. Mark said, "Is it a good chance? I think he got to 11 last time. But at the beginning of a new weapon, there are always a few people who manage to dominate with their already high proficiency and improved stats. It will be a week or so before the rest of us normal folk have a chance."

I just grunted. "I'd never actually met anyone who moved on, at least not that I know of," I said. "Hard to say what happens afterward."

"Yeah," Mark nodded. "You shouldn't know. At least Yixin won't tell me anything,"

I asked. "Who?"

"Ah, My Valkyrie."

"Huh? Mine's named Mary," I said.

He gave me a grin. "Funny, right? How we come from everywhere. I kinda thought Valkyries would be Nordic. Imagine my surprise when the Chinese angel introduced herself as a Valkyrie."

"Yeah, yeah. It's weird. It's not as weird as dying, I bet, though. I expected more people, honestly, but there are a lot less modern people than I would think." I said, thinking about how everyone around us was mostly from a thousand years before my time. Our group was odd. Bjorn had been the only prototypical Valhalla denizen in the group. His taking those who looked totally lost under his wing might have had something to do with why he was the only one.

"Well, not many people die in battle anymore, at least not in our time. Not in honorable combat," Mark said. Hugo didn't say anything but was looking at the door and waved. Either that, or modern people didn't know how to fight with melee weapons and were all out freezing in the cold. But no one voiced that.

He turned and saw Rolo coming. When he sat down, we exchanged greetings.

With everyone now here, I took a deep breath and gathered everyone's attention by raising my hand. Raising my cup in a toast, I announced, "Bjorn moved on!"

The other three met my toast with ones of their own. After we all had drank to his victory, we put our cups down, and the questions came.

"How did you know?" Mark said.

"I lost to him in the 12th round," I said with a cocky smile. Feeling like I could brag a little. I had made it that far, after all.

"Damn, bro," Mark and Rolo both said in an eerie echo of each other.

"That's impressive. I only got to the ninth round myself," Rolo said.

"Seen Jonas?" I asked.

"Nah, he probably made it through too. You know, he and Bjorn were both really close in skill with the halberd. If one of them moved on, then the other probably did as well." Mark said. We shared another toast for Jonas.

Rolo nodded along, "Well, now we're going to look for you to teach us with both our instructors gone."

I shook my head, "I don't know what the hell I'm doing."

"You got to the 12th round, dude. Clearly, you have some idea." Rolo protested.

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"Yeah, I got lucky," and I repeated my excuse of fighting people who were injured almost the entire way after the melee.

"Yeah, well, I don't know. It still takes a lot to get there."

"Listen, man, I'll help train with you, but I'm not going to be able to teach you anything," I said, and they shrugged but kept teasing me a bit more.

Honestly, I was a bit concerned. I didn't want to let them down too much. However, I really didn't have anything to teach them. Not yet, but I might be able to get something. I was due a talk with Loki. I can't believe that bastard put me up against my friend, forcing me to choose between my mentor and my ability to get out.

That was messed up. I knew he didn't have the best reputation, and I definitely had some gut feelings that he was a bit slimy… But I just didn't get what he gained from this. Was he trying to get more out of me? I supposed that was it if he wanted to force me to pay him more. But honestly, I hadn't really paid him too much. Nothing he had asked for was too harsh. I can't imagine it being so beneficial, I suppose. Maybe there's something he had in mind for me. But at the same time, I bet I'd be much more useful to him once I had gotten to Valhalla proper instead of being stuck here.

The conversation drifted around me as I considered what I would do. I'd go talk to Loki and see what he had to say, and if I didn't like it, I would consider our partnership over. I wasn't going to work with someone who would mess with me so openly. But then, having made my decision, I rejoined the conversation and ribbed Rolo about the time he got his boat capsized while sailing with his niece. It seemed he had died sometime in the 60's, around when I was born.

Even Hugo put in a few words now that the talkative Jonas and boisterous Bjorn weren't dominating the conversation. Turns out he had been mute before he made it to Valhalla, and speaking was still weird for him. He had been here a little bit, but he was picking things up quickly, learning to speak. It took a lot of time and effort, and I could tell by looking at his face that he was more than happy just sitting and talking, but he didn't want to make us feel too estranged.

We carried the conversation but were always willing to rope him in. Rolo was insistent that Hugo should have told them, and they would have been helping him learn how to speak. Hugo seemed embarrassed, so I pulled the conversation back towards other things.

Throughout the conversation, I worked on pushing the boundaries to see what sort of mental fog was blocking them from talking about Valhalla's weirdness. Talking about the women and where they are in the afterlife got very little traction. But talking about women we had known definitely worked.

Hugo even had a wife at one point in his previous life, whereas Rolo liked to brag about his body count. Mark just kind of winked and nodded, but the conversation got a little bit sad when we talked about those we left behind and if we'd ever see them again. But strangely enough, that thread of conversation never made it toward if we might find them here in the afterlife.

I really couldn't imagine what else would be different between us besides the brand. Somehow, my mind stayed clear the whole time. I decided to show them it and see if they had any ideas. Maybe they knew of something like it or had been offered something themselves. I hadn't seen anything about it, but with how they were glossing over things, I figured the worst that could happen was that they didn't notice or didn't care.

"Have any of you seen anyone wearing a tattoo?" I asked, wanting confirmation from all of them. They all shook their heads. "Have you heard anything about the gods?"

"The gods?" Rolo asked.

"Yeah," I said. "You know, we're in Valhalla, the halls of Odin." They looked at each other, confused.

"Oh. What does it have to do with anything?" Mark asked.

"I mean, you'd think we'd see or talk to gods or anything like that," I said, and they all looked dubious.

"I don't know about this whole gods thing. Just because the afterlife is called Valhalla and there are Valkyries doesn't mean the Norse gods are real,"

I said, looking at them like they're crazy." Really? That isn't enough to make you question?"

This time, it seemed to get through to them, the fog not falling on their eyes the way it did when I brought up other peculiarities. Perhaps this was not a forbidden topic, just one that people hadn't considered.

"Yeah, you know, now that you mention it, that does make sense," Mark said. "I hadn't considered what brought us here. Perhaps it was the gods."

"And?" I inquired.

"What does that have to do with tattoos?" Mark asked.

I rolled up my sleeve and put my arm on the table. "Have you ever seen anything like this before?" I asked.

"What a tattoo," Mark said, looking at the clear brand burned into the flesh of my arm. "Yeah, of course, I've seen those. But how do you manage to get it to stick after each death? All my tattoos disappeared when I showed up here."

"Not here," Hugo said in his halting voice, looking at my jester's Hat brand. Mark and Rolo both shook their heads. I rolled back my sleeve, hiding it again.

"Well, I guess you'll find out if you talk to any gods. Be cautious." They seemed all too willing to talk about something else. I just hoped they would be able to remember my warning if they did run into gods. The conversation moved on as we started talking about halberd techniques this time.

I had a feeling that maybe part of the reason Bjorn was willing to bring all of us futuristic people from his perspective and talk to us might have been because he might have had a brain, too. But that was only pure speculation. If he did, he didn't give me any sign and wasn't willing to talk about any of the forbidden topics with me. So, I felt it was best to play my cards close to my chest and see what would happen once I finally made it out of this place.

If I made it to round 12, well, it shouldn't be that much longer, right?