Chapter Ten

“Thought you’d be in bed,” Dezzy said as Violet slowly made her way through the kitchen.

“Not yet. Pey needs ice and peppermint oil,” Violet replied, opening the freezer.

“Did we interrupt?” Thor asked from his perch on the sofa in the living room.

He waggled his eyebrows suggestively as she turned to look at him.

“You’d know if you had,” Violet deadpanned, refusing to be goaded.

“Don’t you believe in victory sex?” Thor impertinently queried, bent on needling her further.

“Y’all just need ta mind your own damn business,” Peyton drawled good-naturedly from the hallway, a cocky grin gracing his features.

“What he said,” Violet agreed, slamming the ice pack on the counter several times in rapid succession to break it up into small chunks.

She handed it to Peyton as he entered the kitchen and he kissed her cheek before placing the pack on his jaw. He winced as it touched his skin. Violet snagged a clean dish towel from one of the kitchen drawers and handed that off to him. She watched in approving silence as he wrapped the pack, then put it back on his jaw. He joined Dezzy and Thor in the living room, his elbow on the arm of the sofa, his chin cradled between the ice pack and his hand.

“I figured you and Brie would be out later than this,” Violet called as she dug through the trainer kit she kept under the kitchen sink.

“Nah, she’s got finals next week so she has to study and get a good amount of sleep. We made our appearances to appease the Phenom PR goddess and give her photos for the social media promos, then I took Brie home,” Dezzy replied as Violet dug out the peppermint painkiller oil and ibuprofen from the kit.

She poured out three of the orange pills, scooped up the small bottle of oil, and snagged a few cotton balls from the kit. She placed it back under the sink and made her way toward the living room. She set the myriad items on the coffee table near Peyton, then took the seat next to him.

“Shouldn’t you have already done all this?” Thor asked, his expression overtly suspicious.

Violet ignored him, handing Peyton a water bottle and the pills. She waited for him to down them before she got to work. She dabbed some oil onto a cotton ball then gently lifted Peyton’s shirt. He assisted by tugging the waistband of his shorts down from his hip bone enough to reveal the deepening, darker bruises that marred his otherwise flawless skin.

“I wanted ta shower and relax first,” Peyton hedged, then giggled, “Hey! That’s tingly.”

“It’s the peppermint,” Violet chuckled.

“You’re putting peppermint on him?” Thor asked, standing and moving closer so he could watch her work.

“Yeah, she does it to all of us,” Dezzy added, matter-of-factly. “I gotta agree—it speeds up healing time for bruises and she mixes it with a weak topical anesthetic, so they don’t hurt as much either. That stuff is magic.”

Thor watched closely, intrigued by the oil. Violet handed the bottle to him so he could inspect it, then tugged the back of Peyton’s shirt up. She’d noticed in their earlier shared shower that he had several bruises on his back, knees, and shoulders, and a bigger contusion on his right elbow. Peyton grunted as he leaned forward, noting for the first time that evening that there was soreness in his ribs and shoulders.

“So the peppermint oil makes it heal faster? How?” Thor continued.

“Increases the circulation to the damaged area,” Dezzy nonchalantly replied, scrolling down the screen of his phone with his thumb.

“It’s not like trainers can just wave their hand over it and heal it,” Violet quipped, miming the words with her hands over one of the darker bruises on Peyton’s back as she said it.

She dabbed more oil onto the cotton ball and moved to apply it to that same bruise. She suddenly froze, staring in disbelief at Peyton’s injury. Or rather, where the bruise had previously existed.

It was gone.

“What?” Thor asked, perplexed by her reaction.

He stood and walked over, following her gaze. Violet decided to repeat the motion over another of the darkest bruises, that one about the size of a small apple.

Say “heal” quietly as you do it.

She didn’t recognize that voice either but by that point, she was used to strange people talking in her head.

“Heal,” she whispered under her breath as she ran her hand gently over Peyton’s skin.

She gasped when she pulled her hand away.

“Oh wow,” Thor breathed. “That’s a rare one.”

“What?” Peyton and Dezzy asked in unison.

“Do his jaw,” Thor challenged, backing up and crossing his arms over his chest as he watched.

Violet knelt in front of Peyton. He lowered the ice pack, turned his head, and lifted his chin so she could easily access the bruise that extended from the middle of his jaw to behind his ear. She repeated the same motion as before, whispering “heal”.

When she retracted the hand, she gasped again. Thor nodded approvingly. Dezzy abruptly stood and walked over, leaning down to inspect it.

It was completely gone as well.

Peyton clenched and unclenched his jaw, then gingerly touched it with his fingertips.

“Does it hurt?” Dezzy asked.

“Not a bit,” Peyton replied, grinning. “How’d ya do that, Vi?”

“The healing touch,” Thor quietly stated. “The only other Valkyrie to have that was killed in Ragnarok.”

Lady Eir, Gersemi’s voice whispered in Violet’s mind.

“Lady Eir,” Violet murmured.

In her mind, she saw the famed shield maiden on the battlefield. Tall and statuesque with kind, dark brown eyes and long, gently curling red hair. Her armor looked to be made of onyx and a deep purple aura hovered over its shining surface. She wielded an enormous ebony longbow inscribed with runes etched in silver. As she loosed a black-and-red-fletched arrow, the runes flared with a dark purple light. The arrow arced beautifully over the battlefield; Loki’s horrific, twisted minions savagely repelled by the Asgardian Army. It buried itself in a large mound of earth, causing no harm to anyone on the battlefield. The arrow’s path was marked by an iridescent purple, floating dome which started to disintegrate immediately. The particles flowed downward and landed only on the Asgardians.

The ones touched by the particles were instantly healed of their most grievous wounds.

Violet shook her head and blinked rapidly. She found herself seated on Peyton’s lap. His voice registered, anxious and concerned.

“Vi? Vi? Hey, darlin’. Ya still with us?”

Violet swallowed hard, her throat suddenly parched, and looked around.

“What happened?” she croaked.

“Ya blacked out and fell, but we caughtcha before ya hit,” Peyton said, softly tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear and smoothing his hand across the crown of her head.

“What did you see?” Thor asked, kneeling before her, his expression curious.

“I saw… Eir and her healing arrows, I think,” Violet groggily stated.

You need to rest, Valkyrie. You’ve pushed too hard today and used too much spirit energy. Healing energy is very taxing, Gersemi’s voice gently warned in her mind.

“You saw her?” Thor reverently whispered.

Thor stood on top of the battlements, beckoning for someone to follow. He giggled like a teenage boy doing something particularly naughty as he resumed his ridiculous tiptoeing atop the crenelated walls. A tall, willowy, decidedly female figure chased behind in a much more dignified, efficient manner, though her laughter was infectiously gleeful. It was Lady Eir.

“You… You loved her,” Violet stuttered, eyes going wide. “You loved her and she loved you.”

The edges of Violet’s vision darkened dangerously and her body went slack for a few seconds. She leaned back against Peyton, grateful as his embrace around her tightened.

“Vi? Darlin’, ya can’t keep doin’ that,” he murmured feverishly next to her ear as he pressed the back of his hand to her forehead.

He jerked his hand away as if he’d just put it on a hot stove. Dezzy knelt next to Thor and stared worriedly at Violet’s face.

“She’s burnin’ up somethin’ fierce,” Peyton hoarsely said, shifting Violet so that she sat forward.

Let her lie down. Use the ice packs, place them on her forehead, under her arms, and over her heart. We need to rest. We are playing with things we do not yet understand and the consequences are dangerous.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Dezzy and Peyton started when they heard the voice but Thor just nodded.

“That was Gersemi,” he said as he stood and offered to take her from Peyton. “The Goddess who lives within Violet. We can trust what she says. If Violet is harmed, so is Gersemi.”

Thor gently accepted Violet into his arms and carried her to the bedroom. Dezzy and Peyton grabbed several of the quick-freeze icepacks Violet kept in her kit and joined them moments later. Violet flowed in and out of consciousness, feeling as though she was being tossed about on a sailboat encountering rough seas.

Finally, the darkness wasn’t that of the unconscious but of the deepest kind of sleep and she welcomed it openly.

*****

“Wake up, Valkyrie,” a familiar voice said near her ear.

Violet’s eyes fluttered open, then slammed closed in a wince as bright light greeted them. She groaned and turned away from the offending brightness, pulling her blankets over her head.

“Lady Violet,” the same voice chuckled. “Come, now.”

Violet slowly lowered the blanket and allowed her eyes to adjust to the light. Someone walked across the room and drew closed the heavier, second set of curtains at the window. Violet stiffly sat up, groaned again, and rubbed absently at a particularly sore spot on her lower back.

Freyja stood at the foot of the bed as Violet looked around the room. Violet nodded at Freyja when their eyes met.

“Queen Freyja,” Violet croakily greeted.

“Thor tells me you’ve discovered some interesting new gifts,” Freyja purred, sitting next to Violet.

“A couple, yeah,” Violet replied, her voice hoarse and cracking.

Freyja handed her a water bottle and waited as Violet chugged the whole thing in one go. She was suddenly ravenously hungry and monstrously thirsty. Her stomach growled at the thought, adding its own voice to the agreement.

“Breakfast first,” Freyja laughed, hearing the gurgling of Violet’s stomach. “Then we’ll begin training.”

Violet groggily followed Freyja to the kitchen, noting with a small degree of alarm that the place was empty.

“Where’s Peyton and Dezzy?” Violet asked as Freyja opened the fridge and handed her a smoothie.

“They left with Thor and went to the gym for training.”

“But it’s only Saturday and Peyton just fought,” Violet coughed, having taken too big a draught from the liquid breakfast.

“It is Monday,” Freyja quietly stated, her eyes keen for Violet’s impending reaction.

Violet gaped at her for a second, then shook her head.

“I’ve been out that long?!” she finally managed.

“Yes,” an unfamiliar voice said from the direction of the living room.

Violet jumped, startled, and turned to look at the speaker. She quickly realized the one speaker wouldn’t be the only one.

Three other Valkyries sat on the couches in the living room. They wore normal Earth street clothes but their braids gave them away. Such braids were uncommon, at least in Las Vegas and the other places she’d been in North America. The speaker looked at her expectantly, then crossed her forearm over her chest in greeting.

She was shorter than the others by a large margin. Her hair was sleek and black with the iridescence of a raven’s wing. Her eyes were dark brown and deeply set. She had an oddly angular, gaunt, heart-shaped face with full lips. Her frame was petite and slender.

“I am Kara,” the speaker said.

“Happily met,” Violet coughed.

The other two women stood and crossed their arms over their hearts, offering slight bows at the apex of the gesture.

“I am Skögul and this is my sister, Geirskögul,” the taller of the two said, indicating the woman next to her as her sister.

They looked similar. They had the same mahogany-hued hair, which was pulled back to the center of their heads in identical styles of braiding. They had similarly shaped, long, gaunt faces with intelligent, bright, caramel-colored eyes. Skögul’s nose was longer and more pronounced than that of her sister and she seemed the more likely one to smile. Geirskögul had a more pensive, intense look to her, with slightly more angular features. They were both built like seasoned warriors and Violet idly wondered what their combat specialties were.

The front door clicked open before Violet had a chance to respond and the singularly most beautiful woman Violet had ever seen entered the house. She was at least six feet tall, her hair white-blond and intricately braided in several thick rows close to her head. Her eyes were a stunning, crystalline green-blue that missed nothing and were fiercely accentuated with heavy, dramatic black liner. Though she was muscular and obviously strong, her hourglass figure and ample curves suffered none. She carried a paper bag with rope handles in one hand and expertly balanced a drink carrier holding five expensive-looking drinks of varying colors.

“Ah! Good! She’s finally awake!” the shield maiden cried as her eyes landed on Violet.

Violet crossed her arm over her heart and gave a slight bow, saying, “Well met. I am Violet. And you are?”

“Lagertha,” the woman replied with a brilliant grin.

The six women converged upon the kitchen island, jockeying for seats on the bar stools. Violet finished chugging her smoothie and happily took a spot between Freyja and Lagertha.

“One of my favorite things about Earth are the pastries,” Freyja giddily stated, pulling a large chocolate chip muffin from the bag that Lagertha had placed on the island counter in front of them all. “So many choices, so much chocolate.”

“I second that,” Geirskögul throatily replied, snatching the bag from Freyja and removing a decadent, cream-filled pastry.

Violet’s eyes flew wide as she looked between them.

“What?” Lagertha asked in challenge, voraciously biting into a muffin similar to Freyja’s.

“These aren’t exactly healthy,” Violet said.

“Training is hungry work and you’ll be glad of the extra calories when it’s over,” Freyja replied. “Eat a muffin. Drink your coffee.”

Violet caught the large drink that Freyja slid to her. She took the straw offered by Lagertha and slid it into the drink. She took a tentative sip and groaned in delight. It was a mocha frappe, just how Violet always ordered hers when she wanted a sweet, energy-boosting treat. She rolled her eyes in satisfaction after taking a longer drink, which drew laughter from the five other shield maidens.

“Now she gets it,” Kara laughed.

*****

“Sif says you have excellent flight skills,” Gondul said, adjusting the bracers on her forearms.

“I can fly. That’s about it,” Violet conceded. “Where is Sif?”

“She needed to return to Valhalla for a while. With the five of us here, you are protected well-enough,” Gondul stated, a touch coldly.

“Is she okay?” Violet asked, genuinely concerned.

“If she isn’t, she will be. Eventually,” Lagertha replied, giving Gondul a sidelong look that Violet wasn’t quite sure how to interpret.

“So,” Skögul chirped. “Tell us about this Peyton fellow.”

Violet blushed and sputtered for a couple seconds. The other women burst with raucous laughter, including Gondul.

They had teleported to a heavily forested, unpopulated section of northwestern Canadian forest for the day’s training, which was to feature hand-to-hand combat training and flight during battle situations. Gondul was eager to test Violet’s wings. They hiked up a small cliff on the top of one of the many foothills of the area, seeking a tall enough area from which they could launch and land.

“He can’t be all that bad. She threatened to beat down Ragnar and the only other woman in existence to do that is Lagertha,” Kara quipped. “He even seduced Aslaug—who was supposedly only into women. Violet resists him at every turn. In my book at least, Violet has good taste.”

“Sure, he’s pretty. But if you talk to him for more than five minutes, you’ll threaten to rip his head off, too,” Lagertha called over her shoulder. “How well did that end for Aslaug?”

The other women made various noises of agreement as they huffed and puffed their way up the rutted, non-existent path.

“Ragnar is just another pretty face hiding a poisonous soul,” Violet muttered.

Well said, Gersemi’s voice agreed in her head.

“How much do you remember now?” Gondul asked.

“It’s patchy,” Violet answered. “Gersemi fills in the gaps when I need her to and sometimes stuff just comes to me if I’m witnessing something relevant.”

“And what about the other souls that live within you?” Lagertha queried. “What do you know of them?”

“Not much. They chime in from time to time, but they don’t really identify themselves. The only one with whom I regularly interact is Gersemi,” Violet lengthily said, winded from the trek.

“Let’s rest here. Don’t push overmuch. You’ve only been out of that wheelchair full time for a few days,” Gondul suggested.

“I thought Valkyries weren’t allowed to get tired?” Violet panted, stepping carefully over a large tree root and almost stumbling on the loose rocks on the other side.

The five other women laughed in various degrees of breathlessness.

“That’s only in battle,” Gondul chuckled, offering Violet a hand to keep her steady.

They sat on boulders under the thick, heavy branches of deciduous trees and conifers. Gondul passed a canteen full of cold, sweet water around. It never seemed to be less than full. Violet drank her fill, twice, and after fifteen minutes of resting, they resumed their trek.

“Okay,” Gondul said as they reached the ledge about half an hour later. “Show us what you’ve got.”

Violet closed her eyes, dropped her chin, and relaxed her shoulders. A moment later, the purple wings materialized from her shoulder blades and she gave an exploratory flap, delighting in the way the other Valkyries murmured and gushed over the appearance of the wings.

Violet stepped to the ledge, turned her back to it, spread her arms, and allowed herself to fall backwards. She did her customary flip to right herself as her wings, seemingly of their own accord, flapped in steady, fast strokes that propelled her swiftly upward.

The air was crisp and cold and she delighted in it as she sailed higher, catching a lovely updraft by adjusting the pitch of her wings. She glanced back over her shoulder after a few moments, shocked to see how high she’d already gotten. Nearly a quarter mile below her, five winged creatures climbed on the same friendly currents. She hovered, waiting.

“Odin’s beard, you’re quick,” Lagertha chimed as she reached Violet’s altitude.

The others were still quite a ways behind.

“Is that unusual?” Violet asked, studying Lagertha’s wings.

They looked real, not ephemeral like Violet’s. They were a shimmering silver color edged with black, and heavily feathered like giant eagle’s wings. Their span wasn’t quite as large as Violet’s but they were still quite impressive and exquisitely beautiful.

“I’m usually the fastest and even I struggled to catch you,” Lagertha replied breathlessly, “How long have you been flying like that?”

“Since I fledged?” Violet asked rather than answered.

“Since you fledged?” she repeated questioningly.

“Yes,” Violet said.

“Tell me about your fledging experience,” Lagertha quietly demanded, her eyes darting toward Kara, who quickly approached from below.

“That’s a really long story,” Violet said. “I could write a book about it and still not fully tell the tale.”

“From the moment your wings emerged, then. Maybe the few moments leading up to that point as well,” Lagertha pressed, her gaze intensifying.

Violet realized that she’d assumed she’d had the choice of answering the other Valkyrie. She’d obviously inferred incorrectly.

“I was paralyzed from the waist down. I’d been injured by a soul blade and a piece of my soul, of Gersemi, was missing. We had to find the blade and reverse the magic. When we did that… Sif took me outside the city along with Peyton. We were in the canyon and Sif screamed at me to fledge. I told Peyton to run and then I just… I let go of it all. The next thing I knew, I was a mile in the air, falling, having flashbacks of someone else’s life while trying to figure out how not to die,” Violet said as the other Valkyries finally caught up to them.

“So—how did you get up that far then?” Kara asked.

“I don’t know. I didn’t—I guess I didn’t think about it until now. I just thought that’s what happened to everyone,” Violet stammered.

“Well that’s terrifying,” Skölgul scoffed.

“How—How did it happen for you then?” Violet asked her, dumbfounded.

“We learned on the spirit wings, started falling from trees, and ladders, and buildings. We built up the spirit wings until the second fledge, when our real wings, usually bigger and stronger, manifested. That’s when the real flight training began,” Skögul explained.

“Well, you’ve definitely got the speed and lift down,” Lagertha chuckled. “How are your aerial maneuvers?”

“I guess they’re okay? I’ve had to dodge being shot at by a sniper rifle. Took a couple hits but lived,” Violet answered her.

They stared at her as they hovered. Violet felt very much as though she was an oddity. An outcast. As though their experiences as Valkyries might be too different for them to find any real common ground. At least, they wouldn’t be able to bond over that experience as fully. The realization saddened her.

We are different and they will respect that, Gersemi’s voice was a whisper in her mind.

“You have already been dodging bullets?” Kara asked, incredulous.

“I mean, the alternative is to die, and that’s really not something I’m ready to do just quite yet,” Violet said.

That drew a laugh from Gondul, which silenced and sobered the other Valkyries. Gondul did not often laugh, nor was she easily amused. The openness she’d displayed so far that day had Violet’s guard up.

“Back on track, Valkyries,” Gondul barked a moment later. “Let’s have a bit of a game of aerial tag, hmm?”

Kara squealed as one of Gondul’s wings snapped out to swat her on the waist.

“You’re it,” Gondul deadpanned, then flew away as fast as her wings would take her.

The crowd of winged women scattered in all directions. Violet shot straight upwards as Kara’s eyes turned to her. Kara let out a war whoop and flapped her giant golden wings impossibly quickly, darting after Violet in earnest.