During the walk back to the island, Raye had grown progressively weaker and weaker, until she passed out completely. Mattos had helped carry her the rest of the way.
Since the group had been back on the island, Raye had remained unconscious in bed, save for a few moments of distressed mumbling.
It had been three days so far, and her condition remained unchanged.
Xellie sat by her mother most of the time, Grau and Tane had combined their magic to heal her own broken bones, but the side of her body and arm remained black and blue, having to recover naturally.
As the sunlight filtered through the pale curtains and the trees outside, Xellie watched the orange sheen of Raye’s hair flicker in the light.
The curtains fluttered inwards, and Vella appeared on the edge of the bed, laying her head against Raye’s chest for a moment before sitting up. Vella turned to Xellie with a pained expression.
“She’ll recover.” Vella said softly, brushing her hand through Raye’s hair. “It’s hard for her, but I see her getting stronger every passing minute.”
Xellie eyed Vella suspiciously from her chair, having expected to be scolded or worse once more.
“I tried to save her... I want to ask so much...” Xellie looked back at Raye, then at Vella. “But anything I ask could hurt her, right?”
“You’ve mostly worked it out.” Vella replied with a heavy sigh. “Revenge is a tale as old as time. She hurt someone, so someone wants to hurt her. And how to inflict more pain than crushing the heart of a mother?”
“What a coward.” Xellie rolled her eyes, thinking over the events in Hafenstad. “He wouldn’t even kill me himself... he wanted to force her to do it.”
“... yeah.” Vella said with a brief hesitation. “We normally forbid hybrid children, because he’s always used them in heinous experiments. In your case though, he would have gone the extra mile due to his obsession with Raye. I don’t doubt he would have treated you like a princess if it meant we had to exterminate you.”
“Can I ask...”
“No.” Vella cut Xellie off quickly. “No more questions.”
“I’ll become stronger. I know I have to now.” Xellie muttered. Vella gave an accepting nod in response.
Raye groaned and sat up slowly, leaning her head on Vella’s shoulder.
Vella tilted her head toward the door in a clear indication for Xellie to leave the room. Not wanting to anger Vella, she complied quickly and wandered through the stronghold, out into the sunshine.
She wanted to talk about it to someone who wasn’t Raye. Grau, her brother’s partner, seemed to know a lot about Raye, so Xellie ambled around the island looking for him. Eventually she found Grau outside picking herbs from a patch of wildflowers.
“Hey Grau.”
“Oh hey.” Grau looked up from the plants and pushed his glasses up his nose. “Can I help you with something?”
“Are you coming with us to Alpinheim?” Xellie asked, crouching down next to him.
“Yes. I was going to fetch Niko too.”
“Niko?” She pouted. “I think we can do this without him.”
“You just want to prove you’re better than him.” Grau chided, wagging a solitary finger at her. “Well, it’s your call. You did defeat Ashmeviti without him.”
“How much do you know about Raye?” Xellie pressed, as Grau seemingly grew disinterested, and turned his attention back to the plants.
“Apart from her being a Valkyrie you mean? Well hmm... She’s always trying to impress her bosses, and part of that she’s doing via you, I believe.”
“You think I’m like some kind of personal project to impress her boss?” Xellie inquired, her voice trailing upwards in betrayal of her surprise, filled with consternation.
“I wouldn’t doubt it.”
“I still don’t believe I’m going to be like her.”
“Huh?” Grau looked up from his herb gathering, across the grounds but focused on nothing in particular. “I think it’s obvious, you did summon me... and Tane from halfway across the continent. Unless you’ve been studying teleport magic, I would say that was a Valkyrie ability.”
“I don’t even know how that happened.” Xellie muttered. “I don’t even know what kind of powers I will gain from being a hybrid.”
“Who knows? But, if you could access all their information you could potentially gather up people to fight where the attacks are. At the very least.”
“If I could get there....”
“Maybe you’ll be able to fly.”
“That would be really cool!” Xellie clapped her hands together in excitement. “I could find all the strongest fighters and fly to a town that’s under attack, and summon them to my side, and we could save the world!”
“Pretty sure there’s rules against that... According to Raye.”
“She said hybrids aren’t held to their rules.”
“Oh, well then. Hold these.” Grau passed Xellie a bunch of herbs he had picked whilst he pulled a small leather pouch from his belt to stuff them into. “I think you should be careful that you don’t overstep your mark and offend those above Raye.”
“I don’t want to waste it.” said Xellie. “And... and... I am stronger than Niko.”
Grau chuckled under his breath.
“Of course you are. If I’ve learned anything about you two, it’s Niko that is wanting to prove himself to Raye, more than you want to prove yourself to him. So maybe be nice about it?”
“Are you kidding me!” Xellie jumped to her feet excitedly. “He’ll never hear the end of this!”
“Seriously.” Grau sighed, unsure of how to react to or otherwise temper her growing enthusiasm. “If you’re going to be wielding power, don’t you think you should act a bit more mature about it?”
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“I guess. Hey Grau.”
“What?”
“Can you help me learn to use my powers then?”
“I’m no expert in Valkyrie power Xellie.”
“But you know magic right?”
Grau sighed, and looked Xellie over one final time as if to size her up, only to find his gaze returned with passionate expectation, barely able to contain that impetuous spirit of hers, yearning for adventure, for something new and exciting. “I’ll try and help you.” It only took a moment for him to submit - as if he had always intended to.
“So where do we start?” Xellie asked eagerly.
“Do you know any magic?”
“No.”
“Oiiiii...”
A few hours later, having given Grau time to gather some materials for learning rudimentary magic, Xellie and Grau sat on the grass by the clifftop in the sunshine of Luina island.
“I tried to think what the easiest magic would be for you to learn and we’re going to start with summoning a flame.”
“I like fire.”
“I know. So anyways the most important part of mastering elemental magic is understanding your element. So fire requires three basic things - fuel, oxygen and energy. Fire magic requires providing two of these key elements - fuel and energy as oxygen is plentiful in the air. For a novice we can provide the fuel and just work on creating the energy required to ignite a fla... you’re not listening are you?”
“I’ve seen this trick before I think.” Xellie pull a scrap of paper from her pocket and screwed it up. “You’re gonna teach me how to light that on fire?”
“Okay yes, pretty much. Hold out your hand and put the paper on it.”
Xellie complied cocking her head to one side inspecting the crumpled paper.
“Okay good now focus, draw the energy in from the ground below you and push it out through your palm.”
Xellie closed her eyes and focused hard just as Grau had told her, but nothing happened.
“Keep trying.” Grau urged her gently.
Try and try as she might, nothing seemed to be happening. Xellie focused on her outstretched palm so much that she began to shake. A few minutes passed, before suddenly the paper suddenly burst into flames and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
She looked up in surprise to see Tane standing with an outstretched hand.
“Tane!” Xellie exclaimed in annoyance, wiping the ash from her hand, before checking to make sure she still had eyebrows.
“Why is Grau teaching you baby tricks?” Tane replied, a ball of flame appearing in his hand, which he gently passed back and forth between his hands.
“Because...” Xellie twiddled her fingers ashamedly. “I want to learn Valkyrie magic.”
“Oh that.” Tane ambled over and sat cross-legged next to Xellie. “Look. I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“It’s really her choice.” Grau cut in. “Even if...”
“What?” Xellie looked between the two men. “Even if what?”
“Are you sure you’re cut out for that stuff?” Tane asked, throwing his fireball into the sea. “I mean, dealing with the bad aftermath of battles. Encouraging people into life threatening situations, watching them die.”
“Yeah but...”
“Actually watching them die.” Tane interrupted. “No helping, no preventing it.”
“I.. I... I don’t have to worry about that until I die.” Xellie responded hesitantly as she considered what Tane was saying. “And anyway do I have a choice? I am what I am.”
“Don’t be so dismissive of things. When I was working with AShmeviti I learned a lot about hybrid valkyries - he has a particular interest in them you could say. And he told me that the transition from Human to Valkyrie could be prevented. It’s the only reason I started working with him, before you became a death hungry monster.”
“Gee thanks.”
“And seriously, it’ll affect your everyday behaviour too. You’ll find yourself drawn toward conflict, maybe even try to start trouble... I mean unconsciously. If there’s a way you could prevent your ascension I would wholeheartedly support you in finding it.”
“I dunno Tane... I think I can use this to do some serious good in the world.”
Grau gave Tane a shrug in response to Xellie’s comment.
“Fine I won’t argue with you about it.” Tane held his hands up peacefully. “What do you want to learn?”
“I was kinda hoping I could fly or something.”
“Now there’s no proof that you can do that.” Grau cut in. “Why don’t you try to repeat that summoning spell you pulled off in front of Ashmeviti?”
“I don’t know where to begin.”
“Well... what kind of mindset were you in?” Asked Tane.
“Desperate really. I thought it was all over.”
“So maybe you can only use those powers when it’s most needed.” Grau said thinking out loud.
“That gives me an idea!” Tane stood up and offered his hand out to help Xellie to her feet. Confused, Xellie took his hand and stood next to him.
A moment later, Tane gave her a push toward the cliff edge.
“Tane what are you... no!”
Tane ignored the protest and pushed her harder. Scrambling to try and keep her footing , Xellie grabbed on to Tane. Tane shook his head and slipped his coat off, sending Xellie, plus the coat she was latched on to tumbling down the cliff.
“Hmm...” Grau looked down the small cliff at the same time as Tane to see what happened.
“I’ll remember this!” Xellie yelled back up the cliff from where she had landed. “Just wait until I get back up there!”
“I guess it didn’t work!” Tane called back, stifling a giggle.
Grau coughed gently, also holding back a laugh.
“Erm, are you ok?”
“I think my leg is broken.”
“No problem!” Tane shouted down the cliff. “Come back up here and we’ll heal you.”
“Die in a fire Tane!” Came the agitated reply.
Grau stepped back from the cliff face, chuckling under his breath.
“I got this Tane, I’ll go down there... you should go uh... hide or something.”
“Seriously though, don’t you think this whole ‘I wanna be a valkyrie’ thing is a bad idea?”
“I dunno.” Grau shrugged. “I think it’s good that she’s accepting it as her fate, since Raye isn’t going to make it easy if she decided otherwise.”
Tane screwed his face up at this remark.
“Does Niko agree with this?”
“Niko just does whatever Raye wants. He won’t argue with her.”
“I hate that woman so much.” Tane growled.
“Me too.”
As Tane went off to make himself scarce, Grau climbed down the narrow stairs that took him to the beach at the bottom of the cliffs.
“It really hurts.” Xellie whimpered as Grau crouched next to her and began casting his healing spell.
“I imagine so.”
“Idiot could have gotten me killed.”
“It’s not that high of a drop and we all know you’ll land on your feet because you’re more of a cat than a valkyrie.”
The two sat in silence as Grau worked on healing Xellie’s leg. Xellie stared out at the sea as she contemplated what Tane had said about having to watch people die. It was a disturbing thought to say the least, but would it be worth being able to help people in the meantime? Perhaps she would feel differently about human mortality if she became a Valkyrie. Ever since she had left Hiraeth to follow Raye, the world seemed more desperate than Xellie remembered. Demonic attacks had risen significantly to the point that they were destroying entire towns and cities. Something had to change.
“It’s not all about Niko...” Xellie muttered to Grau. “I just want to help the world.”
“I get it,” Grau answered. “Look, it’s your choice.”