“Well, well, well, someone has broken a few bones there, don’t they?”
Val groaned, her vision doubling from the sudden flood of memories from the battle against the giant Draugr. She flexed her muscles to assess the damage. Her shield arm took the brunt for her but was broken now alongside some of her rips.
Just like the last time she sparred with her oldest sister, Tamara.
“You can do better than this, Val,” laughed the older Valkyrie and crouched down before the newbie.
Tamara was one of the older Valkyries of the recent generations who witnessed the brutal Haitian Revolution. Her skin was an umber deep shade of black with a voluminous coiled afro, bright purple eyes like ripe grapes, and a very tall, athletic, and slim body.
The white scars and rune tattoos on her body and ivory accessories accentuated her beauty even further with the white dress she wore for the battle practice.
Unlike Val wearing training armour, Tamara didn’t need it to wrack Val completely while holding an innocent smile. She rested her cheek on her hand. “I’d like to offer you a hand, but I know you don’t need it. Take a gentle breath and use your inert healing abilities. Focus on your divinity.”
Tamara stood up and put her hands on her wider hips, giving Val another smile as her afro danced before her eyes. Val stared at her, feeling her vision blur again. She struggled to breathe; her rips ached too much. Then she felt Tamara’s fingers touch Val’s side, making her flinch.
“Gentle, breath, focus,” instructed Tamara, and Val felt her breathing easing as her lungs slowly absorbed the ambient mana infused in the air. Slowly, her broken bones mend. It was painful—unbearable—but Val knew that with Tamara’s guidance, she could do it.
Val’s vision cleared; her focus returned. Tamara’s face was gone and almost perfectly blended into that of Maya’s. Val couldn’t tell whether she blushed or not, but Val felt heat rise into her face from the uncanny similarities between Maya and Val’s older sister, whom she always admired and looked up to.
Though Tamara was gone, and Maya was here.
“Val, can you hear me?” asked Maya, steadying Val’s body in her arms. “I know it hurts, but I’m here.”
Val had to blink her confusion away and cocked her head with a crooked grin. She couldn’t help smiling despite the pain it brought with it. Then the rumbling returned, startling Val.
“Draugr. Still need. To be. Killed,” she said, trying to stand up despite Maya’s opposition.
“No, listen to me, Val. The plan failed, the magic didn’t work, and you are in no condition to fight.” Maya had a tear well up at the corner of her eye. “We should leave.”
“Well, what should you do now?” asked Tamara, looking over Maya’s shoulder like a tall shadow; her hair and dress flowed in the wind. “You have options. Take them.”
“Can’t. Do,” replied Val, her voice strained as a bone set back into place, and bit her lip to stifle a yell. “Duty to Eliminate. Draugr. But can’t. Do it. Alone.” Val held Maya’s hand, squeezing it even as her fingers ached. “Please. Give me a hand.”
“Of course,” Maya nodded resolutely. “What can I do?”
Val deployed her shield and handed it to Maya. Unlike Val, her shield could take a hit. “Gather my. Divinity. Before the Draugr. Steals it. All.”
“Alright. Be right back, don’t move!” Maya took the shield off and ran to find a nearby wisp.
Most of the wisps scattered after the first commotion, but the Draugr absorbed many of them, growing stronger. Maya had hoped they could quickly resolve it with Val and Fey’s combined strength, but it backfired.
Val was out of commission, and Fey… she didn’t do well either.
“Ok, this is straining me a bit too much,” she complained as the Draugr banged against the rune barrier. “Would you stop? I’m your master- ex-master, but still. It’s draining-”
When the Draugr cracked the barrier, Fey felt her body collapse from the excavator she sat on. She hit the ground. Her limbs shook, and she barely had the strength to keep things up.
She saw Maya return and reached out for her. “Great timing, I need your help to-”
“Can’t! Sorry, I’m busy helping Val!” Maya rushed past her, chasing after an escaping wisp. “Stop flying away, will you?!” she flourished with her shield futilely for the wisp. “Come on, get back to your owner!”
“Great, do it later. Help me up here!” snarled Fey, struggling to hoist herself up on her own.
“Right, sorry, but Val is not in a great condition.” Maya bit her lip. “I need to help her immediately.”
Fey nodded, understanding that Maya’s priorities were emotionally driven towards the Valkyrie. “I know, but we gotta re-establish the wards before that thing breaks out fully. I can’t do it on my own, please.”
“I- hm, ok, what do you need me to do?” Maya grumbled, not knowing where to help first.
“Just redraw the runes, just like I taught you.”
“I- you do know it was a 15-minute crash course of weird symbols I have never seen in my entire life!? It’s a miracle I could even keep up as far as I could!”
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Fey gave a thumbs up. “I believe in you.”
—✦—
Maya grumbled some more. She circled the imprisoned Draugr and headed for the first warding circles Fey drew up with her. The runes were fading, cracked, and barely glowing. How they worked, Maya didn’t know. Magic, said Fey whenever Maya asked her.
Retracing the fading lines, Maya did the best she could with what she could discern. The rest was dangerous guesswork as her brain tried to fill in the gaps. To her surprise, it became easier the more she leaned into it.
Like a puzzle setting in her mind, her hands drew the runes almost automatically. Maya didn’t know what they meant by itself, but somehow, she could guess it. It was similar to her linguistic classes when Maya understood almost immediately the grammatical rules, words and nuances by default the longer she focused to immerse herself in it.
“This should do it,” said Maya, finishing re-establishing the ward. She was taken aback when it glowed blue instead of green. “Ok, that’s weird, but it should work… right?” A wisp buzzed by Maya’s head, distracting her. “Hey, come back ‘ere, you!”
Raising the shield like a butterfly catcher, Maya chased after it. She stumbled over several scattered excavation instruments or cracks during her run and missed the wisp every single time. “This is ridiculous! Would you stop already?”
There was only one wisp remaining. A tiny speck of Val’s remaining divinity. Maya desperately needed to catch it for Val to restore some of her strength, but it was slipping out of reach. She flourished with her shield one last time, shouting, “Stop moving!”
Weirdly, the wisp stopped, and Maya caught it, catching herself so off guard she rolled over the ground and fell audibly on the ground.
“Ow- oww,” groaned Maya, rolling on her back with shield in hand. “Oh, that didn’t hurt at all!” Maya stared at the slightly glowing silver shield and tightened her grip—it was their last hope. “I have to bring this back to Val quickly-”
Maya felt a shiver run down her spine as an icy stare bore into her back. Turning around, she saw the giant Draugr standing still and glowering at her with smouldering white eyes.
She saw it unsheathe its large rusty sword hanging from the hip and raise it. Maya didn’t have the time to react before it smashed the barrier with one brutal swing, destroying the road and levelling the ground with its strength.
Maya caught between the dust clouds and noticed how the Draugr snatched her up with its fist. She looked at its undead white eyes. Her eardrums vibrated from its roar, and her coils and skin singed from the acid breath.
“Ok,” grimaced Maya, “this is not good,” she gagged. “And your breath stinks!”
—☄—
Val’s bones creaked and groaned as they barely mended, no matter how much she tried.
“Come on, you almost did it! I believe in you, Val!” Tamara cheered Val on, fist-bumping the air and doing high kicks like a cheerleader. “Go, Val, Go! Show us what a Valkyrie can do! Woooo!”
Val couldn’t remember whether Tamara also used pom-poms that day, but knowing her, she could very much have done that.
Tamara’s happy go-to attitude was infectious to deal with. She had a lot of confidence and carried it around her like an aura. She was a senior Valkyrie with lots of battle experience.
Val couldn’t help but keep trying. She didn’t want to disappoint her. The wounds hissed with steam as broken skin and flesh reconnected and regenerated, healing Val. She tried to stand, but plopped right back.
“Naww, you almost did it,” Tamara deflated and sat down cross-legged next to Val, resting her cheek against her hand. “I wonder how else I could motivate you.”
Val knew what could motivate her. “I want to go home.”
There were not many reasons when Val would shirk away from responsibility. No matter how much of a bad day she had or how obnoxious people got, she would do her job diligently.
She would fly to battle with her sisters, collect the dead, and serve them in the great halls wearing revealing white dresses. She would kill monsters and go on missions as she was bound to by duty. Even fighting monsters or half dying on quests was not enough to deter her zeal to do what she had to, or be groped when she worked at the hall—and no matter how often she pulverised the offenders, it continued to happen.
Regardless, she did what she had to do. Every. Single. Day. For years. Yet this time, no matter how she previously felt about it, she wanted to stay at home with Maya and enjoy her time with her.
Val felt frustrated from the day, and the look of pouting disappointment Tamara gave her did not help.
Then Val felt a sharp tingling sensation run through her spin, making her hair stand up across her entire body. Her skin crawled; she started to sweat and shiver. Her chest rose up and down as her breath was getting ragged—as if she suffered from another asthma attack.
Panic filled every pore of her body as her senses felt overwhelmed with fear, dread, and, most of all, worry. She knew something was wrong; her guts screamed danger. The last time she felt like this was when the Draugr attacked Maya at home.
She immediately sensed something was wrong and felt a surge of energy course through her and burn away her exhaustion. This time was much more intense, and she immediately sprung up from her position to run back. Tamara let out an impressed whistle as her coils and dress fluttered against the sudden squall.
Val heard her aching bones crack, her muscles spasm and her lungs burned in agony as blood trickled down her wounds and nose. But whatever the surge was, it let her run like it never did before.
“A Valkyrie’s divinity is something unique,” started Tamara, casually skipping next to the dashing Val. “Few of us have divine heritage, but many are born mortal. We gain our divinity, and subsequently our immortality, by our servitude to the Allfather and the Queen of the Slain.”
Val remembered another lesson Tamara had given her. Tamara deliberately cut her own hand with a large knife, leaving a nasty, bleeding gash. Valkyries had the ability to heal themselves, to regenerate the nastiest and most dangerous wounds, but it was not perfect—they could bleed out, be maimed, or retain scars like many of them did.
Tamara let the blood trickle down for a minute, making Val watch in fascination. Then, with a clench of her fist, the wound was gone—not even leaving behind a scar.
Another lesson she gave Val and her sisters was when they were on a mountainside for another training session. A Giant ambushed the young group of Valkyries, and Tamara lounged against a nearby rock, watching them struggle until she was done nibbling on her lunch.
By then, Val and her sisters were a wrack. Tamara, though, took out the Giant in less than five minutes. Whereas Val and her sisters struggled to inflict any lasting damage, Tamara became like a wildfire, taking it out with the brandish of her spear. Her skin sizzled as her veins and eyes gleamed hot white.
She was strong; she was beautiful; and she was brilliant and humourful, and on the battlefield, she was a force to be reckoned with. Val admired her with all her heart. Somehow, she really saw Maya in her, with all the similarities they shared.
“Maya.” Val’s heart tinged with worry, knowing that Maya was in acute danger and that Val needed to get to her quickly. Her veins went aflame, her muscles ripped as she strained her calves and abdominal muscles to run faster, straining her lungs to the verge of collapsing as her eyes burnt away the tears and glowed brighter, and her healing factor went into overdrive.
“You’re getting the hang of it,” said Tamara with her hands on her hips, watching as Val rushed past her. “Go, show them what wood you’re made of.”