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Christmastime should have been filled with festivities, friends, and coziness. Drenar wasn’t feeling any of that when he sat down with the rest of his friends in the living room of Nick’s house, with the warm-colored woods and simple but comfortable furniture. Joey is sitting next to him, dressed in a sweater and jeans, her hair tied back. Julia is in her usual midnight black attire, and rubbing her hands together uneasily. James is…looking like a scarecrow, like usual. Angela is sitting looking calm and collected adjacent to him on the other couch.
He glances out the windows, and sees snow falling for the second time this week–he’d rather be snowboarding, training, fighting monsters, or engaging in a one-man army mission against Valosterla than doing this. And the object of his focus is the metal and brass-colored lockbox that Diane had given him earlier in the day, press-lipped and looking grim. She’d told him only he and Evan could open it–her mother had put some kind of magical contingency on it, and he kept hesitating to stand up and open it.
“You know this is gonna be bad news.” Evan, with auburn hair and green eyes dimmed by the prospect of one last message from their mother, is looking at the device with dread on the glass coffee table. “We should just not listen to it. We know she’s alive. And buried deep cover in whatever the hell she’s doing, chasing the Talons and the Conclave.”
“She left it for us, Evan. We have to open it,” Drenar responded after a moment of hesitation. He hasn’t felt unease like this since almost two months ago. Diane had tried to open it a few days after the events of Asqualia, but was unable to open it. Kyle had taken an arcane torch to it and it didn’t even warm the metal. They’d tried a few other efforts before giving up–damaging the contents would be a very bad idea. “Maybe she left us last instructions on who was after her, or what she was working on, or–”
“Drenar, for all we know, it could be just a last farewell.” Evan has this deep haunted look on his face. “Her last words, in case anything happened to her. You’re hopelessly optimistic at times, you know that?”
“Someone has to be.” He clears his throat, why does this room seem so uncomfortably dry and warm right now? It’s not because of the fireplace going in the background, either. He reaches for the lockbox and then pulls his hand at the last second. No one comments on it–they all must know how hard this is going to be.
“Drenar, you’ve got this. We’re all here,” Joey says firmly, and rises from her seat to put a hand on his shoulder. “Even if it was a last farewell before she went off on an impossible mission, she still loved and cared about you guys.”
“Yeah. I know. It’s just…maybe not knowing this would be for the better.” But, he knows what is going to win out, eventually.
He has to find answers. The lock box had glowed after his eighteenth birthday–a sign that his mother had intended for it to only be opened at a certain time, and he knew that moment was there for over a week. He reaches for the small reader on the side, and there’s a slight glow of arcane runes across the surface, shimmering blue lights that fade to motes of magical dust.
The lock clicks open, and everyone leans forward in their seat as he pulls out a single, simple yellowed envelope, with bulky contents. It appears to be sealed, and he takes Remari, cuts the envelope open gently, and shakes the contents out.
What surprises him is that it’s a shard of mana crystal, glowing faintly in his hand. He glances at the strange blue shard in his hand, and he shows it to the assembled team. Even Kiera is here, along with Nick and Levine. Kyle is the first to speak.
“What the hell? Why’s it still glowing?”
“Is this a problem?” Drenar asks hesitantly.
Kyle lets out a soft exhale before pointing at it–he looks strange without his beard, and maybe one too many incidents of singing it with that hell-level oven of his had finally taught him some common sense. But his eyes are focused on the crystal. “They should be inert within days. Why’s it glowing?”
Joey taps the crystal with a finger, and it makes a small, crystalline chime, calm and pleasing. “That’s not true. We’ve seen one location where the shards didn’t seem to fade, even after being severed from the main crystal growth. That weird growth over by Drenar’s home. Strange that we run into another batch of it just like that, after all this time.”
“Either way, she handed us a magical rock and no instructions.” James finally finishes his pose with steepled fingers like he’s been deep in thought, and throws his hands into his light-colored hoodie. He looks decently filled out for two months of nonstop training, though his hands are still not quite as hardened and calloused as his own. “Drenar, anything else in the box?”
“No. Nothing.” He showed it to the team. “Uh, is this a little anti-climatic, or is it just me?”
“Trisha told me nothing about what was in this box,” Kiera says while looking a little annoyed. “I haven’t been able to establish communications with her. The only sign I know that she’s alive is that I know she’s been sending out a covert heartbeat signal. One that only I know, from back when we were younger.”
“What signal?”
“A message for me that she hid within a small communicator. One-way only. Things that only she could know about me.” Kiera folded her arms and smoothed her raven-black hair. “I can tell you this much, now. I think she’s going after the big fish in the Talons or the Conclave. The danger is still there, it hasn’t gone anywhere in six years. If anything, it has gotten worse.”
“Why would she give us a mana shard?” Angela asks. “It makes no sense. Can you encode information onto them?”
Levine closes the distance, takes the shard in his hand, and examines it with a discerning eye. He hands it back to Drenar after a second. Strangely, he can still feel a trickle of power from it. “You can. But this is a raw mana crystal. Putting data, memories, or other information onto it takes effort and detailed imprinting magitech. You’re not going to get much out of that sadly, if anything.”
“This is bullshit. She left us a freaking rock!” Julia fumes like he knew she would, and throws up her arms, eyes flashing light lightning. “It’s like the final insult of the adults not telling the kids shit and putting us in danger nonstop!”
“Julia, not to be nuanced, but you are quite good at putting yourself in danger.”
“Don’t lecture me, Mom. I held off a couple of dozen Talons soldiers while firing a thirty kilo M2 Browning .50 caliber machine gun and crisping a few of those black souled fiends.” She retreats further into her hoodie, and Drenar can’t help but feel, she might have a point.
He turns the crystal in his hand, looking for something–anything–to indicate there’s more to it than what he’s seeing. “It has to mean something, guys. Whatever she worked on was so important, the people she was up against were so dangerous, that she couldn’t even name their names yet.” Angela rises from her seat and extends her hand–for some reason this caused the crystal to glow brighter. “Uh, Angie, why's it reacting to you?”
She puffs a strand of brown hair away from her face, and gives him this quizzical look. “I’m the crystal queen or something, have you guys not noticed? Maybe that’s my superpower.”
“That’s not a superpower, that’s a title,” James counters softly. “Also, I thought we all agreed that handling mana crystals was a bad idea, because we don’t know what supercharging your body–or whatever it is you do–is good for your health. It could give you magical cancer.”
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“Bite me, James. I spent the first five years of my life on the verge of death. Nothing can ever come close to that.” Drenar feels this sudden urge to test this out. Did…did his mother know about Angela’s strange interactions with the crystals? Then again, her parents didn’t–-though they are currently in lockdown and have been utterly useless, and press-lipped about that shard in her heart. They said it was a miracle and dumb luck.
He doesn’t buy that for a minute. “Alright, let’s try this. Angela, hold this for a moment?”
“I mean it’s probably going to react like–”
The second she picks it up out of his hand, light surges from the crystals, and glowing lines etch their way up her hand, and down below her shirt sleeve and the glow is visible through the fabric. She goes rigid and holds the crystal steady–there’s that ringing again, and he can feel Luminari vibrating nearby on the equipment table. That glow intensifies, and a small leak of blue mana seeps out of the crystal and forms into a small silhouette of a human face. It forms a roughly humanoid head and upper torso, little motes of light constructing an image in three-dimensional space.
When the form starts to finalize, he feels a pang of heartache when he sees his mother in the closest he’s seen to her likeness in six years, apart from some old photographs and videos. Joey grips his shoulder firmly, lavender eyes wide in disbelief. Then, that familiar avatar of his mother forms. She doesn’t look like she’s aged a day physically, with her long, braided dark brown hair, or her gleaming green eyes, or even with the play of freckles on her cheeks and neck. But, it’s the way she carries her presence, that she looks like she’s aged a bit. Then, that small image speaks.
“Drenar, Evan, if you’re hearing this, then you’ve found someone capable of retrieving the message from this shard of mana that you’re holding.” That sound of her voice–like someone one with the spirit of the earth, deep and resonating, fills the room, and everyone looks on in silent awe. She looks out at an invisible audience and is smiling faintly. Even with the stump of her left arm. Though, it’s not entirely accurate–a metal and plastic prosthetic limb is attached at the point where Davos severed it in their last battle, and those little golem fingers twitch as she brings a hand up to her mouth, a soft sigh escapes on her lips.
“I’m sorry, I just–this is a difficult moment, even for me.” She pauses as if glancing at something in the background. “I must have rehearsed this a hundred times, but it never prepares you for the moment when you have to make your choices matter. Just like this one.”
Angela looks on in awe, holding steady as that slight blue light is now visible across her body, ever so faintly. But she doesn’t appear in distress, as his mother continues to speak.
“For reasons you will soon discover, there are many things I can’t tell you, for the risk of discovery of what information I can give you. It’s currently October of 2021. I was in a coma for two years, and rehabilitation for another year. I am indeed alive. I was given a brief rundown of what happened from Kiera, and…” A soft sob escapes her lips–it might be the first time he’s seen her like this, so vulnerable, so unlike this unstoppable titan of a hero he’d built up in his head. If anything, it only accentuated those moments more. “I’m sorry, kids. I put you all through hell, in the interest of taking care of the threat to us, once and for all. Now you’re all left to pick up the pieces that we, the people that are supposed to keep the world safe, couldn’t do for so many years.”
No you didn’t. You did exactly what I needed you to do, Mom. To survive. To give us hope. He looks on silently, and grips Joey’s hand tightly. He doesn’t know how long he can keep his composure through this, but it’s not going to be for long. “I love you two, so very much. I suppose as of this viewing if you’ve managed to unlock it, then you will likely know from Diane and Dave that I kept secrets from my family, to protect them from the dangers of the mage world. You may already be Awakened by this point, so that dragon is out of the bag.”
“Way out of the bag,” Evan mutters, but Jackie gives him a gentle smack. “What, I’m not allowed to throw some shade?”
“Just listen,” Jackie states with thinly veiled irritation.
Drenar’s mother takes a moment to collect her thoughts, before gazing out at the unseen source of the image. “Drenar, Evan, I am what you call a Valkyrie. A warrior of the mage world, part of a collection of brave women–and a few men–who act as the guardians of our world against those who would destroy our world and way of life. Our order has been established for a long, long time. My grandmother was a Champion of the order, and though I carry her title, I will always feel like I could never live up to her greatness, or those who came before her. I may be a dragon, but I still have the same beating heart of humanity in me as everyone else.”
He smiles faintly at this, before she continues.
“I left instructions with Kiera as a contingency, should anything happen to me. Know that you can be proud of the battles we have fought for a better world, to bring decency and untroubled dreams to all Kin, not just those in the seats of power. We have been doing so since the First Champion rose from the ruins of a destroyed dragon empire to lead us against the threats of the Outsiders—our first challenge, of many, and possibly the one that has yet to be surpassed.
“I wish I could have told you all of this myself, but all our plans for a gentle introduction into the mage world…and who you are…were interrupted after the attack on your father and me. Your father did not survive it. I will not rest until the man who led to his death, and those who employed him, meet the justice due to them–at the hands of the blade of justice. A relic of the Valkyries, dating to the time of Gaia, our first Chosen.” She pulls the blade of Luminari with effortless fluidity into view, and the blade’s runes are lit up with a glowing green light…just like when he holds it.
Almost as if in response, he hears the blade ringing faintly on the nearby bench. It’s like it’s still connected to her, even without her physical presence. “This is the blade of the Valkyries, Luminari, the edge of justice for our world against those with dark hearts and darker minds. While its edge cut many a vile foe down, its powers to bring soothing healing to this world cannot be understated, either. I pray you never have to wield it, Drenar. Or anyone else who hears her calling. To be called upon her, is to hear the words of a Champion long since fallen, who stood for everything good and just in this world.
“In the month before the attack that left me badly wounded and in a coma, you said you could hear a ringing sound. A crystalline chime, and I had dismissed it as just something that happens from time to time, ears playing tricks on us. I should have known that you could hear the call of Gaia…just like I did, when the sword first called to me.” He did remember that, but only because she’d prompted that memory. A low ringing that he heard from time to time, when he was listening to music.
His mother pauses and flexes that artificial hand. It has surprisingly human proportions with flexing metal plating and rests her arms calmly on some working surface in front of her–not captured by the crystal. “Drenar, your future is tied to this relic, now. I believe there is a reason it is calling out to you, and others. Danger is coming for us all, and only the Valkyries and those who share in their unwavering bravery stand a chance of putting a stop to it. But we have been held by inaction, an inability to grasp at the danger that comes for us all, because we didn’t think such hatred and malcontent could come from those who should be our guardians and representatives—those who seek to control the mage world, and by proximity, everyone.
“Now, listen carefully. The mana shard in your possession, the person who can make the data on it visible…I think it’ll be someone very close to you and Julia. And I have my suspicions of who it might be, but I cannot say with a hundred percent certainty. See to it that this blade finds its way to them, when the moment calls for it. Because if that person perishes, I believe the world will die with them.”
All eyes are on Angela, who looks stunned. “Uh, she must be confusing me with some other destined child, right?” she asks with a fake laugh. No one else is laughing. In fact, Drenar feels an unsettling rock in the pit of his stomach hearing, all of this. His mother lets out a soft exhale and shakes her head, eyes closed in concentration.
“The second thing I must impart: I know you are brave, and strong Drenar, and with the right plan and patience, you and Julia can do anything. I just wish this burden didn’t fall upon you. No parent should have to ask so much of someone so young. But the call of Gaia is something even I don’t understand yet. She is alive. She must be found. The key to her survival lies in the blade she once wielded, and it has been slowly getting more…vocal…in the past few years. I have a feeling I know why. Gaia herself is threatened by the actions of those who seek to control the mage world. They are looking for secrets that are best not unburied.”
He can’t even find it in himself to snark on this one–his mother is tasking him with this? To find a goddess that he quite frankly can’t even wrap his head around, or is fully convinced is real? Or, that she believes that Gaia exists somewhere? It’s taking all his effort not to shout, or fold inward from this information. “The last bit of information may not make sense. I pray it never does. But, should you chance an encounter with the man who calls himself a Kingmaker…”
“Trust him as if your life depended on it.” Those words shock everyone in the room, and his mother graciously looks forward, as if she’d had the forethought to wait for reaction to take hold. She lets out a small laugh. “I hope I’m wrong on that one. I hope you never have to face these monsters, Drenar. This is not the world I wanted you to enter unprepared–let alone, have to defend against those who make a mockery of justice and decency, and kill without remorse. I hope I have given you the insight that you need to do what it is I think you will do.
“Be a light to guide the way. Carry a beacon to a better tomorrow."
Almost as if on cue, she reaches for something in the foreground, and the image fades into evaporating blue motes that drift through the air in an unseen wind. The silence in the room as everyone stares at Angela is deafening, and she blinks.
“Uh…that was something.” But her soft deflection doesn’t hide the slight fear he sees in her eyes.