A strange new sky full of stars
The Wyrm swallowed
And the sailors’ bones sing in familiar joy
For the Sapphire has set out to sea
“Are you okay, sweetie?”
Sticky darkness clogged Valkyrie’s senses, and she gagged. She squirmed, but the tar clung to her, suffocating her breath until she…
Wait a second. I don’t have to breathe anymore.
But the cloying tar still squeezed against her lungs something awful!
“Can you hear me?” The voice belonged to Lynne the Stormmother, she thought.
“Mmmphh!”
“What a foul substance…hold still! Verdandi–”
“An interesting substance. Even without Will, it embodies his hatred.”
I am not a science experiment! Valkyrie shouted in her mind, the tar muffling the echo.
Hands tugged at her, but the tar only stretched to grasp at more victims.
“Tch.” Lynne stepped back. “This calls for a bit more force. One moment, dear.”
Rushing water rapidly approached, and an icy flood suddenly blasted Valkyrie from every side!
When it cleared, she blinked her sodden eyes to see the black, starry sky and Lynne’s concerned expression staring down.
The angel of Oceans hooked both hands under Valkyrie’s armpits and lifted the girl to her feet.
As she did so, her fingers brushed against the insides of Valkyrie’s peregrine wings, and dreams flooded into the girl. Raw relief that the Wyrm was chained; the joy of open waters, the stars a new sea to sail; love run ragged for her children; grief for those gone; and the black guilt that it was her children who paid to see the tempest destroyed.
Lynne released the girl, though Valkyrie wobbled.
“Hmm…” the angel of Oceans touched her fingers together. “You’ve a bit of Mirielle in those wings.”
Valkyrie shook herself, wings and all, showering water across the dirt, and took a moment to gather her scattered thoughts.
In front of her, Lynne. The angel of Oceans was wide, tall, and firm, a woman of about thirty with bountiful curves, the same aquamarine hair as Alisandra, and a waist-pinched dress.
Behind her, Verdandi, a dark-skinned woman in a Jungle skirt with hair that wove down her back like vines. Verdandi was translucent, and she instantly perceived the woman’s form as projection. Here was an angel that lived only in dreams and an aspect near to her own.
Around them, thin rust-red dirt blown down from the Plateau shadowing the north; a wall of tropical trees and high reeds blocking view of the Dragon to their east; and a massive crater in which Valkyrie rested.
Glancing to the sky, she asked, “But…what about the sun?”
“We have unmoored from the star,” Lynne answered. “If I turn the Sapphire, you’d have all the daylight you could desire. At least until bed.”
“You – I mean, we – are angels! Shouldn’t we make one?!”
Verdandi yawned into her hand. “Perhaps a small star to orbit the vessel itself? An interesting challenge, but I leave this to the phoenix. Let mortals craft the sun they desire.”
The potential rests within elemental pinions
My own children, too, will grow
The Jungle goddess yawned once more. “I tire. Do you require anything else, Lynne?”
Valkyrie threw her hands wide. “Hey! What about the damned Wyrm?!”
“Language, young lady,” Lynne chided.
Verdandi shrugged. “I cannot guarantee that name will bind him forever.” Scorn tinged her voice. “Yet he is an unchanging creature, proudly so, and difficult it is to surrender one’s pride.”
“That’s a pretty thin spell to hold one of the mighty!” Valkyrie muttered. The mighty? That word too…tempest and archangel and mighty all thrown down…what the hells did I miss?
“Angels are difficult prey, but we will continue to evolve while he merely hates.”
Lynne reached out to tap Valkyrie on the nose, forestalling more questions. Then, turning to her companion, she bade, “Go to sleep, Verdandi. I can handle our fledgling here.”
Verdandi nodded. Her form stilled, flesh darkening…hardening…vine hair stretching…and then there was only a lonesome willow where she had stood.
Lynne firmly seized Valkyrie’s hand and ushered her along into the high reeds. Together, they passed through a cloud of mosquitoes, stepped over giant snakes, and passed one alarmingly large crocodile. None bothered the angels.
Reaching the Dragon, Lynne hummed under her breath, “Should be one around here somewhere…”
“Where are we headed?” Wouldn’t it be faster to fly?
Her wings twitched.
“Back to Waves,” Lynne answered, her tone the firm guidance of a mother.
In other words, she’s not going to answer any of my questions yet, Valkyrie sulked.
An old, creaking dinghy rounded the bend in the Dragon straight for them, and Lynne waved to its captain.
The old man stared at the Stormmother and her peregrine guest. Quickly, he clapped his hands together in prayer and sought a landing spot among the mud. “H-holy Stormmother, it is an honor t-to…”
As he stammered, a flicker of blue fire ran from Lynne’s toes, crossed the water, and smacked into the boat. It spread into the grain, smoothing divots in the worn hull, and then raced back to the angel of Oceans.
The man continued to stammer on, blind, and Valkyrie shot a questioning look up at Lynne.
The angel of Oceans tapped a finger to the girl’s wrist, sharing an echo.
You will see many things they do not now
Some you will wish you did not
“Hail, Darius,” the angel of Oceans called. “Would you share the way?”
Valkyrie felt her hand tugged upwards. Glancing up, she stared as Lynne quietly swelled taller and taller! A solid eight foot tall now, the angel of Oceans smiled at Darius as though nothing strange had occurred!
The angel of Oceans stepped into the dinghy like a queen. It rocked under her magnified weight, and only an angelic miracle kept the dinghy from sinking. Without asking, she turned and picked Valkyrie out of the mud and onto a seat.
“Oi!” the girl squeaked, pinions bristling. “I just fought the Wyrm! I can get into a boat myself!”
“Of course,” the angel soothed.
Darius hurriedly cleared sacks of goods from the widest seat. Lynne accepted it, still holding Valkyrie, and plunked the girl onto her giant-sized lap.
“Am I a cat?!”
The goddess set her arms around Valkyrie like a cage. Then, as the boat pushed away from shore, she smiled down. “May I tell you a story, Valkyrie?”
Valkyrie sighed.
“When I was yet new to the House Mishkan – oh, yes, of course I lived there! – there was a monster attack in the shallows between Lumia and Moros. Not much of a monster, really, but I had been cloistered up in that baffling manor for days and days. Alice made me promise to hold back, and I obliged. Even so, it was hardly a fight. Just a little bubble of resentment between two nations given teeth.”
And how blind we were to the dark shadow beneath those little biters
“I sauntered back into House Mishkan, fresh off my victory, and sat down for a meal with the Lady of the House. She brought out her good plates to celebrate – the ones she received on her coronation, I recall – and I immediately shattered the first into a fine powder with an ill-judged touch.”
The angel chuckled at her own expense.
“I remember how she smiled. Bemused, she asked, ‘Should we have started with a tea?’” Lynne shook her head. “It was a long time before I understood Alice.”
Too late, truly
Oh, all the things I left unsaid…
Squeezing Valkyrie like a cherished teddy bear, the angel of Oceans explained, “It is because you just fought the Wyrm that we take the boat.”
Breathe in the river, fledgling
Let its flow center you
Live in this world
Valkyrie shivered, the echoes loud through the warmth of the woman against her wings.
Once Rie had been She Who Listens and Valkyrie She Who Sings.
Now Valkyrie was both.
Like Ali’s halo. Her drums of war that hounded her day and night…
“And my waters,” Lynne admitted into her ear. “We are naked creatures. Our passions. Our insecurities. They echo with every step, and we must each find an anchor worthy of eternity.”
Not every angel manages the feat alone
Some must be pulled by the hair from their self-indulgent puddle and beat over the head a few times first
“I…” Valkyrie squirmed, staring into the Dragon’s muddy water. “About Ali…”
“We will build her somewhere warm and safe,” Lynne answered with the faintest tremble to her fingers. “A wonderful room for when she returns.”
Through her pinions, Valkyrie felt Lynne shiver in exhaustion and grief.
But mortals needed the story to have an ending. Something definite and binding to lessen the sight of the Wyrm in their new sky.
Like the Stormmother calmly drifting down the Dragon after a disaster, all matters well in hand.
“Will three hours to the city please you, Stormmother?” Darius murmured reverently.
“My Dragon is sleepy today. We arrive when we arrive.”
“As you wish, Holy Mother.”
“And do try to talk to your own now and again, Darius. She misses you.”
“Yes! Of course!”
Lynne snickered into Valkyrie’s ear. “Another story or two to pass the time? Oh, yes, there are the echoes, but something slightly more coherent pleases the ear. Why don’t I tell you about the time I tried to court Verdandi and almost destroyed the world for it?”
That did sound like a half-decent story, and Valkyrie slowly relaxed into Lynne’s arms.
***
Lynne might have fibbed. She kept the Dragon meandering until her voice soothed Valkyrie to sleep.
It was a tiny bit selfish. The feel of a child on her lap, head on her breast and breathing soft, filled her with a gentle warmth she seldom had the chance to savor. Mortal children were so fragile and her own aura so overpowering that she could only hold them for a brief time for fear of imprinting her own sins onto malleable minds.
Is that why you lost yourself in your Work, only allowing Esmie and Ali to visit by dream? she chided herself.
But no, that was unkind.
She had lost herself in the construction of the Sapphire because she could not know how long the planet would endure or when the Wyrm would return to finish his task.
Such a near thing! Even his appearance over Sevensborough had been too early!
It was only because I severed Ruhum from the chain that we were ready, she admitted to herself. And the gift I left for them amounted to naught.
Oh, how she wished Alice was here! How she wished to ask, “Was it pragmatism? Was it justice? Or does my vengeance merely find new avenues?”
What could anyone, mortal or immortal, do when a man set his heart on destruction? When a nation did the same?
She knew her answers. In the end, they had craved the release of Fire, and they had called that fate home. When they would not surrender a path of self-destruction, she had acted to limit the damage.
She also knew this decision would return to her in the deep hours of the night while mortals slept. To wonder if a different word, or a day on either side, might have saved a nation – or at least a few more people.
“It is hard, isn’t it?” she whispered to the sleeping girl in her arms. “To find what’s right.”
Slack-jawed, Valkyrie slipped, and Lynne pulled her arms under the girl’s butt to pull her higher and let the girl sleep with head nestled into her neck.
“Such pretty wings.” The angel of Oceans ever so gently stroked a finger down one. “They remind me of someone I once knew. Isn’t that curious?”
If the Foundation of Freedom heard, he did not answer.
“My deepest apologies for the delays, Holy Mother!” Darius begged again.
“I told you before, boatman,” she chided. “We will arrive when we arrive.”
There was no point in rushing to the temple. Let her priestesses have time to soothe the folk; for reasoned questions to rise from the panic of the moment.
Even now, a part of her mind adjusted the flower sails of her worldship. They stretched wide to catch the solar wind from a lonesome star, soon to be devoured by a hungering singularity.
The Wyrm’s hunger and Time’s suture, she reflected. Like Scylla and Charybdis. I will place signs as we go to warn all away.
And where would she go? Verdandi did not care what direction they sailed, so long as the Jungle continued its evolution, and Lynne saw little appeal in a return to Gabriel’s Eden. Perhaps she would follow the galactic arm, bridge the void between to their neighbors, and visit the diaspora worlds? Perhaps see if she could find Sebastian’s pen pals…
She could not sense the angel of Witness on the Sapphire.
“May he be free of Eden wherever he goes,” she prayed without much sincerity. Smug bastard was as much responsible for the Wyrm as Gabriel – without the grace to embrace the Song in penance.
Yet despite all her burdens, she exulted once more to find the sea.
Valkyrie slipped again, and Lynne pushed the girl higher.
“It’s okay, little one,” she crooned. Our new angel of Dreams. Most angels forget how to sleep as we grow into our power, you know. May you never lay awake the long night.
She rocked side to side, listening to the child breathe, and closed her eyes with the warmth of it.
Lynne’s tempest was shattered, and her power now lay in the Sapphire that was as much her body as the flesh on this dinghy.
But when the child sighed into her ear, she reflected that perhaps there were other joys besides Power.
***
“Stormmother! Stormmother! The sky!” came the plaintive wail. Accompanying it came a rush of nightmares: the sky a void, sucking their air, dragging them from the earth!
Already the radio rang of sailors reporting great golden petals at the borders of the sea, and what had become of Ruhum?
Valkyrie burrowed further into her mother’s hair, shifting in half sleep, sucking her thumb with the force of a small sun.
Dreams. So many dreams. Wonderful dreams and petty dreams, colorful dreams and monochrome dreams…
Like Abigail the smuggler standing on the edge of a pier in Moros, staring out over the water towards a distant gold glimmer on the horizon, and muttering, “So much for that line of work.”
Or her familiar passengers, delivered to dry land and still trembling from the violence of the last mile to shore!
Or an Inventor, excitedly cataloging the damage to a skyship being extricated from mud, too absorbed in his work to worry over the sky.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Shh,” whispered a voice in her ear. Her mother’s voice. But also everyone’s mother… “Just listen to mine for now.”
A dream close at hand, smelling like her mother’s hair. A dream like a velvet blanket across her shoulders.
Little Rie.
The voice snickered to herself, adjusting her arms under Valkryie’s butt higher. “A malleable one, aren’t we? Learning how to control your mien will be a challenge.”
But persevere, Rie, that you might find brand new shores
“Holy Stormmother!” someone called.
“Yes, yes.” A hand pressed against the small of Valkyrie’s back, oddly large. “I assure you there is no danger. Now, if everyone would assemble. And do we have one of those – what does Tura call them? – a video recorder? Yes, one of those, and a radio crew.”
The words rolled through Valkyrie without interest. Strange how many things needed to be explained. Couldn’t they feel the angel of Oceans beneath their feet? Or smell the Jungle edge to the air they breathed?
“…and so we are safe for the moment. I ask every nation to send their best masters of the Arts that we might see to the matter of a new sun…”
Pressed close, Valkyrie easily heard the subtle whisper.
So much faster to do it myself, Verdandi
And the response.
But they will grow more this way
“What a troublesome world engine I have found,” Lynne sighed, jogging Valkyrie in place.
There were many, many more questions, of course, and Valkyrie floated in her half-dream. She only stirred when…
“And so I struck the Wyrm’s foul heart from within, weakening him long enough for the Jungle to send him back to the–”
“The Wyrmhole!” Valkyrie squeaked in a flash of inspiration.
Her naming struck true.
“Ah, the Wyrmhole!” the assembled nodded sagely.
Lynne twitched. “Rie, sweetie, please do not name godlike singularities without asking an adult.”
“Then don’t take credit for what I did in the Wyrm!” she retorted, her voice squeaky to her own ears.
“Hmm. Definitely a touch of Mirielle.”
“Stormmother!” shouted the audience.
“Do you really want to answer all those questions yourself?” Lynne whispered in her ear.
Grimacing, Valkyrie settled down.
“Now then…” Lynne continued.
Heavy blanket pressing down, Valkyrie lapsed into sleep again until the bells rang for what would be dawn were there still a sun overhead.
There were advantages to being an angel, at least. She hadn’t had to wiggle out of her daze to pee!
Though now that she thought about that, her bladder twinged in confusion. A habit rather than a need, followed by the rumble of her stomach. Both reacted because she expected them to react, lacking the pressure of true human need. How surreal…
Experimentally, Valkyrie held her breath.
Lynne giggled, patting her back. “Experimenting, are we? Such a curious little girl.”
The girl rolled her eyes hard.
“Almost there, dear.”
Through the veil of Lynne’s hair, she spied the minarets of the former Cathedral of Fire, now adorned with the waves and murals of Azure. What in the world…?
“Where did you think I put it, silly? Did you think I left it in Lumia?!”
More voices, and Lynne stopped at the edge of her complex. “Yes, yes, out of the way! Hardly the first time I’ve had to repair my temple!” Waters briefly rushed, and the angel of Oceans whispered, “Good enough for a rush job.”
Leaving the crowds to surge against the guards of her compound, Lynne strode inside. Down the dark hallways, past the dancing hall and throne, to the left into the Maiden’s quarters. A comforting incense wafted through the halls, and the waters bubbled with an innocent joy of youth and healing…
“Esmerelda awaits you in the west annex, Holy Stormmother.”
“Let me settle this one. Do we still have the adjacent nursery?”
“Yes, Stormmother. Unoccupied this morning.”
“Hey now!” Valkyrie hissed, pushing against the velvet blanket across her mind.
“Yes, dear? Is something the matter?” smirked the Stormmother.
“I’m not that small!”
“Well, you would know. See for some larger furniture for our guest, please.”
“Of course, Holy Stormmother.”
“A quick swap of furniture, and you’ll have the room adjacent to Esmie,” Lynne said, resuming her walk.
Staying with Esmie? That sounded like fun. Like a sleepover…Oh, she could play guitar for Esmie again! Hells, it felt like an eternity since those nights on the radio with the Maiden!
“A wonderful dream,” agreed Lynne, rubbing her back.
A moment later, they entered a cheerful nursery, the air ripe with lemon cleaners barely masking the sour smell beneath.
“That stinks!”
“Sick little ones tend to be fragrant, yes. Give the servants a chance to clean up.” Lynne shifted, pulling Valkyrie off her shoulder, and spun the girl to a stand on the padded floor. “Mind a moment, Rie, would you?”
“Yeah, yeah…” Valkyrie smoothed her skirts and looked for somewhere to sit as Lynne slipped out. Between a towering rocking chair, cushions on the floor, and a small tea table, she picked the tea table and sat down among the stuffed animals and little cups.
“Yesterday I was swallowed by the Wyrm,” she sighed, slumping forward, “and now I’m sitting at a baby’s tea party.”
Her head still ached with it all. How was she supposed to square those extremes?!
The end of a world; the birth of the Sapphire
The end of archangels and the mighty; the beginning of eternity
How did the angels of old balance such perspectives? She imagined the former archangel, fresh from war with chthonic beasts, settling across the table from Ali to ask about her mathematics homework; or Lynne, fussing over a new bed for ‘little Rie’ while half her mind piloted this worldship.
That the world could unmoor so quickly; from school at the beginning of Spring to godhood at the end…
The fragility of it all scared her.
Her mind started to tread back to the last frightful days…
But a door hidden in the cheerful wallpaper opened, and Esmerelda Azure-blessed peeked in. She wore a long white shift, her hair left loose for bed, but the bags under her eyes implied the Maiden had found little rest overnight.
“Oh, we do have a little guest!” she said, smiling past her exhaustion. “Hello there!”
Valkyrie bristled, wings puffing. “Oh, you don’t give me ‘little’ too, Esmie!”
The Maiden noted the wings with a tilt of her head. “Are you mortal, sweetie?” she wondered, stepping fully into the nursery. She towered over the little furniture and Valkyrie both!
Wait a second. Valkyrie hopped to her feet. Even standing, she could not see over the top of the far counter, and her eye level was just higher than the pad of the crib. Which, at a guess, put her slightly under three feet tall.
She glanced down, finally piercing the strange velvet veil across her mind, and saw her own flat chest and rounded belly under a blue empire-waist dress.
“Lynne!” she shouted in annoyance.
'Listen to my dream,' huh?!
Esmie giggled. “What has Mother done now?”
“She shrank me!” Three foot tall was average for a three-year-old, though Valkyrie’s height challenge kept her in that size of dresses for a while longer. She distinctly remembered throwing a tantrum on her first day of kindergarten because her custom-order uniform had yet to come in and she had to wear a baby dress.
Then she’d thrown another because the chairs weren’t the right size…
Then another because…
Flushing, Valkyrie lowered her head. Her hair tumbled forward into her eyes – Azure locks soft and full with foam-white tips!
A storm-daughter! No wonder nobody questioned me riding on her shoulder all night!
“Really?” The Maiden huffed, annoyed. “She always tells me to never make my patients younger!”
“That is because we have enough trouble without every high-born family demanding eternal youth,” the angel of Oceans answered smoothly as she stepped back into the room.
“They suspect I can do it enough to ask anyways!” Esmie retorted.
“Yes, but only a suspicion. Confirm it, and their demands will become an issue.” Stepping closer, Lynne scooped her Maiden daughter into a tight hug. “You did wonderful, Esmerelda.”
Everything I could have asked, my little songbird
Esmie squirmed a moment, annoyance warring, but finally hugged back.
“I’m glad you’re home, Mother,” the Maiden whispered, her voice hoarse.
“The Wyrm will not trouble you again. We speed from his tomb.”
To which the girl only squeezed her mother harder, nodding into her shoulder.
When they parted, Esmie wiped her eyes. “Oh! Ali left you a package!”
“Now, now, let’s not leave little Rie out of the fun. Over here, sweetie.”
“Little my arse!” Valkyrie shot back, crossing her arms. Now that she recognized this spell, her center of balance felt foreign, and she felt the soft dimples in her cheeks as she frowned. “Turn me back!”
By their bemused smiles, she knew her attempt at gravitas an abject failure.
The angel of Oceans hummed, “Did you wish to be older?”
“Yes!”
“Then grow,” she challenged.
And Valkyrie blinked, taken aback. What muscle did an angel flex to gain a decade?!
Lynne knelt to share eye level with the girl and gently poked the girl in the belly.
My dream shall hold you for now, little Rie
Or did you want to be tugged in a hundred directions by the stray thoughts of every stranger on the streets?
I have been told it is quite exhausting
“Your heart is full of dreams,” the angel said. “Even before you Bloomed, you were drawn into Ali’s orbit, weren’t you? You drew strength from the Spear, yes? But tell me honest, Rie; how long would you have continued to survive every close call?”
Valkyrie flinched away from the iron gaze of those deep, sea-black eyes. “I stood against the Wyrm!”
“And bought us the precious seconds we needed!” Lynne agreed. “But now? The clarity of a looming evil is ever fleeting.”
I know what it means to yearn for that clarity
To invent crisis and foment strife to satisfy that hunger
Hooking the girl’s hand, Lynne tugged her forward into Esmie’s room.
Dominated by a vast bed, the Maiden’s retreat smelled of exotic perfume. Silken curtains fluttered across giant windows, though Valkyrie could not see over their rims to the garden beyond. Her heart twitched in guilt to see an encrypted radio still on the heavy table, awaiting word from Dancer that had never come.
“I’m Dancer!” Valkyrie squeaked.
Esmie stumbled mid-step, staring down at her.
Valkyrie rushed to explain. “I’m sorry I never called again. The radio broke; then the loft was attacked; then there was the chaos in Ruhum! I didn’t have a way to contact you!”
The Maiden laughed. “Ah, that’s a relief!” Then, she smirked, spitting image of her mother, and added, “Though I did imagine you’d be a bit taller.”
“I will pee on your bed.”
“Wish I could say you’d be the first little guest to make a mess,” huffed Esmie. “But let’s sing together some more, okay? I like your songs.”
Which made Valkyrie flush bright red. “Th-th-thanks…”
“Ali left a lot of stuff I wasn’t sure about,” Esmie continued, a new spring to her steps. She stopped by the table and gestured to a jumble of books, notes, and trinkets. Plus, five faded and chipped gemstones on rumpled cushions.
“And we will keep it for her,” Lynne responded. She tapped Valkyrie’s shoulder, sending an echo.
And I will talk to Esmerelda about what Alisandra had to do
You just worry about growing into your own power
In the nursery, the voices of servants rose, discussing the furniture. The angel of Dreams twisted, thinking to make sure the servants put some proper bedding in place, but Lynne instead scooped the girl into her arms.
“Let me down!” Valkyrie whispered into Lynne’s ear.
If you want a baby so bad, make one the usual way!
Instead of responding, Lynne pursed her lips…
Glanced at the gemstones…
“Hmm…”
“What should I do with it all for now?” Esmie asked.
“Leave most of it. Except the gems.”
Lynne instructed her daughter to gather the gemstones in a satchel. Accepting the bag, she slung it over her left hip opposite Valkyrie. She laid her hand upon the satchel for a moment, fingers flashing as Azure traces ran along the stitching, and nodded to herself.
Ignoring the curious stares of both girls, she clapped her hands and called a servant in.
“Yes, Holy Mother?”
“Is the Wavespeaker here?”
The Wavespeaker?!
“Awaiting your pleasure in your quarters.”
“Send her here.”
“As you command.”
Valkyrie squeaked, “H-hold on! Belle?! We can’t–”
“Let your other mother see you like this?” Lynne asked. “You need to stay close, sweetie. That means with me, Esmie, or Belle until you’ve settled.”
“And how long is that?!”
“I don’t know yet.” Lynne stroked her hair. “Who can predict the soul? Especially one as mischievous as yours!”
Despite her reassuring smile, the angel of Oceans maintained a firm grip under Valkyrie’s butt. A whisper of her thoughts raced up Valkyrie’s wings:
If I had been strong enough after Lumia to resist Reverie
I could have helped Ali bridge the gap of Power as well
“How about this, sweetie?” Lynne nudged open the door into the nursery. The two servants inside turned, bowed, and hurriedly shuffled to an inconspicuous corner. The angel of Oceans stopped by the crib, setting Valkyrie on the corner rail, and looked her in the eye. “You can come with me to face your mother. Or, if that is too much, you can take a nap in here.”
And sleep she would; that velvet blanket would wrap her snug. Waking, would she even remember she was an angel for the next decade? Or would she awake five years old, full of the giggles and worries of that age?
It dawned on Valkyrie that she was being adopted into Lynne’s family one way or the other.
“I’ll…I’ll come,” she mumbled. The shame of facing her birth mother less than the thought of sleeping in a room with cartoon elemental beasts printed on the walls.
“She’ll be happy to see you.”
“Wouldn’t she see me either way?” Valkyrie muttered.
Lynne smirked. “Perhaps…” she admitted slyly.
But I’m sure you look quite darling while sleeping now
The Stormmother carried the child back into Esmie’s room and deposited her onto the Maiden’s sumptuous bed.
Valkyrie sank into the plush covers like a stone and gasped in utter jealousy. It was a bed fit for a queen!
Esmie giggled and jumped onto the bed beside her, sinking the mattress even further, and leaned over to tickle her.
With a shriek, Valkyrie grabbed a pillow, and war commenced!
***
Meanwhile, Lynne stepped out of the room to find Belle waiting in the hall. Beside her, two servants carried a stretcher with Oliver Oshton sprawled atop.
The Wavespeaker plucked at her dress, as always, and sketched a curtsy for the angel. “Lynne, is Valkyrie here?”
“Yes, Belle. With a few cosmetic alterations.”
The Wavespeaker pressed her lips together. “Did she dye her hair again?!”
“Or get her ears pierced in new places?” Oliver chuckled.
“Why are you on a stretcher?” Lynne asked, though she already felt the persistent pain emanating from his spine.
“Well, your holiest of the depths,” he drawled, “we were waiting on the Maiden to see me, but somehow we ended up pretty low on that list. Seems some blue-blood stubbed his toe. Or twenty or thirty of them.”
Motioning to a servant, Lynne ordered, “Please assemble a list of every person Esmie has healed since my leave. Put it in my chambers. I will review it after everyone has gone to bed.”
“As for me?” Oliver grunted. “It…uh…it doesn’t seem to be getting better.”
Lynne knelt by the stretcher, placing her hand on his belly.
Herniated disc. Two torn tendons. Fluid pressure building on the spine, and it looks like he tore another muscle higher up trying to compensate for the lower injury.
“My, Oliver, you found trouble this time.”
“Witchcraft and rebellion are sports for the young,” he answered.
“And how is your phoenix?” she asked, gently adjusting the flow of his body’s water.
“She doesn’t like your temple. Too wet.”
With two swirls and a flick of the wrist, Lynne restored his flesh.
Oliver groaned in relief, sitting up on the stretcher. “Ah, that’s the stuff! What would I have done without you?!”
“Spend the rest of your life in pain.”
He winced. “I’m getting too old for angelic antics, you know.”
Lynne just smiled. Don’t think I’m done with you yet, Oliver Oshton. Mirielle knew how to pick her pets well, and we’ve work to do. There’s a sun to build, and soon enough the mortals will realize that every ship needs a captain…
But she glanced at Belle, whose eyes glimmered with repressed tears, and decided to give him a week or two vacation.
Rubbing his back, Oliver stood up, stretched, and then wrapped Belle in his arms for a deep kiss.
Just in case I hadn’t noticed? Boys are so dramatic.
The Wavespeaker squeaked quite cutely, though, and Lynne gave them a moment.
“Tell her,” he whispered into the Wavespeaker’s ear.
“R-right.” Belle drew in a breath, stepped forward, and announced, “Stormmother! I…I resign!”
“I refuse,” the angel answered, “though I may consider a new assignment for a woman as useful as yourself. Perhaps to the Maiden’s ward? We always need a helping hand with the little patients.”
And the big ones that fuss worse than the babies.
Belle took another deep breath and held Lynne’s gaze. “No. I have had my fill of the temple!”
How she has grown! Barely suppressing a smile, Lynne spread her hands. “Very well. If you must. Might I offer a recommendation? How about teaching?”
***
Nestled deep in the bed and hidden in an ad-hoc pillow fort, Valkyrie pulled her skirt down and tucked her feet under her butt. This young body was like taffy, and she bent herself backwards until her head touched her toes just to see if she could.
It really is weird. I didn’t shrink; the world got bigger. No matter how you move your head, you are always at eye level.
Esmie had made her promise to stay put. Then the Maiden had changed into her Azure sarong, hopped the window, and walked across the garden to inquire on the day’s lunch.
Now Valkyrie pulled her legs up to her chest, tucked her wings close, put her chin on her knees, and stared out the square exit of her fort. The curtains fluttered, offering glimpses of fruit-laden trees and fountains, still lit electric lamps.
This is home now, huh?
“I see what Lynne’s doing,” she sighed. Trying to provide a soft landing, a familiar confine, and a recalibration lest she grow a big head and go a bit crazy with angelic prowess.
When have I ever!
She imagined what Rie would say.
Okay, fair.
Could anyone blame her? Years of delinquency had prepared her for just this moment! She could make the deacons chew their robes when she…
Ah, but the deacons were gone now. Ruhum was gone. She felt the gap in the dream where they had been – a thread cleanly snipped.
The hall door opened.
“…and I believe you will find many parallels between the Conclave and your average kindergarten,” the angel of Oceans continued. She ushered in her guests and firmly closed the door. “Now where did they slip off to?”
Valkyrie stifled a giggle. She couldn’t help it! The thrill of being unseen called too strong! With a little puff of faerie fire, she wrapped the air around herself.
“Rie, Rie, won’t you come out?” Lynne sang.
Another giggle bubbled up, but Valkyrie caught it in her faerie fire. I can even bend sound now! Oh, this is going to be so much fun!
The angel of ocean’s face appeared at the end of the pillow fortress, peering inside.
Valkyrie held her breath, steadying the faerie fire.
“Very nice pillow fort,” the angel commented, stepping back out of sight. “Now then…under the table?! No? Hmm, I hope she didn’t sneak off for a snack without permission! What about…here!”
Then Belle spoke. “Um…Lynne?”
Valkyrie froze at her mother’s voice. Her heart started to pound like a hare, and she squeezed her legs together nervously.
“Yes, Belle?” the angel said clearly, moving closer again.
Then Lynne’s hand burst through the pillows, caught Valkyrie by the back of the dress, and yanked the girl free of the pillows.
“Hells!” the girl shrieked.
“One day, you will hide so well even I will not sense your water,” the angel promised into her ear. Merciless, she turned to make Valkyrie face her birth mother like a recalcitrant kitten. “Today, however, little Rie is not quite as powerful as she thinks.”
Belle stared at her daughter.
Valkyrie stared at her own toes.
“…is this permanent?” her mother finally asked.
“No more than usual,” Lynne answered. She jogged the girl in her arms. “Come now. Say hello to your mother.”
“H-h-h–” Valkyrie stammered.
“Does this make her more or less trouble?” Oliver asked, rubbing his head with one hand. The other hand…
Valkyrie’s gaze dropped.
Oliver and her mother were holding hands.
Holding.
Hands!
“Oh my God!” Valkyrie shrieked. “Never in ten million years! You better never expect me to call you Daddy!”
Belle’s expression flatlined. Turning to Lynne, she stated, “Don’t turn her back.”
“What?! What have I done to deserve–”
To her utter shock, Belle stepped forward to tick down her fingers. “Theft, mischief, breaking and entering, unauthorized witchcraft, lying to your mother, and skipping your entire final season of school to scheme with angels!”
Lynne added, “Flirting with my daughter, flirting with my other daughter, making both daughters worry, and apotheosizing without permission.”
Smirking, Oliver jumped in. “Never paid me for a single thing you ate at my diner either.”
Faced with this sudden tribunal, Valkyrie growled, “S-see how long you can hold me!”
The angel of Oceans grinned. “I think I will make sure to introduce you to everyone on staff.”
Challenge accepted, my dear
We will publish your picture in every paper
Let all the Sapphire meet Rie as I have dreamed
After all, we want a proper challenge for our little angel, don’t we?
The whole worldship to conceive of her this way. Their dream would grow, mind by mind, until a mountain pressed down on her! Any single person she could rebuke. But the sum of a faceless crowd? That was like a river, swirling around barriers to find new ways in…
A singular evil like the Wyrm could be defeated by heroics. But what about the drumbeat of the world itself? When there was no villain against which she could set her ire…
Well, maybe Lynne.
Lynne snickered behind her. “Oh, yes, I’ve got you pegged, little Rie. You’re the type that has to have something to strive against, or you’ll start stirring up trouble yourself.”
Belle nodded, sighing. “You have no idea…”
“I think I do. After all, I’m the same!” The angel of Oceans laughed, sharing a little joke. “Alice taught me it is best to keep busy.”
Then she dumped Valkyrie onto Belle.
Her mother scooped up the angel of Dreams by instinct, planting the girl against her hip. “Oof. Were you always this heavy?”
“It’s a good thing she’s small for her age,” Lynne agreed.
Valkyrie shot a glare at Lynne. I will send you such nightmares!
Smiling, the angel of ocean dusted her hands. “You said she didn’t attend her last season of school?”
“I’m afraid she didn’t graduate at all.”
“That will not do. We’ll have to enroll her again.”
“And I have just heard of a wonderful local academy!”
Chattering right over Valkyrie’s head, Belle bounced her in place, and Valkyrie’s faint sliver of hope that her birth mother would take her side after the initial shock puffed up in smoke.
“But which level?” Belle asked.
“No one would believe anything high.”
The former Wavespeaker snickered. “With her grades? I’m not sure they’d believe anything low either.”
“M-mother!” the girl squeaked.
“Honestly, I think the whole thing was a bust. We’ll have to start from the beginning!”
Oliver shook his head. “Sounds like the women have this weirdness in hand.” He leaned in and kissed Belle on the cheek. “Now that I can walk proper, I need to get Jimmy settled. He’s having a rough go with so many changes.”
“Aren’t we all?” Belle whispered back.
We must be strong for everyone
“Do something!” Valkyrie mouthed behind her mother’s head.
The former mayor winked at Valkyrie. “Be seeing you around, lass.”
Lynne stampeded along. “What are you preferences on uniforms, Belle? It would not do for our little peregrine to look like a drab pigeon!”
Belle gasped in delight. “Y-yes, exactly!”
Valkyrie sagged against her mother with a groan.
Don’t I get a say in this?!
She had started Spring making trouble; terrorizing every adult; skipping school.
Now she faced the prospect of planting her little butt in a chair and starting lessons over from the very beginning.
How one’s sins came home to roost!
***
Several hours and three uniform fittings later, Valkyrie sat on a picnic blanket in Esmerelda’s garden under the wide, starry sky.
With a little experimentation, she had found she could draw her wings into her body, leaving only a ghost image like a trick of the light, but holding them in was like tucking a foot too far under her butt. They started to itch.
So, instead, she sat on her feet and pulled her wings tight against her shoulder as she picked at today’s lunch – some kind of quivering Jungle delicacy that would have turned her stomach even before Lynne turned her into a little girl.
Funny how the mind worked. She was not truly a child again, but this form drew up her memories from that deep well, and she found herself acting the part – squirming on her butt with the imposition of staying in one place and picking at her food like a foreign adversary.
Across from her on the picnic blanket, Esmie munched cheerfully.
Belle, to her right, made a show of food, but mostly reached out to touch her daughter again and again. Little strokes to her hair. Pets to her wings. Confirmation that Valkyrie was really there.
It annoyed Valkyrie at first.
But then she hit upon a somber thought.
Belle. My birth mother. My mortal mother. How long will she live? Another fifty years? Maybe sixty?
A blink in the eye of eternity.
It was not a cage to reside beside the ones you loved.
So Valkyrie tilted, letting herself rest against her mother’s side.
Then Belle wrapped an arm around her shoulders and squeezed her tight.
Saying nothing, but Valkyrie heard a wordless prayer.
God
If you hear
If you care
Thank you for bringing her home safe
“I’m home,” Valkyrie whispered.
“Yes. We are.”
Plucking up another fragment of the delicacy, Esmie wiggled to herself. “Hey. Dancer. How long do you think you’ll stay pint sized?”
“A week tops!”
Esmie mentally translated. “Okay. In a month or two, once you’re big enough again, maybe we can play at a café? I was thinking I could pick up guitar too. I think we could make a nice duet…”
Valkyrie’s heart fluttered.
Belle put her hand over her mouth to hide her smile.
“I…I wouldn’t mind it.”
Prologue: Of Things yet to Come
The once-Mighty sundered, the stars sink into a spell of peace
Here begins the Interregnum without Power or Principality
Yet somewhere in the gulf of stars, Thea drifts alone
And Mirielle will find her, no matter the cost