The Mercenary's Valkyrie: Book One

- Epilogue -

Rain crashed upon what was left of the tattered remains of my black cloak.

Curse every god of the high realm and low. Fools. Ignorant to the core. The Valkyrie and their hopeless god seeking to maintain order on the retched mortal realm will know what folly it is when I am finished.

Thunders crashed in the distance as I made my way across a water logged farmers field. The temperature told me the portal had guided me true. I was near.

By the time the rain had begun its slow seep into my bones, I made it out over the next hill...  Vayleron.

The surest place of any to find them once more.

As I made progress to the main gate I saw armoured pikemen allowing passage of carts and men and women on horseback. I couldn't be seen, not in the tatters and black ink I was coated in... too many questions and I was still too weak.

I peeled back some sodden fabric to reveal a deep cut over my hip. A courtesy of a Valkyrie's spear.

"Ho there! Ho!" A gravelly voice of an old man shouted over the rain.
He was nondescript and entirely forgettable to the eyes upon a wagon with a single horse. His wide brimmed hat bent under the rain. The easiest of targets. His horse slowed before me.
"Oh good sir!" I called, sending a high shrill into my voice. "Please, I am in dire need!" I called over the rain, dramatically stumbling forward.

He jumped off his wagon with as much energy as his age could muster and trudged to me.

"Ya'll catch your death in this rain lass! Where you be heading?" He yelled with concern painting his face under his dripping hat.

My eyelashes fluttered.
"My horse—my horse ran off in the storm, I have no means to stay come nightfall, he was worth more than my life!" I cried desperately as I stumbled another step and he made to throw out an arm in support. The act was insufferable and predictable.

"Come, I head for the first market at dawn with this load." He said jutting a thumb behind him. "You may take lodge for the night in our home.

"Oh sir, you have my endless thanks. How can I repay—"
He waved me off. The act alone made me want to drag his soul through the rivers of the Underworld.

"It be no trouble! Come, the winds are picking up!"

I nodded frantically and allowed him to assist me upon his wagon.
"Here." He said as he dragged a thick brown cloak from behind his seat and threw it over my shoulders. A perfect discreet disguise to slip my way into the walls of Vayleron. Nothing more than a mindless mortal trader.

It took longer than I had patience for. The man wasted endless time on talk and useless attempts at friendship. It was beyond me.

When I was within the walls and he made talk to yet another buffoon of the trade, I slipped off the wagon seat and into a thin alley between stoned houses.

My side slowed me but I cast the pain into the furthest part of my mind. It was nothing.

I slipped deeper into the shadows of allies and felt the eyes of watchers in the darkness. I hastened my step. The guilds of assassin and thief were not unknown to me.

The next door I passed, I grabbed and stepped inside. The windows were lit from inside so I knew it would not yet be locked for nightfall. It also meant those still dwelled within—

"Joseph? Did you have trouble with the grain?" A female voice rang out.

I moved swiftly and silently to the next room. Then footsteps sounded when there was a lack of response.

"Joseph?" The woman repeated a little more on edge.

I soundlessly drew a dagger from my thigh and approached the steps. She had her back to me and opened the front door cautiously. She had a thin frame and a weak shade of blonde wrapped in a timid bun.

The thunder rumbled outside and rain crashed against the stones. She shut the door slowly and turned to face me. Her breath caught into a scream before I silenced it with a blade through her throat.

"Pathetic mortal." I uttered before I let her drop to the floor. Crimson pooled around her dark blue gown. I kicked her onto her front, her mouth set wide in the terror she died with. I slipped the silver ring from her finger and cut the necklace of bronze from her neck.

Sentiment. The true plague of the mortal realm.

I sheathed the blade swiftly and made for the supplies in the kitchen. Within slithers I had disinfected the wound and had it wrapped to an acceptable standard.

I strode back into the living quarter unimpressed. The male I assumed was still out had a short sword propped against a shelf, basic riding leathers and boots. I took them all.

When the sword was against my back the door opened and hit the dead woman's head.

I heard a curse and then a shout.

But the sword was already in my hand and the mortal, he already had exceeded his time on this realm....

The blood never bothered me. In fact it repulsed me. I wiped the sword on his back before opening the door and slamming it. What a waste of air, both of them were.

I pulled my brown hood low over my dark hair and made for the inn that was so famed. So favoured by one. The tally of the dead I needed to begin to get her attention needed to be swift and brutal.

None lingered in the rains. No guards stopped my haste. I still felt eyes on me. Let them come if they must...

But my thoughts fell on my goals. When the ones she cares for most on this realm, the weaknesses started dropping like diseased flies... she will come running back into the realm of mortality. Back to the realm where death is an option. It was no longer the power that drove me most. True revenge will be fulfilled before I regain that right. Take from that Valkyrie what she holds most dear and making her watch. I loved nothing more than breaking them apart this way. Taking the illusion of power from them.

I raised my head at the many storied inn. The place of worthless mercenaries and assassins alike.

The place where it would all start.
Dear, dear Xerxes.