A Valkyrie's Apprentice: Book Two

Whispers of the Past

– T A Y A H –

I stared at the space she had vanished from long after she left. A coldness stood in the wake of her absence when all I had felt was fire before...

I lifted my eyes finally to the stone beauty of her home. Its glorious structure I had yet to truly take in. My eyes had only been for her since my arrival as hers had been for mine. But there was no denying it now. The great pillars of tan stone reached up high into the ceiling that was adorned with beautiful tapestries on high among flame chandeliers. Reds and golds. The warmth of firelight bounced off the floor and emptied into the night sky beyond.

A mountain top was the most stunning of choices to build upon. The rise and fall of the sun was more breathtaking than I could have realised.

Her walls were also decorated with an abundance of art and weapons of war. I had never realised she had an affinity for collecting such things of the past. The oil paintings showed warriors and mortals alike, split from their realms by golden clouds. Great plains and mountains that I had witnessed only in Valhalla but also artefacts that I knew to be from the mortal realm...

I still had so much to learn of my Valkyrie. So much she had hidden up here for so long. On the mortal realm the only personal items to her were the clothes on her back and the weapons in her hands.  

I moved closer to the wall to study a stone tablet with an ancient language chiselled into it. A question for when she returned... I found other things, shelves filled with scrolls, maps, old recipes, she truly did have an interest in the things she found in the mortal realm despite having no memory of her own time as one. Perhaps that made mortals more interesting to her. Without likening to one I supposed they were a novel concept. She had once told me that mortals do things so deliberately, that we only have a limited amount of time–a limited number to love.

Everything always was much more beautiful when it was doomed. Something that would crash into the world in burning brightness and vanish before your eyes in the next second. We were both immortal yes. But that did not mean our time was infinite, it had to be earned on this realm. 

The thought turned my attention to the weapons mounted upon the great stone walls. All gleaming damandium. All earned.

What had she done as an immortal to earn such a number of forges? Spears, axes, tridents, daggers, maces, throwing knives... she could take whatever pick she liked of the immortal objects. Then there was her beautiful armour. A full gleaming curass guarding her chest, pauldrons covering her shoulders, guantlets for her forearms–every piece sculpted for her body to carry out Odin's will. Wars could have turned by her hand alone.

She had likely mastered every single one of the weapons on this wall but favoured her spear and Thanatos–

My eyes fell on a gleaming set of short swords. They were crossed upon their mount. The golden hilts fused perfectly into the blades without pause, making it seam like part of the edges... I trailed a finger along the blade and heard a faint hum against them. 

I smirked a little. Its not like they would miss the wall for a few slithers.

I wrapped my hands slowly around the hilts and drew them off. The metal sang in the air as they sliced downwards in a quick spin of my wrists. Glorious.

I crossed the blades in front of me and whirled to counter in the other direction. They cut effortlessly through the air and felt perfectly balanced. Light to move, nibble in the air and lethally crafted. If only that forger gave me something as useful as this. Instead I was left on this realm without a blade to my name and unworthy.