Chapter Two
Author's Notes: Okay, tell me if I'm doing anything wrong. Before I continue, I want to tell you my strategy in writing this. First, I planned out the events on yellow, lined paper. I drew a line down the middle. On the left side, I put 'Chapter Scenes'. On the right, I put 'Important Info', just so I wouldn't forget anything. As for actually writing the story, I started it on the computer, to be edited later. Now, with dialogue, I would write out a sentence, and if it's a sentence said by Skulduggery, I had to be careful. So sometimes, I rewrote them. I noticed that a lot of writer's give him a bigger ego than he actually has. Sure, he does talk highly of himself. But he doesn't do it 24/7, which is what some authors that are not Derek Landy HAVE done. So, being the observant gal I am, I made sure to put only a little at the end because these things come in snippets. I know many people LOVE Skulduggery's lovely attitude, but they tend to write it wrong when they get to that. I didn't want to make that mistake. You all can always correct me if I do something that's OOC (out of character). I will, if I have the patience to, redo it and make it more believable. But the goal of me writing this story is to have it as spot on as possible. Make it believable. Please…read and review and tell me how I'm doing. Thanks! And if you really wanted a fight scene, tell me and I'll write it in and update it. ^^;
It took one hour to get to Dundalk. They headed for the hidden sorcerer community and began to ask around, using a picture of Tanith as a reference. Most of the sorcerers who they spoke to and who answered told them to look at the Monasterboice in Collon. The Monasterboice was known by mortals and sorcerers for its remains of the monastic settlement founded by Saint Buite in the fifth century. The remains consisted of an old graveyard, two churches, three sculptured crosses, two early grave slabs, and a sundial, an instrument that indicates local apparent solar time by the shadow cast by a central projecting pointer on a calibrated dial.
The two detectives walked into the ruins and quietly looked around. Valkyrie could feel the death in the graveyard through the ring on her finger. Being that she hadn't gone through the surge yet, she was happy that she could still do Necromancy alongside Elemental magic. Passing the graves, her ring grew colder. Then someone grabbed her from behind and dragged her to and through the doors of the church, the person covering Valkyrie's mouth so she couldn't call for help.
The church was dark and cold. The shadows were very creepy, though they gave Valkyrie power. Whoever dragged her into the church slammed her down and then laughed. "Wow! That was easier than I thought!" Valkyrie whipped around to look at Tanith Low, her lips black as night with an evil smirk on her face. The remnant was obviously still inside her.
"Tanith," Valkyrie began. "We've been looking for you." Tanith smiled wider, "So it seems. How have you been, Val? Have you gotten into any trouble lately? How's the skeleton treating you?" Valkyrie glared, "I'm fine. Please come quietly and so won't have to hurt you." Tanith laughed, "You hurt me? Now that'll be the day!"
Suddenly, something bashed into Tanith's head and she fell to the ground and groaned, unconscious. "She might be unable to hurt you," Skulduggery said to Tanith's unconscious form. "But I have a better chance." He turned to Valkyrie, "Where's Sanguine." Valkyrie answered his question by thrusting the shadows from around the room at someone behind Skulduggery.
Sanguine fell to the ground, having been hit hard by all the shadows. He tried to get up, but Valkyrie repeated the gesture and he fell again, without a sound, to the ground, unconscious. "Not the best place to fight with me." Valkyrie said with a smirked. Skulduggery nodded, "Come on, you take Tanith. I'll take her idiotic boyfriend." Knowing Tanith was not too heavy, Valkyrie had the shadows carry her out of the church and through the graveyard, back to the Bentley.
After settling the two unconscious people in the back, Skulduggery and Valkyrie walked to the front. "That was a little too easy, don't you agree?" Skulduggery said, tilting his head towards Valkyrie. She shrugged, "Maybe we're just that good." Skulduggery chuckled, "You mean maybe I'm just that good. You still have some time to go." Valkyrie frowned, "I took out Sanguine with only two hits from hundreds of shadows. Seriously, you have the biggest ego in the world." Skulduggery shrugged, "I'm allowed to gloat because I'm that great!"
They drove back to Dublin without any drama from the backseat and transferred the two into the operating room in the Sanctuary. The surprising thing was that Nye had already created a remnant killer when they hadn't known he had. According to him, remnants are like darkness. Therefore, the only reasonable way to get rid of them is to use light. He brought out a blinding white liquid that seemed to glow in the tube that contained it and poured half into Tanith's mouth.
Everyone watched in anticipation. Ghastly had a look of hope on his face, Skulduggery had his arms folded and tilted his head, and Valkyrie leaned forward, waiting. Sanguine snorted in his sleep. Everyone ignored him. There was suddenly a blinding light and then a whole lot of black smoke exited Tanith's mouth. Tanith's body was wriggling around as the smoke billowed out, the remainder of the remnant flowing out. When the smoke evaporated, Tanith's body stopped moving and she began to breathe heavily, as though testing her lungs for the first time in a while.
Everyone except Nye moved closer, Skulduggery moved aside as Ghastly came forward. He was now the closest one to Tanith, looking at her now peaceful face, waiting for something to happen to show that she was okay. Soon enough, after a whole lot of getting used to breathing, Tanith Low's eyes opened and she stared up a Ghastly, no longer being controlled by the remnant.
"Hi Ghastly," She managed to say through gasps. Ghastly smiled brightly and responded, "Hi, how are you feeling?" Tanith smiled, "Fine…what happened? All I remember is pushing Val out of the way as a remnant…" She trailed off and gasped. "Did I hurt anyone?" In the past, they had received a report of five sorcerers dead and ten injured since Tanith was taken over, all of the dead and injured were done by Tanith and Sanguine.
Skulduggery told her this information and motioned to Sanguine as he mentioned that he had been her boyfriend. Tanith frowned in disgust, "How could I love him? He's so…weird!" The group around her, not including Nye, laughed. "Yes, well, you were possessed so we don't blame you." Skulduggery said to make her feel better. Tanith sighed, "Please tell me I didn't kiss him." Valkyrie coughed and Tanith leaned back, ashamed of what she had done while she was possessed.
End Notes: Okay, so it was not a big fight scene. I'm no good at that, as I will explain in the next author's notes as well, just to remind you. I may rewrite it later though. Anyways, hopefully the really good stuff will come soon. Yay! :)
