10,000 Years Ago. The Stronghold. Asgard.
Queen Sorna Sydras Valkyros calmly read the scroll in her hands, violet eyes flitting over the words quickly. She nodded once she finished reading, and then handed it back to her trusted advisor. "Odin has signed our death warrant."
The council gathered around her did not react. They had expected this for centuries, ever since Odin's father had passed and his more warmongering son ascended the throne. The Asgardians had always seen the Valkyries as sadistic fiends, populating the furthest reaches of the realm. Admittedly, the Valkyries had always dealt with those that encroached on their lands quickly and violently. They did not pretend to be a peace-seeking race, like Odin did with his people. They sought bloodshed liberally and were well known on other planets and in other realms for their warring tendencies.
"It is not a surprise. They do this because they see no other way to kill Chimaeria. They fear her, just as they feared Genesis," said a councilor. Centuries beforehand, her daughter had been killed in Asgard's capitol for the crime of being feared.
"They do this because they have always hated us," a grey-haired Valkyrie added. Thanaterys was so ancient, legends held she had seen the realms shaped from the hands of the universe. The only Valkyrie nearing her in age was the Valkyros. "Odin's father, Bor, once made noises about doing this as well. Then the Jotunn distracted him, but he instilled that same fear in his son."
The council was made up of six women, the heads of each Valkyrie coven. The covens each had fifty or so women that came loosely from the same bloodline. Sorna was the head of the Empyrea coven, which had been founded by the first Valkyrie, named Valkyros. The Valkyries only numbered around 300, but that was for the best, considering their hot tempers.
"What is our course of action?" asked Atlanta, the mother of the child slaughtered by Hela.
"Normally, I would say we declare war," Sorna began. "However, Odin now commands the armies for many of the realms. Eventually, our Stronghold would fall, our species in ashes."
Thanaterys nodded in agreement. "I have seen thousands of species fall beneath the might of Asgard. I would not watch the same happen to the Valkyries."
Phoenix stood angrily to her feet and thumped the butt of her sword on the table. "We are not cowards! I will not hide from the lying king on his golden throne! Let them come," she said, falling back into her seat. "I will greet them with a smile and a blade."
"Rousing words, Phoenix," Thanaterys chuckled. "Your mother was also quite well known to be a fool."
The offended councilor snarled, but didn't dare attack. Rank was accorded by age and then power. However, not all Valkyries wore their age. The more powerful the Valkyrie, the less she aged. The current Valkyros had been in power for 10,000 years, but she looked only thirty. Thanaterys was older than Sorna by a few centuries, but looked millennia older. Thanaterys outranked everyone except the Valkyros because of her age, but Sorna was queen because of her power and bloodline. Queenship could be decided by a battle if the Valkyros bloodline was deemed unfit, but no one dared challenge Sorna.
"I have an idea," the youngest councilor said. She had just assumed the seat of her coven following her mother's death.
"Yes?" Sorna asked, granting the councilor permission to speak. Respect was earned among the Valkyries' covens. Until the youngest councilor had proven herself, there was still protocol to follow. Only Thanaterys could speak her mind freely in the council chamber, her rank just below Sorna's.
"We could scatter across the realms. Yes," she said, eyeing the women who snarled at her statement, "it would mean abandoning the Stronghold. But if we leave this place, Odin cannot hunt us down with his armies. He cannot wage a war against a strategically scattered force. He would have to resort to bounty hunters and mercenaries, which pose a much smaller threat."
"You speak truth," Sorna admitted. "Though we are loathe to leave our home, if it comes between defending this heap of stone and securing the continuation of my sisters, there is not a choice to be made."
"We have held this place since the dawn of time," Phoenix argued. "Our entire history is behind these walls."
"Our entire history is made outside of these walls," Calla interrupted. The councilor, ranked just above Phoenix, steepled her fingers. The metal adornments on her hands ended in sharp talons, a trademark of the Dragos coven. "We have never been remembered for the things we do inside the Stronghold. We are known for the deeds done in the realms."
"This is our ancestral home," Atlanta agreed, "but I would have abandoned it for the chance to raise my daughter to adulthood. I now have no heir but my cousin's daughter to lead the Hysteria coven. I would tear down this hall by hand to see my daughter alive another day."
Sorna looked at the young councilor, Adriata. "Have you any ideas for the logistics of this plan?"
"Well," she began, "we would have to split the covens up into family groups. Each family group would go to a distant part of the realms and wait there unless they needed to relocate when they were found. There would be no way to communicate-"
"What?!" interrupted Phoenix.
"You may finish without interruption, Adriata," Sorna said, with a warning look at her wayward advisor.
"Except by the use of a spell I have devised," Adriata continued. "But the spell can only be used in the gravest circumstance. It will let any Valkyrie know the exact whereabouts of every single Valkyrie alive. If it fell into the wrong hands, it would be catastrophic."
"Why can we not communicate?" Phoenix demanded.
"Communications are too easy to detect," Adriata explained. "Excluding a very limited few, the Valkyrie are not sorceresses like what Odin has access to. Odin himself has always been a talented sorcerer. He alone could probably track the kind of magic that is powerful enough to communicate across realms. But this spell provides a failsafe, so if one day this edict is canceled, we may regather here."
"Or should we need to make a final stand," Sorna said, speaking everyone's morbid thoughts aloud.
"How would this spell work?" Thanaterys questioned.
Pleased to be taken seriously by the august body she had just joined, Adriata flushed. "My coven is well known for inventing spells that the Valkyries can use. This spell is blood work, just like many others."
The Valkyries, for all their physical power and unique manifestations, were a finicky species. They could not learn and control magic like any other race. Excluding the manifestations they were naturally born with, they had no arcane power. The magic did not hold to their bodies like it did with Asgardians, Midgardians, the Vanaheim, or anyone else in the realms. However, Adriata's coven, the Mydeans, were singular in their ability to create extremely powerful blood spells that worked with the willful shedding of Valkyrie blood. Only a handful of spells existed, not enough to fill a single chapter of a grimoire, but each spell was incredibly useful.
"You will teach every Valkyrie this spell," Sorna determined. "Including those not yet of age."
"At once, Valkyros," she agreed quickly, happy to be of use.
"Adriata's plan may be our best option," Sorna addressed the councilors. They all looked to their queen for leadership and protection. Thanaterys the Wise, Myope the Silent, Calla the Noble, Phoenix the Furious, Atlanta the Brave, and Adriata Spellweaver. It was Sorna's duty to ensure these women and their covens lived well, without fear of their babes being torn from their breasts. "We have not warred since Sutur sought to steal one of our own for his wife, 3,000 years ago. We invaded his realm and retrieved the stolen Valkyrie. Before that, we warred with Jotunn, who killed one of our own for her power over ice. We avenged her death sevenfold. And even before that, 12,000 years ago, when my mother Bellona Diana Valkyros killed the dark elf king Marvath Nightsword after he kidnapped and violated my younger sister, Perpetua, who even now hunts the dark elves at the edges of the universe for her own retribution."
"We have not lost a single war, a single battle, a single skirmish," Thanaterys, head of the Diapheria coven, added, standing tall as she gazed at each of the women in turn. "We aided the Asgardians in their first war against the Jotunn when the grandfather of Odin, Buri, came to our Stronghold, set down his arms, sank to his knees, and begged us for help, during a time so long ago the years were not numbered."
"When the first Valkyrie was slain by the dragons of the Anaheim, we hunted them to extinction," Atlanta said, rising to stand beside Thanaterys. "We still use their obsidian skins for armor."
"We defeated the light elves when they sought conquest and came for our Stronghold," Phoenix declared, once again standing, "vanquishing them back to their realm with their tails between their legs."
Calla the Noble grinned, slowly rising as well. "And we also fought the dwarves that time they tried to mine beneath our mountains without permission. They still shiver in fear at the sight of us, despite the ones at fault being dead millennia past."
"When the primordial being Ego attempted to trick one of the Valkyrie into bearing his spawn for conquest, we chased him to the other end of the galaxy," Adriata said, barely containing her laughter as she rose to her feet.
Myope the Silent, head of the mysterious Astra coven which often produced manifestations of prophecy, rose to her feet silently. Myope was ranked third in the council, just behind Thanaterys, but she commanded an extra air of respect for how rarely she spoke, and the future that could be revealed with her rare words. She looked at the gathered councilors, black eyes depthless, coiled curls left free around her dark face. "I have foreseen a time when we become scattered to distant stars. All will fight. Many will be cut down. Some will survive. But one will become most ruthless, most cruel, most loyal to the Valkyries. She will remember her sisters which were exiled by Odin. She will call them forth and lead them into battle."
The councilors were in Myope's thrall, caught in the spell the prophetess wielded with immaculate grace.
"She will be feared, ridiculed, before her time comes. Her life will be harsh, filled with brutal lessons. But she grows strong because of it. She will be the most powerful Valkyrie ever born. She is the pure blade and the scared flame that will destroy and create. She is the truth that will mate the silver lies. She will create ashes and will rise from them more terrifying than before. She will be the final Valkyros queen, by Blaze and Blade, by Sword and Strength, by Flame and Fortune."
All of the councilors looked to Queen Sorna at Myope's final chilling words. The queen held herself tall and still, thick platinum hair braided in a crown about her ears. She looked to her sisters, standing before her, ready for her words. She had led these women for 10,000 years, since the death of her mother Bellona. Her great-great-great-great-great-grandmother, Brynhildr Brightstar Valkyros, was the first Valkyros. She was formed from the death of the brightest star; infused with the breath of their female deity, Sigrún; gifted in battle by Sigrún's lover, Nike, the goddess of victory; and then blessed in beauty by the celibate goddess Alphya, whom they paid homage to by keeping women of all races and species safe from untoward males. Brynhildr had been the first of Sorna's line, the first head of the coven Empyrea, and the very first Valkyros, who had led her sisters to victory against the Asgardians when they had first settled this plane.
As the Valkyrie had begun with Brynhildr Brightstar Valkyros, who had built the Stronghold they had held for millennia immemorial, the Valkyrie would leave the Stronghold, led by Sorna Sydras Valkyros. And Sorna's daughter, or granddaughter, or so on would be the last Valkyros queen and accept the mantle to herald a new age.
"It is fitting, I suppose," Sorna said, a wry smile she shared only with her sisters curving her face. "For this final battle, a Valkyros will once again lead us to victory."
"I have watched you and the women before you lead us with might and wisdom," Thanaterys said, pale eyes crinkling with pride. "It has been my honor to follow you, Queen Sorna Sydras Valkyros."
"By Blaze and Blade! By Sword and Strength! By Flame and Fortune!" Phoenix called, the chamber ringing with the sacred words of the Valkyrie, each statement accorded to one of the three goddesses.
"By Blaze and Blade! By Sword and Strength! By Flame and Fortune!" the other women ritualistically replied, banging their weapons to their breastplates rhythmically.
Sorna nodded gracefully, recognizing the respect she had been given. "We follow Adriata's plan. Go, my sisters. Inform your covens, the Diapheria, the Mydeans, the Dragos, the Astra, the Hysteria. Allow them to split themselves among family groups before they depart for the other realms. Pass along the words spoken here. Tell them how proud we are to invoke such fear in the lying king, Odin Burison. Tell them of our victories, past and future. Tell them to remember our history and pass it down to their future daughters, so our legends are not lost as Asgard might wish. Tell them of our nobility, our courage, our craft. Tell them Myope the Silent herself has prophesied our return, so they will not despair at losing the home they have always known. Tell them our goddesses watch over us. Sigrún, who protects us by Blaze and Blade. Nike, who instructed us in victory with Sword and Strength. And the great Alphya, who saw what her friends had created and loved us so much that she declared us perfect and blessed us with her own holy Flame and Fortune."
"We do not flee before the tide of Asgard, sisters," Thanaterys said, wind sweeping her hair from her face and ruffling the banners on the walls.
"We wait to be led by the last Valkyros to the final battle," Phoenix declared, her red hair limned in shifting flames at her passion.
"The Valkyrie do not know defeat," Calla continued. It was an ancient war declaration, for each council member to speak words from their heart before showing off their manifestations before the queen. The saber cat at her feet growled, baring its teeth, as Calla commanded the beast to do so.
"The Valkyrie do not know fear," Atlanta spoke. The water in each of the glasses set before the councilors answered her call, rising from their confines to swirl around her hands. "My daughter, Genesis, did not know fear—even as she breathed her last from crushed lungs, dead within my arms."
"Our enemies number many, and we number few. But each of us counts for an entire army, and shall fell a thousand armies before we ever lay down weapons. A Valkyrie will gift her life to the goddesses herself before she kneels," Adriata said, referring to the final ritual: before being defeated, a Valkyrie would rather take her own life in service to her goddesses than submit obedience to another. Adriata's words echoed through the chamber and through her sisters' minds, all of their emotions lifting in fury and pride. Her manifestation was a deep connection to all Valkyries, mental, emotional, and physical.
"We will return, stronger than before, more feared among the realms than the falling dark that shrouds the stars and brings eternal night," Myope the Silent murmured, her gift of prophecy pouring from full lips.
Sorna's bright blue flames, a fire that burned colder than the heart of Jotunnheim, lit her fingers and traveled down the blade she had unsheathed. She thrust the blade into the heart of the chamber, right over the mosaic of their deities. The tip of her sword pierced the image of the heart of Brynhildr as she was formed. The blue fire flashed and traveled into the mosaic, breathing brief life into the figures so that hair blew back in false breezes, and lashes fluttered as grins quirked between the lovers, Sigrún and Nike. The celibate goddess Alphya woke in her mosaic likeness, silver eyes glinting in benevolence at her daughters. Then, Alphya closed her eyes and inhaled deeply as the sword sunk further into Brynhildr's heart. The mosaic goddess's hands shifted to grasp the blade of the sword tightly. She nodded at her gathered daughters, love blooming in her eyes and falling warm upon the coven leaders. Then the blue fire died, and Alphya's eyes shut, as the mosaic once more fell still.
"The last Valkyros will return to our Stronghold to start anew. Only she may retrieve the sword from the stone, at Alphya's blessing. Our goddesses will watch over our Stronghold, as we have since time immortal. No we go out into the realms as we haven't in millennia, to live among the worlds and fight the final battle for survival. By Blaze and Blade. By Sword and Strength. By Flame and Fortune."
"By Blaze and Blade! By Sword and Strength! By Flame and Fortune!" her sisters called, raising their hands in supplication to their goddesses.
And war began.