Chapter 7

Fri 29th July

Valkyrie was just sitting down to a bowl of cereal when her phone rang. She checked the caller and answered.

"Hi," she said.

"Hi!" Militsa's voice said brightly. "How are you?"

"I'm fine. Just woke up actually."

"Lucky. I just finished school."

"Was it a good last day?"

"Yep!" She said. Valkyrie could imagine her grin. "So, I was talking to Fletcher, and I heard you were waiting outside the Academy yesterday."

"Yeah, I was going to come in but, um, I couldn't."

"You couldn't?"

"I had this… thing come up. Work," she lied.

"Oh, of course," Militsa laughed slightly. "Well, I was wondering, since you were outside the school yesterday, if you want to come visit? Most of the kids left as soon as lessons were over so it's practically empty except the teachers. And I could use someone strong to help with my books."

"Yeah, I can come help for a while," she agreed easily. "I assume dogs aren't allowed?"

"I wish they were, but no. Xena should be allowed to get an education! Equal rights and all."

Valkyrie snorted a laugh. "She would be an awful student. I'll get ready and come over. See you at some point."

She hung up and turned to Xena. "You want to be a student?"

Xena tilted her head.

"You want an ear?"

Her tail perked up.

Valkyrie got her a rabbit's ear out of the fridge and let her outside to eat it. With her entertained, she washed her hands, ate her breakfast though it was mid-afternoon and got herself dressed. She went for shorts and a sports shirt with a sports bra beneath.

She drove to Roarhaven with the windows of her old orange car down, enjoying the heat. Ireland was experiencing a wonderful heatwave of a whole thirty-four degrees high for the day, and she was happy to finally be in the heat again. It made her miss being a kid, running down to the beach after school with her friends and splashing in the water with them. They were good memories.

She found a spot a block away from the school and walked up. A few students were leaving, greeting parents outside or walking with friends and suitcases further in to likely get transportation to an airport. Right at the large double doors into the front courtyard, she found Fletcher.

"Hey," Valkyrie greeted.

He turned from watching the students struggle with large bags down the front steps. "Valkyrie," he said. "I saw you yesterday. How are you doing?"

She shrugged. "I'm fine. Hot. How are you?"

"Glad the year's done. I need a break," he smiled. "It'll be nice to enjoy a hot weekend. What are you doing here?"

"I'm just visiting."

"You are?"

She shrugged. "Militsa invited me. I was going to do it yesterday but something came up."

"Yeah, I saw you. You seemed fine and then you just ran off." The concern in his voice was uncomfortable to hear.

"Yeah, like I said, something came up and I had to go. How was your last day? Do you have to test the kids?" She asked.

He shook his head. "Nah, I just do monitoring and I sub around teaching Teleporting. It's not hard. I mean, there's only so much testing you can do on Teleporting, you know? Either you can do it or you can't. And there isn't much written, so we don't bother with written tests, I just get them to do presentations. I generally have them marked in an hour."

"Doesn't sound too bad," she agreed. "Could you maybe show me down to Militsa's classroom? I'm meant to be meeting her but I don't think I remember the way."

He raised an eyebrow. "Sure. I didn't realise you were friends."

He posed his statement as a question. "We're getting on. Spending time together. Here and there. We get coffee."

He nodded as they walked the steps into the main entrance. "Sure. No, I'm glad. You need friends, Val. You need good people around you that aren't Skulduggery."

"Skulduggery is my best friend."

"He is also a colleague you see every day. Yeah, you get on and all, but he's one person. If you spend too much time with one person, you can forget how to live without them."

"I'm not sure what you're implying, but I am perfectly fine existing without Skulduggery. He treats me well," she told him defensively.

Fletcher put his hands up. "I'm not getting on your back about it, I'm just saying, there's nothing wrong with having a variety of friends. Militsa's kind and reliable, a good sort of person. As far as friends go, she's a good one."

She conceded to that. "Yeah, she's been nice. I guess I'm just… I don't want friends at the moment. I just want to do my work and be by myself. Having a friend is having a commitment. And we both know how me having friends goes. They get hurt."

"That's because most of your friends are in that world to begin with. Militsa isn't, and she's fairly powerful as a Necromancer too. Not crazy powerful or anything, but she can handle herself," he nodded. "She's also slightly obsessed with you."

"Yeah I sort of noticed."

He grinned at her. "I think she has a crush on you."

She raised an eyebrow back. "Everyone has a crush on me. That or they hate me."

That got him to laugh, right as she recognised the corridor they were on. He led her to an open door.

Militsa had covered all the front desks in books, had several bags on the floor ready to be filled, and was sorting over her messy desk. Valkyrie rapped her knuckle against the door. Militsa looked up and broke into a massive grin.

"Valkyrie! You came! I'm so glad, I was starting to think you wouldn't," she said, putting down what she was looking at. "Come in!"

"Can I come in too?" Fletcher asked, humour in his voice.

"Sure, sure," she said, waving her hand. "Do what you want."

"I feel so welcomed," he rolled his eyes.

"Good," she grinned cheekily.

Valkyrie looked around the classroom in a way she hadn't been able to before. There were boards over the walls filled with information Militsa had obviously written out with exam tips, information on various magics, fact files, a long timeline of theorists blue-tacked along the back wall, and there were three-foot high bookcases along all the walls with books.

"How do you like it?" Militsa asked, leaning against her desk with a grin.

"It's nice," she said. "Lots of stuff. Do you have to take it all home?"

"No, no, I get to keep the same classroom next year. I'm just taking home the things I might want to read, and the rarer books and stuff. And my files. So many files."

Fletcher nodded. "I have to keep a lot of records."

"Fletcher, you have three students," Militsa said, giving him a level look.

He grinned. "There's a lot of work to put into them! A whole one can Teleport!"

Militsa snorted a laugh and went back to the front of her desk. "Yeah, you work so hard. And you can probably clear your desk in a literal second."

He nodded. "I can. Now, if you ladies will excuse me, I have to get back to watch duty."

Valkyrie rolled her eyes, Militsa said goodbye and he strolled out, cocky as ever.

"He doesn't change," she said, sitting on the desk near Militsa as she sorted. "Well, he's changed quite a bit. But in some ways, he's just the same."

"He's a nice guy. A good friend actually," she smiled.

"Mm," she agreed. "That's what he said about you."

She smiled sweetly. "He said that?"

She nodded and faced the books. "Do you need all these taken home today?"

"Just as many as we can carry. As long as you don't mind. It's just that you're so much stronger than me and I would struggle a lot, and I thought I could show you around too!"

"Sounds good to me. We can probably do this in two trips," she suggested.

Militsa agreed and Valkyrie helped her fill a few bags of books and held the heavier books for her. They didn't speak until they were halfway through the building.

"I've been meaning to ask you something," Militsa started in a casual and cautious way. "If you don't want to answer you don't have to."

"I guess," Valkyrie agreed hesitantly.

"I was just wondering if you're straight?" She had a lot of uncertainty at the end of her question.

She was so relieved it wasn't a question about Darquesse she let out a small laugh. "Well, I don't really know. Mostly straight I guess. A lot of questions."

"Oh really? I was just so curious, because I know you've dated men and all, I was just wondering."

"It's fine, really. I don't care if about questions like that," she told her. "I mean I guess I've had attractions to lots of types of people, but I don't really think about it much. It doesn't really matter to me."

"Huh." They went onto the street and fell back into step around some students. "How's work been recently?"

"Busy. There was a meeting yesterday. We have a big case we're on. I was out all night on a stakeout and slept a few hours and now I'm here," she said. "I did some cleaning the other day too. The house looks a lot better."

"That's good," Militsa smiled. "Did you learn all the stuff you needed from the stakeout?"

"Not nearly. But that's the nature of stakeouts." They were about five minutes from Militsa's apartment at her walking pace. Valkyrie could probably make it in less than two minutes alone. "I told Skulduggery about your theory on my magic."

"Oh? What did he think?"

"He thinks it's a possibility. He's still open to other ideas though."

Militsa nodded. "Me too. I don't like the idea that only one theory can be a possibility, especially when no one can be sure what's correct to begin with. Debate is one thing, but rejection of all other concepts is just stupid."

Valkyrie glanced at her. Militsa's face was contorted with passion. "I agree."

She nodded adamantly. "I don't mind debate, I enjoy it actually, but I can't stand people that refuse to even accept another thought compared to their own could be right. It seems too narrow minded to me, and kind of boring. If we all decided we knew everything life would close up so fast."

Valkyrie nodded and Militsa seemed to notice Valkyrie wasn't up for a lively agreement session. They walked the last little bit to Militsa's apartment building in silence, Militsa struggling the closer they got under the weight of her books.

They got there and Militsa put in the code, giving Valkyrie a complete view to it, then held the door for Valkyrie. Inside was very simple, a long hallway with two doors on either side, giving four apartments on the ground floor, with a staircase up the middle between the two left sided apartments. A fire exit at the back. Sprinklers on the ceiling with can lights dotted around. A simple egg-shell white on the walls, laminate flooring, scuffing on both dotted around.

"Come on, we have to go up a few floors," Militsa said.

"Can't you just shadow walk?" Valkyrie asked.

"Well yes," she frowned. "But, to be perfectly honest, my apartment's messy and I might put us inside of something."

Valkyrie nodded once. "Right. Let's not do that."

They went up four floors, leaving Militsa straining and almost shaking, before reaching her door. There was a short landing with just enough room for another staircase going up and four doors to the apartments. Each door had a welcome mat – one said 'Welcome' another said 'Leave', one was blank and Militsa's, the front right apartment, said 'I baked you a cake!'

"Cute," Valkyrie remarked, getting a tired grin from the redhead.

"Thanks." Militsa opened the door with her key and held it open, attempted to pick back up her bags, and could barely get them off the ground. She managed to shuffle walk one of them into the apartment.

"I'll get the other," Valkyrie told her, strolling in.

The doorway led straight into a living room with mismatched green and blue sofa's, about a dozen blankets and twice as many fun and colourful pillows all over them and the brown leather armchair. There was a large coffee table with old mugs, magazines, stacks of papers that looked like school tests, and candles. A television was on the wall, a gaming station under it on the floating television stand. Next to the door was a large shoe rack stuffed with more shoes than Valkyrie had ever owned in her life, stacked two high on top of each other and more on the floor around it. The kitchen was opposite the living room, open plan, with a dining table between the two, all the surfaces equally messy but also clean. There was dust here and there, but she didn't see a crumb, watermark or cluster of hairs anywhere. It was well lived in.

"Just put them over here," Militsa directed, indicating the end of the kitchen counter next to the dining table. "God, I need a drink. Do you want anything? Water? Juice? I have alcohol too if you want, maybe a cider or wine?"

"Water's fine."

Militsa nodded and grabbed two cups from the overhead cupboard, both mismatched, and filled them with water from the tap. She accepted hers gratefully.

"I can't believe you're barely sweating," Militsa laughed after drinking all of hers in a few gulps. "I need to change and we've only done one trip!"

She leaned back against a kitchen counter. "I work out a lot. And I lived in the desert for three and a half. It got hot."

"Still," she grimaced.

"You are wearing a lot of layers."

"I am. I love my cloak, I do, but it's damn hot." Militsa unclipped it from around her shoulders and threw it over a dining chair. That left her in a black shirt and a black pencil skirt and light tights. She had small heels on her feet and was still barely up to Valkyrie's shoulder. "There. That'll help. You ready to go back? I thought we could do the tour and then do the next trip of books."

They made it as far as the street in silence before Militsa turned to her with a grin. "So, what was in like where you lived in America?"

"Hot. I was in the Colorado desert for most of it, and I moved around a little at the start here and there. Then I found myself a cabin and stayed there. I didn't do much," she told her.

"You must have done something," she pushed.

She tried to think of something good she'd done. "I did a lot of reading, I guess. And training. I trained Xena a bunch too. That took up basically all my time." Along with lying in bed for days, even weeks, barely moving, only thinking, going down dark wormholes she had no idea how she survived.

"See, that's not nothing!" Militsa grinned. "What's your favourite book?"

Valkyrie had to think of that, stopping her thinking of all those times she had been numb. "I'm not sure. I suppose my Uncle's books as a whole. Not really a specific one, but I like his writing."

Militsa nodded. "That makes sense. You know, there's a student here who's obsessed with Gordon Edgley's books. I probably shouldn't tell you this, but he took the name Edgley as his first name."

Valkyrie grinned. "Seriously?"

"Seriously," she beamed back.

"That's hilarious. That's my family name and he just," she indicated grabbing something out of the air, "took it. That's great. Gordon would have loved that."

"He's a good writer himself. The student that is. I think he could do some good work."

Valkyrie smirked. "It would be a bit ironic if he named himself after Gordon only to be a shit writer. Hilarious though."

Militsa lightly pushed her, only pushing herself back. "He's going to be a good writer!"

"Sure. We'll judge it when he publishes and see who's right."

Militsa laughed. "Deal." They walked in silence through the last of the students leaving the Academy with their parents and belongings. Some said small greetings and farewells to Militsa but their enthusiasm was obviously faltered due to Valkyrie's presence. They didn't speak until they were up the front steps.

"So, this is the front entrance," Militsa told her. "If we go up here, there's the assembly hall…"

Militsa took her on a short tour of the building and a longer tour of the library. It was a nice library, but it seemed to be important to Militsa, so she sucked it up and was polite. Eventually, they ended up back around at the Magic Theory department where Militsa's classroom was.

"And here we are!" Militsa grinned. "What do you think?"

"It's a nice place," she nodded. "Big. Impressive."

"Do you think you'd have liked to go to school here? I know I would have!"

Valkyrie smirked at her. "I would have mitched."

"No you wouldn't!" She said, horrified.

"I was an awful student. I got into trouble when I went in and the rest of the time it was my reflection attending while I was with Skulduggery. I don't think I went to school for more than ten days since I met Skulduggery."

"Valkyrie, that's awful."

"I was getting a different kind of education," she said, looking over the walls of her classroom again. "If I had experienced working with Skulduggery and then was told to go to school instead… I'd have been mad, honestly. I would have skipped and stayed with him and gotten no education."

"It would have been better for you to be in education," Militsa argued strongly.

"No, it would have meant the world ended," she told her levelly. "When I found out about magic, Skulduggery was captured by Serpine. No one believed us that he had started a war, or was attempting to, or that he was killing people. The Elder's looked away. If I hadn't been there to fight, Skulduggery would have stayed a prisoner and Serpine would have destroyed the Sanctuary even more than he did. Things would be very different, I assure you."

"That's one time," Militsa glared, crossing her arms.

She tilted her head. "And Auger? He's here without a reflection, sure, but you don't seem to care he's running around risking his life. He brings his friends alone with no training whatsoever. Do they get in trouble? Are they somehow better because they're here most of the time, whereas I had a reflection in full time education? Your hypocrisy is showing rather blatantly, Militsa, and it doesn't look good on you."

Militsa's mouth opened and then she shut it and looked away. Guilt instantly started to swamp her and she felt bad for arguing back. "Look, it doesn't matter."

"No," Militsa interrupted. "You're right. Auger is allowed to do what he wants and miss school and I'm making excuses. I can't say it's okay for him and not for you. I'm sorry."

Valkyrie awkwardly nodded. "It's fine."

There was a quiet moment in which they both looked at anything but each other. Militsa was the one to break it. "Are we still… good?"

Valkyrie tried a smile. "Sure. Of course. Yeah. That was just stupid. Don't worry about it."

Militsa put on a more convincing smile. "Good. I don't like fighting with my friends."

"Yeah. Neither."

Militsa grinned massively. "I'm your friend?"

Valkyrie couldn't find it in her to let her down. "Of course."

The redhead was so happy she jumped in place and clapped her hands. "Yay! I'm so glad! Oh, I'm so excited!"

Valkyrie nodded and looked at the bags. "Are you ready for a second trip?"

"I just need to finish with my desk," she said, sweeping back over to it. "I'll only be a few minutes."

Valkyrie waited for her and got the bags ready to be taken back to her apartment. There were only two with books and Militsa's handbag of personal items from the desk.

"Okay, I'm ready! I do need to return this to Dream. They're probably in the staffroom," Militsa said absently. "Come on, I'll introduce you."

Militsa took her over to the staffroom, typed in the pin and walked in. Valkyrie hovered by the door and held it open.

"Hi everyone! Dream, I have your book still!" Militsa greeted with a big grin. "Everyone, Valkyrie Cain is visiting, Valkyrie, this is Dream, Gerbert, Sucra and Harriet."

Valkyrie raised her hand and gave the four glaring faces a small wave. "Hi."

Dream slowly took the book from Militsa. "Why is she here?"

"We're friends," Militsa said in a no-nonsense way. "I gave her a tour of the school and she helped me take my books home. I'm sure no one has any issues with that, hum?"

Dream made a face but turned away and put their head down to focus on whatever paperwork they were doing.

Sucra spoke instead. "To be honest, it makes me quite uncomfortable to have her here."

Militsa spun on her. "And what's she done to you? Or anyone?"

"She's responsible for a lot of death," Sucra glared just as hotly.

"Valkyrie Cain has done nothing wrong."

"Valkyrie Cain has done a lot wrong and is a brute. I've seen how she treats people. I don't like her here."

Militsa glared even harder and spoke coldly. "Valkyrie isn't a brute and considering the main people she has to interact with are murderers, I doubt the way she treats the majority of people has anything to do with the rest of her true personality. Especially when they accuse her of killing innocent people."

Harriet chose to insert herself. "I don't like that she's here either, Militsa. She might not be Darquesse but seeing someone that wears her face is uncomfortable at best."

"Darquesse wore Valkyrie's face. Not the other way about. Valkyrie is totally innocent and has suffered just like everyone else from what Darquesse did, if not more. And if I want her here, I can bring her here."

"It's okay," Valkyrie told her, feeling her skin beginning to clam. "Let's just leave."

"No, it isn't right," Militsa said, crossing her arms. She turned back to Harriet. "Why shouldn't she be allowed here?"

Harriet shrugged and turned away to her work. "I just don't like it. It's a reminder of what happened and her staying out of prison for her connection to Darquesse is sketchy at best. I'm uncomfortable knowing she's in the building at all."

"You're blaming an innocent woman for the crimes of someone else and saying she shouldn't be allowed freedom because of that. The Sanctuary confirmed Valkyrie had nothing to do with helping Darquesse – she fought her. What you're saying isn't fair."

"It's just my opinion," Harriet shrugged, not looking at Militsa.

Militsa glared at her and before she could retort, Gerbert spoke. "She shouldn't even be alive."

Militsa turned on him. If she'd had her cloak on, it would have swirled around her. Valkyrie felt sicker the longer she had to stand there. "How dare you."

He wasn't scared of her cold fury. "She is a killer. You might hero worship her from before she was Darquesse, but reality is a lot clearer to everyone else on earth."

Harriet and Dream snickered into their papers. "This isn't funny," Militsa fumed loudly. "You're being awful. And you're being cruel to me too, but mostly to Valkyrie. It's not fair at all and you know it."

Valkyrie grabbed her phone and pressed the home button while no one was looking. "Mil, I have to go. Skulduggery needs me."

Militsa turned to her, expression softening massively. "Oh you do?"

"Yeah."

She was half turned to walk out when Dream said loudly, "Oh, you don't have a call!"

Valkyrie ignored them and let the door close behind her. She didn't dare wait to see the fallout of her lie, just walked fast out of the corridor. Militsa called her name as she was exiting the building. She didn't stop.

Oh, I enjoyed this chapter!