Trickery
Wedding bells rang throughout the cathedral as the bride waited for her groom. She noted that, curiously, the expansive building was empty except for herself, with no guests or even a priest present. As she begun to wonder how it was she came to be there her attention was drawn to a loud creaking noise as the massive door was pushed open at the end of the aisle. Her groom stood in the gap, his features obscured by light behind him, a silhouette of a young man. She felt calmed at the sight of him, but as she began to approach he spoke out loud in a voice filled with hate.
"How dare you do this? I trusted you and you took everything from me!"
She stepped back in fright as the man drew a sword and began to approach.
"My Father. My Mother. My Sister. You took them all from me! What right did you have?"
She fell to her knees, her eyes cast down and wept. He was right, she had taken everything from him, and now he would never love her again. The man was in front of her now, her downcast eyes could only see his feet, two silver tails of hair swaying in the wind from the open door behind his knees. She knew instinctively that he had raised the sword above her head to execute her. As her wounded lover brought the sword down upon her Lenneth Valkyrie awoke with a cry beneath the blue skies of Asgard.
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Ailyth gazed placidly at the young silver-haired maiden before her. She was sat upon a worn and ancient chair that looked like it may collapse at any moment. For that matter Ailyth was surprised that the derelict hovel they were in was still standing at all, or that a boy named Wylfred had spent most of his short and tragic life here. The girl was gazing blankly at the dusty cover of a diary once owned by the Mother of that boy. She noted that it was a big improvement over her previous behaviour as she reflected on the last few days.
She had wanted to name her Faerislief, it meant bird-in-a-cage in the language of the ancients which she had explained to her. The young lady had been strangely offended and insisted on being called Wylfred. Mother had explained to her that Wylfred was the name of a dead mortal boy and that she needed a name more appropriate to the Goddess she had become. Mother had named her Platina which she had accepted surprisingly quickly, Ailyth had been about to inform her that it was the name of the five years deceased mortal vessel of Lenneth Valkyrie but Mother had telepathically informed her that it would not be prudent to do so.
Mother had offered Platina a choice of dresses, some elaborate and unwieldy, others more practical but with an intricate gold leaf pattern. She had instead requested a simple black robe and commoners clothes stating that they would be more practical for her plans. She had left without accepting any other offers of aid from the dark queen and requested of Ailyth that she be transported immediately to the field on Midgard where Lenneth Valkyrie had fallen to the Angel Slayer.
Once there she had laughed maniacally then proceeded on foot to the ruined village they were now in, occasionally breaking out into crazed laughter or watching things that apparently only she could see, rejecting Ailyth's offers to be teleported to her destination.
While she had been lost in her thoughts the girl had dusted off the cover of the diary she held and begun reading. Ailyth glanced up through the age-worn rafters, the roof of the building had long since collapsed over the centuries of neglect and the twilight sun cast eerie shadows across the room, the young girl's pale hair reflecting an orange glow.
As the sun set Ailyth lit an old candle and placed it upon a flat piece of the broken ceiling beside her and then waited patiently. As the half-moon shone overhead Platina suddenly and abruptly shut the book she held in her slender hands and spoke in a voice choked with emotion.
"Leave me Ailyth." She simply said.
As Ailyth shut the door behind her, taking care that it did not fall off its rusty hinges her sensitive nose picked up the salty scent of tears.
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Platina heaved a sigh as she waited behind the crowd of traders and refugees. She was trying to gain entrance to Villnore but the guards weren't taking any chances and were inspecting the cargo of every traveller attempting to gain entry to their beloved capital.
She had "accepted" Hel's offer to become her Dark Valkyrie, though of course she wasn't foolish enough to make the same mistake of allying herself with her again. Her new plan was to gather enough divine power and followers to take her final revenge. Valkyrie had certainly ended her Father's life, but on Odin's orders, and all of the Gods were guilty of many catastrophes that humanity had suffered. She vowed that they would all pay for their arrogance soon. And if an opportunity presented itself she would attempt to create for herself a new body, if it was possible for Hel to create an exact copy of Valkyrie's body from the covenant plume then it seemed reasonable to assume that a copy of her former male body could be created from the lock of her own hair she had taken from within her Mother's diary. When that time came she would retake her true name once again.
Ailyth had informed her of rumours that Villnore had discovered an ancient super weapon they sought to use to dominate not just Midgard but the worlds of the Gods. Hel's orders were to locate the weapon for Niflheim and to look out for potential einherjar as she investigated. She would locate the weapon and take it for herself, though she knew it would not be as simple as that with Ailyth following her. She would have to exercise a level of subtlety she was not accustomed to, though at least Ailyth was easy to deceive for such a manipulative bitch. She laughed out loud at the irony of that last thought but willed herself to stop as she noticed the uneasy glances she was getting from the crowd.
"Miss Platina, though I do not wish to spoil your good mood I am afraid your mirth may be attracting unwanted attention from those around us." Ailyth chided as Platina resisted the urge to give a sarcastic reply, better to seem amiable and tame so that her eventual betrayal would be all the more effective.
The trade caravan in front of her had at least three wagons full of goods. She guessed she wouldn't be getting into the city any time before midday but was surprised when she saw one of the merchants casually slip a small pouch into the guard's pocket and the guard, without so much as glancing at the merchant or his now bulging pocket waved the traders through without further inspection.
As Platina and Ailyth approached the guard he turned to face them with a stern expression on his face.
"You." He pointed imperiously at Platina. "Remove the hood."
The man's rigid expression was replaced with one of undisguised lechery as she lowered her hood.
"Well well, that's an unusual hair colour isn't it?" He asked in an insincere tone.
"Is it?" She replied, struggling to keep the condescension out of her voice.
The guard patted her down, searching for weapons as he had explained, though he seemed to feel the need to search certain areas of her body more thoroughly than others. Platina burned with humiliation and indignity which the guard seemed to take for arousal as he whispered to her the location of a bar she could find him in later, information she promptly disregarded. After all, from the feel of it the money in the pouch she had slipped from his pocket and down her sleeve wouldn't be enough to have him assassinated anyway.
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Ailyth growled as one of the commoners in the crowd shouldered past her, she felt the urge to simply dematerialise and follow Platina as an invisible wraith but Mother had warned her to stay materialised as often as possible, saying it would help her gain Platina's trust.
A few feet ahead of her Platina's face was still pink with anger, though she couldn't understand why since she had already gotten revenge on that guard by pilfering him of the bribe he had accepted earlier. She thought back for a moment on what her Mother had said about gaining her trust and decided to try asking the young girl what was wrong. Ailyth had never been good at understanding the problems of others but if she listened and nodded her head as if she understood then maybe it would work out.
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Platina couldn't believe how dense Ailyth really was and wondered a few moments if she was mocking her. After the guard had finished groping the sides of her breasts, making her feel things that no man should ever have to feel, he had turned to Ailyth then apparently gone into some kind of trance, recognised her as his commanding officer, given her a lopsided salute and allowed her to pass. Either she really had the brain of a dog or she had taken great pleasure in watching her humiliation at the hands of the amorous guard. Perhaps both.
"No, it's a mortal thing, nothing you need to worry about." She replied.
"Ah, I see Miss Platina. I have heard that when Odin first became a God he retained some of his strange mortal ways for some time." Ailyth spoke in an understanding tone.
So now I'm Odin am I? she thought. An angry reply came to mind but before she spoke her attention was drawn to nearby shouting. A large crowd was gathered around a stage where a number of adolescent boys dressed as barbarians were staging a mock battle. The largest boy was carrying a huge wooden sword while the others rushed him and pretended to be beaten with one blow each. One boy in particular was narrating the battle.
"And thus the barbarian mercenary Arngrim triumphed over the savages and saved Villnore!" The narrator declared.
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Roland was surprised to hear a knock upon the door of his home. He was not expecting his brother Arngrim to be home so soon after the award ceremony he had been invited to and with some hesitation turned his attention away from his painting. Having crossed the room quietly he put his eye to the spyhole in the door, concerned that some of his brother's enemies might have tracked his home down, but was relieved when all he saw was two beautiful women, most likely fans or lovers of his sibling.
The purple haired one had been strangely quiet the whole time, she seemed to be both escorting the other woman but also observing their conversation. The silver-haired girl introduced herself as Platina. She had said little of herself but asked many questions. He had started to become suspicious of who she really was, her accent was not of Villnore, perhaps she was a spy from Artolia or Crell Monferaigne. His suspicions had been cast aside however when she explained that she was an Artolian noble who had seen his brother and fallen in love, she had fled from an arranged marriage in the hopes of tracking him down and getting closer to him. She asked him not to tell his brother of her feelings for him and thanked him for the information as she prepared to leave. He offered to escort her to the nearby inn but she politely refused.
As they left the building he saw that his brother was a mere block away, accompanied by a young man, a nobleman by the look of him. One of them was speaking enthusiastically to Arngrim who had a look on his face like he wanted nothing better to tell him he couldn't care less but was too soft hearted to say it.
Platina began to approach him but the nobleman had intercepted her and made a lewd comment to Arngrim about his pretty young lover. He stated that he had never seen her before and the nobleman had taken hold of her arm and invited her to come with him to a party he was holding at his manor. Platina had refused in a cold but polite tone but the nobleman persistently badgered her and wouldn't let her go. She had attempted to pull her arm free to no success, a confused expression formed on her face followed soon after by a panicked one. He looked to see if Platina's handmaid would assist her but she seemed to have disappeared.
Arngrim seemed to be taking advantage of the nobleman's distraction to slip away into the house. Roland moved closer to him and whispered.
"Please brother, that young girl is my friend and I don't want to see her hurt, can't you do anything to protect her?" He had asked
"The girl has all the naïve arrogance of a noble, even if I save her now she'll only anger the wrong person eventually. Better to let her learn from her mistakes now than offend a more dangerous person later with no one around to protect her." Arngrim replied in a low voice.
"I'll make her understand. Please brother."
Arngrim heaved an agitated sigh as he handed him the damaged trophy he had been carrying and turned back towards the nobleman. Platina struck the nobleman with her fist with a surprisingly fast but ineffective motion. The man snarled as he raised his fist to strike her but Arngrim stepped forward and knocked him to the ground with a single blow of his massive fist. Platina ran while Arngrim simply turned back towards the house and entered, leaving the nobleman in the dust behind him.
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Platina slumped down on the bed in the room she had rented, Ailyth stood directly opposite watching her impassively. Ailyth had rematerialized after she had fled, stating simply that Platina had to fight her own battles and that as an immortal goddess she had nothing to be afraid of. Thinking back on what had just happened she was forced to admit to herself that she had been afraid. At first the man was merely an annoying obstacle and when she failed to convince him to move she attempted to pull her arm free with force, that was where things started to go wrong. She had suddenly realised that she didn't even have a fraction of her former strength, this body was just as physically weak as it looked. She had attempted to invoke the power of the plume to enhance her strength and break free but it had not responded. In desperation she tried to materialise Angel Slayer but it would not form and she had lashed out at the nobleman in a panic. But the most humiliating part had been when the man she had been there to recruit had protected her as if she were a helpless girl. She may have lost her male body but she still had pride as a man, and that pride had been severely wounded.
After taking a few moments to calm herself she turned to Ailyth.
"Why did the plume not respond to my call?" She asked.
"The answer is simple Miss Platina." She replied. "The plume does not acknowledge you as its master. As you continue to exercise your powers it will begin to recognise you as its owner and grant you access to its powers little by little. If you do as good as a job this time as you did last time then your powers should have returned to you completely by the end of the year."
"How can I 'exercise my powers' if they won't respond at all?" Platina asked.
"Well Miss Platina, did you try to use all of your powers?" Platina shook her head and prepared to invoke the plume but Ailyth continued. "The plume does not simply hold the innate powers of those you sacrificed to it Miss Platina, it also holds the powers of Lenneth Valkyrie. If you attempt to use her powers then the plume may begin to respond to you."
So the Valkyrie's name isn't Valkyrie, does that mean there are more of them? She thought. Well, that can wait for another time.
"What powers can I use Ailyth." She asked.
"Well Miss Platina, aside from her skill with a sword and bow, Lenneth has been seen using phantasm shields, materialisation, photons and divination, as well as several divine spells. If you wish, I can help you to learn."
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Several hours later Platina was becoming agitated. So far she had failed to summon shields, materialise anything more than a spoon, and after 3 hours of solid practice had managed to fire a photon the size of a fly that had faded away before being projected more than halfway across the tiny guest room. It wasn't the lack of progress she had made thus far that was irritating her though, if Ailyth was to be believed then all she needed to do was keep practicing and sacrificing souls to the plume and she would be stronger than ever within a year. While practicing Ailyth had fetched food from the tavern downstairs and had attempted to spoon feed her with her own materialized spoon. After she had snatched the spoon back and eaten she had attempted to see into the future, only to have her efforts thwarted as Ailyth continuously pestered her. First suddenly stroking her hair as she meditated as if she were a pet cat, then throwing one of the dead flowers from a nearby vase and ordering her to fetch it. The Ailyth she had travelled with as Wylfred 300 years ago had been quiet and reserved, only ever materializing to offer him advice on how to utilise the plume. She supposed that Ailyth's energetic behaviour could only be explained by that she now saw Platina as a friend or comrade and not as the victim she had inevitably become before. She would tolerate her behaviour for now knowing that this time it would be Ailyth who would become the victim.
After requesting that Ailyth allow her to concentrate she focused again on her meditation. After several minutes of concentration she started to hear voices, it did not take her long to identify the voices as belonging to Arngrim and Roland. Roland seemed to be comparing his love of painting to Arngrim's love of fighting. Seeing farther she saw a thief named Badrach being given an assignment to escort mysterious cargo to Artolia, perhaps this is the 'weapon'? She thought. As Platina tried to focus on the situation the voices stopped and she suddenly began to see through someone's eyes, but it was neither Arngrim nor Badrach. A familiar Goddess floated before him, a beautiful Goddess with long blonde hair and a green dress, but colder than the icy wastes of Niflheim.
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Lenneth hovered thousands of feet above Midgard. Freya was reminding her how to use spiritual concentration but the Valkyrie wasn't listening. She thought again about the dream she had earlier. She had had bad dreams before, but this one seemed less like a dream and more like a warning. She had dismissed it earlier but even now she felt a sense of dread and was unable to supress it. After thinking for a few moments she decided to raise her concern to Freya.
"Forgive me for interrupting Freya, but I have a concern I would like to raise to you."
"What is it that concerns you Lenneth?" Freya spoke calmly.
"Before I awoke I had a disturbing dream. I was to be married but my groom condemned me for betraying him. I felt bitter emotions." Lenneth explained briefly.
Freya's face remained expressionless. She was silent for a few moments and then spoke, "It is good that you saw fit to inform me of this Lenneth. I think I may know the cause of your unease but I can assure you it is nothing you need to worry about. Please inform me immediately if you have another dream."
"TsCh, As If YoU cAn BeLiEvE AnYtHiNg ShE sAyS." Wait, she thought. Was that my own thought just now?
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"Wait. Was that my own thought?"
Platina suddenly snapped out of her meditation with surprise. She had seen with perfect clarity through Lenneth's eyes and apparently she had accidentally telepathically communicated with her.
"Is something wrong Miss Platina?" Ailyth said.
After pausing for a few moments Platina told her that nothing was wrong, best to keep this ability a secret for now. A plan was forming in her mind and after thinking for a few minutes she spoke to Ailyth.
"Lenneth is here, and I know where she is going."
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Badrach had once been approached by the thieves guild with an offer of membership. The thieves guild of Villnore was an association for professional thieves, clients would contact the management of the thieves guild and pay for something to be stolen. Anything stolen would belong to the thieves guild but the client would be offered the chance to buy the pilfered goods before they were passed along to the guild fences. Badrach had always trusted his instincts and his instincts told him to refuse the offer. His instincts had not let him down. A woman in a hooded cloak had approached him a few hours earlier to offer him a job, to escort a carriage from Villnore to Artolia, to forget she had asked him to do the job and to not ask what it contained. For the money she had given him he would've gladly forgotten his own Mother's name. Now another hooded woman sat opposite him, this time for a courier job. He was to deliver a letter to a nobleman and not to read it or ask any questions or offer the nobleman any information about the person who had hired him.
"So, will you accept the job?" she asked.
Badrach paused for a moment, pretending to be thinking it through. He would of course accept such an easy and well paid job, but not before he had milked this naïve girl of every coin in her coin purse. "I'll do it, but 5000 OTH." He replied.
"That's more than twice what I offered." She replied in a calm voice.
"A girl who can count, huh? Now I've seen everything." He replied. He didn't get the angry reaction from her he had been hoping for though. The girl was gazing into his eyes, it felt like she was gazing into his very soul. After a few moments she spoke again.
"The daughter of the captain of the guard, eh? It's a good thing he never found out about that or you'd never leave the city alive." She spoke in an even tone.
Badrach felt a cold shiver run down his spine. "Of course, for a valued customer I'll do it for 2,000 OTH as you suggested."
"You'll do it for 1,500 OTH." She replied, "And you'll do it while smiling."
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After dealing with the thief Platina had more money left in her stolen coin purse than she had expected. After thinking about it for a while she decided that now would be a good time to acquire a secret weapon. She had managed to trick Ailyth into getting drunk earlier and she was now asleep in one of the rooms they had rented. Now she needed to put her plan into action before she awoke and reported to Hel what she was doing.
She spent some time searching through the streets of Villnore's trade district. Whatever she acquired would have to be easy to conceal but deadly enough to make a powerful trump card. Villnore was well known for its mining and blacksmithing operations, but merely buying a well-crafted weapon would not be sufficient for her purposes. She spotted a magecraft shop and decided to explore it next. Disappointingly the shop stocked primarily textbooks and common tools used in magic rituals and alchemy. Platina was about to move on but stopped upon noticing a blade beneath the glass counter behind which the proprietor stood. After gazing upon the dagger for a few moments she felt information flooding into her mind. Azoth knife – composed of Orichalcum, forged by the dwarves, utilises forbidden blood magic but the wide public opinion is that it is alteration magic. The proprietor was telling her about how it utilised alteration magic when she interrupted him.
"Public opinion is that it is alteration magic, but its true nature is blood magic." She spoke. Curious to test the information she had extracted.
The proprietor's expression changed to a knowing one. "Ah, so you are a magus. Forgive me for the condescension."
Platina looked down at the dagger again. Drains the blood of the person it slays and stores it as magical energy which can later be used to invoke great magic. Well, that certainly seemed useful. The dagger was priced at 5000 OTH though she had a little over 500. The proprietor was still rambling on.
"-no chance of ever selling it, no one who knows what it really is would want it for anything more than a paper weight."
"500 OTH then." She said as she placed the money upon the counter.
"Ha. I'm desperate but not that desperate girl." The proprietor replied.
Platina focused upon the man before her and concentrated. After a little practice this power had become an invaluable tool for her, everything the man didn't want her to know came to the surface of her consciousness.
"But of course, the price tag mistakenly says 500 OTH. Just like the tax collector mistakenly records your taxes as half of what you actually give him when you cast that confusion spell on him every month."
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As if you can believe anything she says. That's what she had thought, but it felt as if the thought had been forced into her. Lenneth once again willed the memory to leave her, her people were counting on her to gather and train einherjar for the war against Niflheim and the Vanir. Niflheim had more than enough power to overcome Asgard but had never acted, Hel never acted unless victory was absolutely guaranteed and so the deployment of her forces had taken Asgard by surprise. Whatever the outcome of this war, it would be the war to end all wars. Either Asgard would prevail and secure the nine realms in everlasting peace, or the nine realms would be devoured by the darkness of Niflheim forever.
"GoOd EvEnInG VaLkYrIe." The voice appeared again in her mind, sounding like her voice speaking twice, the identical voices overlapping each other.
Who are you? She thought to herself.
"I aM a BeNeFaCtOr. YoU aRe BeInG dEcIeVeD, aNd I wIsH tO gIvE yOu ThE tRuTh."
And what is this 'truth'. She thought.
"It WoUlD bE eAsIeR tO sHoW yOu. MeEt Me At ThE cLoCk ToWeR oF vIlLnOrE aT mIdNiGhT."
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Riccardo walked quickly in the direction of the clock tower. Moments ago he had received a letter telling him that the silver-haired wench from earlier was waiting outside the clock tower for her lover, the letter explained that the writer wished the woman ill and that it was for him to decide what to do with the information. Riccardo didn't take orders from anyone, but he didn't need to, he was doing this because he wanted to. His healers had tended to his broken jaw back at the manor and fixed it immediately with the aid of expensive alchemical reagents. They could not fix his wounded pride however.
Riccardo was rash, but not a fool. There was a high probability that this was a trap, but he had ordered his guards to follow at a distance and to emerge from cover at his command. They were the best that money could buy, an elite mercenary force with experience of many battles and equipped with fine and powerfully magical weaponry. If the woman had indeed hired mercenaries to attack him then she would soon find the trap turned against her with no one to protect her. The field before the clock tower was shrouded in mist, as it was every night. Villnore was an industrial city that processed massive amounts of iron and steel from its mines, at night cold winds from the eastern mountains caused the smoke to descend as a mist across Villnore. This trait has resulted in the streets of Villnore being possibly the most dangerous in any city on Midgard.
As he approached the clock tower he saw the silver haired woman stood alone at the gate. Just as he had hoped.
"Hey bitch, remember me?" He announced as he approached. The woman scowled towards him.
"So, this is a trap after all?" she replied.
"I'd like you to meet my friends." he said with a smirk as he gave the signal. His guards emerged from the mists as they surrounded her. "Come quietly and you won't be hurt, much."
The air around the woman shimmered and suddenly she was clad in blue armour with gold trimming, a sword with a hilt shaped like wings in her hands and shields appearing out of the mist to hover at either side of her.
"So, you're a mage are you? That's a neat trick but a woman with a sword is still a woman." He raised his hand to his guards. "Disarm her but don't kill her."
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The men moved in all around her, the ones in front were making menacing motions with their swords. She correctly deduced that this tactic was intended to distract her and that the guards behind her and to her side were preparing to strike together to pin her sword arm and disarm her. As the guards prepared to strike she forced divine power into her limbs and spun on the spot in an arcing motion around her, hitting a few of their blades as she spun. The motion was intended to cause one of the less disciplined guards to falter, thus allowing her to identify the weakest member of the group and strike at him first, dismantling the group one member at a time. One of the guards hesitated to step back on one side while another lunged on the opposite side, Lenneth rushed the hesitating one, stepping out of range of his more aggressive partner and brought her sword down along with the full weight of her armour in a smashing motion, divine energy arcing around her in the air like lightning. The soldier crumpled beneath the attack but to his credit was able to hold his sword up and brace himself for a follow up attack.
If this had been a one on one duel she would have struck repeatedly until she overpowered him, but with his companions closing in on her she was forced to turn away from the dazed swordsman to defend against the foes who were flanking her. She was able to stop three of the blows with her shields, two on her left side and one on the other, but the other four men were attacking from in front of her, probing her defense with quick attacks and savagely slashing whenever they found an opening.
One blow came so fast she was not able to fully dodge it and felt the blade gash her cheek, she lashed out with a blow of her hilt to the man's forehead, knocking him to the ground unconscious. Another guard lunged again, trying to finish what his comrade had started. Lenneth parried the thrust with her right hand, materialising one of her divine spears in her left hand and running the soldier through the chest. At that moment she felt a tearing pain in her right shoulder and dropped her sword as the blade of one of the guards impaled her right shoulder from behind, his blade having been driven up beneath her pauldron. The Valkyrie quickly materialised a new sword in her left hand and pivoted on the spot, cutting off the man's arm at the elbow and performing a flourish around herself. The remaining guards backed away immediately and began to circle her again.
Lenneth took the opportunity to assess the situation. She had knocked one guard unconscious who had been dragged away to a safe distance by one of the other men, she was confident he wouldn't awake for a few hours. The man she had briefly overpowered earlier was on his feet but now held his sword in his left hand. One soldier was dead, another had fled, probably to a healer, and four were still unharmed. If she were fully awakened she could easily dispatch them and heal her injuries, but she still needed more time to fully recover her powers. She had also yet to acquire any einherjar, there would be no support from Freya either, since she had not informed the Goddess of her plans. Even if she died here she would be given a new body in Asgard, but that would take weeks and cost Asgard valuable resources it needed for Ragnarok. It would take her several moments to materialise her wings during which time she would be vulnerable to attack, though her pride as a warrior kept her from fleeing the field of battle regardless.
Lenneth looked towards the clock tower and a plan began to form. She waited as the guards circled until she was between the weakened guard and the clock tower. At that moment she rushed against the weakened guard, then feinted back, the guards had been expecting her to target him again and two rushed to guard him while the other two moved in from either side in a pincer attack. At that moment Lenneth doubled back, forcing more divine power unto her left arm and sword and swung around in a fast and unpredictable arcing slash. She succeeded in gashing the arm of one soldier while sustaining a wound to her other cheek, the blow tearing off part of her helm. Lenneth quickly shot a photon up as she rushed toward the clock tower, the soldiers right behind her, she then spun on the spot holding her sword up to parry as all five guards brought their swords down upon her, her shields were smashed by two as the other three swords were brought down upon her own, forcing the Goddess to her knees. As the other two guards raised their swords to deliver the finishing blow and avenge their fallen comrades the guards were crushed beneath the falling clock tower gear which her photon had dislodged.
Lenneth took a moment to survey the scene before her. The gear had killed three of the guards and severely wounded the other two. She looked towards the nobleman to see he had already fled, perhaps to bring back reinforcements. With a sigh, Lenneth concentrated and materialized her wings, then flew through the mist and into the night sky.
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Platina looked down upon the corpse of the nobleman she had just slain, the blood dripping from the azoth knife was being drawn inside it, being stored as power from its first kill. She found it ironic that 300 years ago she was soaking a goddess feather in the blood of mortals and now was soaking a blade for similar purposes. The nobleman had fled along a predictable route, the same one he had entered the clock tower grounds through, the most direct route to his mansion. Platina had watched the battle from the best possible view point, that of the Goddess who was being assailed. She had never expected the men to defeat her, she simply wanted to make her paranoid and cautious, that way she would be able to acquire more einherjar, and hence more power faster than her. Ultimately they had exceeded her expectations and the Valkyrie had left the battlefield wounded.
Platina took from the noble his coin purse, jewelry and sword. Concentrating on the sword he was able to determine that it was extremely well crafted steel but had no special properties. Nonetheless it was a fine sword, and it had found its way into far more worthy hands.
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Arngrim wondered to himself again how he had gotten himself into this situation. It seemed that some stuff had happened with the chief councillor of Artolia, Lombert, who had apparently deceived him and poisoned the princess to turn her into a ghoul. He hadn't had much time to think about it yet or what it all meant. He looked to the soldier to his side, that annoying git Badrach had fled but the wagon rider had stayed to fight alongside him. The hooded woman who gave him this assignment had mentioned there would be another working with him but he had not expected two people. The wagon rider had been silent for the entire three days, ignoring all of Badrach's inquiries and not attempting to make conversation with either of them. The silent warrior now stood with one well-crafted nobleman's sword in his right hand and a knight's sword in the other, his helmet making it impossible to determine whether his expression was one of fear or rage.
The monster suddenly rushed in with surprising speed, the swordsman frantically dodged to the side as Arngrim swung his own massive sword at the beast. The creature's skin was like steel, his blow barely drew blood and he was thrown back several metres by the force of the blow, his arms numb as he lost his grip on his weapon. Arngrim always fought as a berserker, working himself into an uncontrollable rage before falling upon his foes in battle, but he couldn't bring himself to hate the creature that he had known as Angela.
The ghoul turned away from him towards the mysterious soldier who appeared to be casting some kind of ice magic at it, dark ice crystals firing from his hand at the beast. They did little damage and only served to draw the wrath of the beast upon him. The swordsman was smashed across the ground by a blow he failed to dodge, the knight's sword in his hand bent at the hilt. As he hit the ground his helmet came loose, silver-blue hair spilling out, revealing that he, or rather she was in fact the woman who had befriended his brother Roland.
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Platina cursed her powerlessness. She had used her future sight to determine the location in which the mysterious caravan Badrach was to escort was being taken. She had been unable to discover the contents of the carriage nor see what it's eventual fate was to be, and so had accompanied it. If it was in fact the secret weapon of Villnore then she had no intention of taking possession of it at his time, Hel would only have taken it from her, but she needed to see where it was going so that she would be able to seize it when the time came for her betrayal. As the knights had descended upon them she had discovered that their cargo was the princess of Villnore – Jelanda. The implications of this were lost on her but for now she was simply struggling to survive.
The situation reminded her of the first battle she had fought at the side of her childhood friend Ancel. They had been cornered by creatures much like this and then – Feather over the battlefield, until me thy power yield!
Platina felt power surge through her limbs, the power Ancel's death had granted her, Vali's Awakening. Knowing the power would not last long she surged to her feet, her opponent surprised by her sudden increase in speed and strength. Her foe was not one to be felled in a single blow, the ghoul's movements now seemed sluggish as she dodged around its strikes and brought blow after blow down upon its vital areas. But it was not enough. The Ghoul had been mortally wounded seven times but was continuing to fight out of rage, though it would certainly die after the battle it intended to take her with it. Platina cursed her luck as she felt the power of the plume leave her limbs, the ghoul had raised its claw, putting the last of its energy into one final strike. She knew where the blow would hit but knew she would not be able to dodge in time. As the strike came down upon her in slow motion it ended abruptly as Arngrim's massive sword impaled its neck from behind. As the creature fell to the ground it slowly changed into the form of a naked young girl.
Arngrim mounted one of the knight's horses without a word and begun to ride back in the direction of Villnore. When he was out of sight she requested to Ailyth that she teleport her.
"Where to Miss Platina?" She asked.
"To Villnore."
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The wizard stared upon the scene in his scrying orb in wonder. The Dark Council had given Lombert the task of destabilizing the government of Villnore in preparation for a coup'd'etat. With the resources of Villnore at their disposal they would be able to secretly begin research on god magic, which would be assisted with the acquisition of the dragon orb which Gandar had assured them would soon be in their hands.
The philosopher's stone had granted him insight into many mysteries, least of which was a way to restore his former hair colour from its current dull shade of grey, an unfortunate side-effect of necromancy. One of the more useful things he had scryed from the stone was the formula for ghoul powder with which he could potentially create an army to overthrow the council when the time came for him to take control as sovereign of Villnore, a stepping stone to his eventual goal of sovereign of the nine realms, the philosopher's stone would make it possible. After all, knowledge is power.
Lombert had sent a group of knights out to pursue the princess, the idea being that if the mercenaries Lombert had hired were not fast enough then Lombert would not be cast in suspicion. If that were to happen, the wizard reasoned, there would no longer be any purpose to the princess surviving, she would become a liability. And so he had swapped Lombert's poison for ghoul powder, the scrying orb the philosophers stone had taught him how to create allowed him to survey the situation from a safe distance, judging the power of the ghoul based on how quickly it dispatched the knights and the mercenary hero.
The ghoul had surpassed all his expectations and he was starting to wonder if he would have to execute the ghoul personally. The ghoul had taken a swipe at one of the mercenaries, knocking off his helmet to reveal that he was actually a she. The beautiful warrior had risen to her feet, surrounded by an aura of feathers both dark and divine and quickly dispatched the abomination.
At that moment he realised, all of his plans of world and universal domination were petty, a fleeting fancy. At that moment he realised that the only thing he wanted to conquer was the young woman he saw before him.
"That's right my love." He declared. "Your entire existence will belong to Lezard Valeth."
Author's Note: Sorry I took so long to get this chapter out. I have had a lot of work to do for university recently and was originally planning to finish this chapter during the Christmas holidays but felt the urge to write again last night.
I am aware that not many people played Covenant of the Plume since it is a side story, it's for the Nintendo DS which not many people have, and because it left out some of the more popular characters i.e. Alicia, Rufus and Lezard. So I decided to explain a little about the destiny plume here, WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD.
The destiny plume was a feather from Lenneth that she left at the body of Wylfred's father Theodor to indicate that he had been taken as an einherjar (she does this with everyone she takes as an einherjar in CotP). Wylfred tainted the feather black by sacrificing the lives of those who trusted him to it and by inflicting excessive pain upon his foes in battle to taint it with their anguish. The feather also absorbed special innate abilities from the people who were sacrificed to it, the first and only unskippable power being Vali's Awakening which was acquired from Ancel. In this story Wylfred sacrificed everyone to the plume so it has the potential to use all of their powers.
Vali's Awakening doubles all of Wylfred's stats but only for a couple of 'turns' (equal to about 20 seconds in this story). You may think that I exaggerated the power increase Platina got from it, but bear in mind that it didn't just double her physical strength, it also doubled her speed, reflexes, magic power, endurance and stamina meaning she was actually several times more powerful than before for those 20 seconds.
Blackout2010 - since all of Wylfred's companions were sacrificed to the destiny plume 300 years ago the only chance they will be brought into the story is as einherjar. Perhaps they will and perhaps they won't.
Blackout2010 and Adhyaksa – I haven't decided on the pairings yet, a few ideas I have had are PlatinaxAilyth, PlatinaxLucian, PlatinaxLenneth, LezardxAilyth. At this stage it could be any of those, I will just have to see where my heart takes me.
Velgar It seems removed the asterisks I added as page breaks, so I replaced them with lines and it deleted those as well. I have put page break here instead to trick the system into thinking it's a sentence and not a page break while making it clear to my readers what it is