Hello again! Thank you to all those that have read this so far. You haven't lest comments but I hope you have enjoyed it! This it the second chapter!

Chapter 2

"Lift harder! Come on, almost there!" exclaimed the Teacher, "You're almost there!" Valkyrie watched as one of her class tried to lift the weight that they had been given. It was supposed to be punishment for all the things that they had done last week, with the shouting, the mess and the disrespect to teachers. She didn't like her teachers because they demanded the respect that they hadn't earned. She never had. It was common fact. She also didn't like that the one day she was told to go to school had to be the day that double Maths and Technology was on. However, this last lesson would be great. Finally, she was able to show off her strength to an audience that would be impressed enough to stare.

"Alright, you can put it down now. Edgley, up you get", the Teacher called. She casually hopped up and some other people in her class muttered. She knew that they thought that she was weird, and odd. But it really didn't change her ego.

"Jacket and joggers off", Teacher commanded. He was getting on her nerves, but she ignored him and instead took off the joggers, revealing shorts and two long, strong, powerfully muscled legs. The muttering had stopped now. She then took off her jacket to expose her tight sports crop top showing her six-pack and its muscles plus long, strong arms and wide shoulders. The room of people looked at her in awe. Everyone in the small coastal town of Haggard knew that Stephanie Edgley worked out, but no one had ever actually seen her demonstrate the profits of all her work. Valkyrie walked over to the teacher, who started to adjust the weights, adding heavier ones, obviously realising that she can lift a whole lot more than everyone else there.

Valkyrie lay down on the mat and put her hands on the weights metal bar, mentally going through everything she knew about weight lifting. After a few seconds thought, she realised she didn't know that much. Tanith, before she had been taken over by a Remnant, had instructed her when she was younger, so she knew how to hold it safely and that she had to push it high above her head. Other than that, she knew nothing.

The teacher finished fiddling and Valkyrie pushed, realised instantly that she would easily do it and stopped worrying so much. It was easy. The class was still silent as she pushed the weight up for the tenth time, lowered it back down. She sat up.

"Well that was easy. Do you have anything more challenging?" she asked in that unimpressed tone she sometimes used with her dullest of trainers. She had found that easy. She didn't bother looking at the rest of the class, as she already knew they would be staring at her like startled puffer-fish. The teacher started to look around for more weights, and as he did, Valkyrie looked out of the window. She needn't have bothered. He was there. Of course he was. Skulduggery Pleasant, her partner and mentor, had called her earlier saying that he would be waiting to pick her up later. They didn't have a case, so the day had been free until the Elders had asked to see them about four thirty this afternoon, and that's why she had been sent to school, against all her protestations.

She watched the gleaming, black Bentley for at least five minutes, and knew he had seen her when the lights flashed. He was telling her to get back to work and stop daydreaming. In her opinion, he was really annoying sometimes. Many agreed.

Two hours, a shower and wearing her school uniform, minus the tie, later she sat in the Bentley, complaining.

"He made me do too much. How am I supposed to hit someone if my arms hurt?" she whined, "I don't like him. And when I was in the changing room people kept giving me funny looks. I usually don't care, but it makes you a bit self-conscious, you know?"

"Not really. But I'm sure they were only looking at you because they want to be you. That's what I'd think," Skulduggery replied in his smooth voice, as he drove them to Roarhaven. He changed the subject before she spoke, "So what are you thinking for this afternoon? We don't really have anything to tell the Elders, exactly", he said, cocking his head to the side.

"You're driving us to Roarhaven because we need to give them that report you wrote which the Elders are keen to get a hold of, remember. That's what we're doing and why we're going", she sighed. She hated reports. She didn't like reading things and filling out forms. She liked hitting people, kicking people, elbowing them and maybe throwing in a few knees. She liked arresting people. That was fun.

"Oh, yes! Your right," he answered brightly.

"How didn't you remember that? You complained for, like, two hours about that."

"I just did. But the good news is that I remembered to fill it in. Hush now, I like this song," so he turned up the radio and Valkyrie sat there in silence, listening to him sing along softly. He had the softest singing voice she had ever heard. Not like her father's tuneless screech.

By the time they reached Roarhaven, she was a little mesmerised by his voice. When he turned the engine off and got out of the car she followed, coming back into the real world and led the way. She went through the doors, and past the Cleavers, dressed all in grey, with a scythe strapped to their backs. They were still as intimidating as on the first day she had seen them.

They nodded to Tipstaff, the administrator, and went straight to the throne room. Erskine Ravel was in the middle, the Grand Mage, looking bored. He was all good looks and easy charms, and Valkyrie had a bit of a crush on him. Not that she would ever admit it though.

On his left was Ghastly Bespoke. His mother had been cursed when she was pregnant with him, so he had been born with scars covering his face and body, making him truly ugly. His mother had also been a boxer and his father a tailor. He had been a boxer for his mother, but he used to have a shop in a small sorcerer town where he had been a tailor, before he had taken position as an Elder, because he wanted to track down and capture Tanith Low. He wanted to cure her of the soul-jacking Remnant, due to his being completely smitten by her.

On the right side was Madam Mist. She was dressed in the same Elder clothes that they all had to wear, and she had a black veil covering her face. Valkyrie didn't like her because she was a Child of the Spider. She could turn into a massive spider at will and, as if that wasn't enough, vomit hundreds of thousands of hairy spiders. A bit creepy, in other words.

When they had walked over to them, Ravel lifted his head from his hand.

"You don't look like you're having fun. Why not? I thought you were really beginning to like this job," Valkyrie said sarcastically.

"I'm bored. I hate this job. This morning I was playing on my phone, and Tipstaff took it away. I didn't realise he was there. I usually hide it when he comes near. He may have taken it because I was shouting at it though," he said with a miserable frown and a cute pout on his lips.

"What were you playing to make you shout?" asked Valkyrie, willing herself not to blush at the cuteness of his expression.

"He was playing Angry Birds again. Since he played it on yours that one time, he spends every spare minute on it. I heard him shouting, 'Why won't you just die, you stupid pig!' I don't think Elders are allowed to say them things," Ghastly replied for Ravel.

"Well, I need things to do, too!" Ravel said defensively.

"Doesn't mean you're allowed to say it though."

"But I've almost finished the game! Then he took it from me! What-"

"Why did you say 'stupid pig'? They are birds," Mist asked in that quiet voice of hers. It was the first time Valkyrie had heard her take part in any small talk conversation. She must be getting soft, she thought to herself.

"You're supposed to throw the bird at the pig, kill the pig, and get all the eggs back."

They all stood or sat there for a few seconds as they thought about how stupid that sounds. The Grand Mage wasn't supposed to do them things, but then again, Ravel was different to the other Grand Mages anyway.

"And on that note, back to business," Skulduggery said brightly, breaking the silence. "I have that file that you made me do. I hated that by the way."

"Forget the file. We need your help at the moment," Ghastly said looking serious again.

"You mean I didn't have to do that file?" Skulduggery asked, horrified.

"That's in the past now," Ravel said, waving it way. "We have more pressing matters going on at the moment"

"But I spent time over that…"

"Skulduggery we need you to concentrate," Ravel pressed, "We have heard about a gang of criminals trying to get an artefact from the
Dublin Arts Museum. They think it's the Jug of Secrets."

"And is it?"

"Well, the Jug is supposed to be lost, you know? But they might be right. However, it doesn't really matter if they are or aren't right, we can still catch them."

Valkyrie scowled. "Is anyone going to tell me what this amazingly lost Jug of Mysterious Secrets is, then?"

"Nope," replied Skulduggery.

She elbowed him in the rips, and he grunted. She looked at Ravel, eyebrow raised. "The Jug of Secrets is basically a jug-" Valkyrie gave him a look for pointing out the obvious, "-which is supposed to give the owner a secret that no one else can ever know or see. They have it in loads of stories, where people find it, but the secret is different in each, because, well, we don't know what it is.

"My favourite is probably the one where a mortal farmer finds out a secret so terrible that he decides to hide in order to stop evil from using it. When other people start coming over asking questions, he runs away over the hills to the woman in the cave. No mortals ever went there because they thought she was a witch; really though, she was just another sorcerer. Probably a sensitive.
When he got there, he said he had a secret and he had to hide it from enemies. He didn't tell her what it was. She agreed to help him because she was a good person. He had to write it down on special paper, and place into something- a jug. She put a 'spell' on it and that was that. It was safe and his own mind was blocked off from what the secret was that he had found. The woman and farmer then parted and the farmer hid the Jug some-place."

Valkyrie considered what she had just been told. She had a dozen questions in her head and she tried to work out what was most important. Finally she said, "Oh." Once again, she got that crazy feeling of the questions being people, glaring at her remark. She tried to redeem herself. "But why do you need us then? There must be another detective to do this, if the Secrets are just a fairy tale."

"Well, I'm convinced it's not a fairy tale, you see. Some people were trying to do the job, but the three people in the gang, Abattoir Banal, Darron Variance and Wane Fiend, seem to keep getting into the Museum. The Detective can't work out how they keep getting in, or how they're getting artefacts. Last night, however, they messed up. The three will probably go back tonight; it's the only logical answer as they will expect us to expect that they will wait. We want you to get them," Ravel said. A small pause followed, as the Detectives mulled it over.

"So you want us to get these criminals, in the act of getting this Jug. Am I right so far?" Skulduggery queried.

"Yes," Ravel confirmed.

"And why us? Why not some other people? Out of curiosity, of course."

"Because, as I said, I don't think it is a myth. I think it might be real. In which case, the only people who we really can trust with a secret this big, is you. The others, however reliable they may be, may want the power of the Secrets, if that's what it really holds," Ravel explained.

"So basically, you don't really trust your staff with a secret like this, so you give it to us," Skulduggery said, tilting his head in amusement. Only Valkyrie could say what it meant when he positioned his head this way or that. She had been able to since she first met him, and not one other person, dead or alive or part-dead or part-alive -yes, it's really that complicated- could possibly say that.

So, Ravel went on and said, "Well, of course we do, but we thought you might want it! Now go and detect something or other. I need to find out if I can get my phone back." He stood up and stretched, as Valkyrie followed Skulduggery out the room grinning inwardly.

They went back to the car, stopping only to hand the unnecessary file over to Tipstaff, and strapped themselves in. As they drove in silence, they thought it over. Valkyrie knew that three criminals usually meant something bad, but it also had some pluses. The three could not like each other. But if they do, then it was most likely they're not going to remain liking each other once they get the Jug, because they will all want the power. There will be one that's willing to deceive the others in order to get what they want, and at very least they will get that person which was left behind. They would interrogate him and get what they wanted. However, the person may just play it safe and kill them in their sleeps. Valkyrie would probably do that. Simplest option.

"So where are we going then?" she asked Skulduggery.

"Back to my house I suppose. You can get your work clothes on and I'll make arrangements. We'll go through the layout of the museum, and reposition the Cleavers. We can have the sorcerers removed, but put on standby," he said. She nodded and messed around with the radio, until it reached her favourite channel, turned it up high and listening to 'The Killers'.

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