The two recently met acquaintances seated themselves in Gordon's' private study. The writer thought it would be proper to serve tea while they had a conversation to make his guest feel less tense. Valkyrie decided to avoid the topic of their common friend at the moment. But knowing Skulduggery Pleasant, he tended to keep very curious company, for all she knew she may not make it out of this mansion without a serious mental search.

"I heard about what happened to my adopted father and thought it would only be polite to offer my condolences. The man practically raised me after all."

Gordon nodded. Though he wasn't sure it was her only reason for this unexpected return. He didn't know how to get her to stay long enough for his partner to arrive; he knew how thrilled Skulduggery would be if he found out she was alive. He rarely spoke of her but when the topic came up you could tell by his posture and the sound of his voice that he was rather fond of her.

"Where were you when you heard the news?"

"In Sydney, Australia. My adoptive father managed to build up an establishment for me there. I heard about the news the day it happened."

Gordon practically choked on his tea. Meritorious knew. "You faked your own death?!"

She rolled her eyes and brushed her hair to the side of her face. "Oh please. It wasn't as if it was my idea anyways. Way back then we were winning the war. Lord Vile was nowhere to be seen, Skulduggery was back to lead the Dead men into battle. A new era began, but I never got to celebrate it before I was shipped off to India for protection."

Her companion fell quiet, noting these grave secrets Eachan Meritorious took to his grave. He cringed at the way she died; to save Skulduggery's life. And after all this time the now Ex-Grand Mage knew about that which Skulduggery had refused to tell him.

"He was eaten up by guilt you know. You were his favorite student. Could you not have called or-"

"Look I know you are a good friend of his. And you have a right to worry about him, but I was in INDIA of all places, four hundred years ago technology, airplanes or shipment routes didn't exist. I didn't know that Skulduggery was still alive; I mean he was all bone the last time I checked, I thought he might have perished by now. The only reason I had returned to Ireland was because Eachan Meritorious is dead."

"What do you mean?" he said as he took another sip of his tea.

She leaned back in the chair and raked her hands through her hair. Then he noticed the far off look in her eyes as if she were remembering something hurtful.

"He wasn't all righteous as you all thought he was you know." she gave a dry laugh. "He was born for the position as the Grand Mage."

"I thought the magical community based their voting rights upon diplomacy." he spoke and furrowed his brow in thought. "Who would actually believe that the sanctuary would be lead by a monarchy?"

She snorted. "The magical community didn't care at the time who ruled, but they respected my father because he always treated them as equals and enforced his rules in the name of peace, not power. Then other countries decided to follow by example and after that no one spoke of witchcraft or sorcery ever again."

"He did all that?" asked Gordon. He looked impressed. "I didn't know he was that influential."

"Yes, but it was only part of the reason he was elected. If he failed to prove his superior qualities in leadership, strength and intellect to his predecessor then he would have been disowned and the next sibling of his line would have taken his place and so on." she took another sip of her beverage and continued with the story.

"My point was that..." she began to look nervous."The Grand Mage didn't have time to start a new family after the war and when he found me... it wasn't under good circumstances." she took a deep breath and tried to approach the topic in a different manner.

Gordon realized what she was doing but waited patiently for her to talk to him. It wasn't everyday that he got the magical folk to open up and he was hungry for information.

"I had a very difficult childhood, I got involved in the Sorcerer War Trade... you do know what those are, don't you?"

"Yes, I've heard about them once or twice though everyone heavily avoided the subject." He sighed as he remembered all the times he tried to pry for information from other sorcerers, he never made many friends that way, and he was instantly shot down. He never spoke to those sorcerers ever again. Skulduggery said that they were just scared, but of what, he didn't know. He figured it a lot more than him re-writing their story.
"All I know was that it was basically a magical wrestling match. Except there were no rules. All types of combats were used in the ring, and that it was made illegal a few decades after it was introduced."

"It was worse than that. I was told that my mother had abandoned me as a baby. The man in charge of the SWT was an ex-necromancer priest by the name of Mallirious Web. He raised me and worked me to the core as a slave. I thought it was bad until I decided to get rebellious ideas into my head, it was not the time or the place but i didn't know any better. I was just a seven-year old girl." she looked to be on the verge of tears but her pride allowed her to press on and brush the theatrics aside.

"So I practiced hard, whenever i got the chance. I even dreamt about practicing and all these thoughts about manipulating magic to my will boosted my self-confidence too high. One day I thought I could take him on and he ended defeating me and eventually sealed my powers in a collar he made me wear. I was used in the fights for three years until the Sanctuary raided the place. Meritorious was watching me and displayed interest in my type of magic, he made me his daughter." she whispered coarsely.

"Mallirious happened to break out of the gaol while being deported and then came after me. It was then that i managed to get out of the collar was defend myself against him. He died." she said while giving a slight smirk which made Gordon smile.

"He protected me from all those who held a grudge from shutting down the games. And over time I learned his ways and began to put a little faith in him. I found out the rules of the monarchy myself after a while of adjusting." She grew quiet. "I was treated like a Queen in that castle, but I was to be married once I became the next Grand Mage."

She heard a gasp and could've sworn that the man staring at her almost bowed. She shook off her thoughts. "I made the administrators change the rules. I told Father that we should vote for the next Grand mage if situation calls for it, as the mortals do now for their president. That way we wouldn't be blamed if something went wrong. Then he decided that dealing with work was too much so he sent his only daughter to look for Mages that could measure up to his standards to rule the sanctuary with him. I refused as his first candidate, he took it surprisingly well, and said that when my time came I would choose other wise. So I applied as a soldier which he took to his advantage, and staged my death."

"He meant a lot to you didn't he?" He asked her softly.

"Sent me a post card every week, a present every birthday, a phone call every decade, and all his royalties in his only death. He meant everything to me." he believed every word she spoke and noticed that they held no anger or sadness, they only deemed to be full of love.