Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

Solomon – Raven

Chapter 79

She woke in a panic to the sound of someone knocking on her door, rushed out of bed and wrapped her robe around her shoulders to open the damn door.

Raven was there.

"Good morning Valkyrie," he said pleasantly, stepping into the room. "I see you've made the room your own."

She kicked the pile of dirty washing under her desk and closed the door. "It's fine. What are you doing here? You nearly gave me a heart attack."

"I'm very sorry," he said with a smile. "I am here to begin your morning tuition."

"Morning tuition?" She asked. "What's that?"

"It is the private tutoring an apprentice receives every morning and Sunday when the other students have free time. You will want to get dressed for the day now for our activities," he told her. "I did warn you about your busy schedule."

She sighed and gathered her clothes together, getting a look at the clock on her time as she did and gasped in shock. "Solomon Wreath, it is five in the bloody morning!"

"I know."

"This is not an okay time to wake me up," she glared.

"Temple students are more adjusted than you to our times," he said with a slight frown of consideration. "Students must wake at five each morning, and they get themselves dressed and ready for the day. They then self-study until seven, when they go to the Dining Hall for breakfast at a quarter past seven. Then they have a dedicated time slot for library studies. This is how students are able to complete at least one book a day, though I know your class has a lot of high achievers in it. It is the seventh best class we have had since this particular Temple was built in fourteen-seventy-nine."

"Whoopie," she muttered. "Turn around."

He did and she quickly got herself ready – thankfully remembering deodorant at the very last moment – and Raven continued to lecture her. "After morning library study, students begin morning class at nine, which follows until quarter to eleven, a short break, and next class. That leads to lunch, a further class, a break, and another class. That last class leaves us at quarter to five, where students have a half hour break and then dinner, and then the library time once more before students have free time to do as they wish until morning. We did go through this several times."

"I know," she sighed. "Do you know why no one's talking to me?"

"I did notice the other students were being particularly quiet yesterday."

"Well, they're ignoring me. And another student, Militsa, the one from Scotland? She says she's been ignored since she came here eight years ago. She doesn't have a single friend," Valkyrie told him and she searched through her drawer for where she'd dumped her socks. "I sort of thought everyone was going to either hate me or be super interested in the outside world. Literally no one cares and it's so frustrating."

Raven sighed. "I'm sorry Valkyrie, but there's nothing I can do. Although I am a Cleric, I am not a very well-liked or respected one. If I said anything about your treatment, or Militsa's more importantly as a permanent resident, it would likely cause more humiliation than good."

"Why don't they like you?"

"Because I believe in the outside world. I believe we should be open about our expectations and our lives and goals. I don't believe our students get a full, nurturing childhood. They need at least one parent or caregiver to love them, not a room full of other children and many busy teachers that only care for their continual good grades."

"I never knew you were trying to improve Necromancer kids' wellbeing," Valkyrie said in surprise. "I'm ready by the way."

He turned around. "I have been very interested in the children's wellbeing. You see, in the war, we suffered immense losses despite not having a side in the war. Of course, many of us still chose to fight, including our High Priest though he didn't have that title at the time, and you know I protected Serpine as I thought it was best for Skulduggery's health, but the Temple itself did not pick one or the other. Despite that, we suffered greatly. We actually abandoned this Temple in the eighteen hundreds, but the new one was destroyed, as well as almost our population. We had to return here with barely a hundred members, most of which were suddenly childless, parentless, friendless and none of us had a single possession but the clothes on our backs and this Temple."

He led them out into the hall after grabbing the library book from her desk and led her down the halls.

He continued the story. "There was a suggestion, after a few years of struggling to get ourselves and our resources together, that we send groups to other Temple's in order to begin our repopulation. Of course, most of us were widows or had suffered a serious tragedy such as the death of a child. I myself had lost an apprentice I'd had since he was barely six. None of us wanted to remarry or have new children. So, it was I that suggested we begin adopting the children of sorcerers that had been abandoned or orphaned in the war."

"How many did you get?"

"It was a slow process. We began with three brothers, ages ten, eight and two. They were nice boys but unhappy. They never liked the Temple, but when we brought in four new boys about their ages, they perked up and we realised they needed more children their age to help their social and mental wellbeing. I pushed, successfully, for more children and after fifty years we had gone from barely a hundred Necromancers to six hundred with another forty in our care."

"That was pretty quick," Valkyrie said. She was more horrified by the sheer amount of children that had been orphaned or left because of the war. So many young lives affected.

"It was. It was too much too fast, and many of our young ranks showed it. They were not interested in wholesome lives, some barely even cared about their own lives, and many committed suicide in their teens or went on to commit crimes. We had over twenty sexual predators, which we believe is because they did not know how to process their emotions and never received counselling for their time in the war, or times in orphanages which had as many problems with sexual predators as mortal ones were rumoured to at the time. Almost none of our children had been taught how to process or deal with emotion. We had damaged the children by looking at numbers and expecting them to look after each other instead of thinking of their primary care. They did not need a hundred friends. They needed companionship and guidance, someone to tell them right from wrong. And we failed to see that."

"Which created criminals," Valkyrie concluded in horror.

"Yes," he said. "But more than that. It created unstable adults with a lot of magic and power. They were highly intelligent. But if they got angry, as a child they were sent away to be quiet as there were so many other children. We cannot send away an angry adult. They began to lash out. We created people that were worse than criminals if only because we cannot fully blame their actions on them. We knew exactly what had caused it when we looked away from our own unstable lives to see what we'd done. Which, ironically, meant we went to a lot of Temple's across the world to work one on one with the new Necromancers to help them. Now we have many of those orphans in our numbers and around the world, and we look after any new orphans a lot better, as we do still take in orphaned children since we do not have particularly high birth rates."

"Are they better? The old orphans?"

"Much better. And any that committed serious crimes, such as the predators, were punished for it as well as helped. They were not allowed back here, of course, but they now understand what they have done, which we are happy with," he explained. "They have never, and likely never will, commit such crimes again. I don't like to lessen what they did, but most of them truly didn't understand how what they were doing was wrong as they were acting exactly as had been as children. We had never told them adults didn't act that way with each other, that children shouldn't act that way. We cannot leave children alone with nothing but their trauma and expect them to grow out of it."

Valkyrie took a deep breath. "Well, at least they aren't like that anymore. Even if it's really horrible. For everyone."

"Exactly. And that is the story of how I began trying to help our students achieve better welfare. I realised our mistakes and I've encouraged the Education Council and our High Priest to bring in fewer students to give us more one on one time, and to assign permanent caregivers to the children that do not have parents to help again with their emotional upbringing. It's helped a lot, but some outside time would also be good, I think, to help them be more well-rounded. But, although I enjoy giving you a history lesson, were needed at the library at five fifteen in the morning for something else."

She groaned. "Don't remind me of the time. I was actually enjoying that history lesson."

He grinned. "We're here for a study on Necromancer objects."

"We've been through that."

"But at a grade twelve level," Raven reminded her meanly. "You'll enjoy it."

"I beg to differ," she gripped, taking a seat heavily.

.*****.

Valkyrie spent the whole day getting ignored, once again, by her class and found herself thankful for the early start despite how tired she was because she'd at least had a bit of human interaction that day. Though, that wasn't entirely fair. One of the Mentors they'd had that day, Mentor Emblem, was much younger and even had a little colour to her light skin which indicated time in the real world, and had chosen her a few times in class and given her, and everyone, equal praise when they were correct. She very much liked Mentor Emblem.

Thinking about it more, she had spent both lunch and dinner talking to Militsa, who'd even waved her over for food and had been ready to continue their lunchtime conversation as if they hadn't been split up for several hours. She sighed to herself in bed, knowing she wasn't being fair. She had made an ally, and she still had a friend in Raven. She'd even been able to have a short talk with Tanith that evening to talk about what had happened so far, which had been nice.

Now all she had to do was get her body clock in order so she could work on her Necromancy books. Excitement.

.*****.

The next day, library time, after dinner

"Hey," Militsa said quietly, a stack of books in her arms. "Can I sit with you?"

Valkyrie looked at her for a moment, a little too long perhaps, and then quickly nodded and pulled her stuff out the way of the other chair. "Sure, of course."

"Thanks," Militsa said. "I always get so bored in library study period. I like to work next to someone. What are you reading now?"

Valkyrie picked up the book Raven had helped her pick out that morning. "About the psychological connections Necromancers have with their Necromancy objects," she said, putting it back down. "It's really interesting."

"You quite like phycology, hu?" Militsa observed, looking over Valkyrie's stack of books. "I guess you need to be to be a detective though."

"I suppose. I've just always been interested in how people work and why they have certain emotions," Valkyrie said. "But I couldn't be a councillor. I'd get frustrated too quickly with the patients."

Militsa laughed quietly. "Same. I wouldn't mind being a teacher, maybe, but not to very little ones. I guess that's not got much phycology though. Sorry."

"It's fine. Why do you want to be a teacher?" Valkyrie asked. She praised having a distraction from her books.

Militsa bit her lip and looked around quickly. "Do you want to get a drink with me?"

Valkyrie hesitated. "So we don't distract people?"

Militsa nodded quickly. "Yeah, yes, exactly. I know a little tearoom we can go to."

They packed up quietly and rushed from the room before a teacher saw them. They walked to higher levels of the Temple, getting to a place Valkyrie recognised, and then cut left down a deserted hall where Valkyrie knew the security room was, even if she'd never been in there.

Militsa opened a door to an empty room with sofas and a small counter and a kettle with a shelf of mugs.

"They have a new staff room at the other end of the hall," Militsa explained. "It's a student room now but not many people use it."

"It's a little far away, I guess."

"Yeah," Militsa said, putting her books on the coffee table. She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and looked around somewhat nervously. "Here, I'll make some tea. Sit down."

Valkyrie did what she said and took off her robe too as it was starting to itch around her neck and feel a little too heavy on her shoulders. She was just wearing regular clothes beneath, though she knew she was meant to be wearing smarter things. She had picked black, tight jeans and a pair of lace-up black shoes that she really liked, and a black t-shirt Tanith had got her that was low enough at the front to draw attention but still somewhat modest and was tight all the way. Not too much attention, obviously, because she lacked boobage. She hadn't picked those clothes for any purpose other than their comfort, but now she was suddenly faced with exactly what her family and friends had been saying about.

She was alone with another girl, who happened to be really pretty and very nice.

It didn't necessarily mean anything, but it did make Valkyrie a little more conscious of her looks and she flattened her hair while Militsa had her back turned. Just in case.

Militsa came back with their tea a few moments later and nearly spilt it when she tripped over her own bag. Valkyrie jumped and reached out to catch her, stopping her from burning them both.

Militsa blushed and smiled at Valkyrie, handing her a mug. "Thanks. You're even stronger than you look." She went a little redder.

Valkyrie took a breath and smiled. "Thank you. I couldn't let a pretty girl get hurt."

Militsa smiled. "What about an average one?"

"They might have fallen a little further," Valkyrie smirked. "You were going to tell me why you wanted to be a teacher?"

She sat opposite Valkyrie and blew on her tea. "Yes, I am. I think I want to be a teacher because I enjoy being with people. And I guess I want to make sure kids don't get left out as much as I am."

"Do you think you'll stay in the Temple?"

Militsa slumped a little. "I don't know. I don't much like it here. The other students don't talk to me, there's no support, no one to talk to. They all just say once I've finished my education and get a job I'll be happier, meet new people. They even tell me I can go to other Temple's if I'd rather. But I love Ireland, you see, I specifically asked to come here instead of Australia or America when they asked, and I don't want to leave now. But it's just so hard when no one even cares."

Valkyrie nodded, considering what she was saying. "You could just defect from the Temple. You have all the knowledge you need and you can still be a Necromancer if you want, and be a teacher in Ireland. There's nothing stopping you leaving."

She shook her head. "I don't have any money. I don't even have qualifications. If I leave, I won't have a single thing to live off of."

"Do you not have parents or other family in Scotland?"

"No one," Militsa said sadly. "I used to, but they died when we had a small explosion in the night. In the Scottish Temple, they keep families together and parents raise their own kids. Here, it's so much more… unemotional. There's no real investment in the kids. I think after everything that's happened to the Irish Temple, everyone just likes to disassociate from the kids just in case something happens. I don't have a single friend to lend me any money, or any family in Scotland. That explosion I said about? It turned into a fire. Luckily, it was contained, but the blast killed some people. My family was already dead, but the fire was so horrible. I was in the hospital for weeks before they told me they were dead at all."

"Why didn't anyone say?"

"The High Priest lost his daughter," she explained, picking at her robe and revealing her black blouse and skirt. "I think everyone was so devastated that no one really wanted to tell me more bad things had happened. So they left me. It's kind of always been the same since."

Valkyrie watched her in concern as she picked at her robe and stood, moved around the table, and sat next to her. Militsa looked up at her with a sad smile.

"I'm sorry, I got a little carried away," she said. "I didn't exactly mean to bore you with all that. I guess, what I really want to do, is help people. Sort of like you."

"But with less punching," Valkyrie smiled.

"But with a lot less punching," Militsa agreed with a laugh. She had a really pretty laugh, Valkyrie found herself noticing. And really pretty red hair, with little golden streaks. Sort of like how Nadia had almost black hair with subtle red strands you could only see in the most perfect lighting. "What made you want to be a detective?"

Valkyrie blinked and sat back a little, realising she had been leaning into Militsa. She swallowed. "I like to be active. I like to use my head. I guess, with all the crazy things and people being a detective brings, I just really enjoy it all. Plus there's the psychology element in there. It feels really good to finally get someone after searching for weeks and getting really emotionally invested in the victim and witnesses."

"Will you tell me about one of your cases?" Militsa asked excitedly.

Valkyrie laughed. "Sure, I guess. Well, one of my favourites was a man we had been hunting for eight weeks on and off. Sometimes we, that being me and Skulduggery, had to be pulled for another dangerous case as the other detectives can't always do them, so we'd put other people on watch duty and our suspect would get away every time that happened. It was so frustrating I wanted to just give up, but Skulduggery kept pushing me to do it. Well, we found him eventually. He was about to kill all these mortals, a couple of tourists he'd rounded up without us knowing. We had no backup. No plan. We just had to start talking and hope for the best."

"And you got him?" She asked with a grin.

"Yes. We got the bombs disarmed–" Militsa grinned excitedly "–and then he took off and I had to chase him myself as Skulduggery was stuck in one of the stupid traps. I got him up to the roof and he turned around with a gun, but I tackled him so quick I didn't realise he had one until we were falling off the building. We both would have died if Skulduggery, somehow, hadn't gotten free and jumped out a window and caught me right before I hit the concrete."

Militsa laughed. "You really like to cut it close."

"I don't. He does. I think he finds it exciting since he's dead and all," Valkyrie said, rolling her eyes. "It does get the blood pumping, I can tell you that."

"I bet. I would love to do something like that. Run around like a crazy woman and arrest people," Militsa said. She laughed suddenly. "And I bet the pay isn't half bad either."

"It's not, but we do risk our lives every day, so I guess we deserve it," Valkyrie grinned. "Even the paper pushers get good money. You could start out there for cash and then get your qualification."

"I'll have to think about it. I still don't know what I want, I guess. But I'll get there."

"I'm sure you will. No one could turn down a cute girl like you."

Do you see where I am going with this? Just a tinsy bit I may be going there. Just a tad :)