Chapter 137

"You're back," Solomon greeted when the group walked back into the front door after their day trip to Haggard.

"Yep," Valkyrie smiled, giving him a hug. "Have you had lunch?"

"Of course," Solomon hugged her back. "I'm not incapable you know."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Valkyrie took her shoes and coat off and hung both hers and Nadia's coats on the hook. "We saw my cousin on the way and I said I'd invite her over for dinner soon."

"Who's that?" Solomon asked.

"Crystal, one of the Toxic Twins," she smirked. "She's really nice actually. Her sister seems like a dick, but she's cool."

Solomon nodded and they all went towards the parlour. Laila was ready for another feed – had been since almost the second they had set off home and had cried the whole way back. Tanith had just wanted to get home quickly to do it since it was only a ten-minute drive. Valkyrie had safely managed to get them back in seven minutes. She was a good aunt.

Ghastly was sitting slightly more comfortably with his brothers, and his brothers were acting slightly more kindly towards him. He and Tanith had a short, pleasant conversation while they were out which had helped the situation. There were still some tensions, but it was getting better.

"What's on the agenda next?" Valkyrie asked, looking around the room. They all looked at her, Solomon with a little more confusion seeing as how he hadn't been on the trip. "Don't even start."

"Valkyrie…" Tanith said lowly.

"No," she demanded. "I'm not saying a thing."

"Why not?" Nadia asked quietly. Valkyrie looked at her and she could see the worry, and even fear, in her eyes. She hadn't said anything about Valkyrie roughly removing her from the flower shop, although Valkyrie worried under her jacket that there might be a bruise. She'd only pulled her out of fear of Mr Hagan, but she still felt some guilt that she might have really hurt her girlfriend. She was a whole lot stronger than Nadia after all. "You're making me think the worst."

Valkyrie deflated. "Nothing bad happened, I promise. I just really don't like that man, alright? Really."

Nadia was definitely unconvinced. Looking around, her brothers and Tanith were too. Even Solomon was getting alarmed.

"Look, guys, please. Nothing happened. Nothing will happen. I just hate him, he was a mean guy to me. I'm just, you know, remembering how much I hated him as a child. He told me off once and shouted and I always hated him since. That's all."

"That didn't happen," Saracen quietly said, looking at Valkyrie sadly. "You don't need to lie to us Valkyrie. We're here for you. Always."

Feeling more defensive now, and upset he used his powers to call her out, she just gritted her teeth for a moment before sticking to her story. "There's nothing to talk about. Okay?"

The others seemed reluctant to force her into talking and Valkyrie took that opportunity to move on. They got some tea and split off around the house to do their thing. Valkyrie took a phone call from a member of her detective team on a possibly whereabouts of Skulduggery that had been reported. Valkyrie didn't put much weight on it but sent three of her team to go and have a look from afar.

Solomon found her sitting in the snug looking over some things that had been emailed to her by Tipstaff.

They sat quietly as Valkyrie read over the material, their silence going on for an hour until the sun coming through the window had become orange as it set over the trees behind their house.

"They'll be making dinner soon," Valkyrie commented as she sent back her detailed response on the crime wave and how she was sending detectives to deal with it to Corrival.

"Yes," he replied.

"How are you doing Solomon?" She asked. "We've barely spoken since you've come home."

"We've both been busy," he softly said, holding his hand out for Valkyrie's. She held it. "I am feeling much better now. How have you coped with all that has happened recently?"

Valkyrie took a deep breath. "I'm getting through it. I'd have preferred Skulduggery to have come with us to talk and just get all our answers, to get that part of all this mess finished. But other than that, I am coping. Well, I hate the paperwork part. I don't like being Head particularly much."

"Yes, positions of authority tend to have too much paperwork," Solomon agreed. "I used to have to fill out almost twenty pages of details per child I was petitioning to help each time I asked to interview them about their experiences, and trying to get any type of stand to talk on about the children's troubles in our Temple was almost impossible even if I did go through the correct routes. I could hardly talk to them or about them without going through the proper routes."

"I always wanted to ask you more about that work," Valkyrie said.

"I know," Solomon nodded. "I brushed it off when you came to the Temple to study. Of course, it doesn't matter now because they're all dead."

"Not everyone," Valkyrie softly reminded him.

He was silent for a long pause. "I suppose not. But much of them are. It is mostly the victims of the crimes caused by abused children that died. The abusers living in prison and other Temples are the ones that live. I am struggling, now that the Temple has fallen, to accept this. It is more than unfair."

"It is," Valkyrie agreed. "But as you told me the first time – an abused child doesn't act like a normal adult. You can't hold them any more accountable than they already have been. They didn't destroy the Temple after all. The Spiders did. You can't blame them for the victim's deaths, even if they did a crime that deserves to be punished. I'm hardly the greatest advocate for criminals like them but even I understand that."

He nodded. "I know that. But I still feel as if something unjust has happened to those Necromancers in particular. They didn't deserve this."

"They didn't." Valkyrie closed the laptop and put it on the floor. "But it isn't your fault. You should remember that."

"I do. It simply makes me wish I had spent less time with paperwork and chosen to take action faster than I did. Forced other Temples to put pressure on the Irish Necromancers. Our ability to nurture children has been laughably bad since practically the start of the war. We should have corrected the issue as soon as possible, saved dozens of people pain and others from believing causing pain was their only option."

"Perhaps. But you did lots of work to fix it."

"Yes, I did," he nodded. "But getting others to focus on the problem was so incredibly difficult I took a break at one point. No one wanted to know, and since the first generation seemed to act 'normally' for the first several years they ignored the problems with the second generation of children we brought in. And then we allowed parents to look after their child for the first five years, and then grouped them only for day times, but by the time the child was ten, there were systematic separation techniques used to separate the children. Getting the Temple to even recognise that was always a challenge, even trying to tell the parents was a struggle. I had to take time off from working on it at times. I feel like I could have achieved more, now, if I had focused more pointedly on teaching Necromancers of the problem."

"You could always do that now," Valkyrie suggested. "I bet there are places all over the world that could do with someone like you helping children get proper upbringings."

Solomon nodded quietly, likely considering her words. Valkyrie suspected, though, that he wouldn't want to leave Ireland. She knew that he'd lived with minimal travel in Ireland for centuries. She doubted he'd start now, and her reference was aimed at mage communities in other areas, as he knew.

"You still get to see Laila grow up though," Valkyrie smiled, trying to lighten his mood. "She'll be really lucky to have to teach her and help look after her with the rest of us."

He smiled slightly also. "Yes, I will enjoy that. I've enjoyed seeing you grow, also. And will continue to, I hope."

"Of course you will," Valkyrie grinned. "You get to live with me for the rest of our lives."

He laughed and slung an arm over her shoulder for a hug. "You're a good girl, Valkyrie. I am lucky to know you. A lot of people look up to you now, almost as many who hate you."

"Thanks," she rolled her eyes.

He chuckled. "That's more than alright. You're going to make a lot of change. Perhaps, through you, I can also."

"You can without me, you know. You could make mandatory laws for all mage communities on child protection and education. It would stop people like Necromancers making drastic decisions from happening again. I mean, taking orphans was quite reputable so with some education, I bet you could teach a lot of people on how this entire operation, for lack of a better word, happened. It could be preventative, and positive for all Necromancers. And I bet Corrival would be happy to back that."

Solomon nodded with more conviction this time. "I don't think I'd mind that."

"I'm glad," Valkyrie smiled.

"And what is your goal?" He asked her brightly. "You have so much going on. Tracking down Skulduggery, organising detectives, working as a Dead Man, training, your education, spending time with your girlfriend, your godchild, plans to renovate the house, the Spiders causing trouble, the crime wave, foreign countries trying to get into the Sanctuary. What are you focusing on?"

"Honestly?" Valkyrie said after a deep breath. "Nadia, family and dealing with Skulduggery. The rest will have to be focused on by someone else until I can do it. I have to finish these things before I can start on the others."

"Hmm," he wondered. "I had thought you'd have wanted to focus more on the Spiders."

Valkyrie looked at him for a moment. "I do. But they will only come out when they want too, plus it's a larger job. I'll be better off focusing and finishing the smaller things so we can open up a large number of people to work on the Spiders. I mean, the whole education thing is obviously on the backburner, but I can pick that up later. My home needs to be solid, and the bonds of our family need to be tightened. How can I rely on Ghastly as my brother while I'm still at odds with him about Laila and Tanith? For all of us, it could get in the way of a mission. And with Nadia, if I can't tell her what I think and us be on the same page about everything then we're not setting the example of what I want out of my family, even if they're not or don't continue to be in relationships. A family has to communicate. And at any rate, I'm very serious about Nadia. When we change this house, there's going to be a new dynamic, and if we don't go into it strong, it might not work. And if me and Nadia, the heads of house in a respect, aren't respected as having the final word, it also can't work. I don't really want to have the final word on other people's problems, you know, I mean more like if rules aren't followed then it won't work. Do I just sound like an asshole?"

"Almost all groups of people need a leader to function properly. Previously, Skulduggery took that role in the house, with Dexter having a large say due to his tactical thinking, as well as Ghastly for his rationality. Skulduggery is gone. Ghastly is now considered undependable because of his recent actions. And Dexter, although still tactical, has been emotionally changed by what's happened. I'm certain he can come back from it, but it makes the house dynamics change. Having lived in Temple's my whole life, I'm used to seeing changes make impacts on large groups of seemingly independent people. In fact, I expect you will look more at Anton, Dexter when he is in a better place, and Nadia for the main advice. You are strong enough to do this, them not being around you all of the time would not be a problem."

"So I'm going in the right direction?"

"Valkyrie, sweetheart," he said, turning to look at her fully. "There is no right way forward other than the path you take. I trust your decision. You won't always be right, certainly not for everyone, but I follow wherever you take me. If that's making this family strong, I just want to be by your side."

Valkyrie smiled, her heart clenching with how much she loved him. "Thank you Solomon," she whispered and she wrapped him in a hug. "It's funny actually. Other than my mother, you're one of the best, most responsible parents I've ever had."

He chuckled. "I could never outshine your uncle."

"Yeeeah, Gordon isn't all that responsible if you hadn't noticed. You have him beat on that front," she grinned.

He hummed and pulled her in for another, tighter hug. "Thank you. You've given me more than I thought possible. I promise you, whatever happens with this upcoming war, or with Skulduggery, or any changes to the house dynamics, I will always support you."

Valkyrie kissed his cheek. "You'd be a good dad."

He kissed her back. "I expect to have some say in those house rules you mentioned."

Valkyrie rolled her eyes. "I'm tempted to say no but being from the Temple and having lived with so many people you probably know best how to help. So yeah, I guess you can. First rule: The Idiots can't make rules."

He grinned, that dimple making its appearance. "Agreed. I'll help Nadia with making a detailed list while you're working. I know she's the one truly in charge anyway."

She rolled her eyes but didn't disagree. "Thanks. I like house stuff but I have way too much going on!" She laughed.

"Just don't forget Nadia's school friends are coming tomorrow at midday."

Valkyrie grimaced. "I'll try to remember."

Solomon laughed. They spent some time talking until they eventually got onto the topic of Skulduggery again. Valkyrie noticed Solomon look unhappy and worried she'd upset him when he randomly got his phone out and handed it to her.

"I think," he told her quietly, "that you might have more of a chance with talking to Mr Pleasant using this. We spoke this morning. Briefly. He's agreed to talk to you."

OOoohh I sprung that last line on you didn't I?! I'm quite happy about that. Plus, I just needed to get the whole Skulduggery thing actually done because Valkyrie and her peeps have shit to do. From a plot point of view, of course. There's only so long anyone can read about Valkyrie trying to find a practically impossible to find man. So, yeah.

It's my birthday on Thursday, I will be 20! And I just bought two new baby geckos! One is Aurora, and the other is nameless right now. I am in love! Leave some comments on what you thought about the chapter, I love hearing from you :)