Chapter 147
Heaving in lungful's of breath, Valkyrie threw herself out of the way of a stream of bullets, little black shadow circles thrown at her by Norma and her sister, Helana, who both had all the ease and patience in the world. They were trying to make her use her magic whilst throwing stuff at her, but since she had accidentally used her magic in the correct way when she almost got hit in the head once, they had decided she needed high-pressure situations all the time. She was hating it.
Mostly because it worked. She dove past another stream and threw her magic out of her hand, whipping through the air and smashing the vase into a million pieces. The shadow bullets stopped. Valkyrie panted and stayed on the floor where she had fallen.
"That was great!" Helana squealed excitedly, jumping up and down. "You're getting really good!"
"Thanks," Valkyrie wheezed.
"Aww, come on," Norma smiled, rolling her eyes and offering her a hand. "It's not that bad, is it? We can have coffee and cake after this."
Valkyrie glanced at Nadia and Solomon who were sitting next to each other at the other end of the hall impatiently waiting for Valkyrie to finish training. They were both mad at her, but Valkyrie was sure it was for different reasons. She wasn't certain if Norma had worked out that Nadia just didn't like her, or if she thought Nadia was in a bad mood, but Valkyrie had noticed her girlfriend's evil looks. It would be cute, except Valkyrie was certain she was in for a shouting at when she got home and that was before they all found out about the little ritual she was going to go through.
She shook her head. "I think I need to get going soon actually," she said, standing herself up and not looking at the hand Norma offered her. She put it down. "I've already got a better hand of it though."
Helana nodded. "Definitely! You're a really fast learner."
"Thanks," Valkyrie smiled. Helana was very nice, a lot like Erskine was at times though without the mood swings. "Will I be able to come back to train soon?"
"Sure!" The sisters said at the same time.
Valkyrie got changed and after some goodbyes, left with Solomon and Nadia. She was physically exhausted and could already feel herself becoming emotionally exhausted. This procedure to lock her magic to her soul so no one could steal or control it seemed to be the best, and only, option to keep her and everyone else safe. Sure, she'd have to go to Nye or some other probably unsavoury people, but she was willing to do it. Her brothers had also told her Nye was harmless when threatened, so it wasn't that bad of an obstacle.
She just didn't want to have a fight about it. She wanted to have a lie-down, a big dinner and maybe a movie or just snuggle in bed with Nadia. Though, Nadia didn't seem like she wanted to cuddle when she refused to hold Valkyrie's hand.
They were home quicker than Valkyrie expected, and she excused herself to the bathroom to wash before anything could be said. Tanith, Laila and Myra were there but it was otherwise perfectly silent.
Luckily for her, the bathroom was perfectly clean and fully stocked with all sorts of goodies so all she needed to do was fill the bath with steaming hot water, create some bubbles and get herself in. There were even some vanilla flavoured bath salts. Valkyrie took her sweet, sweet time, letting her muscles relax after her hard work out. She thought carefully about how the session had gone in terms of controlling her magic and was certain she already had a better grip of it but was also tired enough that soon she was just lying there enjoying the heat.
When she heard voices downstairs indicating her brothers, including Erskine and Saile, were back at the house, she pulled the plug, wiped the bubbles from her body and dried herself off, not incredibly worried over if she would need a second bath later because of her wasting time and not properly washing.
She was ready and down just in time for Tanith to stop feeding Laila. She grinned at her godchild and Laila stared at her, only a month and two weeks old but starting to get the grip of copying people's facial expressions. She squealed adorably and kicked her little legs when Valkyrie took her from her mother. She sat on the floor as there were no other spaces and burped the baby as she spoke to her softly. The others had chosen to cook a mix of foods for dinner rather than work out a meal and had decided that Myra, Anton and Dexter would cook since they were most keen to do so. First, though, came the talk.
"Guys, could you give us a little while? We need a family moment," Saracen told Myra, Fletcher and Saila. Aurora had already left for her own home. They did that, going to the kitchen to look over what they could have to snack on, and then all eyes were on Valkyrie.
"This isn't really your choice," she told them quietly, bouncing Laila. She had grown a lot of hair now and Valkyrie smoothed it down.
"You cannot think that we are going to let you simply walk to that monster–" Solomon whispered furiously.
Valkyrie interrupted him. "You don't have to do anything, and I would not simply 'walk', this is a serious thing we're talking about," Valkyrie said, keeping her voice light. They didn't say what they were referring too. Talking about a highly illegal procedure to do with highly dangerous magic potentially involving a highly dangerous war criminal was not a good idea in a house they barely knew with people they didn't want to know about it within its walls. "I would make sure I was safe, and you guys would be around to make sure I was. I know there are long term risks involved but this could be what saves a lot of people. You know that Solomon."
"Of course I do!" He snapped. He took a deep breath and put his head in his hands.
"The side-effects are very serious Valkyrie," Saracen said solemnly. "It will mean you and Nadia never have children of your own."
Valkyrie swallowed thickly and looked at Laila in her arms. Laila looked at her, dribbling on her chin and massive eyes on her. Even trying to think about Tanith's difficult pregnancy and how hard the birth had been, all the gross fluids that had been involved and all the messy nappies since didn't stop her heart from pounding painfully at the idea of never having her own children. She wasn't a little kid thinking about all the too many babies her extended Edgley family had, or that she would be happy with cousins and nieces and nephews. She was almost a grown adult. With the prospect of a family of her own, something only possible biologically because of magic. And if she did this, she would never get to do that.
She nodded anyway. "It's the right thing to do. They could kill millions of people if I don't. Not having children might be the price of it, but I can't not do it." Nadia stood up and walked out of the room silently and Valkyrie let her go, wiping Laila's chin. They were quiet for a long time. "I'm sorry that upsets you all, but I won't let people die because of me."
"Valkyrie," Dexter said sadly, pulling her attention to him. "You really don't have to do this. There are other ways. We could stop the Spiders before anything ever happens after all."
"I know that. But it's the risk that's holding me back. I have to make sure no one can use me to kill other people. I mean, this is on the same wave as revealing your own True Name or something stupid like that. You just don't do it. We already know The Torment want's to destroy the Dead Men and even if we win they're going to make sure they hurt us as much as they can when we take them down, and revealing I have, most likely, Pure Magic is a pretty big thing to us. It's too risky. I have to do this. End of."
They looked at her closely and she looked back, pleading with her eyes for them to listen and agree. It was hard to know what they thought in the end, but they nodded and Anton and Dexter left to help with the food, Laila fell asleep and the television was put on a sports channel. It was like the conversation never happened, yet they were all tense.
Taking a deep breath, Valkyrie knew there was something more to do before dinner time. Carefully, she smiled at Tanith, who smiled back as supportively as an upset sister could, and she went up to their bedroom with Laila. Nadia was lying on the bed furthest from the door. Valkyrie put Laila in the small bassinet at the end of the other bed and went to Nadia, sitting on the edge of the bed and putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Nadia?" She whispered, not wanting to wake her niece. "Will you talk to me?"
Nadia did nothing.
"Baby? I love you, please don't ignore me," Valkyrie tried again. "I know you're upset with my decision but please don't do this."
"I wanted a baby," she sniffled and Valkyrie's heart stuttered. Tears came to her eyes. "We can't have babies now."
"Sweetie, no, there will be ways around this," she whispered, trying to keep the tears out of her voice. She lay down and spooned Nadia. "Think, if I can't have a baby then you could. I'll still have eggs, even if my magic won't let me, you know, carry a baby in my body."
Nadia turned over to face Valkyrie.
"It'll be okay, right?" Valkyrie smiled, a tear falling to the pillow. "We'll turn one of your eggs and turn it into a spermie with magic, and then get on of mine and they'll make it put them together in a test tube and put the embryo into you and we'll still get to have a baby. Or maybe they'll turn my egg into the spermie, I don't know how it works. Then we can have a baby, right?"
Nadia shook her head, sighing heavily. "No Val. I've learnt about this before. It'll destroy everything. All your eggs will be destroyed during the procedure. And because your magic is sealed, you can never make more with your magic, though you are right that it will mean you can't have a baby in your body without your magic rejecting it. The magic works by refusing for anything to leave you, in a way, including passing on your genes. The side effects weren't reported by Nye when it was created and it was a procedure done to a lot of people without them knowing what it did, that's why it's outlawed. It would make you utterly sterile. Even if I was wrong and you still had eggs, women run out of eggs eventually and you won't be able to create more, and we won't want to have kids until after that time, so it won't matter. We'll never have babies Val. I wanted babies."
Valkyrie's heart shattered as Nadia broke down in her arms. She swallowed thickly and held her tightly, not sure how to get around the problem. Magic could do so much, but it was also so restrictive. She cried too, their tears mixing.
An hour must have gone by and they were both still lying there, blotchy-faced and worn out. They had spoken but only to ask how each other was and to reassure the other that they loved them and that the ritual was the only safe way to keep her magic from creating a super-monster. It was decided. But also so, so sad.
There was a knock on their door and then it opened. Valkyrie sat up, wiping her face. Nadia didn't move, still emotionally wreaked with the idea of never having what she wanted. It was Anton and Tanith who came in, smiling gently.
"Hey," Valkyrie croaked.
"Hey," Tanith whispered, sitting on the bed and hugging Valkyrie tightly. "How are you two doing?"
She shrugged and looked at the ground. "Fine, I guess."
"Yeah, I don't believe you," she said and Valkyrie looked at her. She was still smiling.
"What is it?" She frowned.
"Me and Anton were talking and we think we worked something out for you two," she grinned, her eyes sparkling. Even Nadia sat up to hear. "We realised that we weren't thinking about another option that you two could do. A mortal idea."
"What do you mean?" Nadia asked.
Anton continued. "It is taught by mages that we have children in a variety of ways, including turning one woman's eggs into sperm, in the case of same-sex relationships like your own. We can also take large portions of magic and turn them into the appropriate cells for creating children. These two measures are the best, and most widely used, ways of contraception that mages know of, outside of heterosexual contraception methods."
"But there's another one we never use," Tanith continued. "Because we use those two, we don't need anything else."
"Yes," Anton said in his deep, soothingly calm voice. He was even smiling slightly. "Mortals have also come up with alternate ways of having children that mages never have to use. Such as freezing eggs."
Valkyrie gasped so loudly she thought she would wake Laila. She flapped her arms around and stood up in excitement. "I didn't even think of that!"
"We know," Tanith grinned. "That's why we came and told you."
"Oh my god, this is the answer!" Valkyrie squealed and hugged her brother and sister tightly so they'd know how grateful she was. "Nadia, do you know what this means?"
"No, not really," she said, frowning. It took a moment for Valkyrie to remember that, although Nadia had a mostly mortal education, she was not mortal by any means. She didn't know what freezing eggs meant.
"Nadia, mortals can take eggs, and sperm, and freeze them to keep for years so that it can be defrosted later and used in test tubes to create children. We could take my eggs, have them frozen and keep them for as long as we want before we have children for our own later!"
"Really?" Nadia asked, beginning to crying again.
It was a wonderfully happy moment, and they were reconciled within moments with the knowledge that their plans for the future wouldn't be ruined by a stupid Necromancy object and some idiots wanting more power. Her sister and brothers were obviously still frightened at the prospect of her going anywhere near Nye or going through a life altering ritual so young, but they were happy that they had at least sorted out the baby issue before it had caused any real issues.
Laila was woken up in all the excitement but no one cared. They grabbed her and after washing their faces, went down to eat and talk about Sanctuary business.
It was a good thing this was fixed quickly, too. Soon after dinner, she went to sleep. In four hours, she was leaving for her first American mission.
I know, I know, I should have left it and drawn it out! That was my intention! They were meant to not work that out for ages but then I was writing it and I got so sad and I couldn't do it to them! I put them through so much shit, they deserved this at least.
Remus Cyka Crux: I have written the conversation you wish to read already, so do not despair! It just had to be written when it came naturally like it would in real life. I may cover it again after that but we'll see, I might allow Val to live never thinking of him again, it'll depend on how I feel. And Val is only a gay disaster because I am a gay disaster. Any chapter that has any mention of Val looking at girls, thinking of girls or even being a girl is me projecting my gayness on the screen. And yes this American section shall be... interesting. You'll hate the next fifteen chapters, and then love the next five-ish. After that, I haven't planned much. I want to write about going to Walmart, the internet has shown me how diverse a place it is. We do not have that in England! I have a section planned just for the magic, reason we haven't gone into it is because Valkyrie can't do much without understanding except blast it at people's face. I don't think I'll be putting in any of what happens in Bedlam (have you got it yet? I won't spoil it more). But the shooty sparky bit can stay I guess. I just imagine it like Dexters, a stream of energy, except hers is different in colour and much wider beams, and way stronger because fuck yes.