Chapter 6 - Valhalla
Bo was sinking.
Into the bone chilling water, she sank.
Into the dark bottomless abyss, she sank.
Through the water, she saw the flickering sun above her, together with the vague blue sky.
She saw a stream of blood, her own blood, escaping her body. Like a soul leaving its dying host, the blood left her and quickly disappeared into the water.
There was a blade lodged in her lower left abdomen. She just couldn't remember when or how or why she had been stabbed.
She couldn't remember who stabbed her either.
The cold and the pain overwhelmed her, but strangely, that excruciating pain didn't come from her wound - the bitter coldness had already masked that.
The intense pain was coming from inside her. Something inside her was broken and shattered.
She closed her eyes briefly in despair, giving in to that agony.
When she opened them again, she had magically landed at the bottom of the water.
Weirdly enough, the bottom was dry and barren.
Her pain was completely gone, and so was her wound.
She could breathe and walk again.
And she wandered absentmindedly, until she discovered a cellar door between two large rocks.
The cellar door was rusty. It was locked and chained.
Bo gulped slightly as she stared at the cellar door - and at the dark void that was behind it.
She thought she knew exactly what might be behind the door, but feared that once she acknowledged its existence, nothing - not even the chained door - would stop it from breaking out.
She told herself that she should step back and stay away from the cellar, but a small part of her whispered that she needed to open that door.
That thing behind that door, it was calling her. It was desperate, lonely and in pain, just like her. It needed her, just like she needed that thing.
A few blinks later, she found herself approaching the cellar door. It was then that she noticed that she no longer had control over her own body.
With both hands, she grabbed the chains and wrestled with them, pulling them away from the door.
The harder she pulled, the tighter the chains got - not just tighter on the door, but around her hands as well.
In horror, she realized that the chains had coiled around her arms like living snakes. They crawled up along the length of her arms and quickly reached her neck.
They looped around her neck and attempted to strangle her.
Bo gasped and struggled. She tried to pull them away but they wouldn't budge.
The harder she pulled, the tighter the chains got. They dug into the inside of her knuckles and ground against her bones. They dug into the flesh of her neck, and they dug deeper and deeper….
That pain was sharp and real. In loud coughs and heavy gasps, Bo woke up from her vivid dream while having her hands scratching on her neck pulling on something that wasn't there.
There was no water, or cellar. She was in her own car dozing off in the passenger seat. The cut on her hands, made by Antares' chain, still hurt like hell.
She pulled herself up a little in the seat as she tried to catch her breath.
Reality slowly sank in: she had encountered the giant scorpion again and killed it with the help from the raven. Antares, an evil agent from an evil organization which was responsible for all those mysterious deaths, died with the scorpion.
She also remembered that…she was not exactly a human. She was an Einheri who possessed special powers. Then, there were Valkyries who possessed similar powers….
As she thought of that, she turned to Tamsin, who was driving, and asked, "how far away are we from…you know?"
Tamsin gave her a smirk while pretending that she was thinking hard. "I'd say about 3 more nightmares away."
Bo huffed weakly and closed her eyes. Right beside her, on top of the driver seat back, the raven stood. He mimicked a high pitched "hahaha" at Bo, and gave Bo a snort when she shot him a glare.
An hour or so later, they had finally arrived at their destination: a large, mixed use community in the suburbs.
As they drove past the front gateway of the community, Bo noticed a metal symbol embedded in the wall. It was three interlocking triangles, and it looked strangely familiar to her.
Where have I seen this? She wondered with a deep frown. It took her a while to remember that maybe a few years ago, she had seen the news about an announcement from the city council. The announcement was about the groundbreaking of the largest-yet multipurpose community right outside the city.
She remembered seeing a concept rendering of the community on the news. This interlocking triangle symbol was seen on nearly every business building in that rendering.
And the community in front of her looked just like that concept rendering: the west side consisted of several business buildings. Then, there was a large park. Next to it was a long strip of street mall with supermarkets, restaurants, clinics and hair salons.
Behind those were apartment complexes, townhomes and single family houses connected by bike trails and walking paths.
On the east side of the community, there was a stadium decorated with the color of gold and red. In front of the stadium entrance, a three interlocking triangle symbol was carved into the pavement.
"So…this is…Valhalla?" Bo muttered.
"What, you thought we'd all hide underground in a bunker or crammed inside a white, futuristic building doing secret stuff or something?" Tamsin teased.
"I mean…I didn't expect it to be so…under broad daylight. What if anyone finds out?"
"Find out about what? That there's a giant ass community here with nice homes and great restaurants?"
"No, what I was saying was…what if anyone finds out about this Einheri/Valkyrie business?" Bo murmured absentmindedly as she stared at a cookie shop in the corner of the street mall. She remembered reading it in one of the magazines in Dr. Smith's clinic, where the article had claimed that this cookie shop was the best in this and surrounding states.
I bet Kenzi would love some double chocolate chip cookies. She thought.
"Sure, I mean, of course, humans are gonna totally freak out when they find out that we are capable of summoning giant, invisible creatures that aren't from this world, right?"
Bo paused. "Right…" she huffed out a sigh and shook her head. "Who would believe any of this, even if we tell them? They'd just think we are insane."
"Besides, it's not like we parade any of this shit in front of humans anyway. Any business related to Einherjar or Valkyries here are guarded and strictly need-to-know."
Bo nodded along. "So…you said I'd get answers here. How?"
"Well, before that-"
Tamsin flipped the passenger side sun visor down and gestured Bo to look at herself in that little mirror there.
Bo almost chuckled when she saw herself having one black eye and two streaks of dried blood under her nose. She also had a big, bruised bump on her forehead, some cuts on the side of her cheeks and a long bruise around her neck.
She looked down at herself - her tank top was almost ripped in half. Her jeans were covered in mud and soaked in blood.
She turned to the blonde and commented, "well you don't exactly look like a pageant queen yourself, okay?"
"Let's at least freshen up a little bit before I take you to places, shall we?" Tamsin suggested as she steered the car towards a gated apartment complex. "Besides, I need a drink."
Tamsin took Bo to a two bedroom two bathroom apartment unit. She tossed a set of clean clothes to Bo, before she went into one of the bathrooms to take a shower.
Bo unfolded the clothes and noticed that both the tshirt and the sweatpants had the three interlocking triangle logo.
She went into the other bathroom and quickly washed herself, before she changed into the clean clothes.
Behind the bathroom mirror, she found a first aid kit in the medicine cabinet and used it to attend to her injuries.
Rejuvenated, she came out and walked into the kitchen. She got herself a bottle of water and while she slowly drank it, she scanned the apartment.
The half open kitchen cabinets were filled with half empty liquor bottles and glasses. The stove was quite clean while the trash can was full of takeout boxes.
The couch in the living room had a pile of clean clothes which looked like they had been dumped right out of a laundry hamper. On top of them there was a throwing dart belt, which she had seen Tamsin wear when she was at the chemistry building the day Laura Davis died.
The coffee table in front of the couch had a closed laptop, a stack of paper, an empty glass and an empty vodka bottle.
Bo was somehow surprised that, despite knowing this must be where Tamsin lived, she couldn't find a single photo, a souvenir, or even a personalized decor. There was absolutely nothing in the apartment that would hold a childhood memory or a family moment. It was as if this was a hotel room and the Valkyrie had just been staying here but was ready to leave at any moment.
Tamsin came out shortly while still drying her hair with a towel. With her wet hair down, and her body still radiating heat from the hot shower, she seemed…quite different. There was almost a hint of vulnerability in her light eyes.
And Bo's heart skipped a beat when she noticed that. At that very moment, that strange feeling struck her again - somehow she felt she had known Tamsin before, long before they had met….
"Has anyone even told you it's rude to stare at people like this?" Tamsin teased while grabbing herself a bottle of liquor.
Bo cleared her throat and turned away. "I thought you took me here for answers."
"Fine, fine," Tamsin grunted and headed out.
Tamsin took Bo to the building in the center of the community first. There, they were greeted by the receptionist at the front desk.
Tamsin leaned over the counter and whispered something to him. He nodded and handed Bo a visitor badge. He then told her to wear it at all times while she was in the building.
Tamsin signed the visitor log for Bo, before she took her to the third floor.
In the corner office on the third floor, Bo met a woman in her late forties, who had sharp eyes and tightly clenched lips. Somehow, this woman reminded Bo of a strict teacher from her high school whom she both feared and respected.
When Bo's eyes met the woman's stare, she straightened her body in reflex.
The woman eyed Bo for a while, before she turned to Tamsin. "New recruit?"
"Not exactly."
"Didn't think so. Purpose of visit?"
"Thought she might benefit from a welcome package or something. Just took down Antares, by the way."
The elder woman nodded slightly as she eyed Bo again. "Has she done her evaluation yet?"
"Not yet, just wanted to drop by first."
The woman gave her a firm and brief nod. Then, she walked to Bo and shook her hand. "Welcome to Valhalla. I'm Acacia."
Before Bo even got a chance to introduce herself, Acacia gave her a polite smile and went to make a phone call.
On their way out, Bo whispered, "what's that evaluation that she mentioned?"
"It evaluates your Einheri power level. It's like your annual doctor's checkup but with more needles," Tamsin said playfully. Shen then escorted Bo out of the building.
Their next stop was a big clinic a few blocks away. It was just like any other clinic that Bo had been to - first ID, forms and signatures, then long wait.
Finally, her name was called. She had her vitals taken and medical history sorted out. After having given some blood samples, Tamsin took her to a dark room.
Bo thought it was for x-ray or maybe an ultrasound, but instead, she was asked to sit down on a chair beside a desk.
The nurse left. A technician came in and put some electrodes along her hair line. He also placed a few on her chest and one on the back of her neck.
He then connected them to a machine that Bo had never seen before. It looked like a laptop, but instead of a keyboard it had rows of knobs, switches and odd size ports.
As the technician flipped the power switch and turned a few knobs, Bo saw a green curve appear on the screen. It fluctuated for a while, before its pattern stabilized. .
Then, she saw a red curve appear. At first, the red curve and the green curve were separate, and each of them had a different pattern. However, after a few seconds, they started to synchronize.
There were a few moments where the curves seemed to have adopted the exact same pattern, but only briefly. Eventually they resumed their initial patterns and stayed that way.
"Well this is strange…" the technician murmured as he immediately turned off the machine.
He mumbled something while checking the position of the knobs and switches.
Bo turned to Tamsin, and noticed that the Valkyrie had a deep frown.
"What's going on?" Bo asked in a whisper.
Tamsin paused for a while before she explained, "this thing is called an ECAM."
"A what?"
"An ECAM, an Einheri Capacity Analysis Machine," Tamsin elaborated. "It measures an Einheri's power level."
"Right, okay, I get that…but why are you two looking like there's something wrong with me?"
"Well…that's because your curves are acting weird."
"How so?"
"Let's just say that…if you were a human, you would only get a green curve. An Einheri, however, whether a mute or not, would have a green curve and a red curve."
"Okay?"
"The curves of a mute would never try to sync. The curves of a real Einheri, on the other hand, would eventually sync and stay that way. Yours are…neither nor."
"Okay!" The technician exclaimed excitedly and interrupted their conversation. "I think I might have configured it wrong. It should work this time. Let's try this again."
Bo shrugged and relaxed herself while letting the technician re-apply those electrodes.
To everyone's surprise, the two lines failed to synchronize again. Just like last time, they tried, but eventually returned to their original patterns.
"Okay, this is not-this isn't working. Maybe there is a system glitch. I wonder if Jerri broke it this morning…. You know what, I'm just gonna go get the manual ECAM. The manual ECAM never fails…" The technician, embarrassed, mumbled along and left the room.
"So…what does this mean?" Bo asked curiously.
"I've no idea, cuz I've never seen curves like yours before," Tamsin replied.
After a brief pause, she rolled her eyes and added, "who knows, maybe the machine just doesn't like you."
Before Bo could come up with a witty comeback, the technician returned with a machine that looked like a computer from the 70s with lots of dials. He connected the electrodes to it and turned the machine on. Then, he put on a pair of headphones that was connected to the machine. While fine tuning the dials, he listened intently and wrote down numbers on a sheet.
The more numbers he wrote down, the more he seemed confused. He crossed off the first set of numbers and tried again, but eventually gave up.
"Okay, this machine is not working either. Something's wrong. These numbers just don't make sense," he concluded, rambling along with terms that Bo couldn't understand.
"Well?" Bo raised her eyebrows at Tamsin.
"Well…I guess we won't know the exact Einheri power level of yours today," Tamsin shrugged. "Not that it matters anyway. Not having your Fylgja-"
"At my age, I'm not that different from humans, yes, I know, Tamsin. You don't have to repeat it over and over."
They bickered and walked out of the room, leaving the technician there still trying to fix his machine.
Tamsin then took Bo to a building where Einherjar training took place to watch the beginner combat training where Einherjar practiced with their spirit companions.
Bo was amazed to see so many creatures - some existed in the real world, others only in legends or myths - roaming around with their Einherjar.
She also felt a little jealous, for she could clearly sense the strong connection those Einherjar had with their spirit companions. It was something that she, too, longed for, but could never have for she was only a mute.
She also noticed that every single Einheri she saw there was young. Most of them looked like they were around fifteen years old. The oldest looked like they were in their late teens, and the youngest might only be nine or ten.
It was then that Bo finally understood why Tamsin had mentioned the age repeatedly. As someone who had never summoned a Fylgja even once and was already approaching 30, she was not one of them.
Nevertheless, she sat there and enjoyed watching those creatures fight each other like it was some sort of live show.
Later, she followed Tamsin to an auditorium and attended a session of Intro to Einherjar, where the lecturer explained to her (and a room full of teenagers) what an Einheri was and how Einherjar got their power.
There, Bo learned that she, like other Einherjar, had an extra brain part just under her cerebellum. It was in charge of producing several Einheri pheromones that would enhance the brain's cognitive function, which would heighten her senses and allow her to see creatures from another world.
The lecturer had a lot of Einheri pheromone related things to talk about. His emphasis was that the different levels of each pheromone would eventually decide if an Einheri could summon their Fylgja. He also spent quite some time talking about the connection between the pheromone level and an Einheri's dawning.
Bo started to doze off while telling herself that none of this would matter to her because according to Tamsin, in a few years she wouldn't be able to see any otherworldly creatures.
She was awakened by loud applause when the lecture ended. In a daze, she stood up and turned to Tamsin, who sat next to her. "What's next?"
"Next would be me escorting your sweet little ass outta here," Tamsin announced. "You should receive the results of your blood work in a few days."
Bo nodded along and followed her out to the building where she had received her visitor badge. Bo returned her badge and received a welcome package from Valhalla.
"Would you like to register with Valhalla today?" The receptionist asked Bo politely.
"Register?" Bo frowned.
"You'd be recognized as one of us. Valhalla would protect you and provide guidance. You would also have access to a lot of resources and facilities here," the guy explained to her. "Of course, you'd have to agree to follow Valhalla's orders and take extensive training here."
"Well…I don't - I mean, I'm not even a real Einheri."
After a brief pause, she added, "besides, I already have a life."
"Okay, I understand," the guy nodded with a smile. "If, however, you change your mind, please give us a call. We are here for you."
"Yeah, sure…" Bo muttered absentmindedly, before she walked out of the building.
On her way out, she flipped through the pamphlet in her welcome package.
Tamsin yanked the pamphlet out of her hands and tucked it back into the folder "Read it after you get home," she drawled.
"Fine," Bo snorted.
"Alright, go," Tamsin waved her hands like she was shooing away a pest.
Bo rolled her eyes at the blonde and left, completely forgetting that maybe she should have exchanged contact information with Tamsin.
Tamsin went back into the building and took the elevator to the 5th floor. She took a deep breath, before she walked down the corridor to the office at the very end.
She knocked the door three times, and the person inside told her to come in.
She entered the office and closed the door behind her. She was greeted with a warm smile from the silver haired woman sitting in the swivel chair.
Beside the woman's chair , there lay her spirit companion - a large golden retriever. The dog lifted her head and gave Tamsin a "I'm a little confused but I'm happy to be here" look.
Tamsin's raven flew to the dog and landed behind her tail. He started to pull the dog's hair off her tail when she wasn't looking. The dog was so content that she just sat there and let him.
The silver haired woman smiled. "Your bird seems…more engaging than normal today, Tamsin."
"Maybe he just had a few too many peanuts or something," Tamsin shrugged and sat down on the couch in front of the woman.
She clasped her hands and placed them between her knees. "So, let's get this over with, shall we?"
Without a reply from the other woman, she lay down on the couch and closed her eyes.
The elder woman's hand fell on her forehead. It was cold, and she shivered.
She smelled incense burning. For some reason, it somehow reminded her of the scent candle at the dead woman's apartment….
She fell into thick, deep darkness in seconds, before suddenly being embraced by bright light.
She opened her eyes, with a slight vertigo. Her vision was a blur of green, white and yellow.
Blanketing the entire land was the green grass. It was adorned with white blossoms of angelica and yellow flowers of rue.
The sunlight sparkled in the dew drop that was about to fall off the tip of the grass. It danced on the surface of the water afar. It painted the snow crested tip of the mountains sparkling white. It was clean, bright and warm. It gave everything life.
Her vision slowly became clearer, but her hearing was still a humming buzz. She could hear something, a sound, or maybe a few syllables, but she couldn't comprehend.
A brief darkness, and then, she felt the flower clusters tickling the side of her cheek.
She was lying down. She was staring into the azure sky. There was a big cloud floating there, and it looked like…something.
She tried to figure out what that something might be, because as she laid her eyes on that shape there was a sudden rush of joy fluttering inside her.
This must be important. She told herself.
However, the cloud soon changed its shape and floated away. Her vision blurred again.
Until, that face appeared.
It wasn't even a whole face. It was just the lower part of it. That face must be very, very close, so close that all she could see was her chin, her jaw line, her lips….
Tamsin wondered why she was certain that it was a woman, but she just knew. She just knew.
Those lips, they pursed slightly, then flattened, then she saw the upper teeth biting slightly into the bottom lip. Then, the lips opened again, while the very tip of the tongue briefly touched the inside of the upper teeth.
She must be saying something to her. She must be singsonging it with her soft voice. It must be a beautiful voice….
The bittersweet scent of the flowers was intoxicating. So was that voice. Tamsin reveled in it.
There was so much joy and peace inside her, so much that she just wanted to stay there forever….
She heard giggles. Was it herself, or the other woman?
She heard a sigh. Was it herself, or the other woman?
She felt pain. Was it her own, or…someone else's?
The darkness returned eventually, enveloping her, shielding her from all the joy and sorrow, blocking her from the things she desperately wanted to remember.
She coughed and gasped as she opened her eyes.
"What did you see this time?" The silver haired woman asked her kindly.
Tamsin pulled herself up and lowered her head. She stared at the floor tiles for a while, before she replied, "nothing new."
The other woman crossed her legs and rested her hands on her knee. "So you saw her again?"
"Yeah."
"Who do you think she might be?"
"How the hell do I know? Do you think I'd still come here every Thursday if I knew who she was?"
"But you agree that this woman in your…vision is important?"
"Well…gee, I don't know, given that her face is pretty much all I see in my vision, I'd say maybe she's kind of important?" Tamsin drawled.
"But, you still didn't see her entire face, or maybe learn her name?"
"No, and no."
"Would you say this vision was exactly the same as all previous ones, or was there anything that was different?"
"There was nothing new," Tamsin grunted. "I passed out. I saw the blue sky, the grassland, blah blah blah. Then, I saw part of her face. Everything was blurry and I could barely hear anything. I passed out again. I woke up and then I still have to answer all these exact same questions for the hundredth time."
"Tamsin, if you could remember who she is, you would probably remember every-"
"Don't you think I know that?" Tamsin interrupted her with a heavy sigh. She combed her hair with her fingers in frustration, before she stood up and announced, "well, good chat. I guess I'll see you next Thursday, Finola."