The Cliffhanger from Valkyrie Darkness Awaits the Novel.. :P

The Cliffhanger from Valkyrie Darkness Awaits..thank you so much Mara for helping me with this... :P

Before dawn, Gil stood on the battlements of Rihmsjalier looking south towards an area blotted out from the sky. The cold wind stirred in his cloak and the chills ran through him, but he did not care. What he’d just been told, what he was expected to believe… Mist walked up behind him, wrapping her arm around his waist. “She waits for you.” “I bet she does. What other surprises does she hold?” He sighed, thinking of her words, her hopes and dreams for her people. ‘We were once a peaceful people, forced to leave our homes, our hopes and dreams for the future behind us. We found a new home, made a new life for ourselves. Our cities grew, filling with children who would one day explore what this new Verse had to offer; I just never expected one of my own to find the darkness hiding in the shadows.’ “She admits to covering up the truth and pussy foots around it in such a way, I don’t know if she’s answering me or telling me a story.” He shook his head. ‘It is true, she was one of us, but her fall into darkness would mean the same for others had we not done what we did.’ Then there was the ‘we’ business. What had they done? Who were they? Gil wanted to find out more than anything, but holding his composure as the Great Lady Ashlyn worked her words, twisting them into a tale for children, was a feat even he was afraid to attempt. ‘To preserve what was…’ “I told you, she speaks in riddles, my love, but in those riddles, there is truth.” “What sort of truth did you pick out of all that?” “She is my sister, but something terrible happened and a need to forget, arose.” Mist smiled, as if having her memory wiped meant nothing at all to her. “It means you all have been living in a dream, Mist!” He grumbled. “A bloody dream, and the nightmare is about to invade.” “If we want to know more, we must ask the right questions.” Mist grinned. “The right questions? I asked who Malice was, and where she’d come from. It doesn’t get more direct than that.” “And she told you…‘Born of my womb, life was simpler then. It was easy to fall back into the routines and traditions of what had been…’ Born of my womb, Gil, Malice is most definitely my sister.” “Then what happened to her?” “That is what we must find out.” Mist smiled again and kissed him on the cheek. “Come, she waits for you.” If he had his way, she would be waiting forever. He had no time for her riddles. No time for her lies, but he followed his love none the less. “Ah, you have returned. May we now continue on with the lessons?” Ashlyn inquired, sitting back in a chair as Freya braided her hair for her. Those long, dark-chocolate locks, were being woven about links of chain, just like Freya’s. Her piercing green eyes, diving deep into his own, as if searching his mind for information. There was nothing in there though, save for a million more questions, and yet this time, he a want like no other. She would answer him, here and now. He would learn the secret of Malice, if only to find a weakness to bring her to heel. “Your cause is just, Gil Swanson, but there is more to every battle than meets the eye.” She told him and he fought the urge to claw at her face. “I agree, but without the proper information, those who sit and strategize only waste their time.” Gil replied. “The at of war is not mastered overnight. On must anticipate all of their opponents moves.” Ashlyn countered, but Gil held his ground. “It is foolish to assume, when the truth sits before you, pampered and pretty upon a bloody pedestal.” That caught her attention and her eyes narrowed. “It is foolish to assume you understand a thing, when you clearly, do not!” “Assumption is all we are left with when the secrets are so many and the answer are too few.” “And when the answers bear only heart-ache and suffering? Would you subject an entire race to the horrors of reality, when you knew how deeply it would scar them?” She inquired, hanging her head with a sigh. “Would you thrust upon them, the error of your ways, knowing you could keep them innocent to the destructive nature of an enemy?” “Pardon my saying, but you are not a God.” He shook his head, then look to Freya. “And neither are you. So, let’s stop pretending here and deal with this situation.” The room was silent, not even Rob dared speak. Gil wasn’t surprised, being as he’d just called out Miss. High’n’Mighty and her little dog too for being fake as all hell. “Look, no one beyond this room needs to know, but I do. Mist does. Sif, Robert, Jack, Senna… These people fight for you, they command armies for you.” “They have no idea what waits for them in the shadows…” “So you blind them even further?” Gil’s voice grew louder. “What did you want me to do, let them all live in fear that they too could fall victim to the darkness and that the Gods themselves could not protect them because…” She stopped short, anger rising within her making it hard to concentrate. “It was not supposed to be this way.” She finished, shaking her head. “They were to live peacefully, and they did, at first.” “Seal the room!” Freya commanded and Jack was the first to hold his hand up and produce an eerie blue orb that hit the door as spread out across the walls. Gil stood back as the aura surrounded them all, eyeing Mist who in turn, eyed her mother. “What are you doing?” She inquired, her eyes wide as saucers. “If we are to do this, let no other bear witness and hold it against us!” Freya replied, moving to stand beside Ashlyn, and a moment later, her figure disappeared and a ball of light remained in her place. ‘I am, but energy taken form!’ Freya’s voice filled his mind, then she returned to the form he’d seen before. “What you see now, is what I wish for others to see.” “Holy shit!” Gil muttered as she approached, setting a hand upon his arm… ‘Long ago, my people were ravaged by a race so vile, it left our Verse in peril and thousands under the rule of their so-called Regime. For hundreds of years we served them, harvesting what they needed to survive, until one day we awoke with a new purpose, a new hope to regain what had once been; and we rebelled. We fought hard alongside the last of those strong enough to fight, but in the end, the enemy was too great. Our Verse was no longer safe, so we set out to find another to call home. Six fell through the first rift, though one died in attempts to close it, and many more found rifts in other locations, making homes on worlds across many galaxies. We thought we’d finally be free, our gifts and abilities making it easy to slip into the roles of the deities that already existed on those worlds…’ As her voice carried on in his mind, Gil bore witness to a thousand years’ worth of knowledge, in a matter of seconds. ‘We wanted to live in peace with the people, we wanted the to evolve naturally, the way our own Verse was meant to, but with one, minor addition; the Valkyrie. You see, there were no Valkyrie in this Verse. Their kind, were specific to one planet, and one planet alone. There was no place to call their own, and so we created one, on the planet known as Vash. Asgard was rebuilt, the bi-frost reconstructed, and the Valkyrie lived in peace with the Elves and Humans that already existed. Over time, histories were written and legends filled the minds of children everywhere. It was like Valkyr had been reborn. Our people bore young, the land thrived and all rejoiced, until the darkness that had followed us, crept from its hiding place. It consumed all that it touched, inciting hate and turning friend into foe. It cared not in its choosing, taking father and son, mother and daughter alike. It stole the innocence from a proud people and sent terror into the thoughts of thousands. There was nothing we could do, not even when one of our own had fallen so deep into their grasp, it was like we no loner knew who she was…’ Freya let go of Gil and left him to his Valkyries. Horror ridden, he turned to Ashlyn, having seen the heart ache and felt her suffering. “We had already lost her, there was no choice but to erase her from all thought and preserve what was left.” Ashlyn hung her head. “To let our people live in such fear…” “What did you do?” It was Mist who asked, not Gil, though he stood by her side as she searched out her answers. “What happened to my sister?” “I do not know what happened to Malice. No one does, save to say her love for a male left her weakened.” Ashlyn sighed. “She loved him and he was taken from her. She vowed to make things right, even joined a guild of assassins to help her cause.” “Why do I not remember any of this?” “You too, were part of this guild, Mist!” Ashlyn eyed her daughter. “A challenge you both had called it, but it was something deeper for your sister. You met many friends, some of which are with you now, but there were others…” “One of them took her from us, didn’t they?” Mist inquired. “Her name was Marena!” Gil piped in, remembering the vision he’d seen through her eyes. “That, we did not know!” Ashlyn smiled at him, taking a seat in her chair once more. “We knew she had found a new love, one that kept her far from our sights and when word reached us of the darkness spreading across the land, we wept to see her at the head of it all.” “Whatever magic they used to subdue her, it held her at bay long enough for them to Host her.” Freya shook her head. “And we knew, after that first battle, that she was one of them.” “What are they? What is a Host?” “A slug!” Ashlyn replied in disgust. “It controls her now, would have controlled Mist too, if not for Belvaya.” “Who is Belvaya?” Mist let out. “An old friend. One I have not seen in many, many years.” Ashlyn sighed. “She managed to save one of my daughters and has beaten herself up over the loss of the other, ever since.” “Why erase our memories? Why not let us fight and get her back?” Mist asked her mother, the lost look in her eyes making Gil squirm. He did not like to see her like this. He didn’t like seeing any of them like this. Deer in headlights, waiting in fear of what would happen next. “You wanted so much to rescue her, you tried everything to bring her back, but in the end you were so lost without her, we feared that soon enough, the hate inside you were make it easier for them to subdue you too!” Freya shook her head. “There were less than a thousand of us left, Mist, all of them in the same state as you were, or close to it. When Malice’s masters had tired of our realm, they moved on to others and we chose to hide what was left and ensure the safety of our people.” “By removing Malice from memory, we erased the fear. Our people grew, our civilization rekindled.” “How long has it been?” Mist closed her eyes and asked through gritted teeth. “How long, have we been ignorant to the truth?” “Five thousand years, three months, two weeks and three days.” Ashlyn let out. “And none of them, have been easy. Only a handful of people remember what happened that day, and we were all in agreement to keep it a secret. We couldn’t risk it happening again, should the darkness ever return.” “Well, guess what, it has returned.” Rob spoke up, shaking his head. “And it has based itself inside Ghost Mountain!” Ashlyn nodded. “Which I hear, you have already made plans to infiltrate?” “I have!” Gil replied with a nod of his own. “Though, I thought to be rescuing Gods and vanquishing a Demon, not rescuing aliens and bringing a Valkyrie back from the brink of insanity!” “Aliens. Gods. Whatever you wish to call them, they are as important to the people now, as the day they arrived and assumed the mantle. The culture and traditions of the Valkyrie and those who live among them will live on, if you help us secure them.” “I’ll need a moment.” “Please, think about all we have said and try to see the reasons behind our actions.” Freya pleaded with him. “Oh, I’ll be thinking about it, and the broken gate and the twisted Einherjar and the supply line…” He muttered throwing his hands up in the air. “I need a drink!” He added and made for the door. He kept walking, up one set of stairs, out across the battlement and down another, ignoring all who passed him by. This was a lot of information to take in, and it didn’t help that it had been given to him in a million bits and pieces and sugar coated in a hefty layer of crazy. In a hall that looked like all the others, Gil passed a mirror with a hazed glare upon its surface. He stopped and stared into it, eyeing the swirls, and the eyes that stared back at him. So dark and sinister, narrowing as the smile came in to view. ‘Hello, Gil!’ Her voice bit into his mind and Gil hit the floor running. “Hide the bloody mirrors!” He shouted, all the way back to the great hall. “She’s using the bloody mirrors!”

To Be Contnued..Buhhahaha!