Valkyrie Black

Chapter 1: The Office

Dear Reader, This tale is told from the POV of Valkyrie Black. Many concepts are mentioned that maybe new concepts to you, might seem vague, or unique to her world. You will discover them as she discovers them. Please know that it is my intention to explore the world in detail but only as Valkyrie learns about it. Strap in, it's a wild ride.

This is set in a fantasy world not too different from our own. Think 1900's and steampunk. Swords are still common place, daggers are a primary for most criminals, but pistols and other weapons are starting to become available. Horse and carriage is the standard mode of transport but here at the turn of the century, new travel such as cars and airships and novel concepts are becoming available but may not be exactly common place just yet. 

I promise you this, while there is some needed set up, once chapter 25 comes, and she sets off on her adventure, it is action-packed and edge of your seat the whole way through. Deadly adventure await you, should you dare to embark on this journey. 

25 chapters are FREE to read and I hope you are as enthralled with this tale as I was while writing it.

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Chapter 1: The Office

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Valkyrie, Age 5

After having escaped the supervision of the secretary, the fearless curiosity of five-year-old Valkyrie Black had her off on an adventure.

Exploring the halls of her father’s office building, Val loved the maze of unknown desks and offices, and the excitement of avoiding being caught by various staff. Peeking around another corner, she finally spotted the target of her hunt at the far end of the hall.

Her father stood inside a glass-walled conference room deep in conversation with someone in what Val considered a fancy suit. The man was unfamiliar to her and had short-cropped hair that seemed to shine in the light coming through the open window.

Her father towered over the other man and she wondered what they were talking about. The shorter guy was still tall. Taller than her mother Celeana.

Val wandered over to the door, being careful to avoid notice from anyone else in the office, and eased it open just a crack. She could see her father’s back but his broad shoulders blocked her view of the other man.

“Gregor, your wife has failed to produce a male heir and also not gotten us any closer to finding the sentience. We agreed to let you marry her because she represented a chance to get inside the order. She is not even silver blood. At least the old woman is helping advance our research.”

Her father seemed to tense at the man’s accusations. Val had never seen her father take a verbal assault so passively. The man before him must be someone important. But who could he be to talk to her father like that?

Gregor Black was the one with the biggest office at Dreadnaught Corporation and didn’t answer to anyone… right? Val had never seen her father let anyone talk to him like this.

Val hid along the frame of the door, her slender body barely wider than the thick frame.

“How goes the experiences?” Gregor asked.

“Don’t sidestep the issue at hand.”

“Answer me. Remember who funds your little project. Few others can stomach the idea of bone marrow transplants with one of those,” Gregor growled in his deep bass voice, keeping his tone just above a whisper.

Val’s keen ears hardly caught the next words, but they made no sense to her young mind.

“Slow. The shadows can be contained but the cage is still hard to deal with. We had to resort to a box lined with Hassium and sandwich that between walls of Osmium."

"We electrified the inner walls and have a sheet of water surrounding the whole thing. It’s the best we can manage to contain the entity. We have her blood circulating through the walls and that seems to be the best solution.”

“And the old lady?” Gregor asked.

“Her silver blood allowed us to contain the being but harnessing energy from it is slow. Without the sentience… I am not sure we will ever know the true potential. For now, we are harnessing a minimal trickle from its natural power bleed. If the Sentience could be found, we could harness their energy and generate enough to power the world.”

Gregor scoffed, “You have been selling me that snake oil for years. What about Val?”

“Despite our tests, she only possesses the markers. She clearly is not a silverblood, but she has similar markers to the old lady’s DNA. Sadly she still did not create the link needed. She might be a viable host if we find the stolen artifact, but for now, she just represents another failure. Perhaps if you remarry, we can find a better match from within the Brotherhood.”

“And what would happen to Val and her mother? I cannot just remarry and toss out my own child. What kind of man would that make me?”

“The brotherhood would see to them. Celeana has served her purpose and is a proven failure. Every male she bore died in the womb.”

“And my daughter? She is already showing to be highly intelligent, surely that means-”

The prior cut him off, “She is unnecessary to the future of the Brotherhood’s plans. She can be dealt with the same way. If you chose to ignore our suggestions, we have more forceful means.”

“Remember whom you speak to, Prior. You may be one of the top scientists but I am a brotherhood elder. Besides that, I am one of the few who has deep enough pockets or a strong enough stomach to fund your more diabolical experiments. Piss me off, and your funding will quickly find better uses,” Gregor growled.

“Val? What are you doing out here?” Came the voice of her father’s manservant. Reginald scooped her up, closing the door she had been listening at and carried her down the hall to her father’s private office.

Val liked Reginald. He had always been kind and respectful to her. While she never spoke to him, she beamed up at him with a bright smile as he set her down. When he tried to pat her head, she ran to hide behind her father’s desk, her silvery hair streaming out behind her.

“What are you hiding for? Well, in any case, your father will be back soon.” He said, straitening his long royal blue uniform coat. Val loved playing with his wide silver buttons but got in trouble if she tugged too hard on them.

What Val was not prepared for was Reginald coming back an hour later with her mother Celeana. Her mother was beautiful with her long braided silver-blonde hair that fell around her brown robes.

“I am sorry miss. The master has spoken. I hope it is in jest but, for now, I must follow my orders.” Reginald said.

Celeana held out her arms and Val ran to her mother, confused by her damp cheeks.

“We have to go, my sweet baby girl. It’s not safe for us anymore,” her mother said softly in her ear as she picked Val up and followed Reginald out into the hall and down a long flight of stairs.

Reginald opened a carriage door, allowing Celeana to lift Valkyrie into the carriage before finding her own seat. He then clambered up onto the driver’s bench and slapped the reigns. He drove the carriage toward the far end of town.

As the scenery flew past the window, Val watched as they passed out of the business district and along residential streets with huge homes. The farther they went, the smaller the homes looked and the buildings looked older and less cared for. Soon they came to the seashore and Val was thrilled at the chance to run along the beach with her mother.

However, as she watched, she realized it wasn't the shoreline she was familiar with. There were no white sands of children playing with their families. Instead, they were near the docks.

Large warehouses with rusted metal sides blocked the view of the ocean and large steam-powered ships belched black smoke into the air. Huge factories lined the road with dirt-covered workers coming in and out in a steady stream like worker bees tending their honey.

Reginald pulled into a side alley and opened their door. “I am sorry miss. I am just following orders. The best I can do is this.” He slipped her mom a leather pouch and clinked as Celeana grasped it.

“I understand Reginald. Do what you can. Talk some sense into him.” her mother said softly, giving Reginald’s shoulder a squeeze as she took Val’s hand and stepped to the side of the street.

Reginald drove away then, leaving them standing between two metal buildings.

“Mama, where’s daddy?”

“Oh, sweet one. Come here.” Celeana pulled Val into an embrace and lowered herself to the ground, her back sliding down the metal siding.

“Dad… is not going to be around for a while.”

“Then can we go home? I miss Cook. It’s time for snacks.”

Tears came to her mother’s face and Celeana tried to dab them away and she looked into Val’s eyes. Val couldn’t understand why her mother was crying.

“I am afraid that is not an option, Val. Cook will remain with daddy for now.”

“Is daddy angry with us?”

“Us? No, my sweet one. He is not mad with you.” Her mother let out a heavy sigh,” With me? I am afraid I have let him down.”

Val looked at her mother as storm clouds gathered overhead. A crack of thunder jolted Celeana into action.

“Quick, Val! let’s find some boxes.” Her mother grabbed her hand and led her deeper into the alley where they found a large pile of boxes that had been tossed out.

Celeana looked hard at the boxes, “These will have to do. Remember when we built blanket forts?”

Val nodded, a small smile lighting her face at the memory.

“This will have to be the best fort we have ever built. Ready?” Her mother found several discarded pallets and began setting up walls and a roof, while Val struggled to drag cardboard over for their fort.

The first drops of rain splashed down as Celeana pulled a few of the boxes across the entrance of their makeshift home and cuddled Val close to her chest.

“Mama, I want to go home. I miss Callie,” Val said, remembering her favorite pet cat, a large, fluffy, smoky gray tabby with black swirls down his coat. Callie would always cuddle on her bed next to her feet during storms and snuggle in for a nap any time Val was still enough to rest against.

“Maybe Reginald can talk some sense into your father. Perhaps his heart is not as cold as I fear,” Celeana said, running a hand along her braid to tame some of the escaped strands.

Val fell asleep in her mother’s arms, cold and damp as the storm raged overhead.

*** Gregor Black***

Gregor glared at Reginald. “You did what?”

“I did as I was ordered. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“That was my daughter, and Celeana!”

“The orders simply stated to remove them from the board, I was not given a clear termination order. Thus I did what I could to mitigate things. I gave her what coin I had, and got them out of the city. If the Brotherhood goes looking to settle things in a more permanent fashion, they will have a hard time finding them.”

“Reginald, had you given me time to act I could have sent them to live across the sea, given them guarded passage, and funding for several years. Now my daughter is on the street in THAT!” He pointed to the storm-racked window as rain and small bits of hail lashed the glass.

“Ah, yes, well. I suppose I should have checked the weather. But if I had waited, the Prior would have summoned a squad. It would have been swift. You know how they are.”

Gregor towered over his manservant before his fist connected with the man’s jaw in a powerful left hook. Reginald collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

“Now then, the next time you act without permission from me, you will not wake up from that. You are supposed to be my man, not the brotherhoods. STEVIC!” he called.

A black-clad behemoth of a man stepped into the room. “Sir.”

“Clean this up and send him to the Prior. Pin a note to his shirt that says, ‘I don’t abide traitors.’”

“As you command.”

Ah Stevic, the stoic guard. Loyal to a fault. Gregor could appreciate the man’s simple-minded purpose. He never questioned, just did. A perfect machine made of meat. If only Reginald had been as loyal.

Gregor supposed what the man had done was out of some twisted loyalty to Celeana. She had been a priestess after all. It had taken years to find a way into their order.

While marrying Celeana had been a means to an end at first, Gregor knew he had chosen her for more than just infiltrating their inner sanctum.

Had she possessed another of the artifacts, that sentience he had been chasing for nearly twenty years, and his father before him for over forty, she might have been worth preserving.

Now it seemed that not only had she not had one for him to test, but the one he had finally found had been stolen. He had to admit that Reginald’s actions had freed him to pursue other, more worthy companions.

Celeana was decent enough in bed, Gregor supposed, but he needed someone who could match him intellectually and by the ancients, produce a god's damned son to pass this place too. Celeana has lost five male children during labor.

Valkyrie had been her third child, and the only one to survive. Valkyrie was a fitting name, Gregor supposed. The one who chose to live instead of dying like the rest.

The thought of his only child out on the streets instead of in their mansion twisted his stomach. He sighed as he collapsed back into his desk chair.

“Perhaps Reginald was right. This way I can truthfully claim no knowledge of their whereabouts. Perhaps in a day or two, I can call in the constable and his men to look for her. claim she ran away with Val or something.