Valkyrie placed the newly formed spark into a small box and left it in the trunk on her office. A new Spark was no simple matter and was not something you just hand to someone like a trophy. Val understood at a deep level that this was to be a scared thing, and likely one done in private.There was no need to rush it, and Val was not about to announce to everyone at her dinner party that sparks could once again be created and that she had the secret to their making.When she made her way down stairs, the smells from the kitchen made her mouth water. Chef Brown was clearly hard at work. In the formal dining room, Alexa was sitting across from Jonah and Farson, each of whom had a man to either side of them that Valkyrie didn’t recognize.When she entered behind Alexa, the men all stood.“Gentlemen, sit. No need to stand on formalities. Has Captain Talwater arrived?”There was a knock at the door then, and one of the kitchen staff scurried out at answer it. Captain Talwater stepped insid
“That is an interesting idea, I will have to think about that… but no. What you hold in your hand is more valuable than all the casino chips in all of Parcia combined.”Alexa gave her a dubious look. “All? Come now, Valkyrie. This thing is tiny. Your mark on it is cool and all but its still just a metal chuck. What can it possibly have? Maybe a fourth ounce of gold and silver? Maybe worth a hundred dret at most?”“Alexa, what you hold in your hand is the first Spark created in two thousand years,” Valkyrie said reverently.“Spark?” Alexa’s eye’s went wide as she hastily placed the little disk gently back in its box. “Where did you get a spark? Who did you kill for that?”“Alexa, listen to what I said.”Alexa played the words over in her mind again and then whispered, “Made? Val, you truly have the secret to making sparks? Samiel was right?”“It would seem so. I made this one for you.” Valkyrie said. “Its name is Adriel.”“Its name? Sparks have names?”“Yes, Alexa. Haven’t you heard me
~Several Weeks later~ Valkyrie grinned and she circled Alexa in the newly retrofitted training room on the lower level of the guild Estate. Alexa was armored as if she was going to war and her green eyes flashed with bottled rage as she charged at Valkyrie, a dull practice sword whipping over head in a powerful downward chop that could have cleaved a lesser opponent in half. As it was, Val was fast enough to slide to the side, catching the blade on her own sword and deflecting its deadly power just a fraction of an inch to her right. Valkyrie swept her leg and caught Alexa high on her calf, just behind the knee. Alexa lost her balance for only a second before the new strength of her spark was able to reinforce her stance and blunt the effects of the kick. Alexa grunted from the slight pain and slashed her sword back, trying to catch Valkyrie across her neck. Valkyrie loved sparring with Alexa. The woman had always been fast and never held back. It pushed Valkyrie to new limits tha
Valkyrie made her way over to the table, intentionally swaying a bit as she sipped from her rum. She had to actually pause before the chair and look at the glass, before turning back to the bartender and holding up her glass, “That is amazing!”The barkeep inclined his head with a slight smile as Valkyrie took her seat at the poker table.“Shall I deal you in, miss?” the dealer asked.“Whats the game? You might have to explain it to me.”“This is a 100 dret buy in. it might be a bit steep for a beginner. I can direct you to one of the one dret tables if you like,” The deal said apologetically.“No, No. whats a few dret. I am here for a good time and having some real skin in the game will make sure I learn my lessons quick. Just explain it to me and we will see where we end up,” Val said, her words slightly slurring.In truth, liquor of any kind rarely effected her for long. That, coupled with her spark, Val was confident she could beat her own house as well as any one else at the tabl
Valkyrie pointed at the table. “I won a round or two.” Alexa looked at the cards and burst out in laughter, “Don’t tell me you bluffed that guy out of half a million on a pair of twos. Damn woman, I knew you liked to live dangerous but serious? Twos?” “He was an arrogant ass. I was doing him a favor taking that money off him. He would have made other poor decisions with it tonight if I hadn’t removed those means.” Val replied in a mock defensive tone. “well I suppose smashing open the doors with his head was likely a better use of it than he was getting out of it. He did challenge the queen of the underworld after all.” Alexa replied. “So how did you do with your 100 dret? Play anything fun?” “Aside from playing heartstrings, I was a good girl. I only helped others place their bets,” Alexa said. “Helped them place bets?” Val asked curiously. “You know, this spark,” Alexa whispered, “its amazing. I can calculate things so fast now. So, when probability was good, I might have sugg
Valkyrie then remembered her ability to connect with those she marked.{Broadcast Communication.}{All REAPERS in Durres, seek out information and report on anything found. Who set this fire, and where they are presently. Reports due by morning at the guild house.}“that is a rather nifty, yet annoying ability.” Alexa said beside her.“Hu?”“You just broadcast that thought right into my head.” Alexa replied.“Oh, right. I likely could have excluded you from that,” Val said apologetically.“Think they will find anything out?”Val rubbed her face, still feeling the heat from the fire even 100 meters away. “they will find anything that there is to find. But that fire will have destroyed most of the evidence. Come, we will let them minions of the night do what they do best. Tomorrow will be soon enough to start rebuilding.”That night, Valkyrie didn’t sleep well. Her dreams were wrapped in thick smoke as faces of the dead or dying came at her from the depths of her subconscious.How many
That evening, Valkyrie stepped out of her room with her fiery red hair on full display she had opted for a more feminine black dress made from a thin and supple leather instead of her usual armored corset and reinforced pants.It would be strange going into a potentially hostile casino with so little in the way of defense and a lack of weapons. However, she was never truly without weapons. She always had her wrist blade and hidden in her hair was a assortment of small knives, sharpened hair pins and a few vials of various poisons.One that she was most proud of was a small vial with tiny pills in it. Each pill was sigil signed to activate under two conditions. First it had to be in contact with stomach acid and second was a mental command from her to actively release the ingredients. She would likely need to be within a few feet to trigger this, but is was something she could trick Tobi to ingest earlier in the evening and then use it if they happened to have a meeting later in the ev
The enforcer led her to a back room where a man sat in a high backed chair facing the back wall. “Hello, Tobi. You wanted to see me?” “Red hair is not going to hid you from me,” said a familiar voice. “Hold her tight, Grayson. That one is spark blessed too.” Val felt the vice like grip of a spark reinforced hand clamp down on her arms and then wrenched her hands behind her back. TOO? Val thought furiously, trying to understand the situation. The man at the desk spun his chair slowly and the cold eyes of the assassin Darius looked back at her. “You murderous bitch have taken so much from me.” “You were the ones who attacked me first! I never did anything to the assassins guild, yet you continued to hunt me. And for want? A few dret? I could have paid that fee easily had you stopped and asked.” Val was a bit panicked now that she was nearly certain the enforcer behind her was a spark blessed. With his weight and height, he might just be more than she could handle alone. Not to me