How long have I been on this world? Seamus wondered. Over a year, I know. Seamus had awoken in a bed in Valgarde while the city was still under siege with no memories of his previous life other than his name. They had thrust a bow and arrow into his hand and told him to repel invaders. Though he couldn’t remember anything of what he was before he died, he was certain he had never used a bow and arrow before. Somehow he knew how to hold the bow, how far to draw, and how to aim it like a master.

  The marshal knowledge of the valkyrie is passed on to her einherijar, Seamus remembered. Brunhilde was a strong valkyrie, and she was familiar with many different kinds of weapons, but Kara was a master of every kind of weapon.

  The white haired valkyrie knew how to kill with every weapon ever produced. She was the leader of the Valkyrie. Now she’s the only one, the boy thought. All the other valkyrie had died when Valgarde fell. Only Kara and her two einherijar had made it out of the city alive. Seamus had been near the gates of the city when Brunhilde died, and Kara had sensed him fading away. She bound him to her and became the only valkyrie with three einherijar.

  Seamus finished assembling his rifle and looked at the other person in the cave with him. Naru was an Asian woman with short black hair. She was cleaning the hilts of two phaseblades. The weak white light glittered off of the red scale mail she wore. That woman has a thing for red, Seamus thought. Red armor, red beams on her phaseblades… I guess it’s to go with all the blood she spills…

  Naru said in his head.

  Seamus swore under his breath. Einherijar were telepathically linked to their valkyrie and each other. “Sorry.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” she said. “You weren’t wrong.”

  Kara’s authoritative voice filled Seamus’s head.

  they responded in unison.

  Kara sent.

  “A box canyon,” Darren said. “That damnable pass led us to a box canyon.” Vertical cliff faces thousands of feet tall blocked off three sides of the trap they had forced themselves into. The six members of the scouting party put their backs to the far wall and faced the way they had come.

  “I didn’t know where it went,” Caitlyn snapped at him.

  Darren let out a slow breath. “I wasn’t blaming you. I’m just… less than thrilled at how we’ve ended up.”

  An innumerable amount of stone golems formed a wall a few hundred yards away. They weren’t advancing, but they weren’t falling back either. “Looks like we have a standoff,” Darren said.

  Terra shook her head. “No, they were given instructions to hold us here. I think someone is coming to collect us.”

  “What should we do?” Hanna asked, her young voice composed despite the circumstances.

  Caitlyn growled. “Fight tooth and claw when they show up.” Yips and barks echoed through the mountains, and she hissed. “Hellhounds. Inbred dogs, I’ll rip them apart.”

  “Calm down, Caitlyn,” Terra said. “I have a plan.”

  “You’ve had a plan this entire time?” Ell asked.

  “One I’m making up as we go,” Terra said. “I’ll think of something. Just follow my lead.”

  The calls of hellhounds grew louder as the minutes slowly dragged by. Terra had collected a little bit of air and earth magic from what Caitlyn and Hanna had been creating, but it wasn’t enough for anything flashy. Maybe I could create a wall of fire, but I don’t have any of that kind of magic in my core… I’d be exhausted, and if it didn’t work then I would be a weight dragging everyone down.

  Terra scanned through her options while they waited. If we could kill the demon controlling all of the golems, then we would have a chance, but I don’t even see it flying about anymore. We are going to die here. NO! she shouted in her mind. Don’t think like that. You’ll figure something out.

  A few more minutes of frantic thinking passed, and the golems began to step aside. The golden effigy of a hellhound atop some kind of floating barge came around the curve that led into the canyon. The golems cleared the path, and Terra could see the barge was drawn by a team of a hundred red-furred hellions. A male demon stood atop the obsidian and gold barge, and a nude succubus with black, leathery bat wings sprawled out beside him. The smell of sulfur filled the air with the hellhounds’ acrid breath.

  The demon wore black plate armor with spikes and sharp protrusions. His milky white skin made him look almost human, but his solid red eyes belied the demon’s ancestry. The demon caught sight of Terra’s wings and smiled. “Nexus,” he said in High Demonic, “what a pleasure it is to see you this fine day. I am Lord Raziel, the Houndmaster. How might I be of assistance to one of your… sought after power?”

  Terra glared at the Demon Lord. “I just thought I would go for a walk,” she replied in Daein Common. “But it seems I’ve lost my way. I would appreciate it if you could direct me back to this Realm’s gateway arch.”

  Raziel burst into derisive laughter. “What is he saying?” Caitlyn asked.

  “He’s just playing with his food,” Terra said. “Don’t do anything until I do.” A high pitched squeal made the Nexus wince, and she saw double for a moment. When her vision cleared, Raziel was studying her curiously, and Terra saw a black tendril of energy connecting each of the golems to the succubus. There you are. The black tendrils faded away along with the ringing in her ears.

  “You are indeed lost, Nexus,” Raziel said. “This Realm has fallen. There are none here that would fight your good fight. I will gladly escort you to my Obsidian Tower so I can more properly receive you. I have even come unarmed as a gesture of goodwill.”

  “How polite of you,” Terra responded. “But, I feel that I must decline your invitation. The hospitality of demons is something I’ve come to look at sideways.”

  Raziel shrugged and turned his back to Terra. He knelt next to the succubus and stroked her jaw. Terra saw her opportunity and scooped a few pebbles from the ground and launched them with a powerful blast of air. The stones hit an invisible barrier that encapsulated the floating barge and bounced off. A shimmer of light pulsed along the barge.

  Raziel looked over his shoulder at Terra. “Isn’t Fyrian technology amazing, Nexus? I think so. This is called a force field or some such drivel. It repulses anything that attempts to cross at too high a speed. It also unravels any magic that pierces the barrier. I am unarmed, but I am also invincible as far as you are concerned.”

  Brahm shifted his weight as if he was going to leap at the Demon Lord, but Terra held him back with a hand. “It’s all just talk right now.”

  “Oh, does your dwarf want to try his hand against me, Nexus?” Raziel chided. “I have been drinking deep from the extraction chamber here on Caine, and I am certain I could rip him limb from limb, even with his magical armor.”

  “He’s as strong as Azreal was on Dae. Don’t try anything,” Terra said to Brahm. Terra looked back at Raziel. She wasn’t sure, but it looked like a small shadow shifted behind the Demon Lord on his barge. A blue beam of light turned on, bathing the barge’s occupants in a pale glow. Everything erupted in absolute chaos.

  Raziel’s right arm was severed at the shoulder at the same time the succubus let out a shriek of terror. A huge man wearing silvery armor leapt out of the crowd of golems and silenced the succubus’s scream with the swing of a greatsword. Her head sailed into the air and all of the golems slumped.

  Hellhounds strained against their leads, and with a snap, the leather tore from its connection to the barge. Caitlyn, Brahm, and Darren dove into the mass of hellspawn and began cutting the dogs down.

  Terra’s eyes never left the woman fighting the Demon Lord on the barge. The blue sword blocked one of black light that Raziel had created. She kicked the demon in his midsection, and he stumbled back a step. The Demon Lord threw up a barrier of midnight black energy, and she cut through it with her sword of glowing blue light.

  A high pitched whine came from Terra’s left. There was the sound of something popping, and a bright flash traced a line of white across her vision. The Demon Lord’s black sword disappeared, and he clamped his hand over a wound in his side. Before the woman on the barge could strike again, the Demon Lord vanished in a crackle of electricity.

  The woman screamed in rage at Raziel’s retreat. She looked at the large man on the barge and hopped down. A young, auburn-haired man wearing camouflage and carrying what looked like an Earth rifle jogged over with a woman with black hair. The two of them began picking through the contents on the barge while the two on the barge walked toward Terra.

  The Nexus studied the two as they drew closer. Wearing blue, white, and black platemail that covered her from shoulders to feet, the woman stood five-feet nine-inches. Her arms were bare, save for a bandage on her left upper arm and gauntlets that covered her hands. Her open faced helmet revealed a young face with gray eyes, and long gray braid went down her back and ran all the way down to her knees.

  The man was also in plate armor, but it covered every inch of his six-and-a-half feet. The mask of his helmet was a bear, and it only left his ice-blue eyes exposed. He sheathed the greatsword on his back and stood like a silent centurion when the woman drew up to Terra.

  The gray-haired woman looked Terra up and down, and her gaze darkened. “Nexus,” the woman said. “What are you doing here?”

  Terra frowned at her. “My friends and I are trying to assess the situation here on Caine. I am the Nexus; who are you?”

  “I am Kara, the last free valkyrie. All the others of my kind have either been killed or captured and taken to one of the Obsidian Towers.” Kara studied the skies. “We need to get back underground. I’ll fill you in on the details as we walk.” The valkyrie began to walk away from Terra in the direction the young man with the rifle had come from. The large bear-helmeted man fell in step on Kara’s right side, so Terra walked to the woman’s left.

  “What happened here?” Terra asked. She noticed the washed out colors had taken on a more normal shade when the valkyrie was about.

  “Five years ago,” Kara started, “when Azreal first attacked, he blocked us off from Yggdrasil and the gateway arch. The souls of fallen warriors go through the ash tree and are collected by the valkyrie. Without access to it, we were unable to collect the souls and bind them to us, making them einherijar. Over the last five years, he ground us down.

  “Four months ago, Valgarde, the city you passed to get in the mountains, fell. Thousands of my sisters and their einherijar were captured and taken to the Obsidian Towers. That was when Caine started to die. I don’t know if any of the other valkyrie are still alive, but I think not. How long has the Realm of Magic been free?” Kara asked as they stopped before a rock face, her tone as unyielding as stone.

  The man stepped through solid-seeming stone, and Terra’s eyes widened. “About four months now,” she said.

  Kara spun on her. “What!” she shouted. “You mean you have been rid of Azreal’s forces the entire time my world has been dying!”

  Terra matched the woman glare for glare. “Do you think I would have just stood by if I had been able to help? We came as soon as we could. With the angels, we destroyed the Obsidian Towers on Bara, and now we are here to help you.”

  “With what?” Kara snapped. “The six of you? What luck. Except two of you aren’t real warriors, Nexus. Unless you expect me to believe you can fight without magical power. Even if you really were a master of the bow you carry, which I can tell you aren’t from the way you carry your quiver, you can’t expect me to honestly think that little girl is really some ferocious fighter. So, grand, I’ve doubled my forces and gotten six more mouths to feed.”

  Caitlyn stepped between the two women and growled at the valkyrie. Her fangs still dripped red with hellhound blood. “You should be happy there’s any help, valkyrie.”

  The woman shook with rage. “Happy?” Her face turned red. “I’VE WATCHED MY ENTIRE PEOPLE DIE AROUND ME, CHANGELING!” Her voice dropped to a deadly whisper. “I’m many things, but happy is not among them.” She pointed at the cliff face. “The path through is clear. It’s an illusion. Just step through.”

  Brahm stepped through the illusion first. “Terra,” he called, his tone one of alarmed caution.

  Terra stepped through the wall behind him and froze. The man had taken off his helmet when he entered the tunnel. His face was one Terra had not seen in years. It had been over five years since her first husband had died, but she could still close her eyes and remember his blond hair and blue eyes. “Michael?” she choked out.

  Chapter Eleven – What it Means to be Paragon

 

  Michael studied the red-haired woman in the cave mouth’s light. Her hazel eyes were wide, and her breathing bordered on panic. She would likely pass out soon if she didn’t get it under control. “Did you know me before I died?” he asked. The first time I’ve met anyone that knew me from before.

  The half-angel wrapped her glowing wings tight around herself. They were his favorite shade of light-blue, like the cloudless sky, and he thought they were beautiful. The woman herself was pleasant to look upon, but he felt nothing for her. Kara was his life now.

  “I did,” she said, her voice unsteady. The dwarf looked ready to catch her should she faint. “We were married.”

  “Oh,” Michael said. What in Hell am I supposed to say to that! Not, ‘Oh.’ “It’s nice to meet you.” She already knows you! “What’s your name?” You are just going to say every wrong thing you can think of aren’t you! Michael heard Seamus laughing in his head. The laughter stopped abruptly.

  “My name is Terra Zane,” she said.

  “What’s the hold up?” Kara shouted from outside the cave.

  Michael sent to her.

  A moment of silence.

  Terra stared at him with a confused jumble of emotions on her face while he talked to Kara across the valkyrie bond. “We need to move deeper down the tunnel. I’ll lead you to our camp,” Michael said. She nodded and followed behind him without speaking. Michael picked up a glow ball and held it aloft as he walked down the sloping tunnel.

  It took an hour for them to arrive at the large cave they used as a camp. There was a small lake with cave mushrooms growing on an island in the center. Michael checked the snares and other traps to ensure no one had discovered the hideout while they were gone. Everything checked out, and he walked to the growing group of people.

  Conversation among the Daein people stopped when he drew up to them. “I can’t believe it,” the older changeling with black hair and golden eyes said. She must have been the big cat, Michael thought. The eyes are the same. “It really is the Bear.”

  Seamus snorted a laugh. “That’s a damn good nickname for him. Big as a bear, and about as smart as one.” The boy let out a yelp when Naru thumped him.

  Naru sent.

  Michael thanked her with a nod that she returned. “You’ll have to excuse Seamus,” Michael said to the Daein. “He hasn’t been with us long and hasn’t learned civility. Did I know all of you?”

  Terra’s eyes locked on his. “Some of us. It’s safe to say that everyone has at least heard of you.”

  Michael drew his brows down. “Why’s that?”

  The girl with the sea-foam green hair said, “You were pretty famous before you died. You were Champion of the Grand Arena. You were the last defender of the Arcane City before it fell to Azreal. Everyone’s heard of you.”

  Frowning, Michael asked, “How did I die?”

  Tears welled in the Nexus’s eyes. “I’m sorry. I can’t,” she said before she walked away from the cluster of glow balls they had been gathered around. Terra walked to the edge of the small lake and stared out over the calm waters.

  Michael looked at the others with a questioning look on his face. “Yer no’ the only person she’s lost,” the dwarf said. “Me name’s Brahm Ironfist, an’ I met ye once in the Arcane City after ye took the title o’ Champion. I’m no’ sure how long it’s been fer ye, but to all o’ us, ye died just over five years ago. Ye were linked to Terra as her shield, an’ ye died sendin’ her to the Realm o’ Balance to find Alex Zane, the Guardian.”

  “I thought she said her name was Terra Zane,” Michael said.

  “That’s right. My name’s Caitlyn Shadowpaw, and I’m Terra’s sister. Through adoption,” she quickly added at his raised eyebrow. “It took her four years to find Alex, and another year before they could come back to Dae. She fell in love with him, and they were married. He died four months ago when Dae was freed. She’s pregnant with his child.”

  It makes sense now. Kind of. “So she’s lost two husbands, just to rediscover one of them exists but doesn’t remember her.”

  Everyone around him nodded. Kara walked up to his side, and he looked down at her. The recent battle had his blood running hot, but he couldn’t do the things he wanted to in present company. “Did you know any of this?”

  Kara sent. Her tone was even, but her body language screamed that she was feeling jealous.

  Michael said with a frown.

  Kara glared at him. “No, I didn’t know any of this. I only knew that you were a Daein warrior that had died. I’ll be out scouting for our next attack when you’re done with your one-sided reunion.” The valkyrie stalked off, sweeping up Naru and Seamus in her wake.

 

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