It was an enchanted purse, small enough to fit in your hand, but able to hold almost anything without changing weight or expanding in size. Objects too large for the purse would shrink as they were pushed into the purse and the purse had an infinite capacity. It also had an anti-theft enchantment so that no one could steal the purse or the contents within it from the owner. If the owner was a player then the anti-theft enchantment continued to work even if the person died, meaning the purse would not stay on the corpse, but travel with the player to their restart point.
I gave the cashier seven thousand gold for the purse. I also bought my list of supplies: ninety bags of jerky for two silver coins per bag, ninety small loaves of bread for one silver coin per loaf, one large enchanted canteen of water that magically refilled any time you finished drinking from it for ten gold coins, ninety bags of dried fruit for fifty copper coins per bag, ten boxes of one hundred matches for twenty-five copper coins per box, one large cooking pot for eight silver coins, one large frying pan for five silver coins, one steel plate for two silver coins, one silverware set for one silver coin, and one medium-sized tent for one gold coin.
In the SRU one hundred copper coins are equal to one silver coin and fifty silver coins are equal to one gold coin. When I'd finished my purchase and the cashier rang up my order, I ended up giving seventeen gold, thirty-three silver, and fifty copper coins to the cashier.
Merissa gave me an inquisitive glance as I stuffed all the items and my remaining money into my purse. I secured the purse to my waist with the thong and gave an answering smile to Merissa, although half-hearted. We headed out the store and through town in silence. Merissa never let her eyes leave me, questions flaring deep within.
Outside the city, we headed toward Avenger Headquarters. I was surprised by what I saw outside. The line for people wanting to become Avengers was still monumental. Merissa had told me about the long line a few weeks ago. I’d figured the line would have died down by now. People were chattering away about the possibility of joining. I even heard one guy exclaim excitedly that he’d failed the first three times but would definitely become an Avenger this time.
“Hey, you can’t cut in line!” A young girl, no more than sixteen, barked at me as I passed her.
I gave her an icy glare, stopping her whining and probably her heart. Her cheeks flushed when I gave her the Avenger salute, the glow from my hands reflecting in her eyes. She looked like a fish out of water, trying to yammer an apology, but her mouth bobbed open and shut silently. I just ignored her and kept going. I had important business to attend to.
My anger, which had boiled inside me since Lesley’s death, evaporated in an instant upon entering Avenger Headquarters. I’d been meaning to check out the inside for a while now but was always too busy. Now I was in awe at the marvel before me. The entire inside of the building was illuminated in golden-white light, from the gold-plated walls, silver-plated ceiling, and ivory floors. It looked like being inside a Roman coliseum of old or the Temple of Zeus. Golden pillars were lined up every fifty feet. There were more booths than I expected.
There were the original booths we’d thought of like the lost-and-found, donation center, and recruitment center, but there were new areas as well. There was a practice area where potential Avengers could practice their battle skills, a testing center where a written test was administered to determine if a candidate could handle the pressure of being an Avenger, a physical examination which was basically a combat maze, and a licensing center where accepted candidates would sign their contract and get their mark.
I walked up to the licensing center, cutting in front of the line, which only had three people waiting in it, and spoke directly to the robot behind the counter.
I gave the Avenger salute and began, “I’ve come to make a delivery.” I set the backpack on the desk.
“Donations are over there,” the robot announced, pointing. “Next.”
“I’m not here to make a donation. I’m here to provide new inductees with help. Inside this bag are thousands of enchanted jewelry items. Each of these items are handcrafted and unique. They were created by my friend and mentor, Lesley Mintlock, who died this morning and left them to me to do what I will.
“I’ve decided that, in order to help the new Avengers in their duties, in addition to getting their mark, they should each receive one item of jewelry, given at random. These items can do things like teleportation, invisibility, strength and speed boost, among many other useful abilities.”
“That’s a great idea.”
As I suspected she would, Aurora appeared behind me.
“We can divide the jewelry among the three Headquarters and begin handing them out immediately.” She reached her crystal hand toward the backpack.
“Stop,” I admonished. I knew to command the system AI was stupid, but I had more to say and I trusted that her curiosity would get the better of her. “There are two conditions. The first is that all current Avengers will also be given one of these items to help guide them in their duties.”
“Done,” Aurora agreed, smiling humorously at my forwardness. “And the second condition?”
I opened up the backpack and began searching through it. “This is mine,” I said, holding up a pendant on a golden chain. “Out of all the jewelry Lesley and I made while I was his apprentice, this is the only one I won’t give away. Lesley said he made it specifically for me. It was supposed to be my graduation present when I finished training.”
The pendant was a golden V set on top of two wings made of white gold with small diamonds surrounding the outer edges of the wings. I unclasped the necklace and put it on, the wings glinting against the white of my skin. The pendant rested right where the diamond-shaped opening between my breasts was situated.
“That’s no condition,” Aurora suppressed a giggle and continued, “I never had any intention of taking that necklace in the first place. Don’t forget, I’m the system AI. I know everything that goes on in this reality and I already knew that necklace was made for you. You don’t think I’d steal a friend’s graduation gift, do you?”
“Friend, huh?” I smiled at her, the first heartfelt smile I’d given since Lesley’s death, “I guess we are. Thanks, Aurora.”
“So, what’s it do?” Aurora asked.
“I thought you knew everything in this reality,” I teased.
She shrugged her shoulders. “Usually, but when enchanted items that are specifically designed for a single user are created, I don’t know what they do until they’re activated for the first time. The enchantment placed on the item merges with the brain waves of the wearer and that can cause some unusual outcomes and alterations to the spell. All I know is what I heard Lesley tell you.”
“He told me, ‘These are your new wings, Valkyrie. Fly free and always seek out the light.’ So basically, it will let me fly, but he was so cryptic about it that I have no idea how. He never taught me any enchantments that enable flight.”
“Try it out,” Merissa chimed in, having finally regained her composure after learning that I knew Aurora.
I nodded and pressed my finger against the center of the wings. Magical items like my pendant, items that weren’t created for general use but for a specific user, had to be activated by the designated user the first time used so that they could memorize the owner’s magical energy signature and wouldn’t activate for anyone else. To do this, I had to thrust a large amount of my magical energy into the pendant to unlock it. Every subsequent use would just require a thought, like my gloves.
The difference between the two was that my gloves were enchanted to perform a specific magical operation. After the enchantment was cast no magic was required to use them. Magical accessories that don’t house a static enchantment like my gloves do, but an active enchantment or spell—attack magic, healing magic, defensive magic, et cetera—sap magical energy from the user each use. Some even graduall
y suck away magical energy as long as they’re activated. My necklace was one of the continually sapping kinds.
As I concentrated, throwing about thirty percent of my magical energy into the pendant, the wings and V began to glow and disappeared, leaving just the white gold chain. At the same time, a large set of glittering wings, white feathers with golden tips, grew from my back.
Everyone inside Headquarters stopped what they were doing to stare as the wings unfolded, spreading like an angel’s.
“Lesley,” I whispered, a tear running down my cheek and a sad smile on my lips. “It’s beautiful.”
My new-found wings were like an extension of my body. I could move them as easily as moving my arms or legs. They were already spread, but there was more to flying than that. I twisted my wings so they’d face the ground slightly and pumped, flapping my wings like an eagle. Feeling myself lift, much quicker than I’d expected, off the ground and toward the silvery sky above me. It was when I was about to collide that I remembered it wasn’t sky but silver-plating. I angled downward and circled Headquarters like a vulture descending on its prey. I got in three circles and was about ten feet from the ground when my wings vanished.
I’d used up all my magical energy and was plummeting toward solid marble. Then I remembered what Lesley had taught me for emergencies. I gathered up the energy around me and thrust it into my pendant, which had reappeared when the wings vanished, just in time to keep myself from breaking something, like my neck.
The wings reappeared for only a second, but it was enough to give one downward thrust, slowing my pace so I could land safely on my feet.
“I guess I’ve got to practice a little,” I joked. “These take more energy than I thought.”
I walked up to Merissa and Aurora, grabbing them both in a group hug and whispering into their ears.
“Take care of the rest here, Aurora. Look after the shop now, Merissa.”
I released them, giving a weak smile to hide my sorrow, and announced dramatically, “Goodbye, everyone. I’m heading on a journey.”
Without another word and refusing to look back, I left the past behind.
A Fresh Start
Two weeks had passed since then. Inside the SRU, I hadn’t really spoken to anyone. In reality, I’d been slacking at work, walking around in a deep depression. I told my boss that I’d lost an important friend and was grieving, so she’d been lax on me, but today things changed.
She brought me to her office, complaining that two weeks was more than enough time to deal with grief and if I didn’t get my act in gear, she’d fire me. So I quit. I told her to do something that I really shouldn’t repeat and just walked out. Strangely, I felt a sense of freedom that I’d only ever felt in the SRU. I was beginning to enjoy being unfettered.
I’d never been a material girl, so I lived in a cheap efficiency apartment. As for my income, I had a healthy sized savings account, having saved every penny that wasn’t spent on rent or food for years. I was sure that I could live for a year easily, which would give me plenty of time to find a new job.
Then I was introduced to the Procrastination Monster. He made a very good argument with me, telling me that without a job, I could spend almost every hour, waking and sleeping, in the SRU. I just couldn’t come up with a decent counter argument, so I went right along with his plans.
I began spending more and more time in the SRU, eventually only coming back to reality for restroom and food breaks. I’d unplugged my refrigerator to save on electricity, so my only exercise involved trips to the corner convenience store for a few dollars in groceries each meal.
Inside the SRU was quickly becoming my real life. It was getting to the point where I quit answering when people called Lisa because I was waiting for the name Valkyrie. I knew it wasn’t very healthy, but I couldn’t help it. Other players would think I was crazy, as most spent no more than eight hours a day, when they slept, in the SRU. For me the SRU had become more like home than anywhere else.
Even now, I found myself rushing back from the store with an apple, string cheese, and Hot Pocket to eat my dinner as quickly as possible and return to the world I enjoyed. Dinner was a quick affair. I ate the apple and string cheese while the Hot Pocket cooked, finishing in about seven minutes. Then I jumped into bed and slid my SRU-visor on.
These last two weeks had been the start of my great adventure in Evanasia. After leaving Melodia, I began wandering with no regard as to my direction. I helped people who were in trouble whenever I came across them, whether it was a monster attack, player-killer, or something as simple as healing a minor injury on a horse’s leg.
I was constantly working on perfecting my magic and fighting skills. As I’d originally thought, my martial arts books served me well. I was able to use all the skills I’d read about without incident. Now I was working on battle strategies and different combinations of attacks. As for my magical abilities, I had to wait almost a week for my energy to fully restore itself after using my wings the first time, so I made perfecting my energy control my top priority. I was now able to cast even the most difficult of the spells Lesley had taught me using less than one percent of my energy.
My wings were a new challenge for me, but one I welcomed.
I always kept track of my magical energy using the stats option and I’d only keep my wings out until it reached ninety percent. At first, I could only stay airborne for about thirty seconds. Now, I could stay in flight for just a little over an hour using only ten percent of my energy.
I had spent the last two weeks heading south and was coming upon a mountain range. The mountains were gorgeous, but barren. It looked like a stone desert rising from the soil. There were hundreds of birds flying above the mountains. I really wanted to visit the peaks, to gaze into the distance and determine which way I should go to continue my journey.
As I stood in reverie, a roar to my left shook the earth. I turned, prepared to defend myself if necessary, and saw a sight which infuriated me nearly as much as the goblin massacre. Lying in the distance, defenseless, was a large, pearl-scaled dragon. It was roaring in pain as five fighters swung swords and threw spears at it.
The dragon must have been horribly injured. I was sure, just by the look of its assailants, that it would have no problem dealing with them otherwise. It had a long, slender body like a cat with long legs. Its rear legs were thick and powerful, its front thin and mobile. Its twisted tail was serpentine with the occasional spike sticking out of the top at a sixty-degree angle to the ground. Its back was smooth and seemingly defenseless, except for the scales being nearly impenetrable. Its head was an enormous cross between a crocodile and jaguar, elongated, with enormous fangs and a forked tongue. It had black eyes with scarlet irises and golden pupils.
“Please,” it roared. “I’ve done nothing to harm you. Let me be.”
The pleading resulted in a scoffing laugh from the five assailants. I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Release him or die,” I shouted, crossing my hands in the Avenger salute. I walked briskly, but calmly toward the five boys.
“Get your own dragon, lady!” the archer-boy shouted as he nocked another arrow without looking at me. “This one’s ours. We found him first.”
Beautiful song split the air as my blades echoed their arrival. I kept my arms at my side, raised slightly like a helicopter propeller preparing to spin, as I stopped and crouched low.
“So be it,” I called, forcing all the magical energy from my body into my arms and legs. I hadn’t perfected this trick in the past few weeks, but it was good enough to take on a couple of kids.
I shot forward, a bolt of lightning, the sound of my footsteps echoing behind me like living thunder. When perfected, this move was supposed to allow me nearly instant movement from one place to another, making it appear as though I’d teleported. As things were now, I could still be seen, but it was like watching a jet streak by,
just a blur of white.
Two of the five were cut in half before they could react, leaving the other three to stare in fright. I turned toward the other three, the swordsmen. I’d taken out the archer and spear-man first. I knew long distance attacks would be the end of me. I felt my grip on the magical energy break and the speed burst vanished. Now it was just an uneven fight between swords, the odds to my advantage.
“Wh-who the h-hell are y-you?” The guy farthest back stuttered, his sword barely staying in the grip of his trembling hands.
“My friends call me Valkyrie,” I nearly sang, “but you can call me Death.”
An immense feeling of satisfaction coursed through my veins. I’d done it! I’d used that quick-step technique for the first time in battle and it worked perfectly...well, almost.
“It’s the White Avenger!” One of the other boys shouted, dropping his sword and running.
I activated my wings, soared into the air, and caught up with the boy in only a few seconds.
“You can’t leave the party early,” I announced my arrival behind him. “You’ll make me sad.”
I stuck both blades into his ribs through his back and ripped them out from the sides, severing one of his arms in the process. Blood splattered the ground as he fell, lifeless on the grass. Less than a second later I was back in the sky, searching for the other two who’d hurt the dragon.
One of them was still there, the frightened one in the back, shaking uncontrollably. He hadn’t moved an inch. The other had run in the opposite direction from me, toward the dragon’s mouth. I never saw the dragon attack. All I remember was the crunching of bones and a single stifled scream.
I bore down on the last of them, my wings vanishing as I stood in front of him and brought my sword tip to his throat. “I’ll let you live today,” I swore to him, “but if I ever find you harming another who’s begging for his life, I will kill you slowly, cutting you to pieces, starting with your fingers and every other appendage you have.” I looked down between his legs quickly and returned my gaze to his eyes, silent threat burning into him. “Understand?”
Virtual Me- Valkyrie Page 7
