My eyes were wide open as the black mist transported me back to our sanctuary world accompanied by two more former prisoners. I had apparently overlooked them when I last visited the Stonehenge area and so I had decided to do a quick rescue. The young men beside me were very fit, most probably university athletes before the whole Fomorian incident began. They were still somewhat meek and confused since the two of them were still under the influence of those orange mushrooms that they had been forced to eat all this time.
As the black mists around us finally died away, the three of us were standing near the base of a small, grassy hill. The bright skies above were powder blue, with faint wisps of trailing light, like a daytime aurora borealis. There was a small stream running by the base of the hills with crystal clear water. Across the horizon stood a huge construct that stretched out as far as the eye could see. At first glance it looked like a wooden version of the Great Wall of China, but there were numerous doors at the base of the structure. The roof was composed of millions of overlapping metal shields that faced the sky. Countless numbers of ravens could be seen circling above it.
“Follow me, please,” I said as I started walking towards the massive hall. The two men silently walked behind me until we got to a huge wooden door that was at least forty feet high. It had been left partially open.
As we strode inside the inner part of the building, it looked even more amazing. The great hall seemed to stretch inward for miles in both directions. Countless roaring fireplaces were set along stone dividers in the center of the place. Tall wooden pillars with Teutonic carvings buttressed the shield roof hundreds of feet above us. A few little children were running back and forth along the nearly endless expanse of the hall as they played whatever games they fancied.
We were soon met by Margaret and my mum. They were both now wearing a sort of medieval gown. Margaret was carrying a tray that had steaming wooden mugs on it. “Welcome to Valhalla, gentlemen, please have a drink.”
Both men took a cup and started to sip while I hugged my mum. Although the effects of the mushrooms would ultimately wear off after two days on average, by trial and error we had found an antidote to the effects of the mushrooms by making hot tea using the weeds near the streams of this world. Time passed by differently in this particular place, so it was best that we weaned off all those that had been forcefully addicted as quickly as possible.
Margaret winked at me as she took the two men by the elbow. “Welcome back, Steve,” she whispered before the three of them left.
Mum grinned as she kissed me on the cheek. “Hello, Steve, it’s so nice to see you back again.”
I gently took a step back as my cheeks reddened. “Oh come on, Mum, you always do this every time I come back here.”
“Why not? You deserve it. So many people here are saying you’re the greatest hero the country’s ever seen.”
I looked away. This was too much. “Mum, stop it already.”
She laughed a little. “Alright, I shan’t shame you any more even though there’s nobody watching.”
“Thank you, Mum,” I said. “Where are the others?”
“Gareth is over in one of the inner halls, Erin is outside in the golden fields overlooking the cliffs, your sister is with some new friends she’s made and your dad is in his usual place,” she said. “Do you want me to draw your bath?”
I started walking towards the inner hall as I waved goodbye to her. “Not just yet, I have to do something first, then I’ll come back to our so-called flat. See you later.”
She blew me a kiss before turning around and then she headed for the kitchens to see if she could help anyone out. “See you later, Steve.”
The halls of Valhalla were the biggest I’ve ever seen, so it was a long walk. I had chosen this world almost on a whim, right when I started to change the destination point of the conduit at Stonehenge. At that moment, I remembered the once magical realm of the Viking dead that had been taught to us in school. Valhalla had been the Norse afterlife, a gigantic hall where renowned Viking warriors would go after their passing. It was here that they would feast and drink all day, in preparation for the final battle of Ragnarok. I had guessed correctly that the place would be abandoned since Ragnarok already happened. With a great hall that could house countless people, this was the perfect sanctuary to rest and to prepare while the Fomorians occupied most of Western Europe.
I took the ladder and walked up onto the second-level platform. We had made some modifications to the great hall over the past few months in order to make the place more palatable for the growing numbers of refugees that were settling in. A few former government types had a bit of a fit when a number of people proposed to elect group representatives, but it was all working out so far. Unlike the other worlds, people did get hungry here, but there were plenty of game animals across the endless expanses around us. Hunting expeditions would be gone for days and would return with over a dozen wild boars and deer. Wild wheat and barley grew in abundance so there was no need for farming either; people would just wander near the hills and pluck out whole stalks of them.
As I passed by a tall window on the way to the offices, I heard some loud clanging noises and shouting. I looked out onto the grounds below and Erin was there, drilling a new batch of recruits on how to form a shield wall. We were fortunate to have a couple of instructors that knew about medieval weaponry, but Erin was the de-facto authority on how to do battle against the Fomorians. When it came to finally retaking the country, she would be at the head of our army. I didn’t want to bother her so I turned and moved on.
When I opened the door to the inner office, I realized that the meeting had just adjourned as people began to file out of the door. Most of them greeted me and I took a few handshakes as the room emptied. The only one left in there aside from myself was Gareth, and he walked over with a smile on his face; we hugged and shook hands.
Gareth grinned. “Welcome back, laddie. I’m glad you made it back safely. We just finished our meeting for the day so it’s perfect timing for you. Where did you go?”
“Near Stonehenge,” I said. “This morning I spotted two men still digging near the old site using the mirror, so I decided to pluck them out once their Fomorian guards stopped looking.”
“While I admire your initiative, Steve,” Gareth said, “I would like to remind you again that you should always take Erin with you, just as a precaution.”
I shrugged. “Oh, I knew she was going to be busy so I figured that this would be a quick errand anyway.”
Gareth shook his head slowly. “You shouldn’t take risks like that, lad. We can’t afford to lose you.”
“You’ve always got Erin.”
“That mirror of yours has done more than she ever could,” Gareth said. “You are that important to us, you know.”
“Alright, I’ll bring her along from now on,” I said. “There’s actually something I’ve been meaning to ask you about.”
“Go ahead, laddie.”
I looked him straight in the eye. “Erin—she’s not really human, is she? She’s a Fomorian.”
Gareth looked away for a moment, and then our eyes met again. “H-how did you find out?”
I smiled. “Oh, just putting things together. She’s stronger than any woman, or even any man that I know. Even those people that have spent a long time in the otherworlds don’t have the kind of abilities she has.”
Gareth looked down at the floor. It was obviously hard for him to admit it. “You’re…not going to tell everyone, are you?”
“No,” I said. “We’ll keep it between us. But I think everybody’s going to find out eventually. Especially once they see her in action against the Fomorians.”
Gareth sat down at the long wooden table in the center of the room. “I might as well tell you the whole story. You’ve definitely earned the right to know. She is actually half Fomorian. I met her mother while I was trapped in the otherworld. As you well know, there are those of their kind that look like monster
s and others who look just like us. I…fell in love with a female Fomorian. Of course, it ended up being more complicated than that, but it’s the whole story in a nutshell.”
“What happened to her? Erin’s mother, I mean.”
“She left us,” he said softy. “She couldn’t bear the thought of having to betray us, so she left Erin when she was still a baby and showed me the path to a conduit that led back to earth. I was able to measure time in that world I was in, and so I decided to wait and allow Erin to grow into a strong woman before we ventured back. It took about fourteen years for her to reach her current size, and she’s still growing.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Erin’s only fourteen years old?”
He nodded. “Yes, she is. That’s why she can be a bit…immature at times. She still needs to learn how to empathize with others, then again it was a necessity to teach her how to fight first. I know you two don’t get along sometimes, but if you could just bear with her for now.”
“Well, that’s a reasonable request since I get the whole picture now,” I said. “Anyway, I need to get going again.”
Gareth was surprised as he stood up. “You’re planning another expedition to earth right this minute?”
“Sort of,” I said as I shook his hand and turned around while heading for the door. “But I have to do something for the mirror this time, and I won’t be needing Erin.”
I sensed that he was about to protest, but he didn’t. “Alright then, take care of yourself,” Gareth said as I left the office.
It took me around half an hour to get to where my dad was working since his offices were on the opposite end of the hall. I passed by a few other people and they acknowledged me, one even fell on his knees as he thanked me for saving his family. I simply smiled and told him it was not a problem as I begged him to get back up on his feet. Amy was down below, beside one of the fire pits as she hung out with a small group of girls her age. Our eyes met and we waved at each other before I continued on. We hadn’t talked much for the last few days, though Mum said that Amy was still trying to get over Mark’s passing, and to just give her more time to deal with it.
Dad just wasn’t the physical sort, but he was brilliant when it came to administrative work. As I walked into his office, he was busy updating the latest records because he was very meticulous about getting it all down in writing. His management skills were so good that he was elected as one of the council members of Valhalla. Pieces of parchment paper and books were strewn about the wooden table as he plugged away with a pen and ledger.
The moment I entered he noticed me and stood up. “Steve! You’re back!”
We ran up to each other and hugged. “Hello, Dad,” I said.
“You shouldn’t keep going away like that, Steve,” he said. “You know how your mum gets all worried when you do things by yourself. It’s a dangerous world out there. Gareth and I even talked about it.”
“I spoke to him already,” I said as I pulled out a bunch of pens from the pockets of my pullover and gave them to him. “Here you go.”
His eyes beamed as he held more than a dozen pens in his hand. “Oh thank you, Steve! I really needed this. So how many more have you rescued today?”
I held up the V for victory sign. “Just two.”
Dad turned as he scribbled some notes down. “Right. Two more, so that makes a total population of…one hundred and nine thousand and thirty-six people in our little community now.”
My eyes grew wide. “Blimey! That many people are in here?”
Dad grinned as he faced me again. “And all thanks to you, Steve. I know I’ve said this already, but I am immensely proud of you, son. And I say this from the bottom of my heart.”
I laughed a little. “Thanks, Dad. You’ve already said it, but it’s not a problem when you say it again.”
He suddenly had a serious look on his face. “I know you’re busy and all that, but if you ever need to talk, I’m always here to listen. I know we’ve not really had a man to man talk since this whole Glooming thing started, but I’m here for you now.”
I became somewhat confused. What was he on about? “Dad, what are you trying to say?”
“Well, all I’m saying is, I know you’re at that age when you’re finding out about your sexuality and all,” he said sheepishly. “And even if you want to express being something other than straight, then that’s fine with me. That’s all I wanted to say.”
I titled my head slightly. “What? I don’t understand.”
He looked down at my feet. “Well, since you’re wearing women’s trainers, I figured that, you know, maybe you’re into the alternate lifestyle and all that. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, mind you.”
Bloody hell. I had completely forgotten about the shoes I was still wearing. All this time I was still wearing the trainers I took from that store in St. Pancras. “Dad, I’m wearing these shoes because I lost my other pair and this was the only ones I found that fit. I didn’t know it was a pair of women’s trainers until I got away from a couple of gangsters.”
Dad laughed for a bit. “Oh my god. I’m so sorry, Steve.”
I rolled my eyes as I turned around and started walking out the door. The next trip to earth would definitely be to a proper trainers store. “Quite alright, Dad. I’ll see you later.”
“Bye for now, Steve!”
There was a door at the bottom of the platform that led out into the meadow, so I took the direct route towards it. As I walked through the massive entryway and outside of the great hall, I noticed that this part of the land was bare and there was nobody around. The dream I had the night before had instructed me that the man would be appearing over the next hill, so I started walking towards it. Tezcatlipoca was due to be reborn soon, and I would have to accompany an American over to a heavily guarded temple somewhere in the lands of the Aztecs. It would be the first time I would be using the mirror to travel to another part of the world other than England. I sensed that a titanic battle was looming and I would need all my willpower to prevail.
As I crested the first hill I took out the black mirror from underneath my pullover and examined it. I wasn’t quite sure if the magical looking glass controlled me, or if I was the one who dominated it. Either way, I felt that it was a tool to use against the Fomorians. For now, anyway. Once this was all over, I knew I would have to get rid of it eventually.
The story continues in:
Eye of Balor
Wrath of the Old Gods Book 3.5
Coming soon!
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The Fomorians Page 13
