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The Val Halla library was the most impressive I’d ever seen, though not in size or even the number of books. In fact, the public library back home had this one beat in both of those areas. However, this library stood out in several ways, the first and most notable being that it was wide and open, with large stained glass windows that made the whole room almost feel like it was a church rather than a dusty old library. The other thing that made it impressive was simply the age of the materials stored within. There were large and intricate books that had been drawn and written by hand, well before the invention of the printing press. There were papyrus scrolls, and even scrolls that had been written on animal hides back from the time when the Val Kyr had first been formed. All of these writings were perfectly preserved, kept in nearly the same condition as when they’d first been written, thanks to careful use of magic.

The librarian was Moraigh, a slender woman who only looked to be about thirty, but who radiated a sense of age, even more than Hilde did. And like Hilde, she’d long since retired from active service and now focused all her attention on the tasks of taking care of the library and keeping a record of current events.

Moraigh had merely grunted when Lindrell introduced Julie and I to her, then she gave me a curious look before writing our names down in the official records as new Val Kyr. As soon as that was done, she wandered away, not even bothering to say goodbye. From what little I could see of her, she was a woman of few words and little patience with other people.

“This is the history of the Val Kyr,” Lindrell proudly told us as she gestured around the room. “Of course, very little of it is written in English, but you’ll have plenty of time to learn the language later.”

With that, Lindrell pulled a thick book off the shelf, then carried it to a sitting area and placed it on a table. Julie and I took our seats so we could begin the lessons for the day. We’d already spent part of the morning doing a little light sparring, or at least Lindrell had made Julie and I spar against each other. Unfortunately, I had a feeling that had merely been a little light exercise to help us wake up for the day.

“This book contains most of what we know about the various types of daemons you’re likely to encounter,” Lindrell said, jumping right into the same lecture she’d given yesterday morning, though this time she had pictures to help demonstrate.

In spite of the fact that Lindrell had already covered part of this yesterday, I listened carefully, knowing that I might very well end up with another pop quiz. If Lindrell started questioning me in the middle of sparring again, I wanted to be able to answer her questions as quickly as I could so I could avoid getting smacked around. However, thinking about the future quiz and the pain that was sure to come with it, I ended up thinking about what had happened afterwards as well.

After the painful and humiliating sword lesson yesterday, Lindrell had taken me to get a bath…at a public bath house. It had been a bit of a shock to walk in and find what were basically four massive hot tubs set into the floor of a large open room. There had been nearly a dozen Val Kyr present, almost all completely undressed, and I’d been absolutely stunned at seeing so many gorgeous and naked women, not to mention mortified at having to get undressed in front of them. I might have protested, but I was still so sore and bruised that I’d just picked a pool that was empty and climbed in as quickly as I could. Of course, it hadn’t stayed empty long as Lindrell and Julie had both joined me, which had been pretty awkward and embarrassing as well. It had been an exercise in self-control as I carefully avoided looking at either of them, much to their amusement. Fortunately, by the time I climbed out of the water, at least all my bruises had fully healed.

“This one has a lethal venom in the tail,” Lindrell said, pointing to a picture in the book. “Getting stung is nearly guaranteed death. The only Val Kyr to have survived getting stung was a jatta, who immediately received an extra jatta infusion from a comrade.”

“Nasty,” Julie said with a shudder while I nodded agreement.

I looked over the picture of the daemon, immediately noticing the similarities to the hellhounds we’d encountered. However, there were some obvious differences too in the shape of the head and also in the tail. I had a spark of recognition and blurted out, “It’s a manticore.”

“That is one of the names,” Lindrell agreed, giving me a faint look of approval.

“Manticores are daemons?” Julie mused, her eyes going wide. Then she blurted out, “What about dragons? Are they real? Are they daemons too?”

“Yes, they are real, and they are daemons,” Lindrell agreed, looking thoughtful for a moment. “But unlike most of the daemons, some gods brought dragons over intentionally…as pets.”

“Pets?” I asked in surprise. “They had pet dragons?”

“I bet they were like baby alligators,” Julie told me with a smirk. “Once they got too big for the bath tub, they get let loose in the wild…or the nearest pond.”

“Perhaps,” Lindrell responded with a look of amusement. “But as far as I know, no one has seen a dragon in nearly a thousand years, not since well before I became Val Kyr. The general consensus is that either the few of them that were left went into hibernation somewhere, or they were killed off without us knowing. Since the Val Kyr aren’t the only ones around with the ability to do something like that, that is a good possibility.”

Lindrell continued our lessons on different types of daemons for a little longer before another Val Kyr arrived looking for her. “Freya would like to speak with you,” the woman told Lindrell, only glancing at me and Julie.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Lindrell told us before quickly departing with the other woman.

Once Lindrell was gone, Julie and I sat in awkward silence for a moment. We’d always been close, but I could feel the distance opening up between us. “So,” I asked awkwardly, “what’s it like being notru?”

Julie’s eyes lit up at that, as I knew they would. Ever since she got back last night from meeting her new notru friends, she’d been pretty excited. “It’s great,” she exclaimed with a broad grin. “I can use magic now…real magic…”

“I remember,” I commented with a faint smirk, remembering the demonstration that Julie had given last night during the bath. She’d put her hand into the water and made some of it freeze into solid ice…around her hand. She’d sat there for a minute, smacking the block of ice her hand was frozen into against the side of the pool, trying to break it. Lindrell and I had both laughed our asses off, much to Julie’s embarrassment.

“Hey, I’m just learning,” she responded defensively. “I’d like to see you do better…” I winced at the reminder that I couldn’t do that, or any of the other special tricks that the various pillars could do. Julie’s eyes widened in realization and she grabbed my hand. “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean it like that…”

“I know,” I told her with a sigh. I was silent for few seconds before admitting, “I’m just frustrated… I mean, first this…” I gestured down at myself and scowled. “Then, I don’t even get the kind of cool power that would make it worth it. I feel like I lost everything…for nothing.”

“It wasn’t for nothing,” Julie insisted. “You’re still alive, and even if you didn’t get all the cool powers, you’re still Val Kyr. You’ve still got a lot of really cool stuff because of that…”

“Have you seen the way everyone stares at me?” I snapped at her. “They all think I’m some kind of freak. They’re just waiting for me to screw up more so they can kick me out…”

Julie jumped to her feet and exclaimed, “Don’t you say that…” She glared at me for a moment, then her expression softened. “Okay, I’ve heard a few people talking…but not everyone feels that way. You’ve just to go show them what you can do.”

“And what exactly is that?” I asked with a snort. “Remember, my val gave me this body…but not enough power to keep up…” I was definitely still bitter about that.

“You’ll figure something out,” Julie assured me confidently. After a moment, she smirked and added, “You’ve always been too stubborn to let the bullies get to you before, so why should now be any different?”

I stared at Julie for a moment, then started to chuckle. “Before, the bullies didn’t carry big freaking axes…”

“But neither did your friends,” Julie responded smugly. “Look,” she sat back down beside me again. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m still here for you. I’m still your friend…” She paused at that, her expression suddenly going sad. “You’ve been my best friend for a long time, and that hasn’t changed. But…”

For a moment, I wondered what she was saying…and why she suddenly looked so uncomfortable. Then it hit me and my mood sank even lower. “But you’re not into girls,” I finished for her quietly.

Julie nodded agreement. “I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be,” I said, giving her a forced smile. “I understand…” Or at least, I understood intellectually. Emotionally, it felt like I’d just been kicked in the balls…if I still had them. As I sat there, I didn’t even realize that I was staring to cry a little until Julie reached over and wiped one of the tears from my cheek. Then without a word, she gave me a hug, which somehow made me feel a little better.

“You might not be my boyfriend anymore,” Julie told me quietly. “But you’re still my best friend.” I just nodded at that, not trusting myself to say anything.

By the time Lindrell returned a short time later, I’d at least stopped crying, though I didn’t feel much better about the situation. In spite of Julie’s attempts to make me feel better, I’d come out of it feeling even worse. Then again, getting dumped would do that.

“It seems that some aspects of your training are to be moved up,” Lindrell said as soon as she was back. She didn’t look very happy about that though. “We’ve been ordered to form a triad.”

“A triad?” I asked curiously.

“The most basic fighting unit we use,” Lindrell explained with a slight frown. “A small unit composed of one jatta, one kaern, and one notru, who train and fight together. When we are sent on missions, it is usually by triad.”

“Kaern, jatta, and notru,” I repeated, looking from Lindrell to Julie. “But I’m not kaern.”

“No,” Lindrell answered carefully. “We will be assigned a kaern to join us.”

“Then, if there are four of us, we won’t really be a triad,” Julie said, glancing at me and looking worried. I grimaced, realizing that I wasn’t going to be part of the new unit.

“Then we won’t be a triad,” Lindrell answered. “But the four of us will be a team.” She gave me a reassuring look, then explained, “New recruits usually train for at least a month before they’re assigned to a triad, so this will be different. Since the two of you are untrained, I expect an experienced kaern will be assigned to us.”

After we talked a little more about what we could expect as part of a triad, Lindrell went back to our daemon lessons. We continued where we’d left of and talked about daemons for almost another hour before we were finished.

At this point, Julie told Lindrell, “Um, yesterday, they said that I had to come back to the notru hall this afternoon for more training.” She gave me a guilty look, then added, “I’m supposed to get my mentor today…”

I frowned slightly at that, definitely feeling jealous of Julie, though I tried not to show it. Instead, I took a deep breath and said, “Congratulations.” In spite of my own frustrations, I was going to try to be her supportive friend instead of her jealous ex.

“Thank you,” Julie said, grinning hopefully before giving me a quick hug.

Once Julie was gone, I looked at Lindrell and let out a resigned sigh. “More sword practice?”

Lindrell gave me a look of amusement, then wryly pointed out, “I appreciate your enthusiasm for the lessons, but no. We’re going to do something a little different than that, though I expect you’ll still get plenty of exercise, and probably even with a sword.”

I gave Lindrell a curious look, not sure of whether I liked the sound of that or not. “You’re not going to throw me into a rancor pit and make me fight my way out, are you? Because in case you’ve forgotten, I’ve only had one lesson…”

“Oh, I’m throwing you to the wolves all right,” Lindrell responded with a grin. “Come.”

That did NOT make me feel any better. Still, I followed Lindrell as she took me back to the building where we’d gone yesterday to get tested for our pillars. We went back into the room with the scales, but we didn’t stop there. Lindrell continued to the door for the jatta training hall.

“By tradition,” Lindrell explained as we stopped at the entrance, “only jatta are allowed beyond this point. However, Freya suggested that as you belong to no pillar, that you might benefit by training a little with each of them. Come.”

The jatta hall consisted of a large open room that was probably four times the size of the gymnasium at my old school, and there were a couple smaller side rooms. I could see various types of weapons and training equipment set up all around the room, but most of the open area in the middle contain fighting rings, all of which currently had sparring going on.

“The jatta mostly focus on close combat,” Lindrell explained, gesturing around us. “We are stronger, tougher, and more tireless than the other Val Kyr, so here is where we train to make full use of this.”

“Impressive,” I said, watching the nearest fighting ring where two women were sparring. One was using a large Scottish claymore while the other was using a sword and shield combo.

While I was watching the fight, several women started towards us. I recognized Lei, the huge Asian woman who was carrying the same war hammer that she’d had the last time. Another of the women wasn’t quite as tall or buff as Lei, but she somehow seemed even more imposing. Perhaps it was her grim and serious expression, or perhaps it was the fact that she had an eye patch. Lindrell had told me that Val Kyr would eventually heal from anything short of death, and jatta could do so far quickly, so that made the eye patch all the more noticeable.

“Lindrell,” Lei greeted her with a grin before giving me a curious look. “Michelle.”

Lindrell nodded to her, then gestured to the woman with the eye patch. “Michelle, this is Ragnhild, head of the jatta pillar and one of Freya’s three generals.”

I stared at Ragnhild, recognizing her from the other day when I’d met Freya. She’d been standing up in the front, near Freya’s throne, along with two other women. I guessed that meant they were the other two generals that Lindrell had just mentioned.

“It’s nice to meet you,” I said awkwardly.

Ragnhild stared at me with one eye, her expression grim. She definitely didn’t come off as friendly, but she didn’t seem especially hostile towards me specifically. “Welcome to the Val Kyr,” she said gruffly, the tone in her voice sounding a little skeptical. “You may train with the jatta.”

Ragnhild turned and walked away, gesturing to the other Val Kyr who’d started to gather. Several of them gave me suspicious or even hostile looks, while others merely seemed curious. However, with her gesture, they all scattered back to what they were doing, all except Lei.

“I think she likes you,” Lei joked, slapping me on the back which nearly knocked me over. “She didn’t just throw you out.”

Lindrell chuckled at that, then admitted to me, “That was a possibility.”
“You’re the first non-jatta we’ve had here in decades,” Lei told me, perhaps to explain the looks that some of the other women kept giving me.

Lindrell began giving me the tour, leading me around the large room and letting me see what was going on. Lindrell came with us, not saying much as Lindrell introduced me to several of the friendlier women.

We reached one area of the room where racks of weapons lined a wall. There were axes, swords, spears, war hammers, and a variety of other things, some of which I didn’t even recognize. I couldn’t help but imagine how awesome some of those would have looked on my wall, but for the most part, they looked like weapons that were meant to be used rather than displayed.

A red headed woman was at the weapon racks, looking at a one handed war hammer that reminded me a bit of the one Thor used in the comics. She swung it back and forth experimentally, though I wasn’t sure why she needed it since she had a large claymore strapped to her back. In fact, she was the same woman I’d been watching fight just a short time ago.

“Bethany,” Lindrell called to the woman, getting her attention. “This is Michelle.”

“Welcome to the Val Kyr,” Bethany said, giving me an odd look. “Lindrell here says you saved the other girl, Julie, from a daemon.”

I blushed at that and nodded. “Yeah. It just kind of happened.”

“She was quite brave,” Lindrell stated proudly.

I just snorted at that since I didn’t think of myself as being brave. I just really didn’t want Julie to get hurt so I’d tried knocking her out of the way. I hadn’t been trying to sacrifice myself for her.

Since I was a little uncomfortable talking about that, I gestured to all the weapons and said, “This all seems kind of…old fashioned. Why don’t you use guns against daemons?”

“Sometimes we do,” Lindrell answered. Then she looked to Bethany and asked, “Remember that blunderbuss you used to carry around all the time?”

“Of course,” Bethany responded with a grin. “I still have the thing hanging from the wall in my quarters.”

I looked around at all the medieval style weapons, feeling a little confused. “Then why aren’t there any guns here?”

“There are two reasons,” Lei answered. “The first is that they’re unreliable.”

“Unreliable?” I asked in surprise.

“They are here,” Lindrell explained. “In Val Halla…in the Twilight Realm…things don’t work the same way that they do on Earth. Gunpowder isn’t reliable. Sometimes a gun will work normally, but it’s just as likely that the ammunition will be a dud or that it will blow up and ruin the gun.”

“Same thing with electricity,” Lei added.

Lindrell nodded agreement. “I’m sure that you’ve noticed there isn’t any electricity.” When I nodded my confirmation, she continued, “We could easily bring in generators, and we have in the past, but it doesn’t do much good. Sometimes they don’t work at all and other times they overload and blow up.”

“That definitely explains a few things,” I said thoughtfully.

“We sometimes use modern weapons when we’re hunting daemons on Earth,” Lei said, “But we certainly don’t rely on them.”

“You said there were two reasons,” I pointed out.

“Essence,” Lindrell stated simply. At my blank look, she explained, “I’ve explained how we imbue our weapons with essence...making them much more powerful.” When I nodded, she continued, “We can imbue firearms the same way, but that doesn’t do anything for the ammunition.”

“You get a lot more bang for your buck when you use something like this,” Lei agreed, holding up her hammer.

After this, Lindrell put a hand on my shoulder and said, “There’s something that I need to go take care of. I’m leaving you in Lei’s hands for the next few hours.”

“We’ll take good care of her,” Bethany promised.

Lindrell just gave her a flat look and said, “She’s here for training, not as an excuse to go drinking…”

“Oh, you know me well,” Bethany responded with a chuckle.

Lindrell told me, “Pay attention. You might not be jatta, but you should be able to learn a few things here.” Then as she turned to leave, she added, “I’ll test you on what you’ve learned later.”

I winced at that, remembering her way of testing how much I’d learned during her lectures. “I’m looking forward to it,” I said wryly.

“I guess I’ve been drafted to play tour guide,” Lei commented with a shake of her head, though she didn’t really sound bothered by that.

“Better you than me,” Bethany told her before she hurried off as well.

“Well, you’ve seen the collection of training weapons,” Lei said, gesturing to the weapons we’d just been looking at. “Mostly, these are just for training with a variety of different weapons. We each have our own personal weapon, which we’ve...enhanced.” She held up her hammer.

I nodded at that, then looked around again, noticing that most of the jatta seemed to prefer things like two handed swords, axes, and hammers. They were going with weapons that took full advantage of their strength, which made sense. However, it was also clear that not all of them were doing that as a few of those training were using one handed weapons. Though whether these were their primary weapons, or if they were expanding their skills as Lei indicated, I wasn’t sure.

Lei took me to a back corner of the room, which was set up for an obvious purpose. There were several modern exercise machines like treadmills and stair climbers, but there were also a lot of weight sets and benches. However, the bars and weights were all large and heavy duty ones, and it looked like they were set up for an Olympics competition.

“Lifting can help you learn your limits,” Lei told me, setting her hammer down. Then she grinned and added, “It also lets us compare ourselves against each other.”

“That makes sense,” I said, suddenly wondering exactly how strong I was now. Lindrell kept pointing out that I’d gotten stronger, but there hadn’t really been many opportunities to test that.

A minute later, I began lifting weights in order to test my strength. Lei acted as my spotter while a couple of the other jatta watched from a short distance, not saying anything. I could feel the energy in my body…the val surging as I strained myself, and when I was done, I was absolutely stunned to discover that I could now bench press over half a ton.

“I can’t believe I lifted that much,” I gasped after I’d set the weight back down.

“I wouldn’t feel so impressed if I were you,” someone commented from the side. I looked over and saw a brunette girl, who didn’t look even look twenty. “Everyone in here can lift more than that.”

“True,” Lei agreed pleasantly. “But you only beat that by what...barely a hundred pounds?”

Another woman slapped the brunette girl on the shoulders and joked, “Admit it, you’re just happy that you’re not the weakest person in here anymore.”

“Well, she’s obviously not jatta,” the brunette responded, almost pouting.

“Of course she isn’t,” Lei pointed out with a grin. “But that’s not bad at all for someone who isn’t jatta. In fact, she almost made the jatta minimum, which is pretty damn good for any of the other pillars.”

After that, I continued lifting weights for more than half an hour, more to see what I was capable of than because of the exercise. It was pretty clear that I wasn’t as strong as any of the jatta, and I felt a bit self-conscious about that fact, especially as the brunette lifted weights a short distance away, making a point of showing how much more she could lift then me.

When I was done with the weights, Lei slapped me on the shoulder and announced, “Not bad. Not jatta level…but not bad at all.”

I nodded at that, then glanced over to the brunette, who stood a short distance away with a smug look on her face. Obviously, she’d enjoyed showing me up and pointing out that I couldn’t match her, and she was the weakest of the jatta.

“So, what now?” I asked Lei.

“I’ll show you some of our other training exercises,” she responded before holding casually placing her hammer over her shoulder and giving me an almost evil grin. “Then we’ll set you up for a little sparring.”

I stared at the massive hammer, my eyes going wide at the thought of having her swing that thing at me. I finally gulped and squeaked out, “Oh joy…”