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I stood atop the wall of Val Halla, silently staring off into the mists. I saw images in those mists, shifting and changing whenever I took my eyes from them. There was a city…a mountain…a forest…and then nothing at all. These were just shadows from the real world, flickering across the proverbial wall.

Then I turned my attention to the barren stretch of grown below me, and to the daemons that were circling Val Halla. There was a mixture of daemons present, some minor ones that weren’t much of a threat, but there were also larger and much more dangerous creatures as well. Each and every one of them had been drawn here by their instincts, drawn to try reaching the other side of the wall and the anchor point that was protected within.

My eyes settled on one daemon, a three headed monstrosity. I clutched my bow tightly and took aim, not bothering to aim for any of the heads. I remembered this type of daemon from one of Lindrell’s lectures, and in spite of having three heads, it only had one brain. Its brain…or at least what served as one…was hidden in its torso. So after taking careful aim, I charged my arrow and let it fly. The arrow hit the daemon in the side, in the spot closest to its ‘brain’. I blew a large hole in the creature, but it wasn’t quite deep enough. Fortunately, I hadn’t used all my essence with that last arrow, so I let all the remaining essence flow from the bow to the second arrow, then I fired that one, right into the hole I’d already made. The daemon fell over dead.

“Good shot,” Lindrell announced from beside me, giving me a nod of approval.

“You totally pawned that noob,” Julie added with a broad grin before teasing, “But you still didn’t one shot him.”

Shannon, who was also standing on the roof with us, and who was the only one with a bow beside myself, didn’t say a word. Instead, she took aim at another daemon and released the arrow, hitting the creature in the neck. He howled in pain and then ran off into the mist. Her arrow hadn’t been charged with any essence, so had merely been a normal arrow, which was of limited use against a lot of these daemons.

In spite of the fact that Shannon and I were shooting at daemons, we weren’t actually up here for target practice. Instead, that was merely the way we were entertaining ourselves while we waited. Without saying a word, I fired another shot, one that lacked the benefit of being enhanced. I hit one daemon in the head, and that was immediately followed up by one of her shots, catching the same daemon in the head.

It had been a week since our big battle, and though the first few days afterwards had been all about resting, healing, and mourning, the rest of the week had been a return to training. We’d been training even harder than before, focusing more on how we would work together as a team. We’d even done group sparring, with our triad going against others. Of course, we outnumbered all the other triads, but our sparring partners had usually been able to find a fourth member to join them for the match in order to make things fair.

This morning, we’d been doing more group sparring when Ionne had arrived and put a halt to things. “Go to the south wall for a demonstration,” she’d told us before turning and leaving. Now my triad was standing on top of the south wall, waiting for whatever it was that Ionne wanted to show us.

We didn’t have to wait long before a section of the stone wall opened up, courtesy of two notru, who’d created a small gate. Four women walked through the opening and into the barren daemon filled ground. I immediately recognized Freya and her three generals…or more accurately, I suddenly realized…Freya’s triad.

Ragnhild charged in front, swinging a massive axe that was much like the one Lindrell used. She drove her axe right into the skull of a large daemon, killing it with a single powerful blow. However, other daemons quickly began to converge on them.

I reached for an arrow to help, but Lindrell put a hand on mine to stop me. “No,” Lindrell said, not taking her eyes of the fight below us. “Our purpose here is to observe…not to interfere.”

Ragnhild was facing off against another large daemon while Sharra swept her long spear along the ground, sending a ripple of stone to knock back most of the approaching daemons so they didn’t get overrun. While this was happening, Ailsa stayed close and called out warnings, prioritizing the approaching daemons and using a bow to shoot at those which were most vulnerable. This was an experienced and well-practiced triad.

Freya seemed to be everywhere, quickly leaping into any opening where she was needed. When Ragnhild faced a massive hellhound, Freya moved to the side and used her double sided spear to impale the creature in the throat. When a daemon charged their backside, from where Sharra wasn’t able to cover, Freya suddenly leapt at the daemon, driving her spear into the creature. There was a flash of lightning from her spear and the daemon fell to the ground dead. However, Freya didn’t stop and dwell on that creature, but shifted again, taking a small daemon that had made its way too close.

I watched the fight in amazement, realizing that Freya was trying to demonstrate not only what a properly trained and experienced atra could do, but also how an atra fit in with a triad. I certainly wasn’t the only one who was impressed by this display as increasing numbers of Val Kyr climbed up to the walls and joined in watching. I heard enough comments to realize that most of these women had never seen Freya in combat before, and they were definitely impressed.

When another large daemon at them, charging while Ragnhild and Sharra were both occupied, Freya took that one as well, repeating what she’d done the last time almost exactly. She drove her spear into the daemon and there was another flash of lightning, which left the creature dead.

I was a bit stunned by that move since there hadn’t been enough time for Freya to build up the essence to charge her weapon again so soon, but she had. But then, I realized that this wasn’t what had happened at all. Jatta and kearn don’t charge their weapons in the middle of a battle, they charge their weapons slowly, keeping them fully charged until they need to unleash essence stored within. Freya hadn’t charged her spear twice…she’d gone into the fight with it already charged ahead of time.

As the fight continued, Freya found another opportunity for a powerful strike, dropping her spear and drawing her sword, then immediately unleashing the essence that was already stored within. She sliced right through a large daemon with ease, earning some gasps of amazement from the audience. By this point, I’d realized that she was cutting loose with her essence a little more than she really needed to, mostly just to show off and impress everyone. It was definitely working.

The fight lasted only a few minutes more, leaving dead daemons scattered about while the remaining daemons retreated into the mist. There were cheers from the gathered Val Kyr while one woman announced, “That is why she is Freya.” It took me a moment to realize that the speaker was Hilde, who seemed to have taken a break from her kitchen in order to watch the show.

“That was awesome,” Julie exclaimed when it was all over, nearly bouncing with excitement.

“Impressive,” Lindrell said with an amused look.

I nodded agreement, in a bit of a daze as I thought about what I’d just seen. Freya had been moving around a lot, using her reflexes and awareness to be where she was needed most, and then to strike hard and fast. If that was how an atra was really supposed to fight, then I was pretty sure that I couldn’t keep up…at least not like that.

In video game terms, most of Freya’s essence manifestations provided a lot of burst damage, but mine didn’t. Sure, I could provide some nice concentrated bursts of damage with a bow, but not with a sword or spear. Instead, those manifestations were more like damage over time effects, which would require a somewhat different strategy to use. Still, I’d learned a great deal from watching Freya, and I was already considering how I might make use of it.

Once Freya and the others had come back inside Val Halla, the notru guards sealed the entrance they’d made and returned it to being just another blank section of wall. The audience had already begun to disperse now that the action was over, so we left the wall as well and went to find Freya. She and her generals were waiting for us.

Ragnhild had a grim look of satisfaction, the kind that might make kids run away in fear. The fact that she was cleaning her axe with a rag probably would have contributed to that quite a bit. “It has been too long since I’ve been able to properly stretch my muscles,” she commented.

“That it has,” Sharra agreed, leaning on her spear and appearing to be in a good mood, in spite of the fact that she had daemon blood splattered across her cheek.

“It was decent exercise,” Ailsa admitted grudgingly. “Yet still pointless.” She gave Freya an odd look and said, “One new atra will not change what has come and passed. You know as well as I that the time of the atra has passed and that there will be no more.”

“Perhaps,” Freya responded with a faint smile, one which clearly said that at the moment, she was Ionne rather than Freya. Then she looked over my triad, her eyes settling on me for several seconds before she said, “I hope our demonstration will be of use in learning to integrate your new center.”

“It was…educational,” Lindrell told her, pausing to glance at me with a thoughtful look. “And that does give me some ideas for further training…”

“Good,” Freya responded, her eyes going to me and then Julie before telling Lindrell, “Make sure they are on time.”

Lindrell merely bowed her head slightly. “Of course.”

I was about to ask Lindrell what Ionne meant, when a Val Kyr hurried in our direction. She was dressed in normal civilian clothes and wouldn’t have drawn any odd looks back home, if it wasn’t for the blood on her shirt. “Freya,” she exclaimed, almost frantic.

“Patrice,” Ionne greeted the woman, shifting back to her Freya body language right before my eyes. “Report.”

Patrice stopped and bowed quickly to Freya. “Connie,” she started, pausing with a look of anger and grief flashing over her face. “The young woman I was sent to recruit…”

“Where is she?” Ionne asked grimly.

“Daemonites,” Patrice responded with a snarl. “I’d barely made contact when daemonites attacked…”

Ionne…Freya scowled with a cold look. “What happened?”

“They killed Connie and her whole family,” Patrice explained, barely containing her own rage. “How did they find us so fast?”

Freya stood there for a moment with calm expression that hid the grief I felt from her. “Victoria will need to be informed of grand-daughter’s fate…” Then Freya began leading Patrice off without even looking back at us. “Come…you will tell me everything.”

“Oh my God,” Julie blurted out once Freya had gone. She suddenly looked pale, obviously remembering how the daemons attacked us at school…and probably realizing how lucky she was that they hadn’t come after her when she was at home with her family.

Shannon and Lindrell shared a dark look, then Lindrell admitted, “As you well know, this isn’t the first time daemonites have attempted to kill our new recruits. We think they’re trying to cripple us by killing our new recruits before they even become Val Kyr.”

“We don’t know how they’re finding us so quickly,” Shannon admitted.

I grimaced, remembering the daemon that had nearly torn me in two, reminding myself yet again of how lucky I was to survive. I’d lost nearly everything because of those daemonites, but I was still alive and how I had a purpose.

“Why don’t we ask our prisoner?” I suggested, knowing that Freya’s geis was still active.

Of course, we hadn’t actually gotten a whole lot from our daemonite prisoner, due mostly to the fact that he nearly bit his own tongue off in order to keep from talking. But once he was healed up enough to talk again, we’d go back to the questioning. For now, the guards were making sure he was gagged, with a mouth guard to prevent him from trying that again.

“You haven’t heard?” Lindrell asked, giving me a curious look. At my blank expression, she explained, “He killed himself last night. Somehow, the daemonite was able to slip loose enough to summon a lesser daemon…which then killed him.”

“Suicide by daemon,” Julie said with a shudder.

Lindrell nodded at that. “Freya and her generals will decide how to deal with that issue. For now, there is no need for you to worry of this.” She paused, giving us both gentle looks and adding, “Go and take some time for yourselves. We will meet again in three hours.”

I nodded at that, thankful for the rest. Yesterday, the training had gotten a little rough…as it usually did. However, my injuries hadn’t healed quite as fast as normal, or at least not all of them had. After the training, my guts had felt like they were in knots, and it had only gotten worse. Even now, when every bruise from this morning had already healed up, my guts were still knotted up in a very uncomfortable way.

“That whole daemon fight was awesome,” Julie told me with an excited grin as we started back towards our living area. “I mean, did you know Freya could fight like that?”

“You should try being on the receiving end of it,” I responded with a faint smile. “Trust me…it hurts.”

“Oh yeah,” Julie responded, giving me an odd look as she remembered that Freya was my mentor. “I don’t know if you’re lucky or unlucky…”

“It depends on the day,” I said with a weak chuckle, thinking about of the days she got particularly rough with the training.

We were nearly back to the area where we lived when the knot in my gut suddenly clenched up painfully, making me pause and let out a loud gasp as I waited for it fade. “Are you okay?” Julie asked me with a worried look.

“I’m not sure,” I answered honestly. “Victoria kicked me in the stomach pretty hard when we were sparring yesterday, but instead of healing, it seems to be getting worse…”

“That’s weird,” Julie said, giving me a surprised look. “I mean, your Val should have healed you right up already…”

“I know,” I told her with a forced smile. “I think she messed me up a lot worse than I realized.”

Julie stared at me for a moment, then let out a sigh. “Then stop moving around… Sit down and give it a chance to heal…”

“That was what I had in mind,” I agreed. Then I paused at the entrance to the restroom and added, “If you’ll excuse me, I have to use the little boys…girls room.”

As soon as I was in a bathroom stall, I began undoing my armor so I could do my business. I’d been wearing the armor every day for the last week, so I’d become quite familiar with the process and was able to do so quickly and easily. I felt a faint amusement at that fact, since not that long ago, I never would have expected to wear armor outside of a cosplay, and certainly not enough to become comfortable in it.

Once I’d removed my armor enough to relieve myself, I froze and stared down at my blood soaked panties with a gasp of shock and horror. I was bleeding…enough to soak my panties and even run down my leg beneath the armor. For a moment, all I could do was stare at the blood, then I realized where the blood was coming from and I felt an even greater surge of horror and disgust.

“Oh shit,” I gasped, my first thought being that I’d been hurt a lot worse during my training than I’d realized. I must have ruptured something and had internal bleeding. But then, I suddenly realized that this wasn’t a training injury at all. This was something far worse. “Oh hell no…”

“Michelle,” Julie said from outside the stall, her voice filled with worry. “Are you okay?”

“That depends on how you define okay,” I responded with a weak joke. Then I groaned, feeling shocked, horrified, disgusted, and relieved that I wasn’t really injured…all at once. I was such a confused mass of emotions that I just burst into tears.

“Michelle,” Julie demanded. “What’s wrong?”

I tried wiping away the tears and spat out, “I’m bleeding somewhere I shouldn’t even have…”

“Bleeding…,” Julie started. “Oh my God… You’re having your period?”

“You don’t need to sound so happy about it,” I snapped.

“Sorry,” Julie told me, but I was pretty sure she was smirking as she said it.

I pulled out a massive wad of toilet paper, thankful that this place was stocked with the good quality stuff, not that it would do any good against this mess. “This is gross, nasty, disgusting…”

“You’re preaching to the choir,” Julie said in a cheerful tone that really made me want to hit her…or at least give her a raspberry.

I spent several minutes simultaneously cursing and crying before Julie coaxed me out of the stall so I could get cleaned up. Fortunately, my armor had slowly become saturated with essence during the last week, making it not only lighter and more comfortable, but also making the blood come out with ease.

I was humiliated, though Julie was sympathetic and helpful rather than teasing me. Of course, I had no doubt that the teasing would come later, once I wasn’t freaking out quite so badly. And to make it worse, I knew that I should have expected this. Lindrell had provided sanitary products along with the clothes, cabinet, and mirror, so I’d had plenty of warning that it would happen eventually…but I’d been oblivious. Or more accurately, I’d been in denial.

While I was cleaning up, Julie ran to my room to get me some pads, tampons, and clean panties, then patiently advised me on how to use them. The whole time, I told myself that this was some kind of karmic payback from when I was twelve years old and had teased one of the girls at school after I’d found out she was having her period. After this, I was NEVER going to laugh at a girl for going through this again.

Once I was cleaned up and presentable again, I left the restroom, though I really wanted to just go into my quarters, lock the door, and hide there until this all went away. The only thing that kept me from doing this was the fact that Julie went through this every month and never made a big deal about it. If she could walk around in public while bleeding from her yoohoo…so could I.

“During my first time,” Julie told me sympathetically, “my mom gave me a glass of wine and a tub of Ben and Jerry’s…”

“We don’t have either of those things here,” I reminded her.

However, Julie just snorted and pointed out, “I don’t think we’ll have any problem finding the alcohol…not around here. And I know for a fact that Hilde has a lot of chocolate stocked up in the pantry…”

Julie and I went to the cafeteria where we immediately ran into Nicole. Nicole was now completely healed and showed no signs that she’d been injured a week ago, though the same couldn’t be said from her armor. It had been repaired enough that she could wear it again, but it still showed indications of having been damaged.

“Hey,” Nicole greeted us cheerfully. “That was a great show earlier…”

“Yeah,” Julie agreed with a broad grin of her own. I just grunted.

Nicole gave me a curious look and asked, “Who pissed in your Cheerios?”

Julie snickered at that, then bent over and whispered in Nicole’s year. Nicole’s eyes widened and she stared at me for a moment before she burst out laughing.

“It’s not funny,” I snapped, only to have both girls giggle.

“Actually,” Julie told me with another snicker. “It kind of is.”

I glared at them both, only to earn more giggles. However, Julie stopped me from turning around and going back to my quarters, and a couple minutes later, I saw sitting down at a table with a mug of mead and a thick slice of chocolate cake. Julie and Nicole both swore that this would help ease the symptoms, though I suspected they were just using that as an excuse to have a snack.

Eventually, it was time to meet up with Lindrell and Shannon again for more training, though I definitely wasn’t in the mood for that now. Still, I wasn’t about to wimp out and give Julie and Nicole an excuse to laugh at me more.

When we met back up, Lindrell gave me a curious look before carefully saying, “You look…upset. Is something bothering you?”

“She’s having her first monthly visitor,” Julie told her.

I glared at Julie, feeling even more embarrassed than before. “Do you have to tell everyone?”

“Sorry,” Julie told me with a sigh, suddenly looking a little guilty. “I guess I’ve always kind of wished I could see what a guy would do if he had to go through this like we do… I guess I kind of forgot just how rough it was during my first time…”

I hesitated a moment, giving her a suspicious look. However, she did look sincere, so I relaxed a little. “Just ease off…”

“I’ll try,” Julie told me, giving me a quick hug. “Sorry if I’ve been a little bitchy about this.” Then she giggled faintly and teased, “I mean, you’re the one with the excuse for it…”

I glared at Julie but Lindrell said, “I think Michelle could use some understanding.” Then she looked to me and gave me a gentle smile, putting a hand on my shoulder. “This is a right-of-passage…an initiation into womanhood.”

“This seems to be a day of special events,” Shannon said in a calm and even voice, though I thought I saw a faint hint of a smile.

Lindrell nodded at that, then simply said, “Come.”

Lindrell didn’t lead us to one of the usual training areas, but instead, started for the central building that contained Freya’s throne room. I was a little surprised at that, and by the fact that there were more than a dozen Val Kyr already there, most of them ones I knew. I suddenly felt a powerful sense of deja-vu as I was reminded of my first time in this room.

“What’s going on?” Julie asked before I could.

“Come on,” Lindrell said, giving both of us an amused look and gesturing for us to continue.

Julie and I shared a confused look as we continued to the front of the throne room, stopping in the area right in front of the throne. Freya was already there, as were her three generals. I noted that Julie’s mentor Natalie was standing up front as well, with a broad grin on her face.

Freya stood up from her throne and looked over the throne room, smiling faintly as she settled her eyes on Julie and me. “Julie. Michelle. There is an ancient tradition among the Val Kyr…one which has existed for nearly as long as our order.”

I blinked at that, still feeling confused by what was going on. I’d already had enough surprises today and wasn’t sure I was up for handling yet another. However, from the way Lindrell was smiling, I was pretty sure that at least this one wasn’t going to be nearly as bad as the last.

Natalie came forward, holding a spear in her hands, though it wasn’t her usual spear. It looked nice, much nicer than the training spears that I’ve practiced with, and more along the line of what most notru used for real.

“When your mentor has determined that you are qualified for battle,” Freya continued, looking to Natalie and smiling faintly, “It is our tradition that they present you with the gift of a weapon.”

With that, Natalie held the spear sideways and presented it to Julie, doing so in a formal…almost ceremonial way. Julie gasped, staring at the spear for a moment before taking it.

“Thank you,” Julie said, her voice choking up a little from emotion.

“Use it well,” Natalie told her, looking quite proud.

“But Julie is not the only one to have earned their weapon,” Freya said, turning her full attention to me and having a proud smile of her own. “Michelle, as your mentor, I am proud to present you with a weapon of your own.”

Freya…Ionne reached behind her throne and pulled out a bow…a black compound bow that looked just a little different than any I’d ever seen before. She presented the bow to me in the same way that Natalie had given the spear.

As I accepted the bow, feeling a little overwhelmed by the present, Ionne continued, “This bow is custom made for someone of atra strength.”

I stared at Ionne for a moment, then held out the bow and drew the string back. It definitely offered more resistance than any of the bows I’d used in Val Halla, but it wasn’t too much at all. In fact, it was nearly perfect.

“Thank you,” I told her, my voice choking just as Julie’s had. Then, I was embarrassed to realize that tears were starting to flow down my cheeks, though no one said anything about that, much to my relief.

“You’ve earned this,” Ionne told me with a smile. “Use it well.”

“I will,” I promised, wiping the tears away and looking forward to trying out this new bow.

“Congratulations,” Bethany called out from the crowd while Lei, Fleur, and Nicole all echoed this.

Gretchen, who stood near the front of the crowd, bowed her head, saying, “I look forward to seeing you use such a weapon.”

“As do I,” Shannon agreed, giving the bow a curious look.

Lindrell just stood there with a proud smile, probably because she was our primary trainer and there was no way that either Julie or I would have earned our weapons without her. I had to wipe the tears from my cheeks again, and before I could think of what to say, Lindrell put an arm over my shoulder, then reached over to grab Julie as well.

“I am quite proud of both of you,” Lindrell said. Then she added, “But do not think this means your training is over.”

“I fear their training will have to wait,” Ionne stated, her expression turning serious again. With that, she was once again Freya, and she was all business. “I have a mission for your triad.”