--------------------

“Come on,” I argued, giving Julie a steady look. “You’ve got to love a guy whose answer to the zombie apocalypse is to create his own zombie T Rex…”

“Yeah, Dresden would be pretty useful,” Julie admitted, “but I’d still rather have Anita Blake… I mean, not only is the Executioner a total bad-ass, but she’s also a necromancer…”

I snorted at that. “Not to mention, she’s a borderline psycho who’d probably shoot you if you even looked at her wrong…”

“What in the world are you two arguing about?” Lindrell demanded, looking at Julie and I as if she suspected we were crazy…or as if she was sure if it and was just looking for proof.

I looked to Julie, suddenly feeling embarrassed at having been caught like this. This morning, we’d been doing light training, which mostly meant classroom work and learning more about previous daemonite incursions so we knew more of what to expect. When we’d taken a break from this just a short time ago, Julie and I had gotten caught up in an old discussion that we occasionally went back to.

“We were discussing our ideal zombie apocalypse teams,” Julie volunteered, looking just as embarrassed as I felt. I groaned since it sounded even more geeky when said aloud. “I mean, which fictional characters we’d pick for our teams…”

“I see,” Lindrell responded, though the look on her face clearly indicated that she didn’t.

Julie and I looked at each other, then burst out laughing. Shannon, who’d been sitting on the other side of the courtyard from us, came over and commented, “The only name they gave that I recognized was Gandalf.”

Lindrell gave us an amused look and said, “I would have thought that preparing for real monsters and battles would have been enough to satisfy you, without resorting to make believe ones.”

“It’s a hobby,” I responded with a shrug.

“I know,” Lindrell responded with a faint smile and a shake of her head. “You’ve disrupted my classroom with that same conversation once before.”

“Oh yeah,” I muttered, turning bright red as I remembered how she’d called me out in front of the entire class and humiliated me because of it. I’d gotten so used to Lindrell the Val Kyr that I’d almost forgotten that she was also my old bitch of a teacher. Of course, her teaching methods hadn’t really improved since then, though now she used physical pain rather than embarrassment in order to drive home a point. As I’d learned, that was the Val Kyr way.

I let out a sigh, knowing that Lindrell was right, that after dealing with real monsters, the fictional ones were no longer nearly as exciting. That wasn’t actually any surprise though since I’d realized the same thing when we’d been back on Earth during our mission to help Cindy. However, our conversation about zombie apocalypse teams actually had little very little to do with the zombies and was more about just having fun, the way we used to before the strangeness came into our lives.

“Has there been any news of the incursions?” Shannon asked Lindrell, her expression going grim.

The daemonite incursion into Kenya had been completely cleaned out after four days, but just two days ago, we’d learned of two more incursions. One had been in Ontario Canada, while the other had been somewhere in Romania. Teams had been immediately dispatched to both places, each of which was composed of five triads. Because of that, Val Halla was starting to feel just a little empty compared to normal.

“The campaign in Romania is making good progress,” Lindrell told her with grim look of her own. “But the one in Canada is having difficulty due to daemons scattering into the nearby forests. They’ve requested reinforcements, so two more triads are being sent.”

“Not ours, I assume,” Shannon said.

“Not yet,” Lindrell agreed. “But with the current level of daemonite activity, we need to be prepared.”

With that, Lindrell and Shannon wandered off, talking about how we could improve our training so our triad would be fully ready the next time we were sent on a mission. So far, we’d done pretty well, but I was under no illusions and knew that a lot of that was luck.

“So,” I started, looking back to Julie. “Where were we?”

“Zombie apocalypse teams,” Julie reminded me with a grin.

A short time later, Julie and I got up and started back towards the library again so we could meet up with Lindrell and Shannon, when I once again found myself having to walk past Jass. As usual, when she saw me, she sneered and gave me the stink-eye. I was used to that reaction from her, so I did my best to ignore her as I went past.

But then, Jass said, “Julie…you shouldn’t associate with that convert…” As always, she said the word ‘convert’ as though it was a profanity. “She’s just like Estrid, and it’s only a matter of time before she shows her true colors…”

Julie froze at that and glared at Jass. “I’ve actually met Estrid,” Julie told her in a cold tone, “and I have to say…you’re a lot more like her than Michelle is…”

Rage flashed over Jass’ face, and she was suddenly in Julie’s face, demanding, “What did you say?”

“Come on,” I told Julie, having a very bad feeling about this. “We don’t have time for this…”

“You’re right,” Julie agreed and started to turn, though Jass grabbed her arm and snarled, “Don’t walk away from me…”

Dealing with Jass always left me angry and frustrated, so as soon as she’d grabbed Julie, I immediately snapped and shoved her away. “Leave her alone…”

Jass reacted with all the speed a kaern was capable of, and I barely registered she was moving before she’d punched me in the face. She hit me a second time, splitting my lip, before I was able to start defending myself. It was difficult to focus and stretch my awareness under the onslaught of her attacks, but Ionne had given me plenty of practice so there were only a couple seconds of delay.

I snarled as I threw myself at Jass, feeling pissed off, though a part of me was almost happy since I finally had an excuse to beat the crap out of that bitch. I slammed into Jass with my shoulder, driving her back. However, she grabbed my hair and pulled, yanking me off balance and then kicking me in the face. I returned the favor by punching her in the gut, making her double over as she tried to catch her breath.

“Stop that,” Julie yelled at us, though neither Jass or I listened. This had been building for too long.

For a brief moment, I thought I saw someone jumping at me from the side, but when I snapped around to block, there was no one there. Even as I realized that Jass had just used one of her kaern tricks on me, she was hitting me in my now exposed side. I grunted and snapped around, using my leg to sweep her leg from beneath her, though she was almost immediately back on her feet.

Suddenly, the ground beneath us exploded and we were both thrown back. I managed to land on my feet, though Jass landed on her ass. I looked to Julie, just a second before a voice yelled, “ENOUGH!” Then I snapped around and saw that it was Sharra who’d interrupted out fight, not Julie. And she did NOT look happy. “What is the meaning of this?”

“I was wondering the same thing,” a familiar voice added. A knot of dread formed in my stomach, and I stared at the ground in shame as Freya walked towards us. From her body language and expression, she was in full Freya mode.

“I found the two ladies fighting and had to break them up,” Sharra told Freya.

Freya stared at me with her intense gaze, making me feel as though she was looking right through me. I squirmed uncomfortably, suddenly feeling like I was a kid again and had been caught fighting on the playground over who had the best crayons. From the corner of my eye, I could see that Jass looked like she probably felt the same way I did.

“Explain,” Freya commanded in a calm but firm tone.

Ionne was my mentor, and though she could be brutal in our training, she was still approachable and human. Freya, on the other hand, was still pretty damn intimidating. In a way, it was almost as though I thought of Ionne and Freya as being two different people, and at that moment, I definitely would have preferred to be dealing with Ionne.

Julie glared at Jass and was about to say something, when I answered, “We were just sparring and got carried away.”

“Just sparring?” Freya repeated, her expression shifting subtly so that I caught a glimpse of Ionne.

“Yes ma’am,” Jass answered quietly. “We were just sparring.”

Freya stared at Jass for a moment, then back at me. She obviously didn’t believe that in the least, but instead of calling us out on the obvious lie, she simply stated, “You know it is against the rules to spar outside the designated sparring areas.”

“Yes ma’am,” Jass and I responded simultaneously.

“Then it is fortunate that you were…just sparring,” Freya said. “It would be inappropriate for two Val Kyr to resolve their differences by acting like drunkards in a tavern brawl.” Her expression went back and forth between Jass and I again, making us both sink down in shame. “As Val Kyr, it is likely that you will one day have to fight shoulder to shoulder…and rely on each other to guard your lives.”

Jass grimaced and tensed up, obviously not liking that idea. I was pretty sure that if Freya hadn’t been standing in front of us, she would have gone off on some rant about how she’d never fight alongside me, or something else like that. I certainly didn’t like the idea of having to rely on her to watch my back, but like Jass, I was smart enough not to say what I was thinking right then.

“Since you were…just sparring,” Freya continued, once again looking back and forth between us with a flat expression, “You will continue to spar in a designated sparring area…with neither armor nor arms…until dinner.” The tone of her voice made it very clear that this wasn’t a suggestion. “Consider this an opportunity to improve your unarmed combat skills…and your self-discipline.”

With that, Freya turned and walked off while I just stood there in surprise, not sure if I’d gotten off easy or not. Instead of getting punished for fighting with Jass, Freya had not only given me permission to continue doing so, but had effectively ordered me to keep fighting her. However, we were supposed to spar until dinner…and it was only halfway to lunch.

Then with my enhanced awareness, I was able to overhear Sharra talking to Freya as they walked away together. To my surprise, Sharra was actually chuckling, and told Freya, “You know, I remember a time when you rather enjoyed a good tavern brawl…”

Jass and I glared at each other, though neither of us said anything since there were now other Val Kyr around, curious about what was going on. Julie gave me a worried look, glared at Jass as well, and then went with Jass and I as we went to the fourth courtyard where we could continue where we’d left off.

“Now I’ll teach you a lesson in humility,” Jass announced once we were in the chosen area. Then she spat out, “Convert…”

“Bring it on, bitch,” I responded.

Julie stood back, well out of our way, while Jass and I slowly began circling each other. I stretched out my awareness, knowing that I couldn’t afford to get distract while dealing with a kaern like Jass. Distraction would leave me open to her perception tricks, as well as to her fast paced attacks.

Jass made the first move, charging at me and throwing a series of punches. I began reacting to each move the instant she started to make it, allowing me to block most of her attacks, though she reacted to mine even more quickly. Eventually, she managed to grab hold of my hair again and yanked, but I followed up with an elbow to her side.

“Go get her, Michelle,” Julie cheered from the side.

As we went at it, the differences in our fighting styles became pretty clear. Jass had better reflexes than I did, but not by much, while I was noticeably stronger than she was. Since we were fighting unarmed, I couldn’t use a rapidly charged weapon, which normally would have been a major asset against a kaern. I realized that this was probably one of the reasons Freya had instructed us to fight without weapons.

I felt a surge of satisfaction as I punched Jass and felt her nose break beneath my fist, though seconds later, her nails dug deeply into my cheeks and left painful and bloody gouges. We backed off from each other for a moment so we could each catch our breaths, then we went at it again, renewing our attacks with whatever strategy we thought would work.

While we fought, other Val Kyr came to watch, stayed for awhile, then drifted away. I barely noticed who most of our visitors were since I was keeping most of my attention on Jass, but Lindrell and Shannon arrived early and remained for most of it.

After two hours, I was tired, my whole body was covered with bruises and scratches, and I was sick of looking at Jass much less fighting her. However, when we paused to rest for more than a couple minutes, our audience yelled at us to continue, reminding us that Freya hadn’t just given us permission to fight…this was also our punishment for our earlier fighting.

Eventually, our time was over and I just collapsed to my knees, feeling utterly exhausted. I didn’t quite feel like I’d been hit by a car, but it was close. On top of my entire body being bruised, I had two black eyes, a broken nose, a busted lip, two missing teeth, and two of my fingers had had actually been broken as well. I was amazed that Jass had been able to do this much damage without using any weapons at all, but at least I’d given just as much as I’d received.

“Michelle,” Julie exclaimed rushing over to my side and giving me a worried look as she helped me back to my feet. “You look like crap…”

“That’s appropriate,” I joked weakly. “Because I feel like crap.”

“I’m certain a hot bath and a few hours of rest will do wonders,” Lindrell said as she came over and gave me a reassuring smile. “We’ll get you an ice pack to help for now…”

“Can you help me out?” I asked Lindrell hopefully. “A little extra jatta…”

“I’m sorry,” she responded with a sigh. “But Freya gave orders that you were both to heal normally…without assistance.”

Julie gasped. “That’s just mean…”

“Perhaps,” Lindrell agreed. Then she had a strange look on her face before adding, “Some of Freya’s punishments can seem cruel, but she always has good reason.”

I grimaced and looked over to Jass, who was a bruised and bloody mess, which was probably about how I looked. She was being helped to her feet by Shannon, while one of her other friends was handing her a bottle of booze, which suddenly made me realize that I was thirsty too…and starving. We’d fought straight through lunch and without any real breaks.

“I think that next time,” Lindrell told me with a faint smile, “you and Jass should resolve your dispute with an archery contest instead.

I nodded agreement with that, dreading the idea of ever having to fight Jass like this again. Then again, that was probably Freya’s purpose in making us fight for this long…to get it out of our systems. I had to admit, Freya knew what she was doing, thought that certainly didn’t mean my issues with Jass were over. Not by a longshot.

Though I needed to get cleaned up, I was also hungry and wanted to eat first. We went to the cafeteria, and it said something about the Val Kyr training methods that most women there didn’t even give me a second look. If I’d gone into the cafeteria of my old school like this, people would have freaked out and called immediately called 911.

While we ate, Julie kept giving me worried looks, though Lindrell acted as though my beating was nothing unusual. Then again, this certainly wasn’t the first time I’d come to dinner all bruised and battered from training, so I guessed this really wasn’t any different after all.

“I think you really need to work on defense a little more,” Julie said, cautiously reaching out towards my face but hesitating just short of touching me. “Damn, that bitch really did a number on you…”

Lindrell smiled faintly, then pointed out, “Michelle held her own against an opponent with a century of experience.” There was a note if pride in her voice as she said this.

Once we were finished eating, we started for the showers. I was more than eager to get out of my training uniform, which was so torn and soaked with blood that it would have to be thrown away. All I could think of was how good a nice hot soak would feel.

As we arrived at the bath house, Jass was just on her way out, obviously having decided to clean up before eating instead of the other way around like I had. She gave me a glare and muttered a profanity under her breath, but she made no effort to approach me, much to my relief.

Shannon had made it to the bath house ahead of us, probably having gone in with Jass, and she was already soaking in one of the pools. I felt a little betrayed as I remembered how she’d immediately gone to check on Jass instead me when we were in the same triad, but I squashed it down. After all, not only were Shannon and Jass both kaern, and friends long before I’d ever come to Val Halla, but they were also related somehow. I couldn’t really blame Shannon for wanting to check on her.

“Jass didn’t seem all that happy,” Julie commented as she climbed into the water, gesturing in the direction the other Val Kyr had gone.

Shannon just leaned back in the water and didn’t even look at Julie as she answered, “I just finished listening to her rant about how converts always cheat…”

Julie snorted at that and proclaimed, “She used just as many dirty tricks as Michelle.”

“More,” Shannon agreed with an amused smile.

“There is no such thing as a dirty trick when you’re fighting for your live,” Lindrell reminded us, which was something she’d said more than once during our training.

I just climbed into the water and let out a long sigh, “That feels good…”

“Definitely,” Julie agreed, giving me a grin.

After a minute, I turned to Shannon and asked, “Why does Jass hate converts so much anyway? I mean, the whole thing with Estrid happened way before she became Val Kyr.”

At first, Shannon didn’t answer, nor even look at me. Instead, she just stared off into space before finally said, “That isn’t really my story to tell…”

I nodded faintly at that, a little annoyed and even disappointed, but not surprised. After all, I wasn’t sure I’d want my friends to talk about me behind my back either.

But to my surprise, Shannon continued. “But perhaps you do have a right to know why she is so hostile towards you…” She finally looked at me, scowling a little as she added, “It isn’t personal. Her problem is with men in general…and extends to former men.”

“It certainly looks personal to me,” Julie said.

“In her old life…before becoming Val Kyr,” Shannon explained with a sad look, “Jass was mistreated by nearly every man in her life…including her father and brothers.”

“Oh,” I responded quietly, not sure I really wanted to know what Shannon meant by ‘mistreated’.

“At the age of thirteen, her father sold her to a brothel,” Shannon grimly told us. “At the age of fifteen, one of her…customers…” She spat the last word out, anger flashing through her eyes as she continued, “became too rough and she was forced to kill him in defense. Law enforcement cared little for the fact that he’d taken a knife to her skin, only in that a whore had killed the mayor’s son.”

Julie blurted out, “Holy shit,” while I just stared at Shannon in horror. I never would have imagined it, but I suddenly very sorry for Jass. And I could sort of understand why she disliked converts as well. She’d been given good reason to distrust men, and I imagined that she saw what had happened with Estrid as proof that converts couldn’t be trusted either.

“I saved her from execution and recruited her,” Shannon said, shaking her head sadly before fixing her eyes on me. “She’s earned the right to her anger, though sadly, it has been misdirected as of late.”

I nodded at that, not asking any more about Jass. I’d just learned much more about her than I ever really wanted to know, and it only made me feel more uncomfortable with our feud…almost as though I had somehow started it. I snorted at that, having to remind myself that she was actually the one who kept insulting me, not the other way around.

The four of us sat in silence for the rest of our long bath, and by the time we climbed out, much of my bruising had already healed. At this rate, by tomorrow morning, I’d be good as new and ready to start another brutal day of training.

We were in the process of getting dried off when another Val Kyr came into the bath house and walked straight towards us. “Lindrell,” she announced, looking straight at Lindrell. “Freya wants you and your triad to report to her office as soon as possible.”

“Did she provide a reason?” Lindrell asked.

“I’m not at liberty to say,” the messenger answered before she hurried off again.

“Then I suppose we should go see what Freya requires,” Lindrell mused.

We finished drying off and got dressed as quickly as we could. A short time later, the four of us reported to Freya’s office. She was inside, standing up and looking over a large table which had numerous papers and maps spread across it.

“Freya,” Lindrell greeted her. “You summoned us?”

“Yes,” Freya responded, turning and sweeping her eyes over each of us. Her expression was grim, so I knew that whatever this was, it was bad. “We’ve just learned of another incursion.”

“Oh shit,” Julie whispered from beside me, obviously remembering the town she’d seen wiped out.

Lindrell’s expression was just as grim as Freya’s now, though the mention of another incursion had immediately done that to all of us. “Then I assume we are to deploy.”

Freya nodded faintly. “I am dispatching five triads, and you will be leading this response team.”

“Understood,” Lindrell said. Then she gestured to the rest of us and added, “You summoned the whole triad…not just me.”

“Yes,” Freya agreed, a strong note of sadness slipping into her voice. Her eyes darted to Julie and then me before she turned her attention back to Lindrell. “Your triad will be critical in this mission as three of you are already familiar with the terrain…”

For a moment, I felt a little confused, wondering where Freya could possibly be referring too. After all, I couldn’t think of anyplace that three of us were familiar with when the fourth wasn’t…except maybe the area outside of that town in Australia. The others had explored that area, but I’d never left the town itself. But then, I suddenly realized what Freya meant and let out a gasp of horror.

“Oh no,” Julie gasped with the same look of horrific realization that I had. “We’re going home…”