Kitsune of the Blue Sun

In the room Keeno and Amaterasu have dubbed the Hall of Valkyries three shining doorways appear behind the seats highlighted by blue torchlight.  After walking through the doorways, the Valkyries sat in their surprisingly comfortable stone chairs. All of them had serious faces as they stared at one another.  The first to speak was Red.

 

[Red POV]

 “Hmm?” (Red)

 

Tilting my head in confusion at seeing the others, also here I was going to ask something when they both jumped up from their seats and rushed over to me. I didn’t even get the chance to move before I felt hands on my head.

 

“Uheeeee~” (Red)

 

“Sorry Red, you’re just too cute to not do this every time I see you.” (Emma)

 

“It’s a strange yet nice compelling feeling.” (Eblana)

 

{There is a reason Keeno and I call her the most headpattable Valkyrie.}

 

Two more hands joined in the headpatting. One was clearly Rasu, the other was Ortilinde.

 

“Orti.” (Red)

 

“Hehehe.  Hello Red.” (Ortilinde)

 

As I was on the verge of becoming a puddle of fluff, the headpats stopped. I instinctually pouted. Just because I was becoming a puddle didn’t mean I wanted them to stop.  Seeing this, Ortilinde began patting me again causing me to smile slightly. I was glad to have her as a sister, she always spoiled me.

 

{Ahem.  Before anything else, thank you for calling this meeting, Eblana.}

 

“It was nothing. Your idea was a good one, and I’m happy to help out.” (Eblana)

 

This time it wasn’t only me who tilted her head. Emma and Ortilinde did as well.

 

{See, I had an idea, totally not because I’m bored and the idiots chasing Keeno haven’t caught up to her for her to deal with them yet, since all of you Valkyries became Valkyries and half Death Spirit, you have gained the ability to use Death Magic and, with the exception of Eblana, should learn how to use it more effectively. So, I asked Eblana to call a meeting with all of you so the two of us can help you both learn how to use your Death Magic more effectively.  Keeno would love to be here to help as well, but we all know what she can’t be, so she sent her best regards. And Ortilinde, even though you don’t have Death Magic, I’m going to help you with your Wind Magic.}

 

Emma started to nod along with Rasu’s words halfway through the explanation.

 

“Faf and I have been experimenting a little, but we were too afraid of what we might accidentally do, so this is a welcome opportunity…actually, should I call her here for this too?” (Emma)

 

{Depends, how are things in Falheim currently?  You two somewhat recently got back from that dragon meeting, right?  Is it fine to leave it with no one powerful watching things?}

 

“Hmmm…It’s probably best to keep her there. Some of the old nobles are starting to get ideas.” (Emma)

 

{You didn’t eradicate them all?}

 

“We tried, but some were more slippery than others.  Sigurd and the few Paladins that have joined him so far have been tracking them down, but they are still just mortal, in a sense, they can stay awake constantly and they have to rest at some point.” (Emma)

 

“Hmph.  Those idiots don’t know just what they are messing with.” (Eblana)

 

“Does Red need to come help?  Red can sniff the mongrels out fast and take them out faster.” (Red)

 

“…If we get Keeno’s permission. I don’t know how long it would take and I don’t want to get you away from Vanir for to long.” (Emma)

 

“Just let Red know when you find them then we meet here, and Red follows you from here. Simple.” (Red)

 

“…We just need Keeno’s permission then.” (Emma)

 

{She’ll probably give it if she’s as bored as I am.  But that can wait, let’s go outside and get to work.}

 

We stood up and followed Rasu outside. Stepping out of the room, a vast landscape full of mountains spread out in front of us.  The room itself had been moved on top of one of the mountains overlooking a massive valley full of orange and blue fire.  Despite all of that, snow gently fell all around us.  Some of the shorter mountain peaks we could see around us were flat and had steam floating up from them.

 

{Oh, please keep the look of this place a secret from Keeno.  It’s a surprise for her when she gets to come here again.}

 

We all nodded.  Rasu then stepped toward the edge of the peak we were on, and a bridge made of smoke appeared.

 

{Follow me.  It’s going to get a bit destructive in practice and I don’t want to somehow damage this place.}

 

We followed closely behind her, Ortilinde holding onto my hand tightly as she was scared, she would fall through the bridge into the flames below.  The others smiled at us warmly the entire way and the two of us were gifted more pats once we were off the bridge.  We enjoyed them immensely.

 

{Now, Eblana will walk the two of you through the most basic stuff.  I know that you’ve both been doing what Keeno and I recommended with practicing your mana control.  Ortilinde, the two of us will work on that and some beginner wind magic.  By the end of the day, you will be well on your way to becoming the best wind mage the world has ever seen.}

 

An extremely determined expression filled Ortilinde’s face.

 

“Then I can finally be worthy of being the daughter of gods and little sister to two more!” (Ortilinde)

 

{Silly little one, you should never worry about such things.  You are worthy enough by being yourself.}

 

Rasu began patting Ortilinde’s head again and her expression brightened like the suns.

 

“Emma…we have our work cut out for us.” (Eblana)

 

“I agree.  I hope we get a few more Valkyrie sisters that can handle giving these two as many headpats as they can take.” (Emma)

 

“I feel like our next sister will be on our side, but there is no telling about the others.  If we get a third one on Red’s side, then it will take all of us to keep them satisfied.” (Eblana)

 

“Yeah.  Though I wonder why Keeno didn’t try to help Ortilinde meet a requirement to become a Valkyrie.  I always meant to ask, but too much stuff keep coming up for me to do so.” (Emma)

 

“It’s too late for that anyway, but I count her as an honorary Valkyrie anyway.” (Eblana)

 

“You two know Red can hear you right?” (Red)

 

““Yes.”” (Both)

 

“Heh.” (Red)

 

All of us separated so we could all have space to work with.  When we were finally ready to start, Eblana had us sit on the ground and watch.

 

“First things first, I won’t be teaching any kind of necromancy due to the nature of the environment and it being one of the most complicated forms of Death Magic.  And before you say any of what you are thinking, Emma, Keeno is different.  What is usually considered difficult or high level, she can do easily due to the fact she is the literal Goddess of the entire Concept of Death.  She is Death herself, after all.  That aside, I need to know how much you already know and how much you are comfortable in wielding the magic.” (Eblana)

 

“Faf and I both have gotten pretty proficient in infusing our magic in weapons or other attacks, and we’ve been trying to improve at purifying souls, but that’s about as far as we’ve gotten.” (Emma)

 

“Red can do the same with infusion, especially when it comes to Red’s Soul Weapons.  It’s a bit harder for Red’s throwing knives, but it works well enough.  Red’s Death Spirit friends have also been helping with purification, but that’s all.  It’s still hard to do that…and something weird has been happening.  Red doesn’t know if it’s supposed to be like this, but sick people keep finding Red, even when Red is trying to work and is hiding.  Always kneeling in front of Red and asking for relief.” (Red)

 

“That’s been happening a lot with me too, now that I think about it.” (Emma)

 

“That’s less Death Magic related, and more Valkyrie related.  Only reason I’m confident in that is because I’ve also been getting the same thing, but it only started after I became a Valkyrie.  But now that I know where you two are at, we can go from there.  Red, I’ll help you with working on keeping the infusion in your knives.  Emma, we’ll work on purification spells.” (Eblana)

 

We nodded our heads and stood up.

 

“Red, show me what you do when you infuse your throwing knives.” (Eblana)

 

I did as she said and took out one of my many knives.  Concentrating on the blade, I infused my mana into it.  Eblana nodded sagely as I did this.  I then turned to a tree that was nearby and threw my knife.  Almost the second it left my hand most of the infusion vanished.  When the knife imbedded itself into the tree’s trunk, only a very small part faded before the vitality in the tree healed it in the next few seconds.

 

“I see.  Your initial infusion is almost flawless, but the follow through is lacking.  When you throw the knife, you need to keep a small thread of mana connected to it, so the infusion stays at full power.  Your knives aren’t mithril, so they don’t hold enchantment or infusion too long after leaving your hand.  The mana thread makes up for that at the cost of using a little more mana than the initial infusion.  Watch.” (Eblana)

 

She retrieved my knife from the tree and walked back over to us.  She infused it with Death Magic and, when she threw it, half of the tree seemed to die before restoring itself again a second later.

 

“…That tree’s vitality aside, did you see what I did?” (Eblana)

 

“Nn.” (Red)

 

I took out another knife and tried again.  This time attaching a small mana thread to it.  When I threw the knife, the thread snapped immediately, causing me to frown.

 

“You did well, you just need to keep practicing.” (Eblana)

 

She patted my head before walking away with Emma so she could help her out next.  For the rest of the day, I continued to try attaching and keeping the mana thread on my knives.  It worked a few times but failed more often than not.  While this made me frustrated, I also kind of enjoyed it.  Every time I succeeded, a warm feeling bloomed in my chest, and I couldn’t help but smile.  I didn’t even realize the entire day went by until Rasu stopped all of us and said it was about time for rest.  Seeing as we were all here, she made a giant bed for us and said we could stay the night.  After a nice bath in one of those hot spring things, we all sat in the bed and talked about our respective countries, stuff we found interesting, and what we felt like doing once we could have free reign to move about the world.  Ortilinde was the first to fall asleep and I followed shortly after, a content smile on my face at having such a fulfilling day and being surrounded by family.

 

Chaos Realm:

How sweet.

Luna: Yeah.  Their specific magic aside, it is always fun to see people work hard and feel accomplished after making progress.

Endeed.

Luna: Speaking of, how did my blessing for those people go?

It went well.  I had to make a deal with the Chaos God as well as the god of the worlds they were in, but it wasn’t that demanding.  Honestly, I feel like I can get along with them, so I now consider them friends.

Luna: Hmm.

Something else on your mind?

Luna: It’s just…after being here for as long as I have, I’ve been able to get a sense of how some things are going to go…and I feel like making a request.

And that request would be?

Luna: Let Keeno and Amaterasu meet up after she takes care of those idiots chasing her.

Easy.  I was planning too anyway.

Luna: Good.