A Valkyrie's Apprentice: Book Two

Destiny

– T A Y A H –

I had been waiting for a sign. A warning. Something to burn in my chest and tell me when that god would find me. It made me flinch from sounds. Draw blades on non threats. Burn power into my hands near the one I lived for the most.

My valkyrie's words and actions had been soothing. A nice patch to a wound that was growing.

All my skill hadn't prepared me for the night it found me. The gods never warn anyone.

The room was warm, too warm and heated by a fireplace as we all slept in the baker's loft. Maybe that had roused this. Maybe heat drew to heat. But when my dreams found me they were nothing of my own. I tossed onto my side as sweat trailed my face.

The realm was unfamiliar and old. Ancient power.

I walked alone, across crystalline steps that rose before a mountain shrouded in clouds. I shrugged the snow off my shoulders. Then I noticed it was not snow but ash.

The winds blew an air too hot for snow around me. The mountain, not a mountain but a volcano. A source of fire so hot it could reforge the mountains themselves. And a whisper in the air, not faint but loud. Beside me and around me. Urging me onto the pinnacle.

There was no where else to go. The clouds devoured the steps behind me and revealed the only way ahead. The thin pathway to the top of power. Every step became easier not harder. The voice going more sure, more intelligible.

I dragged in a hot breath that tasted like smoke and strength.

Then I reached the top. The platform was open and revealed the ring of rock circling the smoking crater within. The heat hit me instantly. An orange-red glow beat below me like a heart.

"Here she stands." A voice rumbled around me and within me.

I spun on my heel, drawing for damandium I didn't have here. A chuckle shook my bones and sat heavy on my shoulders.

"No form for you to regard, daughter." The low drawl echoed.

I found the glowing heat below in smoke and stared it in its entirety.

"What is this..." I whispered, watching the crater like it would explode out at me in a blink.

"Your future." It answered simply, glowing brighter. I felt every inch of the flame bound power in my being. "Your existence is the manifestation of a long lost power, dear daughter. And I am so very glad to be in your presence at last."

I shuddered at the feeling of the heat wrapping itself around my body both in protection and incredible power. I stepped back from the lip and steadied my hands.

"I don't want it. This is not my own–"

"Do not crumble at such things, Tayah Ashrive..." It resounded around me. "What you have within you is not limited to what Odin dictates. Your fear lies in the power because the entity wielding it in Valhalla is a valueless liar and a manipulator."

I shut my eyes and tried to push the feel and presence of the god away entirely. The enticing lure of it all and rip myself out of this nightmare.

That chuckle sounded again but it was almost a sigh.

"You waste your breath. I know who it is that lacks value in the realms."

"Is that I? Tayah Ashrive... Are you certain you hold all the truths?"

"I am certain you will do whatever you can in your climb to reach your power once more." I stated emotionless. But feeling so much more than my voice portrayed.