Valkyrie's Last Warrior

Chapter 6

Valkyrie stirred in bed. She thought she was hearing faint music drifting into the room from somewhere and asked herself, "What is that? Debussy?"

She tried opening her eyes, but found they were dry and gummy. Lifting up her head to look around the room, she realized that her blurry vision made it difficult to see any details. The only thing Valkyrie could be sure of was that she wasn't in her own bedroom. The color scheme of the space was off; there were too many rich colors on the walls.

Valkyrie felt panic blooming in her gut and tried to sit up, only to collapse back onto the soft bed, from pain that burned through the right side of her body. She slowly lifted her hand to her face and touched a spot that was causing her a lot of grief. When her fingertips came in contact with the tender area, she winced from pain. Valkyrie attempted to sit up once again, but this time, she moved a lot slower, being mindful not to cause any unnecessary pain.

She gingerly repositioned herself into a more comfortable position and massaged her eyes in an attempt to coax them into seeing more clearly. As the eyes adjusted to her surroundings, she muttered, "Where the fuck am I? What the hell happened to me?"

"From what I can tell, you got into a scuffle with one of the Tel-com executive's security and took a tumble down a flight of stairs at the convention center."

Valkyrie had no idea someone else was in the room with her. When she heard the unfamiliar voice of a man, coming from her left, her entire body tensed. She whipped her head around towards where the voice was coming from, and her eyes, which were finally back in working order, spotted the source of the voice. Even before her eyes landed on a man sitting in an armchair, she instantly regretted moving her head so quickly, because another burst of pain, this time behind her eyes, had made her groan and clutch her head in her hands.

When the pain from the headache was under reasonable control, she recognized the man sitting on the far side of the bed. Thoughts of him had been filling her entire day for the past several weeks. It was Agust Dae. This realization made another wave of barely contained panic roll through her mind. However, she knew she couldn't allow the pain, panic, or the shock to cloud her mind. Instead, she made the most valiant attempt at maintaining her cover as long as possible. She scooted away from the man, and asked, in a tone that clearly communicated her fear of this stranger sitting in front of her, "Who are you? Where am I?"

Agust sat up straighter in the armchair he had been occupying and said, "You're in my home and I believe we've already been introduced. Although, I'm not entirely sure which name I should call you. Bryn Hilder? Lorelei? Janie? Or is it, Lisa Smith?"

Valkyrie swallowed hard at his questions and realized how dry her throat was. Gathering whatever moisture, she could, she swallowed hard as she tried her best to come up with a believable enough lie to tell her host. However, the headache she was sporting was a hair over the threshold of clear thinking and she remained silent.

Before she could give him any answer, Agust added, "What I would really like, is for me to be introduced to you, by your real name." He raised one eyebrow and kept his eyes on hers, as a playful smirk hitched up a corner of his lips. When he saw the divine woman sitting up in his bed, looking back at him with a look of gobsmackery, he felt his face break out in a broad grin.

Valkyrie took in a small gasp at the sight. She watched in awe as a genuine smile softened and turn his normally solemn and inscrutable face into something innocent and beautiful. She didn't realize she had been staring at him for an uncomfortably long time with her jaw slightly slack, until Agust cleared his throat lightly. As if she was in a trance, Valkyrie shook her head to clear it. Lacking an answer to his question about her name, she made an executive decision to ignore his last comment and asked, "You say we've been introduced previously, but I don't know who you are."