And Darkness Rained Upon Them

Chapter 2 - Secret Connections

Chapter 2 – Secret Connections

“Oh God, he got away, now how the heck am I going to explain this,” I muttered almost to myself.

Valkyrie stormed over to me her face a thunderstorm of rage, “You let him get away with that poor girl! You don’t know what unimaginable amount of torture she could be put under! You’ve probably never had or never will have that kind of torture put to use on you! And who the heck do you think you are butting in on our case?”

I sat still and calm letting my magic replenish the strains in my legs bringing them back to full strength and then letting it fix my jaw as best possible, then slowly I stood. “My chosen name is Raven Nevermore. I decided to ‘butt in’ on your case because you alone wouldn’t have been strong enough, you’re training has been good but not rigorous. And I’ve known more torture in my previous seventeen years than you will probably ever know in your life. Now I would like to speak to Mr Pleasant if you don’t mind.”

“How dare you say that to me,” Valkyrie screeched, she then launched a set of shadows at me, which knocked me off my feet, she then summoned flames in her hands them began to throw the balls of fire at me.

“Valkyrie, I must insist you stop. You will only end up getting yourself hurt,” Skulduggery said in soft tones but with a forcefulness that would make most reconsider their actions.

“Yeah,” I growled, “You should listen to Mr Pleasant, Valkyrie. You really don’t know what you’re messing with.”

“I know all I need to,” She snarled, “You’re a year older than me and you think you’re so much better than me. You think you’re the big it! Well I’ll show you how wrong you are!”

By the time she finished her tirade, I was already on my feet. Without warning she tried whipping a trail of shadows at my ankles to distract me, I banished them by using my pure black arm braces infused with shadows, then as she ran at me I jumped high, clearing both shadows wayward punch, as I fell from the jump I cracked the heel of my boot into her nose, completely shattering the bone inside. Valkyrie fell to the floor hands clasped around her gushing nose, blood dripping through her fingers.

Skulduggery just looked at me shrugging his shoulders as in a ‘What can you do?’ kind of way. The skeleton carefully made a noise as if to suggest he was clearing his throat, “So you wish to speak to me?”

“You honestly don’t care that I broke you best friend’s nose,” I asked incredulously.

“Ah, well that is all very true but it seems to be beside the point at the moment. You seem to be highly important in these recent events because even the ‘fearless’ Mr Sanguine seemed to be terrified of you. Now why is that? However, it would be interesting to know what your quarrel with my partner is?”

“I’d rather we didn’t talk about this with her here. But it is vital that I manage to speak with you Mr Pleasant.”

The detective paused, “That is entirely acceptable. Where would you like to continue this tête-à-tête?”

“I have a plan you’ll just have to trust me.”

“I find that perfectly reasonable,”

Valkyrie turned to look at Skulduggery pure shock and dread filled her face.

“I trust her completely. I’ve got a gut feeling, and I trust my gut,” Skulduggery stated.

“B-but, you don’t even have a gut… You’re a skeleton.” Valkyrie murmured weakly.

“Ah, right, very true my dear Valkyrie. Brilliant skills of deduction working out the whole skeleton fiasco, that one had me puzzled for a while. At least I’ve taught you first-class skills of deduction,” Skulduggery remarked with more than a hint of sarcasm.

She could only grunt a reply, the pain becoming too much for Valkyrie, I stooped low easily picking up the young girl and laying her on the bed in the nurses office. I then set to work, tapping a symbol on my katana morphing it quickly into a sharp quill. Etching a symbol into my hand, barely noticing the pain anymore, I raised it to her shattered nose and vaguely muttered some words from that same ancient language. To anyone else it would have seemed a miracle, to someone magical it would have been an interesting party trick, and to me it was just my usual sort of spell. Valkyrie’s nose snapped back into place with a sharp popping nose and a crunch to finish it off at the end.

“Right, now that’s all sorted. Down to business. Do you trust me detective?”

“Most people would never trust a stranger. However I am not most people, yet broke my colleagues nose then fixed it. This isn’t a usual circumstance but I willing to trust you, because you somewhat remind me of a dearly departed friend name Gordon,” Skulduggery mention conversationally.

I winced at the mention of my father’s name. It still hurt. After all this time, the wounds are still raw. He’s why I keep training; I’m fighting and living my life in his memory. I’m even still writing for him, under a ghost name, even though I could never compare. Snapping back to reality I could see the detective staring at me. “Well then, would you like to step into my office so I can tell you my plan?” I beckoned him over to a spare bed.