The Eternal Valkyrie

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Their shouts echoed down the sparsely lit and damp corridor that housed the cells. Heather pressed her head towards the bars and angrily shouted towards Meixiu "What do you mean you awakened her?!!!"

"Unfortunately." Meixiu mumbled. She paid no attention to Heather's outrage, her eyes having lost any glimmer of hope.

"Heather calm down." Fishlegs told her. "We don't know the whole story here."

"What 'whole' story?" Heather growled before angrily pointing to the Chinese girl. "She's the reason we're stuck in this cell and Thor knows what is happening to my brother!"

"You really do care for him don't you?" Ruffnut suddenly asked from next to her, stilling in her lock picking. She and Tuffnut had started working at nearly the same time at the museum as Heather and Dagur. At first it looked like Heather didn't like her crazy brother, but as a sister herself she saw the small signs. Heather leaving her desk sometimes to make sure that Dagur ate if he was busy with a translation, or giving him a stern talking to when he did something idiotic like the time he chased after Hiccup with a Roman sword.

Heather shot Ruffnut a look. "You might just admit it." Ruffnut smirked. "From one sister to another I know how frustrating brothers can be." Heather raised a brow at Ruffnut before saying. "Ruffnut there is a difference with being a sister and being related to Tuffnut." Heather shuddered at some of the things the twins had done while working at the museum. They were the cause of many of Alvin's grey hairs.

"Meh, potato tomato." Ruffnut shrugged. Heather let out a sigh as she knew Ruffnut wouldn't drop it. "Fine" Heather mumbled. "Yes, I look out for my crazy brother." She admitted. "I've been looking out for him since before we were adopted by the Master."

"Wait... back up......." Ruffnut said. "The head of the Society is your dad?!"

Heather shrugged. "So what?"

"Just didn't expect that." Ruffnut mumttered. Heather didn't say anymore on the subject and instead turned back towards Meixiu. "Start talking." She demanded. "Who or what is that...... that... Empress!"

Meixiu let out a sigh before she asked "What do you all know of the Tang dynasty?" At this question both Heather and Ruffnut looked at Fishlegs.

"My speciality is the later Ming dynasty but I do have some knowledge of the Tang dynasty." Fishlegs told them and thought for a bit. "It was the dynasty that preceded by the Sui dynasty and was followed by an era of political upheaval called the five dynasties and ten kingdoms period. The Tang dynasty was seen as a Golden age for Chinese civilization."

"That is correct." Meixiu stated. "Our tale begins in this era when a mysterious object fell from the sky."

"A mysterious object?" Heather muttered as she thought for a moment. "Wait you can't mean...."

"One of the Valkyrie's artifacts." Fishlegs finished for her. Meixiu thought for a moment and then said "I don't know anything about this valkyrie but it was a cloak unlike any other. No person could touch it, not even the Emperor who was considered to be divine. The cloak would burn any and all."

"Yup sounds like our item alright." Ruffnut stated.

"So what happened to the cloak?" Fishlegs asked as the curiosity was now killing him.

"The Emperor ordered it brought to the palace. The story goes that it took eighteen men who suffered various degrees of burns to transport it all the way. Once in the palace he presented it to his second wife Empress Wei."

Fishlegs' eyes widened when he heard the name and everything clicked. "Hold on Empress Wei.... are you saying that the mummy that we saw upstairs was actually THE Empress Wei?!"