Skulduggery Pleasant - Night of the Dying Rose

Chapter 24- Enthymema Dilemma

Skulduggery and Valkyrie walked in silence to the underground part of the Asylum, there were many corridors and doorways, but Skulduggery always seemed to choose on one particular door, when Valkyrie broke the silence for a moment and asked why, he merely said: "I find this door attractive." And that was that, according to Skulduggery. They may have been lost, but it didn't seem to matter to him. It mattered to Valkyrie, Rose could be anywhere and they could walk right her, unprepared. Skulduggery suddenly stopped, and Valkyrie almost walked straight into him. She looked at him, scowling.

"What?"

"I almost forgot, shocking I know. I have figured out who Little Rose is." Skulduggery remarked, sounding rather pleased with himself.

"You have? How exactly?" Valkyrie frowned.

Skulduggery put his hands in his pockets and continued walking, Valkyrie hurried to catch up, and waited for him to continue speaking. "It was when I was told where you had gone by Artemis, this Asylum was famous for child experiments, the doctors claiming that this was helping the children to fix their minds. Though it was never true, apart from one nurse who listened to one troubled child. That one troubled child had burned her parents alive, and also left herself with physical scars from the fire. Resemble anyone?"

"Yes, Little Rose, but this doesn't tell me who she really is yet." Valkyrie replied.

Skulduggery waved a hand. "I'm getting there. This nurse was different to the others, and truly wanted to make a difference. So she targeted the most troubled and aggressive child there was and began talking to her, recording every session to keep track of progress. She thought she was getting through to the child, but in the end, she snapped, and ended up killing the entire Asylum staff, and many of the patients residing in it too. In the last bit of the recording, she said she was Little Rose, and not the name she was before. That name being Maisie Marsel."

Valkyrie raised her eyebrow, and she opened her mouth to speak, only to be interrupted by a light, young voice that was filled with furious humour.

"Oh bravo skeleton, you figured it out." Little Rose said from behind, the grin on her face felt by both.

Skulduggery and Valkyrie both whirled, Skulduggery summoning balls of flame and Valkyrie's hand crackling with white lightning. Both flung out their attacks at the same time. Little Rose giggled, leaping into the air and hovering, flinging out her hand, and sending the attacks straight back at them. The lightning struck Skulduggery and sent him flying off his feet, and Valkyrie rolled to avoid the fire, lest it fried her. Skulduggery sprawled to the ground, but immediately snapped into a roll and came back up, whirling back to Little Rose, only for a pure black energy ball to burn through his chest. Skulduggery jerked back, then crumpled to the ground.

"No!" Valkyrie yelled, running over to him, dropping to her knees. Skulduggery suddenly screamed as she came over, convulsing violently. Valkyrie's eyes widened as she tried to steady him, but froze when the black energy began rising from his chest, but it didn't leave empty handed. Surrounding the energy ball, was the shadows of Lord Vile's armour. The ball floated back over to Little Rose, and she grinned as she examined it.

"This is...this is beautiful, you always did have a taste for theatrics Skulduggery. This armour...pure darkness, perfection. A shame you gave it up. But it seems even when I'm hitting you, you both get back up. Stubborn the pair of you. So I guess if I want to beat you both...I'm going to have to know you both. And what better way to do it by using Mr Pleasant's nasty side?"

Skulduggery groaned from where he lay, slowly sitting up, his voice weak and quiet as he spoke. "You won't be able to control that armour...it's got a mind of its own."

Little Rose raised an eyebrow. "I'm not like everyone else Skeleton, I don't care if this kills me in the end, I just want some fun, the plans that work are just the bonuses of a very fun lifestyle. And plus, I'm very pissed you spoke my real name out loud." Her eyes narrowed a fraction.

Skulduggery grunted as he stood, Valkyrie supporting him. "Don't take it to heart, I tend to annoy a lot of people by saying names or insults they don't like, it doesn't make you anymore special. It'll just make you more dead if you wear that armour."

Little Rose smiled, and clicked her fingers. Valkyrie's eyes immediately darted to the walls as they lit up with sigils, and suddenly, she couldn't feel her body, and she fell to the ground, paralysed, from the corner of her eye, she saw Skulduggery fall as well. 

Little Rose skipped up to them, the energy ball of shadows hovering above her hand. "I'm sure you'd love to stop me, but I can't allow that, but don't worry, it's only on a timer, I wouldn't want you to down without a fight, I just want to batter you up a bit first. It'll be fun when you're both dead and I know my true name. Think of all the people you love that I will kill. Omen, Temper, Tanith, Augur....Oh that reminds me, haven't you noticed that none of these people have been around whatsoever since Abyssinia left and you found out that Alice was aura-less?"

If Valkyrie could have stiffened at that moment, she would have, instead she lay there. Useless.

"Oh I'm sure you do, that's because I sent out a powerful wave of magic that scared them all off, they took it as a warning from a fellow mage of the sanctuary to leave, that they're too valuable to die, well apart from Omen but I had to send him away too unfortunately. They're all around the world, hiding away in the hiding places I gave them, so I'll find them anyways, it just means that your only allies are the people I chose not to sway due to their greed for power, or their fear of leaving the house, just you two, standing against me and my disciples. What fun hm?" Little Rose's grin widened.

"You won't kill us with that armour..it'll recognise me.." Skulduggery muttered.

Little Rose shrugged. "I know that Skeleton, like I said, I just want to batter you about for now."

"But why?"

"Because I'm waiting for a surprise to happen Skeleton, either from you, or from the people coming. But for now...let's play a game...hide and batter."

With that, Little Rose crushed the energy ball in her hand, and the shadows exploded, snapping towards her, wrapping around her as she gasped and laughed breathlessly, taking them in. Accepting them. For a moment, as Valkyrie watched helplessly, she thought the shadows would rip Little Rose apart, but they suddenly settled, beginning to form smaller gauntlets and armour plates. And Little Rose grinned, the grin being hidden by a shadow mask fixing into place.

"We...may have a dilemma." Skulduggery murmured weakly.