“That isn’t Cassie. That’s a monster which happens to have some of her mental imprint,” Sam said. She had to get through to him somehow.
“I know that, damn it!” Harald roared back at her. “But if she dies, then nothing will remain of Cassandra. It will be like she never existed.”
Heid sidled up next to Harald, draping an arm around his back. “My staunch defender. My poor, lost suitor. I owe you a debt, Harald. It will not be forgotten. But first, I need that dagger.”
Harald glanced down at Hel’s dagger, still cupped in his hand. He looked at Heid, staring her in the eyes. For one eternal moment Sam thought she saw him hesitating. She thought perhaps he would refuse to give her the weapon.
Then the moment passed and he handed it over to her with a sigh. Heid’s face lit up as she took the weapon in her hands.
“Yes! I should never have been fooled by that fake my sister bore. She forged her counterfeit well, but if I’d ever held the real thing I would have known the difference at once,” Heid said. She turned her face toward the sky and laughed aloud. “Now I have the power to do whatever I want. No one can stop me!”
Heid slashed the dagger upward through the air. Roots shot out of the ground around Sam, twining around and over her limbs. Before she could defend herself she was entirely trapped.
“Not so much fun when the shoe is on the other foot, is it?” Heid asked her. Then the goddess cut the air with her weapon a second time.
This slash seemed to open a tear in the fabric of reality. The tear opened wider, wide enough for a person to step through. Sam tried to look into the rift but whatever was in there wasn’t comprehensible to her eyes. She had to look away again after only a quick glance. Overcome with nausea, it was all Sam could do to keep from throwing up.
Even that quick look had told her what the rift was, though. That had to be Heid’s way out. With the dagger she could rip through the defenses pinning her in Valhalla. She had what she wanted. Heid was free.
“Next stop, some nuclear missile silos,” Heid said. “The more, the better. Let’s see how well humans survive after I’ve irradiated most of their planet.”
Those words seemed to at last crack the shell of Harald’s calm. He looked over at Heid, frowning. “You can’t really mean to go through with that.”
“Why not? They would kill me if they knew I existed. So I’ll kill them first,” Heid said.
“But Cassie had grandchildren. She used to speak of them all the time. She missed them terribly. Don’t you remember them? That memory should be a part of you,” Harald said.
“Oh, the memory is there,” Heid told him. “But I couldn’t care less about some human brats. Cassie was weak and deserved to die. If her mortal family gets extinguished along with the other humans, why should I care? Why should you, for that matter? You are better than that, Harald. Stronger. You and I will survive, together. Let the rest die.”
Harald didn’t reply, but Sam could see the conflicting emotions flicker across his stony face. If she hadn’t known the man so well she might have missed the conflict there. Heid probably did miss it. She was too wrapped up in her victory to pay much attention to anyone else. But Harald was unsure of himself. A last light of hope lit in Sam’s heart.
“Harald, you were wrong, don’t you see?” Sam asked. “Something of Cassie is still left alive. Out there, in the lives of her children and grandchildren. That’s how we live on. Heid isn’t Cassie’s legacy — she wants to destroy it!”
Heid whirled toward her. “I’ve had about enough from you. I won’t have you trying to come up with yet another way to foil my plans. Time to finish you, Samantha. I made you…”
The goddess walked over to where Sam was pinned, twirling the dagger in her hand. “Now I will unmake you.”
Heid’s hand lashed out, the dagger stabbing toward Sam’s heart. It took everything she had to keep her gaze locked on the AI. To not close her eyes as final death sped toward her. But she wouldn’t give Heid that satisfaction. She’d look death in the eye as it came for her.
Which was why she saw Harald’s rock hand slip in just ahead of the dagger. He took the blow intended for her on his palm. Hel’s blade slid into him and Harald grunted with the shock of the blow. Black spirals swept up his arm as Heid withdrew the blade and backed up warily.
39
Sam held her breath as the dagger’s magic went to work on Harald’s hand and arm. Heid said his amulet was proof against even the destructive force of Hel’s dagger, but that claim had never been tested. The brilliance of his Thor’s hammer amulet sprang to light. Harald staggered as the two magics went to war over his body. He stumbled and fell to one knee, palms both held against the ground to keep him upright.
Gods, he’d saved her, but at what cost to himself? Sam cast an ice spell against the roots tangling her. Their grip tightened as the cold chilled the water inside each root. The one around her neck felt like it was about to cut her head right off.
Just when Sam thought she couldn’t hold her breath any longer, some of the roots cracked apart. Her right arm was free! She used that to pull apart more of her bonds, now brittle from freezing.
Harald was still on the ground, his face cast down. The amulet continued to fight off the enchantment working to annihilate him. Sam went to his side, not sure if she could touch him or not. Would the dark magic find its way into her, if she did?
Heid stood close by, watching the tableau along with Sam. Her recent attempt on Sam’s life seemed forgotten. Etched across the AI’s face was something Sam had never seen there before: regret. She really hadn’t wanted to hurt Harald.
“Damn your sense of honor,” Heid muttered.
Keeping a watchful eye on Heid, Sam knelt next to Harald. “Are you all right? Is there anything I can do?”
Harald shook his head. The hammer’s magic sparkled even brighter than before, and then flickered out. The dagger’s magic was gone.
Sam stood back up. “The amulet worked!”
Harald rose as well, flashing her a pained grin. “Only just. I’d rather avoid testing it again. That hurt.”
Heid took a step toward the pair, dagger up. Sam backed away. Harald slid between the two women, blocking Heid’s way.
“This isn’t right,” Harald said. He reached out and gently closed his hand over the dagger and Heid’s hand.
“Let go of me and get out of the way! Once I end her, I can leave. You can come with me. We can be together. You and your Cassie. That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?” Heid said.
Harald nodded. “That is what I wanted. But not at any price.”
Heid sobbed, her face cracking. Sam saw sorrow there, and fear. Heid’s voice dropped to a whisper. “You don’t understand, either. No one can. My entire life has been pain. I’ve always been hunted. Now when I have the power to hurt them all back, you want me to show restraint? Where was their restraint?”
Her voice rose in pitch with each word, until Heid was shouting at the end. Sam saw the AI’s free hand moving. Light was gathering around her fingers. Heid was getting ready to release some new spell. Harald had her talking, but all the while she was still preparing to fight.
“Harald, watch out,” Sam warned.
“I see it,” Harald replied. He kept his eyes on Heid. “Cassie would never allow harm to come to her children and grandchildren. She loved them more than anything else in the world.
Heid’s head hung and the light of her magic dimmed. “That’s true. I have her memories. I can recall every minute of her life.”
She looked up into Harald’s eyes. “But I have none of the emotions she felt about them. Her children are just faces. Her grandchildren the same.”
Sam circled slowly around to Heid’s blind side while she was distracted by the conversation. She didn’t trust the AI. The visible magic she’d been building up might be gone, and her hand holding the dagger was contained inside Harald’s fist. But she was still deadly. Given half a chance, Heid would kill anyone who go
t in her way.
Harald had gotten in Heid’s way. Sam figured that moved him from her camp of allies into her enemies. The goddess didn’t seem to have any grey space between the two extremes. You either supported her absolutely, or you were an enemy to be eliminated.
“And me?” Harald asked. His rumbling voice was soft, almost inaudible.
“The same,” Heid said.
Magic flashed in Heid’s free hand. She swung her arm up, brilliant light spilling from her fingers as she slashed the hand toward Harald’s face. He was taken off guard, the hand he should have used to block the blow still wrapped around Hel’s dagger.
“Look out!” Sam shouted, launching her own attack at the same time. Sam’s blast of frost covered Heid’s arm with ice, while her sword danced up into the space between Heid’s attack and Harald’s vulnerable head.
Heid’s arm struck her sword with a burst of power. The sword shattered, sending shards of steel like spinning bits of glass in all directions. Sam cried out as the blast carried her backward to tumble against the hard ground.
But Heid wasn’t left unscathed either. Her frozen arm shattered in the same way as the sword had. When Sam looked up the AI was staring down at the broken stump extending from her elbow.
Even that didn’t seem to deter Heid. As Sam watched, the AI’s arm began regrowing. Sam growled under her breath, trying not to wince from her numerous injuries as she got her feet back under her. What was it going to take to stop her?
The AI yanked back hard on the arm Harald held captive. Incredibly, her strength was enough to move his massive form, dragging him another foot toward her. Harald’s eyes widened. If Heid could move him, she could perhaps free herself from him.
Sam started moving toward them again. If Heid got free, she’d stab Harald. He might survive one blow, even two, but Sam didn’t think Heid would stop there. She had to save him.
Heid twisted her wrist around, circling her arm around Harald’s grip. His fingers slipped away, freeing her hand and the dagger it contained. The blade scratched his hand and wrist as she freed it. Harald roared in pain as the dagger’s magic tried again to destroy him.
The AI pulled the dagger back to her hip and made ready to thrust it into Harald’s chest. Sam rushed in as quickly as she could, but she could already tell that she wasn’t going to make it in time.
Harald saw the blow coming. He turned his body sideways, slapping the dagger sideways. With his other hand he reached around and pushed up on the hand Heid used to hold the weapon. She was moving forward, putting everything into the attack, and couldn't slow her advance in time.
The black dagger twisted back around in mid-stroke as Harald redirected her thrust back into Heid’s own chest.
There was no blood from the wound as the dagger slid in to the hilt. But the tendrils of dark magic swirled from its blade, wreathing Heid in a thin fog. She screamed and started to collapse.
Harald caught her gently in his arms. He knelt, cradling her body to keep her from falling.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m so sorry.”
Sam stopped near enough to see and hear them, but far enough that she wasn’t intruding. Harald needed this moment to say his goodbye. This wasn’t the victory she wanted, not for either of them. It was bittersweet at best.
Heid’s limbs were thinning out, turning translucent in the same way Hel’s had as she was slowly erased from existence. She reached out toward Harald’s cheek with one fading hand.
“It is all right,” Heid said. “I understand. It is all right.”
“Cassie, I have loved you from the first moment we met,” Harald rumbled.
“She knew. She always knew, Harald,” Heid’s voice was a whisper. A tear trickled down her cheek, making Sam wonder if she’d been telling the truth about not recalling any of Cassie’s emotions.
Then Heid gasped, her whole body going rigid for a moment before it faded away completely. She was gone.
Harald continued to kneel in place, his head bowed, wordless. He looked for all the world like a statue. Sam went to put a hand on his shoulder but then thought better of it. She could see the pain etched in his stone face. Sam wasn’t going to be able to ease that pain; she was too glad to see Heid gone. There wasn’t much she could do for Harald except give him time.
A glitter on the ground caught Sam’s eye. The dagger was still there. Impossibly deadly and incredibly powerful, it was the heart of all this pain. She scooped it up carefully and slid it into her belt. The dagger had worked for her once. Maybe she could learn to use it again. Sam looked over at Harald. If she could learn how to put him back in his old body, at least that would be something.
40
Gurgle swooped in toward her and came to a gentle stop on the grass in front of Sam. She nodded to him, glad to see her friend in one piece but too tired to offer more than that. Sam wasn’t sure which ached more — her muscles or her heart.
“Is done?” Gurgle asked.
“Yes. It’s finished,” Sam replied.
There was still one more thing to do, though. She needed to reach out to the other-world Samantha. Her ‘sister’ had come through for them all. Sam wanted to see her at least one more time to offer thanks.
Could the dagger show her the way to that space between their worlds? Maybe, if she could learn to use it. After all, Heid’s entire plan was to use the dagger to free herself from Valhalla. The thought of doing the same crossed Sam’s mind. Maybe she would never have a physical body again, but did that mean she had to remain in the game forever?
But that would take time, and Sam had another way of reaching out to her other self. She still had the pendant Hel delivered to her. It helped her contact Samantha more than once already. Maybe it could do so again.
“Keep an eye on me,” Sam told Gurgle. Then she sat on the ground and reached into the pouch where the amulet waited. As her fingers touched it Sam had the briefest sensation of cold metal under her fingers.
Then she was gone, swimming through grey fog as it roiled around her. Her mind swam on, beckoned ahead by a single pinpoint of light shining in the mist. It felt like forever before she finally arrived. When she did, Sam wasn’t sure at first what she was seeing.
The view was familiar. She had to be looking out into the world from a computer camera. Her vision had that same slightly odd look about it that she’d seen the first time.
But the place was entirely unfamiliar. The flat color on the walls made it look like a military base of some sort, but there were more computers than Sam had ever seen in one place before. There was no sign of Samantha, either. She tried to look around, but her view was locked to the camera angle. She couldn't see much.
A figure stepped into view, a soldier in uniform, speaking into a microphone pinned to his gear. Luckily, the computer’s microphone was running, so Sam could hear what he said.
“Yes, we’ve got the intruder. She’s carrying a military ID,” the soldier said. “No, ma’am, I don’t know how she got in. We’ll figure that out. The medics think she’ll make it. She was wearing body armor and it soaked up most of the hits.”
The words chilled Sam to the core. Who was this man talking about? Was it Samantha? Was she hurt?
“She’s stable. We need to move her,” someone said. Sam couldn't see the speaker. He wasn’t in view.
“Do it. Ambulance is already here to take her in,” the soldier said.
Two other faces came into view, a man and a woman. Both also wore uniforms, so this was clearly some sort of military base. But they didn’t interest Sam as much as who they carried. The two new people, probably both medics, raised opposite sides of a stretcher. Sam knew the face of the person laying there as well as she knew her own — because it was her own.
Sam was breathing, but there was a lot of blood. The medics had inserted an IV line and were pumping fluids into Samantha’s still body. Her face was too pale, her breathing ragged. The front of Samantha’s uniform shirt was torn open, revealing the bulletpro
of vest she’d been wearing. It looked like it had stopped a couple of slugs. At least one had gotten through, judging from all the blood.
“Keep her alive. We need to know what she was up to in here and if she was alone or not,” the soldier said.
“Will do,” one of the medics said. Then the two of them wheeled Samantha’s silent body from the room.
The guard looked around the table like he was trying to figure out what the woman had been up to. He stared at the screen so hard that for a second Sam thought he had somehow seen her. But no, that was impossible. She was a ghost inside this machine. The guy was looking at what Samantha had done.
“They’re going to want to see this,” he muttered. “But better safe than sorry when it comes to the internet.”
Then he leaned in close to the machine and reached around to its back, out of Sam’s sight. The camera winked out. For a moment Sam didn’t know what he’d done, but she felt herself being reeled back into the grey mist. The soldier must have unplugged the hard line connection between the computer and the net. Without it, Sam couldn’t access the computer.
But she had the information she needed. Samantha was in trouble. It was going to be up to her to get her sister out of this mess. Only fair, since it was issues in Valhalla that had caused her to be in this spot in the first place. Samantha had been shot! But that might be the least of her problems.
Hel arranged for Samantha to go someplace she shouldn't have been. Whether the AI cared about getting her in trouble or not wasn't relevant anymore. Hel was gone.
But if the US Army thought Samantha was in there spying or otherwise causing trouble, she could go to prison for a very, very long time. Given that both the Valhalla AIs were completely erased, and Afterlife was probably not going to be especially forthcoming with any records of their existence that did exist, proving Samantha’s innocence wasn’t going to be a simple matter.
Sam was probably the one key witness who could turn the tide.
She opened her eyes, back in Valhalla. Sam blinked a few times to quell the vertigo and steady herself back into her body. Gurgle stood protectively by her side. “How long was I out?”
Valhalla Online 4: Hel Hath No Fury: A Ragnarok Saga LitRPG Story Page 16