“I wasn’t angry with you, but now I am. Fuck you, Madalena. You could have let me go, but you brought me here to die.”
“You will not die. Odin is--”
“Fuck Odin!” I screamed at her. “Fuck you, fuck your people, fuck your god. I saved you and your crew because I help people. Now I have to hang because you decided you needed to marry me. It’s bullshit.”
“No, my lord. I am giving you--”
“You know what?” I interrupted her. “I have an idea. You say you are submitted to me. How about I order you to take me back to Persephone? Then I order you and your fucking friends off my ship. Then I go back to Queen’s Hat and find my friends. I get to live, and you get to go back to whatever the fuck you were doing before I found you.”
“No,” she said, and her normally impassive face looked a bit surprised by my outburst. “I cannot let you leave now. I am sorry that I--”
“You can’t let me leave now? What does that mean? I’m going to be on the fucking surface of your planet. You’ll be leaving me then.”
“I cannot let you leave our fortress until you have begun your rite of passage.”
“In that case. Get the fuck out of this room,” I said as I pointed to the door.
Madalena’s eyebrows creased as she looked from my eyes to the door where I pointed. She didn’t say anything, and I felt my stomach tumble.
“Get. The. Fuck. Away. From. Me.” I repeated slowly.
“Yes, my lord,” she said as she looked at the ground. “I will return to prepare you for--”
“I don’t want to see you again,” I spat. “You’ve killed me, and my friends. All I did was save your life.”
She stared into my eyes again, and I felt a flurry of emotions hit me in the chest. Pride, fear, and sorrow. It came from her like the scent of strong perfume, but her face didn’t betray any of those feelings.
“I am sorry, my lord. I will leave you. Send for me if you wish, and I will come eagerly.” She paused after she spoke, maybe to see if I would change my mind, but I continued to point at the door.
Madalena pivoted on her feet and exited without saying another word.
I sat down on the couch, leaned my head back against the fabric, and let out a long sigh of relief. My outburst was stupid. Madalena was the only person in this place who wanted me to live through the rite of passage. Everyone else wanted me dead so she could continue with her mission. I shouldn’t have told her to leave.
I leaned forward in my seat and turned to look at the door. She was standing right on the other side, waiting for me to change my mind. All I needed to do was call for her, and then she would come return to me. All would be forgiven, and I could spend a few more precious moments with her before I had to start this bullshit quest.
“Ma--” I opened my mouth to call her back, but then I closed my teeth with a snap. What the fuck was wrong with me? She did this. I told her she didn’t need to submit to me, and she did it anyway because she wanted me. Eve, Zea, Paula, and Kasta were prisoners in some Magate Order cell, and Madalena’s bullshit was going to end up with my death.
There was no way I would ever stop caring for Zea and Eve. There was no way I could forget about them because Madalena was now submitted to me.
“Fucking leave!” I grabbed my glass of wine and threw it at the door. It shattered into over a hundred pieces and sprayed the dark red liquid across the walls.
Madalena was still standing on the other side of the door, but she heard me scream, and walked away a few moments after the glass broke. I didn’t know how I understood where she walked, but I did, and I sat back on the couch with my head in my hands.
“Fucking think, Adam,” I whispered to myself, but the only idea I could come up involved getting out of this room, first. Then trying to figure out how to get back to the massive harbor. Once there, I’d have to get on Persephone, force Madalena’s crew off, and then start blasting off to Queen’s Hat.
There were a lot of challenges with that plan, most importantly was the problem of not having a clue of how to return to the hangar. I was all sorts of lost in here, plus I knew there were guards outside of this room.
I pulled my face up out of my hands and stared into the fire for a few moments. I noticed the screen above the hearth was still on, and I saw the display of “Vanaheim” or whatever Madalena called the place. Movement caught my eyes, and I jumped up from the couch so that I could look at the image.
I slid my fingers over the screen and the map paned to my right. There was a small harbor there, and three ships were taking off. In the background, I saw dozens of other vessels lifting away from the spires of the city. My fingers moved over the image to zoom out some, and I counted a few hundred shuttles.
Were any of those ships going to the fleet orbiting the planets? Could I stow away or steal one? The fortresses’ harbor was huge, but I had a general idea of where Persephone was parked. If I could find a ship on one of the planets; I wouldn’t even need to finish the rite of passage. I could just fly into this hold, get on Persephone, and leave.
Of course, I would have to figure out how to get Madalena’s crew off.
I almost laughed aloud as soon as I thought of the problem. They were all submitted to the Prime Valkyrie, she was submitted to me. Couldn’t I just order them off my ship? They might ask Madalena, but I was sure I could pull rank on them. I needed to get them off long enough to start the engines, turn around, punch out of the harbor’s force field gates, and then engage the warp drive.
I sat back down on the couch and spun the plan around in my head. The more I thought about it, the more I liked it. I could avoid all this bullshit if I just got the fuck outta here with Persephone. Sure, I wanted Madalena’s help, especially since she knew where I could find the Magate Order, but I wasn’t going to be able to help my friends by hanging from my neck for nine days.
I’d just end up deader than an imaginary Norse god.
That left me with my first problem: Surviving on these planets until I could stowaway or steal a ship, and I thought about the problem up until the door to the waiting room opened.
Chapter 3
“It is time, Adam,” the woman who opened my door said. I recognized her as one of the lightly armored warrior women who had shared the dais with King Vaish. She had long brown hair and features that reminded me of Madalena.
I stood up from the couch and walked toward the woman without speaking. Her eyes glanced up and down my armor before she focused on the uncovered spot on my chest.
“I am Laufey. Madalena asked me to assist with your cleansing process. Are you ready?” Her words were heavily accented, but I could understand her well enough.
“Does it matter if I’m ready?” I asked.
“No, it does not,” she answered as she gestured me to follow her.
I glanced at the stuffed uiun-bair one last time as I left. How in the hell Madalena had killed the thing with a spear? I realized I wanted to talk to her about it, but thinking of her just made me angry, and I pushed the thought out of my head.
“We will start by shaving your body,” Laufey explained as we walked.
“Why?” I asked.
“It signifies you are removing all of your past associations so you can join our people. Afterward, you will receive a massage before a salt bath.”
“Sounds like a spa treatment. Is this standard practice to give everyone that goes through a rite of passage this--”
“Only if they are performing a rite alone. They are intended for those who were not born Nordar, or were part of an enemy clan.”
“Each clan has a different rite of passage?” I asked, less because of actual curiosity, and more because I knew I wasn’t going to be doing a lot of talking to anyone in the next few weeks.
“Yes and no,” she said. “They are similar enough but molded for the planets that each clan has available to them. This is our solar system, and we do not allow rival clans to use our worlds for their rites.”
�
��So someone from the Jotnar clan can complete rites with their people, and then they would also have to complete this rite if they wanted to join your clan?”
“Yes,” she said, “and we would have to do the same if one of our clan desired to join them.”
“But no one lives through Odin’s rite?”
“No,” she said with a frown. “There are few who decide to change clans, most prefer death in battle or the life of a thrall.”
“Thrall? What is that? It sounds like a slave.”
“It is, but it isn’t,” Laufey said.
“Madalena said your people don’t take slaves.” I fought against the anger in my stomach.
“Thralls,” Laufey said again. “They are rival clan members who are defeated in combat. They choose to serve.”
“Instead of dying?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Sounds like slavery to me,” I replied.
“If you were taken prisoner in combat, would you rather rot in jail or have meaningful work?” The woman shrugged as she spoke, and the movement seemed a bit odd. Laufey appeared to express her emotions a bit more than the other Nordar men and women I had seen. She was practically a melodramatic actress when compared to Madalena.
“I’d want meaningful work,” I said after I considered for a few moments. I didn’t tell her that I would also try to escape.
“Exactly,” she replied.
We didn’t speak for a few more minutes, but I noticed the woman glancing at me every few moments.
“What?” I asked.
“Hmmm?” she raised an eyebrow.
“You keep looking at me,” I said.
“Perhaps I like the way you look.” She actually smirked, and I almost did a double take.
“You seem different from the rest of your people,” I said.
“So do you,” Laufey replied, and then she gestured to a door ahead of us. I followed her inside, and the guards escorting us stayed in the hallway.
The room we entered felt similar to the throne room. The ceiling was high above me and painted a dark blue. There were more trees here, and their roots seemed to grow out of the ground of the fortress. They smelled real, but not a single leaf decorated the floor. A four-meter high pile of boulders was off to my left, and a stream of water cascaded down the face of the rocks. The spray ended in a pool of cyan colored water. Steam rose from the bath, and I saw two blonde women were dipping their feet into the water.
The women both wore simple white dresses that flowed down to their knees, and they turned to face us when we approached.
“Greetings, Laufey,” one of them call out as she waved to us.
“Greetings, Nilda,” my escort said. Then Laufey turned to me and gestured to the edge of the pool.
“Would you like Madalena to attend to you?”
“No. I don’t need a massage or a soak in your pool, either.” The water did look inviting, but I preferred to get going with this bullshit.
“Are you sure?” Laufey asked with a raised eyebrow. “She has submitted to you. It will be a much more enjoyable experience than with just the three of us.”
“I’m not looking for pleasure. Get it over with so I can do what you assholes want me to do.” I noticed a massage table standing a few meters to the side of the pool, beside it was a small wooden chest and three buckets.
“Ha,” Laufey let out a light laugh, “She was right about you.”
“I’m sure she was,” I growled. “You need to cut my hair or something. Get on it. I have friends waiting.”
“We will take off your clothes and armor first,” Laufey said as she gestured to the blonde women soaking their feet in the pool. The pair stood and came to stand around me with Laufey.
“Whatever. Just hurry,” I said.
They spoke in their own language as they removed my armor. I heard “Prime Valkyrie” mentioned a few times, but I couldn’t put any other meaning to their words.
Once the plates of my armor were off, the women moved to take off my flight suit. It was still covered in blood from the wound, and Laufey pressed her fingers against my back and chest while she spoke in an excited whisper. The other two women spoke words that sounded like a question, and Laufey chuckled.
“You look like Madalena,” I said when the other woman began to tug my suit to my hips.
“Yes,” she said with a nod.
“Are you related?” I asked when Laufey didn’t explain.
“She is my daughter.”
“I wondered. You look young, and I thought you might have been siblings.”
“I am not serious. It keeps me young.” Laufey laughed, and the other two women joined her as they unfastened my boots.
Laufey finished pulling down my suit, and I stepped out of my boots and clothes so that I stood naked.
The blonde woman named Nilda said something in her language, and the other two women laughed. It was probably the last sound a man wanted to hear when he was standing naked in front of three beautiful women, and I felt the animal in my stomach begin to growl.
“Nilda said she wishes she was the Prime Valkyrie,” Laufey explained, and the blonde woman who spoke blushed.
The other blonde woman said something between her bouts of giggling, and she smiled at me.
“I won’t repeat Fiuna’s words exactly, since it is a bit crude, but she’d like to know if she can submit to you.” When Laufey finished speaking, Fiuna also turned red, and she spoke rapidly as she mock slapped the other woman’s arms.
“Did you say you needed to cut my hair?” My question interrupted the women’s giggling, and Laufey nodded.
“Yes, please sit over here. I apologize for our humor. You are an unusual occurrence, so we are having fun.”
“Can we hurry this up?” I asked as I sat on the rock Madalena’s mother indicated.
“Of course,” the woman said as she rested her fingers on my shoulders.
The two blonde women moved to retrieve the buckets and chest from beside the pool. They set them beside the rock where I sat, and then they filled the buckets while Laufey began to sort through the chest.
“You should enjoy yourself more,” she said over her shoulder.
“Hard to enjoy myself when I know I’m going to die.”
“We are all going to die,” she commented as she stood from the chest with a few bottles in her hands.
“I think you know what I mean,” I replied as she moved behind me.
“I think you know what I mean as well,” she countered.
“I have friends who need me. They were captured by slavers. I don’t have time.”
“I am sorry to hear that,” she said as she picked up a bucket of water. The woman poured it over my head slowly, and I slowly felt some of the tension in my shoulders begin to ease.
The blonde women sat on either side of me on the rock and took one of my hands in theirs. I was about to pull my arms away from them, but they each began to rub my fingers, and the pleasure radiated up my tense nerves.
“Were they your women?” Laufey asked as she ran her nails through my wet hair.
“Huh?” I asked as I struggled to keep my eyes open. Her fingers felt magical on my scalp, and my mind started to drift away.
“Your friends. Were they your women?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “Two were my lovers, the other two my friends. We have been through alot together. I made a mistake, and they were captured.”
“You are hard on yourself,” she said as her nails lightly dragged across my scalp.
“If I’m not, who will be? It was my fault.”
“You are a good fit for my daughter. I am sorry she has angered you.”
I didn’t answer, and Laufey continued to massage my scalp while the other two women rubbed the tension out of my hands. As much as I wanted to hurry up with this, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a massage. The three women were skilled with their hands, and I was finding it hard to keep my attention focused. I finally gave up an
d relaxed my thoughts. They scattered and went a million different directions at once before they settled on a memory.
My mother was crying, and I’d come out of my room to ask her what was going on. I was a child at the time, maybe only seven, but I guessed what the problem was. She was a good-looking woman; still young, but the task of taking care of my sister and I took a toll on her.
She spoke to me, but I didn’t hear her words in my memory. I still remember what she said though, one of the places she worked had laid her off, and she was going to have to find another job. She smiled at me and said everything was going to be okay, but I was old enough to understand the fear in her eyes.
I had asked her if I could help, but she shook her head and told me I already helped her a bunch by taking care of my sister. I told her I could do more, but she said she would figure it out. I just needed to focus on being a kid.
The next day, I ditched school, snuck onto the maglev train, and went to the industrial district. Most of the production plants were automated and didn’t need any additional workers, the places that weren’t machine-controlled told me they wouldn’t hire a kid since they had a line of adults looking for a job, but I eventually found a naval ammunition supplier. The owner was a real shitbag, but that was what I was looking for. He gave me a job picking up ammo casings from the floor, pushing crates across the warehouse, and cleaning the toilets. He paid me a tenth of what the adults made, but it was a job, and I worked my ass off so I could give my mom a little help.
The work was tough, but I built solid muscles and got to hang out with a bunch of soldier types. None of them were good role-models, but I was too focused on taking care of my mom and sister to adopt any of their habits. I did listen to their stories though, and I quit school as soon as I could to join the Marines.
“Adam, please raise your arm.” Laufey’s voice tugged me from my memories, and I opened my eyes to see one of the blonde women trying to lift my hand up. I raised my arm, and Laufey began to apply a soapy cream to my armpit.
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