“Hello, Nathanial,” a female voice behind me said.
I turned and found myself unable to speak as my mum stood before me. She had long chestnut hair, pale skin, and blue eyes that were a similar shade to my own. She was shorter than me by several inches and wore a simple green dress that stretched down to her bare feet. Several gold and silver rings sat on the fingers of each hand, and a tattoo of a serpent stretched from her left shoulder, down her naked arm, stopping just above her wrist. The other arm had several runes tattooed onto it. A few years ago I unlocked the first memory I had of my mother. Of her leaving me to have the blood-curse marks placed on my body, before I was taken to Camelot.
“Nathanial, I assume you have questions.”
“What the fuck is this?”
My mother paused. “I am a mental construct. A message left when you were born and Erebus was created inside of you. Your father left a similar message but . . .” She paused for a few seconds. “You don’t have access to that information, so I can tell you no more about him. He did love you, though. We both did. We weren’t meant to, but we did.”
“What the hell does that even mean?”
“This is a message based on responses to questions I assumed you’d ask, as well as information about various aspects of your life that you might need answers to. I can’t tell you anything I didn’t know when you were born, and I can’t give you access to information that Erebus doesn’t have access to. I’m here because your father and I wanted to leave something for you to remember us. Because we wanted you to understand why we did what we did, and why you were never given the life you deserved.”
“I understand exactly nothing that’s going on.” Irritation had started to creep into my voice, but I forced it aside. “Start at the beginning, and work forward.”
“You are my son, Nathanial Garrett.” She paused again. “You are unaware of your last name.”
“I’m what?”
She took a step forward and smiled, reaching out for my hands. “My boy. My son. There’s so much I want to tell you, but I’ve been informed that this information doesn’t work like that. So, I get to put something personal in here before the information is relayed to you. I love you. I want you to know that. I have no way of telling how old you are, or what you’ve become, but I love you. I always loved you, and even though I had to give you up to Merlin, I still loved you.”
She placed her hand against the side of my cheek, and I felt a lump catch in my throat.
“This isn’t real,” I said. “Not really. This is essentially a mental hologram. The magical equivalent of a computer program. Even so, I have a lot of questions for you. Can you answer any of them?”
“Some, maybe,” she told me, removing her hand. “Mostly I’m just here to tell you what I can. And then I’m gone.”
“Forever?”
She nodded. “This is a onetime-only deal. Once I’ve imparted this information, I’m no longer needed.”
“I’m not sure that’s the phrase I’d use.”
I stared at my mother for several seconds. It was strange; my head should have been filled with questions fighting for the same space. I couldn’t think of a single thing to say. I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. One question remained in the front of my mind. “Why was I created?”
“You were created in a similar ritual as that used to create the seven devils.”
“The what?”
“Thousands of years before you were born, seven people were created. I’m unsure exactly how it happened, or why, but they were called the seven devils. Weapons of war to use against the enemies of their creator.”
“I was born to be a weapon?”
My mother nodded. “That was the original plan, yes. But unlike the seven devils, you were to be brought up by your parents. Unfortunately things changed and you had to go to Merlin.”
“There was a war?”
“When you were born, we all knew that a Norse pantheon civil war was on the horizon. I made a pact with Merlin that once the war began he would keep you safe. I was concerned that you’d be dragged into it. You were sent to Merlin to be hidden and trained. Those marks were placed on you to ensure you didn’t access power you had no hope to control. You were meant to unlock them as needed.”
“It took me sixteen hundred years to unlock the first one.”
“That was not the intention. Something must have gone wrong with the process. I’m sorry.”
Despite how sad and sympathetic she sounded, I forced myself to remember that the woman in front of me was merely a construct and only had clinical answers to questions. Even so, having my mother sound dismissive about what had happened to me stung a little. “So, what else do you have to tell me?”
“A lot,” she said. “I was a Valkyrie, and like all of my kind, I could use the spirits of those who had died in battle. Spirit weapons are used by all necromancers, but Valkyrie can channel the spirits we take to increase our physical attributes. We can also manipulate those spirits in other ways.”
“Are you saying a Valkyrie put a”—a phrase popped into my head—“spirit snare on Irkalla?”
“Not necessarily a Valkyrie, but you know the term—that is good. It means the information is bleeding into your mind. We cannot place traps, which would have been done by a truly powerful necromancer. But we can manipulate the spirits of those who died in battle, and not just absorb them.”
“I can try to remove the snare?”
“It would take a great deal of power on your part, but you could absorb both souls into yourself and then try to untangle them. I’ve done it myself. A word of warning, though: if you get it wrong, you will kill your friend.”
“And if I do nothing, she’ll die anyway.”
“Yes. It is not an easy decision to make.”
“Anything else?”
My mother’s eyes softened again, and a smile spread over her lips. “My son, I assume all of the information I was to give you is currently being absorbed by your brain. I wish I could teach you so much, I wish I could stay here and tell you everything about who you are, and who you were born to be, but I can’t. Do not trust Hera—she is a snake, the same with her people.”
“Yeah, I got that one already.”
“I hope that I’m still alive out there somewhere, and that one day we’ll meet. You should know that the Valkyrie weren’t a species; we’re just necromancers with an unusual power quirk that makes us both incredibly powerful, and limited. Odin used the Valkyries to lay waste to his enemies. He was a great ruler, but I have no way of knowing if the war that threatened to consume the Norse gods is still raging on. And I have no way of knowing if any of my sisters are still alive, but if you can find them, they will help you. And if I’m alive, they will help you find me.”
She began to fade, and I took a step toward her. “I will find you,” I promised, and she vanished a moment later.