I felt an odd sense of the surreal as I walked down the hallway behind Lindrell, who was showing Julie and me around our new home. Our surroundings looked like they could have come straight out of some movie that took place in an ancient castle or fortress, though they weren’t nearly as dark and dank as I would have imagined such a place to be. Nearly all the construction seemed to have been made with the same tan colored stone, but between that and the numerous windows, many of which were stained glass, there was actually a somewhat warm and inviting feeling. This feeling was encouraged by the numerous wooden arches, supports and decorations, most of which had been intricately carved.

The scent of fresh roses was absolutely everywhere, as were the roses themselves. At first I hadn’t really noticed them, but once I had, I couldn’t miss them. There were vases filled with roses, decorating nearly alcove and corner, or at least that was the impression I had.

When I commented on the roses, Lindrell chuckled faintly and admitted, “We have planted a lot of rose bushes in the gardens. Roses are both beautiful, and dangerous.” She made a point of picking a rose out of a vase and pricking her finger on a thorn, giving an almost evil smile. “Much like the Val Kyr. Besides, the flowers make this place feel less like a fortress and more like a home, though make no mistake, it is both.”

“And where exactly are we?” I asked, having no memory of how Lindrell had brought me here. After all, I’d been unconscious and dying…or at least changing at the time. However, even as I asked the question, the answer was obvious. “Valhalla?”

“Yes,” Lindrell agreed. “Val Halla…the home of the Val.”

“Isn’t it amazing?” Julie exclaimed from beside me, nearly bouncing with enthusiasm.

I nodded agreement, though somewhat more cautiously. Unlike Julie, I hadn’t been given the time to absorb the fact that all this stuff was real. For me, this was all one big shock after another, and I was still trying to get my head around it all. As it was, I was also pretty distracted by the weight and jiggling that I felt from my chest as I moved.

“There is much here to see,” Lindrell said, opening a door and leading us out into a large walled in garden, which was framed by rose bushes that grew against all the walls. The scent of roses grew even stronger. “Fortunately, you will both have plenty of time to explore…” She paused at that and gave us a wry smile before adding, “Between your training sessions that is.”

I looked around the garden, then up at the sky, which was dimly lit but had no visible sun or moon. That caught me a little by surprise since I didn’t see the kind of sunlight that had been visible through the windows inside. And as I continued looking upwards, I had a feeling that this place was even stranger than I’d previously thought. In fact, I was certain of it.

“This place feels kind of…weird,” I said, not sure how to describe what I was feeling.

Lindrell smiled faintly at that and nodded agreement. “Come, there is something I want to show you two…”

“Weren’t we going to meet Freya?” Julie asked, sounding both hopeful yet nervous at the same time. I knew exactly what she meant since the name Freya was immediately recognizable to anyone who was familiar with Norse mythology.

“Soon,” Lindrell answered with a smile. “She isn’t expecting us quite yet.”

With that, Lindrell led us across the garden and to some stone stairs that went all the way up to the top of the wall. When we got up there, I looked around and let out a gasp, getting a good view of Val Halla. We weren’t standing at the highest point, but I had enough of a view to make out that we were within a walled citadel with numerous buildings and courtyards. It was quite impressive to look at, especially since I could see several more gardens scattered about. Then I turned my attention to what was on the other side of the wall.

“I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore,” Julie exclaimed, echoing my thoughts exactly.

The ground immediately outside the wall was just flat and desolate stone with no indication of anything living, not even a single weed. However, a hundred yards away from the wall, there was another wall...one made of fog. A thick fog spread out in both directions, and from what I could tell, it completely surrounded the fortress. Val Halla was an island in a sea of fog.

At first, I though the fog was a bit eerie, but as I stared into it, I realized that it was far more than just eerie. I saw the silhouette of a large city in the distance, with numerous large skyscrapers. But as the fog shifted and rolled, the image vanished completely.

“Where are we?” I asked quietly.

“We call this place the Twilight Realm,” Lindrell answered as she stared off into the fog. “There are other names for it…many of them in fact.”

“The Twilight Realm,” I repeated the name. “Another dimension?”

“I hope there aren’t any sparkly vampires out there,” Julie joked.

Lindrell smiled faintly as she responded, “None that sparkle.”

Julie and I shared a look before my girlfriend asked, “What about ones that don’t sparkle?”

Lindrell didn’t answer that one. Instead, she said, “The Twilight Realm is a…shadow of Earth. You can call it an echo of reality…or as one of our younger sisters has referred to it…a sideband frequency.”

“An alternate dimension,” I stated, familiar with the concept from numerous books, movies, and TV shows.

“We know there are other realms out there,” Lindrell explained, gesturing in the direction of the fog. “Wherever the Gods, daemons, and such came from…but we don’t know anything about those places. What we do know is that the Twilight Realm acts as a buffer between Earth and those other realms.” Then she gestured again, this time towards the inside of the walls. “This is an anchor point, a spot where this realm and Earth are tethered. This gives us the stability you see and lets us travel back and forth between the two realms with relative ease.”

Just then, Julie blurted out, “Look...” She was pointing to the fog, or more accurately, to a creature that emerged from the fog. It looked something like a gorilla and a slug…with tentacles. “A daemon…”

“It doesn’t look like the ones from school,” I pointed out grimly, not taking my eyes off the creature until it turned and went back into the fog.

“There are different kinds,” Lindrell explained, not taking her eyes off the monster either. “We aren’t even sure if they’re from the same place…or if they all come from different realms. It doesn’t really matter though because all of them are dangerous. They live in the fog, and about once a century, thousands will swarm us at once, trying to get in so they can cross over to Earth.”

“Hence the walls,” I said in understanding. I looked around, realizing that there was a good reason Val Halla had been built as a fortress.

“Trust me,” Lindrell said with a scowl. “You’ll want to master your gifts well before the next siege.”

I shuddered at the very idea of seeing thousands of those things in one place, much less trying to get in to where I was currently at. I stared into the fog gain, trying to see that city again since that was interesting and a lot less scary than the daemons. However, instead of the city, I caught a glimpse of mountains instead.

“Echoes from Earth,” Lindrell explained after I asked about that. “Like our sunlight.”

“It’s creepy, is what it is,” Julie said. Then she grinned and admitted, “But kind of cool too. It reminds me of that movie…the Fog.”

“The original or the remake?” I asked, wondering when my life had turned into a horror movie. Then I remembered, it was yesterday…or whenever it was that those daemons came to my school. I still wasn’t sure of just how long I’d been out of it.

Julie looked back into the fog, then asked Lindrell, “Is there anything else out there…or is it just all fog?”

For a moment, Lindrell just stood there with a thoughtful look, then she answered, “Asgard, Olympus, Atlantis, Shambala, and I know there were a few others. Our records say that most of them were created by the gods, but we don’t know what happened to them after the gods left.”

“Unbelievable,” I whispered in amazement.

For most of my life, I’d heard stories of those mythical places, and until now, I’d been certain that they really had been just a myth. However, everything that I’ve seen since waking up in this new body had convinced me that the boundaries between myth and reality were a lot blurrier than I’d ever imagined.

“Do you think they’re still out there?” Julie asked, voicing the question I myself was thinking.

“Perhaps,” Lindrell responded with a shrug. “They might have fallen into ruins, been overrun by daemons, or have been absorbed back into the fog. But who knows... They may still be in use, just as Val Halla is.”

“This is so awesome,” Julie exclaimed, bursting with excitement. Almost in spite of myself, I found myself nodding agreement. “What about Xanadu? Or El Dorado?”

Lindrell just chuckled at that, and instead of answering, she turned to walk away, gesturing for us to follow. I took one long look back out at the fog, then another look inward to the fortress of Val Halla. Then with a shake of my head, and a quick brush of my hair from my face, I followed after Lindrell.

We went back downstairs and followed an outdoor path, going past several Val Kyr in the process. They gave us curious looks but didn’t say anything.

“They’re waiting for you to be officially welcomed to the Val Kyr,” Lindrell explained.

Then we arrived at another building and went inside, and I immediately realized that we were in some kind of throne room. There was a large open floor space, with a raised dais on the other end, which contained a rather noticeable throne, which was unoccupied at the moment.

More than a dozen Val Kyr were gathered inside the room, all of which were wearing armor of one sort or another. Though most wore armor similar to what Lindrell had on, one had plate armor and a few had leather armor. Every one of these Val Kyr also had a sash tied around their waists, either in red, blue, or green.

One of the Val Kyr inside immediately started walking towards us, surprising me since she was not only the first non-Caucasian that I’d seen since arriving, but also the largest Asian woman I’d ever seen in my life. In fact, she was the largest woman I’d ever seen period, standing six and a half feet tall, with breasts the size of basketballs, and muscles like a professional bodybuilder.

And as if this huge woman wasn’t intimidating enough, she also held a massive war hammer…one that made a normal sledge hammer look like a toy. She had her hammer casually slung over her shoulder, acting like it weighed nothing at all, when I was sure most men would have a hell of a time just picking the thing up, much less using it.

“Lindrell,” the massive Asian woman greeted my teacher with a grin. “I’m glad to see you’re back safely.”

“It’s nice to be back, Lei,” Lindrell responded with a grin.

“So,” the amazon woman Lei said, turning to look at Julie and then me. Unlike with Jass earlier, she gave me a look of curiosity rather than hostility. “I see you went for one recruit and brought back two.”

“That hadn’t been my intention,” Lindrell explained, almost apologetic ally. “I hadn’t planned on converting Michelle, for obvious reasons, but circumstances forced my hand. But now that she is Val Kyr, I believe she has a great deal of potential.”

“Of course you do,” Lei responded with a chuckle. “You’re the one who awoke her.” Lindrell just shrugged at that while Lei looked me over again. “It’s nice to me you… I’m Lei…”

“Mike,” I started, then winced as I remembered that I didn’t look anything like a Mike anymore. I let out a sigh of resignation and quietly said, “Michelle…”

“I’m Julie,” my girlfriend said from beside me as soon as Lei focused on her a moment later.

“You know, it is quite common for Val Kyr to choose new names upon joining,” Lindrell commented, though she quickly added, “Though not at all required.”

“I’m fine with Julie,” Julie responded with a grin.

“It looks like I already have my new name,” I pointed out wryly.

“So,” Lei asked, looking at me and Julie again. “What pillars are you?”

“What?” Julie and I both asked at the same time.

“They haven’t been to the scales yet,” Lindrell told Lei, who nodded in response. “But I suspect Michelle may be kaern.”

Lei stared at me for a moment, then she looked at Julie again before giving us both a slight bow. “Then let me welcome you both to the Val Kyr.”

Once Lei turned and walked away, Julie blurted out, “She’s huge…”

“I know,” Lindrell agreed with a chuckle. “But when I first met Lei, about a century ago, she was barely five feet tall.” When Julie and I both gave her looks of surprise, she explained, “The val changes all of us…some more than others.”

“Tell me about it,” I muttered, glancing down at myself and seeing the bulges pushing out from the front of my shirt.

Less than a minute later, the mood suddenly shifted and all the Val Kyr turned to look to the dais, including Lindrell. I looked as well and immediately saw why. A woman had entered through a door behind the throne and my eyes were immediately locked on her. She was tall for a woman, about the same height as Lindrell, had a statuesque build and long silvery white hair. She was also wearing armor in a somewhat different style than Lindrell’s, and which included a head piece with winged pieces at her temple. This woman looked every inch the way that I’d always imagined a Valkyrie or Norse goddess to look, so between that and the fact that she sat down in the throne, I knew this was Freya.

“Approach,” Freya commanded in a beautiful yet powerful voice.

Lindrell moved forward, gesturing for Julie and me to come with. When we approached the dais, Lindrell bowed her head and announced, “I present Julie Rosewald and Michelle Sorensen, both of whom I have awoken and recruited to our order.”

Freya looked at Julie, then stared at me with frost blue eyes that seemed to peer into my soul. I gulped, feeling small and weak in front of her, in spite of the fact that she was only an inch or two taller than me. Freya radiated confidence and a sense of power that would have intimidated anyone.

“I am Freya,” she stated, her voice containing a faint accent. “Leader of the Val Kyr and ruler of Val Halla.”

“The blonde one is a convert,” one of the Val Kyr said from a short distance away. I looked at a red headed woman, who was giving me a flat look. “Converts are forbidden.”

“Three hundred years ago, I banned converts from our ranks,” Freya said, turning her attention to Lindrell, whom she stared at with a cold expression. “I had good reason for doing this, as you know.”

“I do not regret my decision,” Lindrell responded firmly, looking Freya in the eyes. “She was injured while saving the life of another…from a daemon. I chose to save her life and reward her courage rather than letting her die needlessly, and I would do so again. Convert or not, I believe Michelle could be a great asset to the Val Kyr.”

“I am a convert,” one woman announced from behind us. “Would any deny my place in these halls?”

Then a second woman called out, “Judge her by her own actions, not those of others.”

Freya held up a hand and the room went silent. “We have already spoken of this in private,” she announced, looking directly at Lindrell with a steely gaze. I had a feeling that she said that more for the benefit of the audience than anything else. Then she turned her attention to Julie, and a moment later, to me. Her cold gaze pierced into me again and made me want to back up. “What’s done is done.”

“As you say,” Lindrell agreed, her eyes darting to me.

“Thousands of years ago,” Freya stated, staring straight at Julie and me, “we Val Kyr were created for the task of protecting this world from otherworldly threats. This is our duty…our honor…and our very purpose. We are endowed with strength and power so we may fight. We are gifted with immortality, yet we may be called upon to surrender our lives. Do you accept this responsibility? Will you become Val Kyr, with everything this entails?”

“Yes,” Julie answered immediately, without even a moment of hesitation.

Lindrell had already asked me this question, in a less dramatic fashion. However, Freya’s words somehow struck me more deeply, making me realize just how serious this was…and just how important. And though the idea of fighting daemons still scared the shit out of me, I still hesitated for only a second before answering, “I will.”

“Then welcome to the Val Kyr,” Freya announced, which was immediately followed by a round of cheers. However, she wasn’t finished. She held her hand up and everyone went silence. Then she turned her attention back to Lindrell. “Lindrell, you are removed from field duty. As of this moment, our sisters are placed in your care.”

“I understand, Freya,” Lindrell responded grimly, giving the other Val Kyr a bow.

“We have already discussed your other punishments,” Freya told her, her voice low enough so that only those who were closest to her would hear. “There will be no more talk of this matter.”

“Thank you, Freya,” Lindrell told her again.

With that, Freya stood up and looked over the crowd before loudly announcing, “Then let the celebration begin.”