The pain came back all at once and Erik dropped the sword, gripping his bright red knuckles. Göll was quick to pull the tip of the spear out of the concrete. She stared at him, face drastic with alarm and confusion. As if she’d just remembered they were there, she scanned the overpass for the valkyries. Erik followed her gaze. They were gone.
“Sorry,” Erik finally managed. “I didn’t mean to touch it.” He took a deep breath, wincing as the pain slowly started to wane. “I’m glad you pulled it away so fast. Did the concrete mess it up?”
Göll snapped out of her haze and looked at the blade. “There is no damage. These blades are not meant for human hands, you… you should be careful.” She paused. “It’s enough for today. In truth, you’ve made more progress than I thought possible.”
“I’ll take it as a compliment.” Erik strained the words out. “I was hungry anyway.”
The walk back was painful but involved food, so there was only so much to complain about. Vár wiped some sort of salve onto his knuckles when they returned to the motel and told him to sleep. He had no reason to argue.
chapter|4
He’d managed to get something approximating sleep. It came in fits and starts, mostly. The noise of Göll shifting her weight in her armor woke him up as reliably as any alarm clock had ever managed. It was dark out when he decided he couldn’t manage it anymore. Erik hadn’t noticed that his hand was almost entirely numb until he reached for the lamp beside the ratty mattress. He chuckled at the meaty slapping noise that resulted from plopping it onto the bedside table over and over.
“Is that all it takes to amuse you?”
Göll was speaking without being spoken to. Erik considered this a welcome change of pace and it brightened his spirits even more than the noises had.
“I’m easy to please. Is that so wrong?” She didn’t respond, not willing to play along. “Come on, you smiled didn’t you?”
“Why would I smile?” She sounded almost defensive.
Erik chuckled. “Are you not allowed to smile either? What about ice cream? They let you eat ice cream?”
“I can eat whatever I wish.” She turned in a huff. “You… what manner of questions are these?”
“You just seem so serious about everything. And I don’t intend on dying anytime soon, so I figure we should at least be on speaking terms.”
She sighed, not quite relaxing her posture, but her expression softened. “I must be serious. My sisters will be, and so must I.”
“Right,” Erik nodded at the cliché. “Only a moment’s lapse in diligence and I’ll be felled by their unforgiving blades.”
“So you understand, at least.”
He rolled his eyes. “I was fucking around.”
Her lips curled into a disappointed frown and she turned back to the window.
“Ah, come on! Don’t be like that. I’ve got a cut on my arm already. I know it’s serious. But Vár’s around. Like a canary in the coal mine or something. A horrible, mocking canary. That pulls… You know, nevermind.” He stood up and walked over to the window. “She put it somewhere on the walk back here and I didn’t see her do it.” He eyed Göll looking for any hint of a reaction, sighing when he got nothing. “Okay, let’s go train. I slept. My hand’s fine.”
Göll nodded and they went outside when Erik had gotten dressed.
Vár looked annoyed to see them. “If it’s more punishment for your wrist you’re after, the privy’s less of a burden.”
“Privy?”
She scoffed and turned away from him, starting toward the road. The walk went by quickly, it being the middle of the night. Mercifully, no cops came by. As fun and quirky as a spear might seem in the daylight, it was less likely to be seen that way in the dark. Erik found himself thankful for the portability of meat and vegetables wrapped up in things since Göll refused to sit in a restaurant. She kept a wide berth around people other than him. As unwilling to supply him with any interesting information as she was, it seemed like a waste of time to ask. But then, having burned his hand as badly as he did, there were reasons that Erik could imagine without being told.
The lot wasn’t lit, but there were no clouds in the sky and the moon was mostly full. It got the job done when mixed with the horrible orange glow of the sodium lamps from the overpass. Vár produced the sword again when he wasn’t looking and handed it to him with an unnecessarily wide smile on her face.
“I don’t like what’s happening here.”
She just nodded, still smiling, and watched him as he walked away.
He pointed the sword back at her as he walked toward Göll. “She’s got a real problem.”
Göll ignored his concerns. “The night will make you slower to react, less accurate. Ready your sword.”
He did and Göll charged, the same speed as in the day. He stepped back, tilting the sword away from Göll’s as she’d showed him in the morning. It was shallow and Göll stopped her spear just short of his arm.
The glow drained from the blade and she slapped it against his arm. Erik winced waiting for the pain, but it didn’t come. At least, no more pain than a flat piece of metal slapping against his arm would be expected to create.
“That would be gone.”
Erik gave a serious nod. “Let’s go again.”
Göll returned to her position and charged again. The sword dropped this time, Erik cursing his lack of ability. There was no consistency to the next dozen charges. Sometimes he would barely
