The Merry Maids of Pwnzor--A Valkyrie's Tale

Everyone gasped. "Kayleen? Dark side? She worked there in the first place??" These comments filled the room. Most everyone had known kayleen rather well, that or knew Winnie and WInnie talked about her a lot. Artix sat back down.
"That went....... well...." He said, having trouble sitting becuase of his armor.
"Yes, I suppose that it wasnt a very nice topic of discussion to talk about, but what has to be done must be done." Replied juliana, whose juice was now gone.
"It's getting late, i'd better go back to the graveyard and get those undead." Said artix, getting up. This made a lot of noise.
"Goodbye!" Said Juliana, waving.
Nobody slept well that night. Not Juli, not Kayleen (She was peicing together the map), Not artix, not Bertran (He was there when artix made the announcement), Not even poor twilly, Who was still haunted by the thoughts of Winnie being killed right in front of his eyes.

Nammie struggled unconsciously, twisting in her coverlet. The room was dark, but in a corner of the room, a faint purple glow pulsed.

"WINNIEEEE!!!" She screamed, and fell out of bed awkwardly, tangled in sweat-dampened sheets. Concerned voices and the sound of running feet came from the hall. Nammie wrestled wildly to her feet and swallowed her rising panic. Her door slammed open, and Ryzaa leapt into the room, wearing nothing but leather shorts and a grim look on his face, katana poised in "The Wrath of Lightning" pose. He was followed closely by Kaotic, half-asleep but ready to rumble, Flaw, who apparently slept in crimson Paladin armor, and BB, who scurried to search the corners of the room for danger.

Pooky pushed by the boys with Celestia and Juliana and cast a quick glance at Nammie to make sure she was ok, before turning to the boys.
"Ok, thanks guys, good job, it looks like we're safe." she said cooly. "Now it's the girls' turn...we'll talk in the morning."
She shooed the yawning boys back out of the room, and let in a few other girls before closing the door. Celestia looked pale and weak, but concerned for her friend, as were all the eyes in the room as they watched Nammie relax in the presence of her friends. She started to tremble as tears rolled down her cheeks.

Her hands flew up to her face as she cried "I saw Winnie! She came to me! It was so real!" The friends clustered around her like a protecting wall putting out hands and giving hugs in silent support. Celestia looked troubled. Some murmured about having strange dreams as well. Celestia spoke up in a pained tone of voice.
"I had a dream too--but it was about Kayleen. She was watching talking to Winnie, but I couldn't see her. And there was someone else... could only feel it, kind of...Yulgar's right, Nammie is in danger...and somehow what happened to Winnie and Kayleen is connected. There was such malice! But it wasn't directly coming from Kayleen, I don't think...it made me feel awful."

Pooky thought of her dream she had woken from: a dark vision of shadowy-winged menace that brooded over Nammie like a dragon watching it's prey. She raised an eyebrow at Lucy and mouthed the word: "Kayleen?" She made a circular gesture at the room. Lucy's bunny ears perked up and she nodded, leaning over to whisper in Star's ear. Star's hands danced in the air like a pair of butterflies, as a glowing blue bubble swelled between them and grew to envelope the room.
"Ok we're warded, girls." Pooky said calmly, nodding to Star. Star winked and rubbed Nammie on the back kindly. "Now...I think we all can feel that this wasn't just a dream...I seem to remember having a dream about someone, but I'm not clear who it was...do you want to tell us what happened, Nammie, or shall we cast a dream-vision?" Pooky asked quietly. Nammie looked up with haunted eyes. "I don't want to have to describe it, Pooks...I'd much rather not be conscious for it."

Pooky nodded. "All right Witches, you know what to do." Nammie lay down on the floor as the girls with Witch class knelt on each side of her and linked hands. As Nammie closed her eyes, a nimbus of white light formed above them, and shapes began to form in it. Soon everyone was able to see what Nammie had seen.

Winnie stood in a large open meadow with oak trees dotted about. Her face was healthy, and clothing was loose and flowing, of an unfamiliar design, but very rich and beautiful. She didn't seem to be in unhappy, but she wasn't happy, either. A calm but intense look of concentration was on her face. It appeared she was all alone in that place. She began speaking immediately, in urgent tones.
"Nammie, I don't have much time. What you need to know is this: I am not dead. At least, not entirely. Everything that is me, that make me who I am, is alive and safe here in this place. Just my body was left, but that isn't ME. I was taken by women with wings, who call themselves the Valkyrie. They come whenever the soul of a brave warrior dies, to keep and protect them until the "Final Day" and the "Last Battle". That's beside the point though. The point is that I'm stuck here with nothing to do until then, and I'm alone! I can't join them in Asgard to wait with the other warriors, but I can't leave this place! It has something to do with my not being fully human, I guess. Finally, I found out I can visit people I know very well in a vision for a brief time. I sent Kayleen a vision that made her think that a map to Warlic's Prime Focus is in BattleOn...the tricky thing is, what she wants actually IS there, just not what or where I made her think it is."
Winnie's voice became fainter, more urgent. "You have to make her think that you are protecting the Tree where Twilly is, but at the same time protect the REAL clue. Nammie's crystal orb is the clue! I don't know what it means, but I can find out more from here! There is something much bigger going on, Kayleen is just a pawn in a bigger game. So are you, Nams...I think all of us are just pieces on some one's board!" Winnies face began to become misty and indistinct.
"Find out what the orb's powers are!" Winnie called, as from a distance "The Valkyries are on our side, but they have their own reasons, I know it!" Winnie faded away until only her face remained. "And get me out of heeeere!" her voice wailed.

The glow faded, and Nammie sat up slowly. "Did you see it alright?" she asked.

In another place, in a darkened hall, a figure sat slumped on a throne, surrounded by it's outspread wings. A large purple crystal, the twin of the one in Nammie's room, spun on the tip of a taloned finger, shedding it's eldritch light into the gloom, lighting the brooding face and glowing eyes.
"I saw everything, Nammie my dear," Drakath growled, "and I see that Asgard and the Valkyrie have cast their lot in with those who oppose the Forces of Chaos!" His scowl deepened as he clutched the crystal of Focus in his hand and looked into a facet. A good thing Warlic had been disposed of by the traitorous little Apprentice of Chaos. The crystal spun on the claw again, stopped, and he looked deeply into the opposing facet. As quick as light on water, the look of fury vanished and an impish grin creased his face.It would be quite inconvenient if the Regulars could be taught to use their focus as well as he could use his.
"Teehee!" he said, as his features softened, rounded, and shrunk: a wolf's feral ferocity changed to a kitten's innocent playfulness. He stood, stretching his huge wings and folding them again as they, too, shrunk and changed. A giggle sounded through the dark vault again as the figure strode toward a door at the far end, the steps becoming quicker and lighter.
"They may oppose Chaos...but they may as well oppose wind and wave, for all the good it will do them! Teehee!" Nammie tossed her purple hair over her shoulder and strode out the door, still holding the Triadec Focus in her hand. Let the silly Witches run to the Valkyrie--the caution and neutrality of Asgard always made their awesome power of little consequence. She giggled again, but found it unsatisfying compared to the full roar of laughter he felt within. The fools in Battleon would never know Nammie was gone.

Meanwhile, downstairs at the Inn, Yulgar, in his nightgown, poured mugs of hot chocolate as the guys sat around the table, wishing they could do something.

Kayleen had a dream that night, back at her old home, in her old bed. She dreamed about that warlic plush, the one with the spellbook. She dreamed that a plush nythera came and killed plush warlic. Then, the spellbook's pages came floating out and re-arranged themselves to form a map. The map was covered in colored dots, with one large red X. She picked up the map and, oddly, when she tried to focus on one dot, the map disinegrated and all that was left was the beaten warlic plush, lying on the floor.

Then she remembered that she had lost the warlic plush. This made her wake up, and lay for awhile thinking of where it may be. She gathered that it was lost about the time she finished her good-person training. That is when she remembered where she put it.

She ran over to her suitcase, throwing all of her packed belongings all over the floor. "AGGGGGGG" She shouted, finally pulling out a small key. She ran to her other suitcase. Rummaging through all that, she found the lock. turning the key, she found her secret compartment. Pulling the warlic plush, now coated with dust, she hugged it.
"I've been looking for you, 'lil guy. Now, I need that spellbook." She whispered, brushing him off and taking the spellbook. The pages fell apart, just like the dream. They were all across the floor, and she spent the rest of the night peicing them back together. The only thing she did not know that moment, was that Winnie was smiling down at her from Death's realm and was joyous that she had gotten the message.

((In a manner somewhat similar to my last post, I'm going back to the end of what Pooky last wrote to flesh that out. If I did something wrong, please let me know. And I've FINALLY figured out a difficult but important point in my character's backstory; namely, she is about fifteen in AQWorlds.))

Hot chocolate. It was good for a lot of things, Juliana decided as she peered into a steaming mug of it. The heat made it a good remedy for sore throats, and the combination of warm and delicious usually worked wonders for the various guises of sadness, most of which were out in force tonight.

As they sipped and tried not to burn their tongues, the female Regulars had filled the males in on the situation. "So what are we going to do about it?" Flaw asked as soon as they were done.

"What can we do?" replied someone dismally. "We're here, Winnie's there, what can we do about it? It's not like--"

"Oh!" Juliana had not not intended to speak as loudly as she had, but all heads turned towards her anyways. She barely noticed, but kept on speaking. "I think I know where this is going. There's only one thing we could do..."

"And?" asked Ryzaa after it was clear that Juliana had come to a complete stop. "Where is it going?"

"We can talk all we like, but in the end, there is only one way to solve the problem that's been put before us."

"Which is...?" prompted Pooky.

"Winnie's message was twofold: perpetuate her trick on Kayleen, and get her out of there. How we help the trick is obvious: we make a big or at least visible show of protecting the tree, and we subtly protect the crystal. And how do we get her out of there? How does anyone get anything out of anywhere?"

There was a brief pause while everyone worked through that thought.

"We have to go get her..." someone whispered. It was hard to tell who, because they were so quiet. "We get her out of there by getting there and bringing her back."

"And how do we do that?" queried the same voice who had been so dismal about Flaw's initial question.

Rather than answer directly--because the rest of the answer was not immediately clear to her way of thinking--Juliana replied, "This promises to be far too much like dying for my taste."

"Huh?" almost everyone chorused.

"I don't like anything that seems like dying. It's very unpleasant."

Next moment, everyone was wondering what she had done that had seemed like dying.

"Oh... that's right," murmured Juliana when a semblance of quiet had again been attained. "You don't know. I never told you about the Saga of Traitor and Betrayed."

This was enough to almost make everyone forget about what they had been talking about.

"The Saga of Traitor and Betrayed?" asked Bertran.

"Later," Juliana promised. "It explains why I'm alive, why I have healing magic, why I enjoy undead-slaying so much, and why I feel so strongly about anything that resembles death, but it has no bearing on our situation right now."

"Right..."

Seeing that the conversation was trying very hard to wander away from the subject of saving Winnie, Vamp quickly called, "Does anyone have any ideas about how we could get to where Winnie is? Preferably without killing someone?"

This started a storm of conversation. Everyone racked their brains for ideas, and even the poorest of inspirations was thrown out into the room for its practicability to be debated. Even if an idea was ridiculous, it might spark a better one in someone else's mind. Some of the more scientifically minded scribbled diagrams and equations on anything they could find, including one another's clothes. Finally, a deep, booming voice bellowed over the din, "SILENCE!"