“Aw…  Why couldn’t we go after that one?” Minzy grumbled with a heavy sigh as she watched another merchant amble by; not the richest by any means but definitely better off than they were.

                Yongguk and Soohyun chuckled at her question and shook their heads.  “No.  He’s on good terms with the lower class and we’ll only make more enemies targeting his ilk,” the former assured her with a gummy smile.

                “Besides, he’s not loaded today anyway.  Looks like he’s heading out of the city if I’m not mistaken,” Soohyun commented with a furrowed brow, arms crossed loosely over his chest.

                “Man,” she sighed, standing up from her squatting position in front of them, peering down at the shifting crowds below as they observed things from the top of the roof.  They kept an eye out for any of the city guard but they’d been surprisingly lacking as well, a fact which had all of them slightly on edge.

                “Hey,” Soohyun commented, tapping them both on the shoulder before he pointed behind them towards the slums where they generally resided.  “Is that smoke?” he asked, his frown deepening when he shielded his eyes from the afternoon sun.

                Yongguk and Minzy both squinted hard, faces dour at the sight of the rising clouds, slowly joined by the tips of orange flames at the tops of the houses in the distance.  “Come on,” he urged, waving for them to follow along when he slid off the rooftop, catching hold of a chimney stack on his way down to slow his fall and rolling when he landed to cushion the impact.

                At a slower pace behind him, he heard Minzy and Soohyun making their way, grumbling at him to slow down.  He didn’t have time for that.  A fire was never a good sign and he’d only seen a handful of them ever; this one just felt wrong altogether.  Running hard, he thought he saw an armored figure watching him from the shadows of one of the alleyways he passed by, but when he looked again to make sure, they were gone.  Frowning and muttering about seeing things that weren’t there, he hurried forward, following the growing sound of the rising commotion ahead of him.

                “Run!” a vaguely familiar face urged him, practically yanking him off his feet in his haste when he would have blown by.

                “Wait!  Jerin!” he dragged up the name from memory and held tight to the beggar, seeking some sort of answer.  “What’s going on?” he demanded, refusing to relinquish his hold when a handful of other various stragglers made it by them hurriedly, panic in their eyes.

                 “It’s tha city guard!” he gasped in a rush, looking over his shoulder in blatant fear.  “They’re torchin tha whole of tha slums lookin fer some kinda necro lord.  If they catch ya, yer dead,” he rambled, jerking against the restraining hold fearfully.

                “What?!” Yongguk glared in disbelief.  “A necromancer?  Here?  That’s stupid,” he muttered, letting Jerin go with no further questioning.

                “Bang!” Soohyun called, drawing close while he tried to figure out why anyone would claim such a preposterous thing.  “What’s wrong?”

                “Some bull about a necromancer,” he spat, his long knives at his hips.  He would’ve preferred the longsword he usually favored but he’d left it at the house; it always drew too much attention when he was out and about otherwise.

                “That’s crazy!” Minzy seconded his opinion, eyes wide in her face.

                “Hurry!” Yongguk called, waving them to follow after him while they sprinted as a group into the heart of it, brushing past those few stragglers who managed to flee before being routed or caught in the flames.

                The closer they got to the fires, the more screams they heard, both from the guards and their targets.  “No!  Please!” they heard a women shriek, watching her scramble away from an approaching guard who looked uncomfortable with his task but determined all the same.  “I’m just a human!” she told him with a fear stricken face, hands raised in warding.

                “Stop!” Yongguk yelled as the guard swung down, slaying her without further hesitation.

                The guard turned to look at him.  Older and more seasoned, he frowned while he raised his bloody blade their direction, noticing assistance approaching from the side.  “By order of the King, all members of the poor district are suspect of consorting with a necromancer and thereby consenting to be his minion.  Either surrender yourselves for examination or forfeit your lives,” he explained stolidly.

                “Sod off bucket head!” Minzy raised her fist at him, scowling darkly.  “We aren’t minions any more than you are.”

                “That remains to be seen,” he answered her, signaling for the other two guards to approach with him as they advanced on the trio.

                “Ah, this.  Minzy,” Yongguk nodded his head at the approaching trio and she grunted in understanding.  Deftly, she removed one of the throwing daggers from her boot and launched it at the soldier on the left, catching him dead in the eye, sending him staggering back as his weapon clattered uselessly to the ground.  The two remaining guards looked at their fallen companion and wasted no time in charging them.  “Go help the others!” Yongguk urged, removing his blades with a skilled flourish.   “I’ve got these two,” he snarled through bared teeth, immediately launching himself towards them.

                “Bang!” Soohyun yelled once, cursing under his breath before he snagged Minzy’s arm and bolted with her, searching for others to help escape, trusting him to be able to take care of himself.

                Focusing on the fight at hand, Yongguk played dirty, going for the eyes and every weak point he would normally avoid in any respectable fight.  Rolling out of the path of the oncoming attack, he ran his sword along the back of the knee joint for one opponent, cutting through the weak spot in the armor to the tendon inside.  The knight fell and he deflected the oncoming attack from the other, bracing the sword swing with both daggers.

                With a savage growl, he planted his foot in the armored groin, shoving the other back enough to force his blade up, giving him the chance to free one blade and stab it through the inside elbow joint of his opponent’s weapon arm, feeling the metal give as the tip pierced the other side.  The long sword clattered to the ground behind him and he released his occupied weapon to retrieve it, scooping it up in one smooth motion.  It screeched loudly against the armored torso, startling the knight into flailing, exposing the chink under his arm and giving Yongguk a chance to drive the other long knife into his left side, sliding through the ribs and piercing his vitals.

                Breathing hard, he kicked the dying man away and rounded on the other grounded knight, pointing the stolen sword at him menacingly.  With a severed tendon in the back of his leg, he wasn’t going anywhere in a hurry.  “The fires can have you,” he snorted, ignoring the pained cries that followed him when he turned to find others to help.

                He lost all track of time and place while he doggedly found and escorted as many men, women, and children to safety that he could, fending off more knights as necessary.  Some were easy enough to scare off with his fierce countenance, deathly gaze embellished with blood and soot.  Others he had to counter once more, braving further injury each time.

                “Yongguk!  Here!” he heard Minzy’s voice call for him as she waved animatedly, trying to get his attention before reaching for another child that Soohyun was handing up to her to help over the wall that usually separated the poor from the middle class.

                “Come on, Bang!” Soohyun urged, giving the child’s mother a hand in turn.  “Time to go!” he called, winded by their efforts, marginally less marked by his and Minzy’s endeavors.

                Yongguk cast one final look around, shying away from the hungry flames that danced nearby.  “Wait!”  He paused when he heard someone else approaching.  “Help me!” the same voice called again, stumbling out the way he’d come, accompanied by the sound of armored feet behind.  “Somebody please!” he cried, panicked eyes locking on Yongguk’s, the dark orbs slightly unnerving as he ran towards him, hands clinging in desperation.

                “Let go!” Yongguk urged, glancing at the approaching guards behind him, trying to shake the hysterical, but relatively untouched young man free.  He was surprisingly strong though and the thief was unable to pull away as he tried to direct him towards the wall where safety lay.  “You fool!” he growled, turning to get him moving in the right direction with a worried glance over his shoulder.

                “Don’t leave me!” he pleaded frantically, fingers digging into Yongguk’s wrists with painful intensity.

                “Bang!  Hurry!” Soohyun urged, taking a worried, hesitant step towards him as he saw the other struggling with the fleeing peasant.  “Minzy!  The guards!” he called, nodding towards the approaching men behind the pair.

                “Yongguk!” she yelled in a panicky tone, patting her person for some sort of throwing knife.  “I’m out!” she yelped, tossing herself down as if to go to his aide.

                “Go!  I’ll buy you time!” Yongguk yelled fiercely, finally kicking the young man away and turning to face the oncoming trio of guards hastily, dragging his sword around in a rushed block.  It was enough to deflect the first attack and he recovered in time to partially guard against the second swing, earning a deep gash in his thigh, but the third attack slipped under his defense, scraping against his ribs as the blade slid into and through him, hard leather armor doing little more than slowing the attack down.  “Gyah!” he gasped, pain lancing through him as breathing suddenly became incredibly difficult.

                “Bang!”  “Yongguk!” he heard behind him and coughed blood on his attackers, the dark fluid dribbling down his chin as his strength deserted him.  He tried to bring his sword to bear against them but felt the hilt knocked from his grasp when his fingers started to go numb.  His body jerked in agony as the blade was yanked free and he couldn’t breathe for the pain he felt when his body hit the ground.

                “Go…” he croaked, his fading vision granting him enough sight to follow Soohyun and Minzy helping the stranger over the wall, following close on his heels.  Why was he still looking at him though?  Why did he smile before he dropped out of sight?  Why…?

                “Yongguk,” he heard his name through the haze of darkness, forcing him to respond to the tauntingly familiar voice.  Consciousness was slow to return and impatiently, the other called again.  “Bang Yongguk!”

                Yongguk scrunched his face up and forced heavy lids to open in response to that voice.  “Daehyun?” he asked breathlessly, lids finally fluttering to reveal a helmed visage in front of him, the face within eerily familiar, if somewhat obscured by the covering.

                The armored figure seemed to stifle a sigh and shook his head slightly, as if annoyed at something.  Straightening upright, he looked the dead man straight in the eyes and affirmed, “I am the Valkyr Daehyun.  Would you be mine Einherjar and join me in the final battle or join Hel in the Netherworld for all eternity?” he asked solemnly.

                “Eh?” Yongguk mumbled in return, blinking dumbly at the question since he couldn’t take his eyes off the other.

                Daehyun’s brow twitched and his mouth thinned perceptibly.  “Yongguk.  You are dead and are now speaking to me as a conscious soul,” he explained as if to a child.  “For your past deeds in life, you have been deemed… worthy of becoming an Einherjar.  Do you accept this privilege or not?” he asked firmly, annoyed by the apparent lack of response.

                Once more, Yongguk continued to stare at him, finally tearing his gaze away to see his blood covered body on the cobbled streets, the raging fires nearby still burning brightly but he could not feel their heat.  His gaze frantically followed the path his friends and that stranger had gone, frowning once before he focused again on the Valkyr.  It was him…

                “Yes!” he gasped, practically falling over himself when Daehyun seemed about to wave him off.  “Yes!  I accept!” he added quickly, taking an immediate step towards him.

                Visibly, the Valkyr sighed and shook his head again.  “Einherjar,” he gestured towards Yongguk with a wave of his hand.  He felt power surround him briefly, linking him to the Valkyr as he was pulled into him.  That was certainly not something he’d expected.  Even more surprising was that voices greeted him when he found himself peering out from inside the Valkyr, but equally able to see the four other persons with him…

                A bit awed there, were we? the shortest asked in amusement, a knight if his armament was anything to go by.

                That’s not fair, Taeil, the tall, but obviously youngest among them stated with a frown.  He is the one who thought he knew him before, he reminded them with a friendly wave at the newcomer.  I’m Zelo by the way.

                Eh? Yongguk quirked his head in confusion, completely caught off guard.

                Oh!  You recognized the Valkyr? the one with a scepter asked excitedly, stepping forward to peer at him with interest.  But you’re a thief…  You couldn’t possibly study the arcane or archaic could you? he placed a finger to his lips as his eyes narrowed in thought.

                You don’t have to be a mage to know about the Valkyr, the other tallest member grumbled at the mage; another swordsman by the look of him.

                “Quiet,” Daehyun’s voice interrupted their conversation.  “We’ve wasted too much time here already.”

                All five of them fell silent at the reprimand until Zelo leaned close to whisper quietly, We’re supposed to be taking care of the necromancer nearby.

                He’s holed up in the Dark One’s Quarry to the north of here, Taeil explained with a quick hand gesture.

                So there is a necromancer? Yongguk asked in surprise, rather astonished to hear that the guard had been telling the truth, even if their response was less than acceptable.

                “Yes,” Daehyun answered him directly in a curt response, moving swiftly over the city as they headed north.

                The mage shifted slightly and whispered behind his hand, I don’t know what you did to annoy the Valkyr, but whatever it was, I would stop if I was you.

                “Youngjae!” Daehyun snapped, focusing his attention on the mage.  “What spells do you have prepared?” he demanded, diverting the other’s attention towards the upcoming battle.

                Frowning, Yongguk listened in while the mage answered.  So there was a necromancer to blame for the torching of the poor district, but who had told the King as much?  And why did the Valkyr look and sound exactly like the Daehyun he remembered?  The same one that had died in his arms six years ago…

                “What were you thinking!?  Sending Daehyun to Valinceburg,” Odin roared, pacing in agitation in Valhalla as Loki knelt before him, head bowed and sufficiently cowed.  “You were the one I sent there!” he scowled, pointing an accusatory finger at the other god.

                “My lord Odin,” Loki spoke with a smooth tone, despite the god’s ire.  “I merely thought to send him away so that he might not react as his brother had when I gave counsel to the King of Dalinore, per your orders.  I did not think you would wish for another Valkyr to raise his hand against your wishes,” he bowed deeper, hand pressed over his heart.

                “You do realize it was weakened, if only for a moment,” the equally livid Freya frowned at him, rising from her throne to glare at Loki with narrowed green eyes.  Crowned by straight golden hair cascading to her waist, held in place with a thin silver circlet and adorned in deep green, mithril chainmail armor, she was beautiful but terrifying in her anger.

                “My apologies, your ladyship,” Loki tilted his head to her in turn.  “It was my understanding it remained whole and unaffected.”

                “You understood wrong!” Odin roared, hands balled into fists at his side.  “We cannot afford the seal to break and he is too valuable to send to sleep now.  The Jottuns gain ground at every turn and we do not have the forces to lose,” he hissed darkly, trembling with contained fury.

                “What would you have me do now, my lord?” Loki asked, daring to look up at the All Father with a surprisingly steady gaze, black orbs unreadable.

                “There is still the matter of the mage that escaped in Valinceburg,” Freya reminded him.

                “Yes.  There is.  This… Dara.”  Steely eyes regarded Loki’s for but a moment before he pointed at him imperiously.  “You are to seal her tower, Loki.  Let no one enter that is not a god.  Should she be there, you will slay her without hesitation,” he commanded, his tone harsh.

                “Of course, my lord,” Loki bowed in concession, rising smoothly and turning on the balls of his feet.

                Odin and Freya waited for him to exit via the front entrance before the latter gestured towards the back of the hall.  “Jongup,” she called, following the youngest Valkyr’s progress with her slender hand.

                “Your lordships,” he knelt before them, sandy blonde head bereft of his winged helm, and bowed respectfully.

                “Use the Eye of the Gods,” Odin instructed formally.  “Keep watch over your brothers and Loki,” he added pointedly.

                “Loki?” Jongup looked up, his normally happy expression quite confused.

                “Yes.  Alert me if anything changes for any of them,” he explained intently, holding the youngest’s gaze steadily.

                “Of course, All Father,” Jongup nodded in understanding, bowing his head once and standing up easily.  “Should I start now?” he asked before he’d made it more than a couple steps.

                Odin’s expression darkened slightly but Freya just smiled at him kindly and nodded.  “Yes Jongup.  The sooner the better.”

                “Yes Lady Freya,” he grinned excitedly, bowing with haste before he hurried off the way Loki had gone.

                “Would that he had half the sense of his brothers,” Odin sighed with a shake of his head, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose.

                “You know well why he does not, my lord,” Freya reminded him gently with a light touch upon his arm.

                He sighed again and placed his hand atop hers.  “As ever, you are right, Lady Freya.  Protect the Hall while I am gone.  I must see to your forces on the field of battle,” he reminded her solemnly.

                “Be careful, Odin,” she breathed quietly, searching his face with a trace of fear in her eyes.

                “You as well,” he returned, giving her a half-bow.  He straightened at once and strode out of the hall, dire purpose in his steps and thunder in his gaze.

(a/n: Yay!  They're together at last!  Granted, they are little more than standoffish right now but hey, I'm getting there.  ;)  hehe  And it wasn't much but Jonguppie made an appearance.  I'll get to Himchan in the next update.  Presumably at any rate.  But we also have mention of a seal.  What do you suppose it's 'sealing'?  Any theories so far?  I'd love to know what you guys might be thinking at present.  ^_^  And I do hope you're enjoying the story!  Please look forward to the next update too!  *waves*)