CHAPTER 19: VALKYRIES

Maeva Gunnarsdóttir rested herself on the soft sands of the seashore, watching her six-year-old son returning to her with red-rimmed eyes. His face, hands and clothes were all dirty and his pallid skin was littered with bright red cuts. She bent a little to wipe his tears and ruffled his dirty blond hair. "Kristoff," she called her son's name. "What happened to you?"

"My friends teased me. They said that I have no father." he said, his voice strained from sobbing. "Waldemar laughed the loudest and pushed me. Then, I hit him in the nose. He hit back."

Maeva smiled and patted his head gently. "It isn't true, Kristoff. Your father may not be here, but he'll always be by your side and protect you, like a good father should." She presented her son a sword and kissed him on the cheek. "He would like you to have this."

Sea breeze dried the tears from his excited face. The sword was too large for his small hands. Still, it was a gift that came with honour.

A family saga lay therein.

Kris caressed his sword's trilobe pommel down to its braided leather handle with his memories falling into place in his mind. The sword was his father's last gift. It had been his constant companion ever since.

"Mamma, I'm sorry for not being a son good enough for you." he said to his sword in the sincere voice of a son speaking his heart out to his mother. His eyes brightened and his breathing slowed as her face resurfaced in his mind. Maeva—a tall, kind woman with outstretched arms and a loving smile. The woman who had sketched pictures of him while he was practising his sword skills by the shore. Kris found himself seeing through a shimmering fata morgana rising from his eyelids. "Times are hard now. If there is a second chance..."

"Whoa! It looks nice! Kamsahamnida!" Eun-soo stepped into the hallway, bowing in a deep blue dress with D.O's white apron billowing across the skirt and her long blonde hair plaited neatly at each side.

D.O bowed back to her, ever a gentleman. "Sometimes I fancy myself as a clothes designer and hairdresser."

"Excuse me, but you're not ruining my hair." Chen sneered.

"Say that again and there'll be no dinner for you tonight." D.O stalked into Luhan's forbidden room.

"Kyung-soo ah! Wait! I'm just joking!" Chen rushed after D.O (not risking his dinner), leaving only two people in the jar-lined hallway.

"Here, Kris!" Eun-soo skipped around. "Isn't D.O so talented? How do I look?"

Kris watched her closely. He set his sword aside. Her oval face, delicate features, and long golden braids reminded him of cool water parting from the golden grains of sand, swishing in peace.

The cries of seagulls as he ran after them with dampness sticking under his bare feet.

A sacred wind, a fresh feeling that awaits when he was tired of running.

For every warrior there's a loyal companion.

"How do you look, you ask?" Kris brought himself back to reality. And reality was harsh. "You look like an Alpine milkmaid."

"A milkmaid? Michyeosseo?" A crossed Eun-soo crossed her arms and walked away. "There's no use talking to a lad like you. Sheesh."

"Yah!" Kris hollered at her—ending up more like a German soldier's 'jawohl'—as she left the hallway. "Who do you think you are?"

She marched forward in heavy steps. Xiumin immediately blocked the exit and approached Eun-soo with a sweet, cute smile. "Eun-soo ah~ Look at you, you look amazing!"

She was cornered by his strong arms and stunned by his sudden praise. "Oh, really? T—thanks!"

"Your hair reminds me of Valkyries." Xiumin coiled her hair around his finger and whispered: "Talk about sending warriors to Valhalla..."

Valkyries? Kris clenched his fists tightly that they whitened. Faint blue lines rose underneath. That was supposed to be my line! Grrr...

"Eun-soo ah, I'm sorry for the things I did to you all the days past. Let's consider those things never happened. I'm sorry. Mianhae." Xiumin held her hands firmly in his.

Eun-soo was shocked by the creepy coldness of his hands. It was as if the warmth of her hands was drained by his grasp. She waved them off. "Chill, Xiumin-ssi! After all, you've been a good friend to me!"

"A good friend, eh?"

"Yes. You've been a good friend and a brave brother." she replied honestly. "Thanks for everything. I'll never forget that."

Xiumin moved away from the exit, leaving ample space for her to pass. "That's very good of you, Eun-soo. Now off you go."

Eun-soo finally left the hallway with Xiumin growing paler and weaker. There was nothing wrong with her words, but a sudden heat began to return to his chest and face again. A drop of icy water spilled from his heart and ran down his cheek.

The minister had no idea what was happening to him. More cold drips carved a stream down his back. With shaking hands he whispered to the mangled Report Card he kept in his shirt pocket, "Your Majesty, my last survey was done. The rest is up to you."

Tao and Kai pushed the wheeled chalkboard several steps away from the platform. Well, the Scientists' Domain was a house connected to a railway station, so it was normal to step by a platform and abnormal to be ran over by a train. Done with their work, the two young men ran back to their seats in front of the house.

Chen walked out the door with a hand in his lab-coat pocket and dragged his chalk across the blackboard to make a quite straight line. The maddening screeching noise caused his audience to scream and cover their ears. "So, the line isn't straight? It must be the caffeine." he said, making a false deduction after seeing their reaction.

"Make it stop!" Kris yelled a level louder than the screeching noise.

"Kris, you're the student. So, you must respect your teacher." Chen scribbled something on the blackboard. "Say 'thank you, Chen-sonsaengnim'."

"Thank you, Chen-sonsaengnim..." Baekhyun imitated Chen with a squeaky voice and rolled his eyes.

"Say what?" Chen underlined his last sentence repeatedly and thus producing the screeching noise again.

"Yah! I was sorry about that!" Baekhyun pleaded for mercy. He didn't wish to forfeit his sense of hearing.

The chalk was dropped to the ground and splitted into two. An alert D.O rushed from the house with a new box of chalks.

"Since today Kris has to master the element of electricity, I'll give each of you a refresher course!" came a troll-like grin from Chen. His sentence met with a chorus of groans with the audience. He shook his head. "Why? To master an element, we must study it first!"

Lay took out his notebook and jotted some notes.

ELECTRICITY 101

BY PROFESSOR CHEN

TODAY'S TEA SPONSORED BY LU HAN

Chen cleared his throat and pointed at a diagram on the blackboard. "Electricity is a form of energy resulting from stationary or moving ions, electrons or other charged particles. Any explanations regarding this would be too cumbersome. So, Kris, first you have to know what makes electricity flow."

"This is not helping." Kris sighed, dismay in his glassy eyes.

"If you want to pour yourself some tea, you have to raise the teapot a little higher than the teacup, right? This difference in height produces a difference in water pressure between the tea in the teapot and the tea in the teacup, so that sweet bubble-tea would flow freely into your cup for you to finish in a gulp. The height of the tea in the teapot as viewed from the tea in the teacup is also known as water level. In electricity, there's a similar concept named potential difference." Chen demonstrated by passing electric beams from his left hand to his right hand. The 'students' gaped in awe.

Eun-soo couldn't help but to be enthralled. She loved Physics very much. But why the tea analogy? Perhaps that's the aftermath of watching over a mad hatter for years.

"Current is the amount of electricity flow per second. As current flows, various works are done from lighting a bulb to electrocuting people. Meanwhile, electric power is defined by the amount of work done per second when electricity flows..."

Lay was so entranced he jotted down everything he heard. He even illustrated his notes with drawings of little teacups. He was the Resistance's unsung artist.

Kai, too bored for words, slid down his chair and wandered off to the railway station. He wasn't the only one leaving the tedious lecture. Xiumin was not in his place, too.

"Unlike charges attract and same charges repel..."

Chen's voice faded from hearing as Kai walked closer to the ticket booth. It was empty, but he could hear people talking. People?

"Are you ready, Seven?"

"Oh, Nine! Come on, we're still waiting for orders!"

Kai moved smoothly and swiftly between the statues of various animals lining the station's entrance. He was lithe and fast, and added with his ability of teleportation he was very lucky.

Then he saw something he shouldn't see.

Packs of card-soldiers hopped down the train, armed with clubs and more clubs. They are the King's soldiers. What are they doing here? Not a good sign. Kai held his breath.

And then:

"Yah, Three! I think I saw a boy behind the Gryphon statue!"

"Where? Where?"

Oh, no! Kai quickly disappeared into a cloud of smoke and reappeared on his chair beside Lay, listening to the lecture again. The once boring lecture was filled with laughter as the lightning-bolts that Kris had tried to produce were chasing poor Chen around the blackboard. He jumped over desks and reference books to avoid being zapped to death.

"Lay, have you seen anything weird here?" Kai whispered.

"An angry Kris trying to kill Chen, that is." Lay whispered back.

"Other than that? Aren't there any card-soldiers or something?"

"Keep calm and enjoy the scenery," Lay winked, almost shutting both of his eyes. Kai left Lay to call for D.O who was trying to shield Chen with a dome of hardened clay.

Eun-soo, on the other hand, clearly enjoyed the craziest Physics class she'd ever attended. Oh, Kris! Look what have you done! She felt energised again by the lecture and its unintended comedy play. It was like seeing Thor's wrath unleashed on Loki.

"Psst. Eun-soo ah! Here!" someone whispered to her. She turned to her left and saw Xiumin hiding behind a bookshelf.

"What do you want?" Eun-soo asked him. She dropped Chen's Physics textbook on the ground and stood up.

Gravity began its act.

The textbook whipped a cloud of sand as it fell.

Xiumin left his hiding and motioned with a hand wave. "It's time." he mouthed.

"CHARGE!"

Troops of card-soldiers bursted into their gathering-place. Everyone was shocked beyond measure. Lay packed up his things and ran inside. Chen turned himself into a human Tesla coil with his veins growing neon blue while the land began to tremble under D.O's feet.

The soldiers hoisted their arms and marched closer. Kris produced a sphere of water between his hands and fired at will. D.O kept himself in position. With a single stomp, a tower of rock-hard soil shot out of the ground. The air was filled with flying cards. Several soldiers were blown away by the attack like a pack of cards should.

All hell broke loose.

What should she do? What would a normal, defenseless civilian do in the middle of a fight?

An unforseen coldness tugged her hand.

"What's that—"

"Eun-soo," Xiumin placed his icy finger lightly on her lips. "Let's leave."