Iona woke up on a cart, rattling around.

"Hey you! You’re finally awake!" An all-too-cheerful cat beastkin man said, with a voice like sharp, rusty nails in Iona’s ears. His voice instantly gave Iona a headache.

"You were amazing! Like the Valkyries in stories! I’ve started to write one about you!" He continued on, the words like the screaming of a tortured cat, digging into Iona’s head and upgrading her headache.

Iona would pay any amount of money to hear him shut up.

"I was kinda nervous, you were touch and go for a while there. Fortunately, my skill worked!" He said, and Iona’s eyes snapped open.

She could hear again! The entire fight being in utter silence had been a strange experience, and the man’s – healer’s? – voice wasn’t nearly so irritating, as memories came flooding back.

With a thought, Iona had her Mallium armor withdraw, back into a neat little bundle on her back. The volume remained the same, just the location differed.

Iona could tell by the weight that she’d lost a small chunk of it, and Mallium wasn’t cheap. Every gram was precious.

She sat up, and got her bearings.

She was in a cart, pulled along by a pair of cows – thanks to the pirate’s pen – and there was a whole convoy of people walking along the road. Iona recognized a few faces here and there, and started to put the picture together, along with the bard Rory’s help.

Being able to peek at names was awesome.

The slaves had broken free, and finished off a few pirate stragglers with a vengeance. Some had watched the end of Iona’s fight with the pirate captain, and rushed over to help. Rory was a bard, and had a weak healing skill, which he’d used on Iona. Clearly, it had worked well enough for Iona to wake up again. The former slaves had organized, looted the remainder of the town to the bone, and were now walking to the nearest town.

Iona wondered if anyone had dived to the wreck, and tried to get at the treasure. It wasn’t a deep dive, and from how much mana Alfie had pulled, it had to be loaded.

"Thank you." Iona said, after getting a few coughs out. She could’ve kissed him, if his voice wasn’t so annoying.

"No worries!" Rory said, plucking a few strings of his lute.

Iona eyed it warily. How on Pallos had he managed to get a fully functional lute so fast?

Was he secretly a pirate who was turning coat as fast as possible? Or did the pirates like their entertainment, and their entertainment needed an instrument?

Iona took a quick moment to compose a prayer to Selene and Lunaris, while Rory was nattering on about something. How one slave had organized them all, etc. etc.

Lunaris. Selene. I survived! Smashed the pirates into pieces. They shouldn’t be bothering people too much anymore. The shark escaped though, and it wouldn’t surprise me if in a few years it’s a problem again. Oh well.

I’m off to see Julie! Or get a new squire. We’ll see!

Cheers!

Iona

"A song!" Rory declared, and a number of former slaves shuffled in closer, to better hear him. "Dedicated to our savior, The Dusk Valkyrie! I’m sure you’d like to hear it! Right?" He asked.

Bad bards, and songs on the spot. Iona didn’t know which was worse.

"Hang on, hang on." Iona said, raising her hands. "Why not something more classic to warm us up? How about a song from The Bard?" She asked, plaintively, hopefully.

Anything to not hear about herself in bad song form. Iona almost wished Rory had left her deaf.

"A song from The Bard! Greatest of us all, songs passed down through untold millennia! Heroic in word, grand in stature! Yes! I will start with the song rumored to be The Bard’s favorite!" He said, starting to strum his lute at speed.

"Rage! Sing, Goddess, of Artemis’s rage!..."

Rory’s singing voice was as good as his speaking voice was bad. Iona leaned back, and let the music wash over her.

Iona kept a careful eye out as they continued to travel. The Valkyries didn’t really openly recruit, not in the way Iona thought they did. No, they waited for girls to do what Iona did – approach a Valkyrie and ask. A few minor hurdles, arranged by the individual Valkyrie, and boom! That was how they got new squires.

And while Iona was nice, polite, and paid extra attention to potential candidates – none of them seemed interested in becoming a Valkyrie. Oh, they hung onto her every word, hero-worship in their eyes, but asking to be one? They couldn’t imagine it, even with Iona’s gentle nudgings.

"I was talking with some of the travelers, one Thofur Krelur the 525th, and he had news. Wanna hear it?" Rory asked her, and Iona was surprised at just how awful his speaking voice was.

"Yeah sure!" Iona asked, wanting to know more.

"A healer in The Great Tang is past 256!" Rory practically exploded as he shared the news, licking his lips nervously. His ears were twitching in excitement though. "Oathbound to boot. Rumors have it that she can create Immortals!" He said, tail swishing at the thought.

Iona let out a fake-groan.

"Don’t tell me. It’s war?" She said.

Rory nodded.

"Yeah! Think of all the stories! The Great Tang has vowed to hunt her down, Rolland’s getting an army together, and Nime is crawling out of their hole and also declaring war!"

"Poor healer is going to get assassinated." Iona said, frowning at the thought. "Nobody can allow an Immortal who bestows Immortality to live."

This is why Iona hated Immortals. One – just one – showed up, and three countries were at war. Thousands would die in fighting, and tens of thousands more would be a casualty of the war. Rolland shared a border with The Great Tang and Nime, and would get dragged in as well, just for the chance to capture or kill the healer. If they couldn’t have her, nobody could.

For half of the nobles and sects on the border, the healer was just an excuse. A reason to fight each other, to try and capture a noble or elder for ransom, or extend the edges of their domain.

Of course, the thinking was short-sighted. If Rolland somehow got ahold of the healer, all of Rolland’s neighbors would declare war. It was a giant game of "pass the buck", and it would continue until someone slipped a knife between the healer’s ribs.

Well. Given that it was a healer, slipped many, many knives into her.

"Wonder if more Immortals will show up, and try to rescue her." Rory mused. "They do tend to stick together. Could be an elf. Oh! Or even one of the legendary vampires!" Rory said, dreaming of meeting one.

"Vampires almost never leave their country." Iona pointed out. "You’d need to travel to the Exterreri Empire to see one, and they’re halfway around the world. Plus, any Immortal ‘rescuing’ her is just going to want her to make their friends and family Immortal as well. It’s no different than a country grabbing her."

"The vampire Sentinels occasionally leave the border…." Rory whined, in his annoying, contradictory way.

Iona had enough of vampires and other immortals.

"So damn inconsiderate of the healer." Iona groused. "Setting off another round of Immortal wars."

"Is it really an Immortal war?" Rory asked. "There’s only one after all."

"Right. One Immortal. Three nations at war – and the number will probably go up. That counts for me." Iona griped. "Good chance we’re going to end up in it."

"You mean the Valkyries?" Rory said, practically salivating at the information.

"Yeah – wait no, don’t tell people that." Iona said, cursing her mouth.

A bard? Keeping quiet?

It would never happen.

Iona and the rest of the former slaves made it to a local town soon enough, where Iona was able to get a healer to properly look after her injuries. A touch, a few coins begrudgingly changing hands, a map of the area, and Iona was off, to the Abbey of the Guiding Waves.

She was a little sad that none of the girls had asked to become a Valkyrie. This particular mission had been one of the best chances Iona had in ages to acquire a squire.

Iona shrugged her shoulders philosophically. Ah well. Next time. At least, the lack of a new squire let Iona see Julie, instead of heading back to the Valkyrie’s base.

She whistled a merry tune as she walked alone over the roads. The nice thing about being [Analyze]ed as a level 350+ warrior – bandits didn’t bother you at all. Nobody wanted to tangle with Iona, which was a huge pain when she needed to track them down, but great for traveling.

[Tracking] was great for tracking bandits down, but it didn’t seem like they had a strong local presence… yet.

Either way, five days of easy travel at a pace that would outstrip most low and medium level couriers with explicit movement skills had Iona eyeing up the Abbey of the Guiding Waves.