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“I really justneed a fresh bandage.” Kaleb tried to interrupt but Olrun was on a tear.
Leaping up, herblood shot eyes shining with glee, flinging open the doors to a recentlyinstalled tall cupboard off to the side of her desk, displaying an impressivenumber of medical supplies within. Olrun hefted out a large white box with redcrosses decorating the sides. Slamming it down onto her desk, she pushed thelid up and began pulling things out. “We’re going to need you. And you. Oooh,and hopefully you.”
“Um.” Kaleb wasn’tsure what was happening, but he had a distinctly bad feeling about all this. Lookingto Shaw for back up. “Weren’t we going to…?”
“Why are you stillhere?” Olrun snapped sharply at Shaw. “You have messages to deal with. AndHelgastein will be by for an update any moment. You’d better be prepared.”
“Right. Yes.” Shawmade a quick escape into her office, as ordered. Noting Kaleb’s stunned andbetrayed look, she couldn’t help but rub salt into his wound. “Have fun youtwo.” Before slamming shut the double doors. Jauntily making her way across heroffice to fling herself down onto her awesome comfy office chair. Leaning backso she could prop her boots up on the desk.
Yes. Finally Kalebwas getting the proper Valkyrie experience, at the hands of snotty Olrun of allpeople. Even better. Helgastein was on her way. That notoriously dour broadswordwielding Valkyrie would lay eyes on Kaleb and no doubt immediately set aboutglaring him into a quivering, sobbing wreck.
It took no timefor Shaw to deal with the three outstanding issues Olrun had left on her desk.Her management style tended to be shockingly succinct and to the point. Sendinga photo of the pointy end of one of her halberds to all three Valkyries who hadraised issues. Basically letting them know what they’d be getting, if theydidn’t pull the lead out and solve their own Freyja-damned problems.
Only getting oneresponse. Her desk phone ringing. It was Jordan. Their litigator. Honestly, ifthe Valkyrie was breathing, she was talking, and if she was talking, she wasarguing. That was what made Jordan a brilliant litigator across all the Realmsand Planes of the supernatural world.
Jordan’s diary wasbeyond full. In fact, Shaw had only met the Valkyrie in the flesh twice in thelast year, she was that busy.
Create a race thatwas insanely curious, who liked to gamble and were infamously bloodthirsty, andyou could pretty much be assured of constant legal woes.
Luckily Jordanthrived on the challenge of keeping their brethren out of the varioussupernatural and mundane jails, whilst doing her best to knock damage andrestitution demands down to inconsequential amounts that HQ Accounting couldlive with.
Problem was,though Jordan was practically a force of nature, she was only one Valkyrie. Astubborn, narrowly focused, pedantic, exacting one, with a daunting brilliantlegal mind. Cutting down assistants that were assigned to her like she was ahot sword and they were statues made of butter. Too many unable to either dealwith the gruelling pace Jordan set, or her insistence upon perfection in allthings.
That said.Jordan’s assistants, no matter how brief their tenure, often went on toaccomplish great things. So funnily, there was always a stream of eagercandidates wanting to assist their Litigation General, as Jordan describedherself on the business cards she was constantly distributing. But it oftenmeant she was left without support for long periods of time, thanks to herassistants storming out abruptly, or attempting to kill Jordan whilst sheslept.
Occasionally, likeright now, when Jordan was between assistants and her case load was stretchedto the limits, she liked to call Shaw in order to complain. About how uselessassistants were. That she was beyond busy. That judges were idiots. Opposinglawyers cretinous.
Jordan called Shawin order to vent her frustrations regarding all the tricky legal issuescurrently on her plate. But not really looking for help, or answers. Justneeding, Shaw reckoned, to blow off some steam.
Through trial anderror Shaw had discovered the best way to manage Jordan was to let her talk…and talk… and talk. And never, ever, offer her own opinion. That just led totangent arguments from Jordan.
Listening toJordan’s rapid fire stream of words gave Shaw plenty of time to think. It feltkind of strange to be back in the office, leaning back in her big comfy officechair, boots up on the desk. One foot tapping away a fast, restless beat in theair. The last four days, working through Stephanie’s to-do list, protecting theConflict Demon, they’d been surprisingly kind of… interesting.
Challenging Shawon lots of different levels, both physically and mentally. Violence. Assassins.Politics. Red-tape.
She couldn’t denythat it hadn’t been interesting, bordering on almost fun at moments. Still,Shaw beyond stunned herself when she opened her mouth, cutting Jordan off inmid-complaint. “I’ll deal with it.”
Jordan was silentfor a whole seven seconds. Perhaps a personal record. “Excuse me? What did youjust say?”
“I said I’ll dealwith it.”
“You? You’ll dealwith it? You’ll Portal to the Yemen-Poh Realm. You? Shaw Bengala?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“What do you mean,no? I’m your boss. I can do whatever I want.”
“Not if you intendto make the situation even worse by storming the High Courts of Yemen-Poh andattempt to break our sister Valkyries out of holding.”
“I’m not going todo that. Did I say I was going to do that? I understand politics and… stuff arein play. I intend to talk to the authorities there. I’ll assert our legalrights to speak to Lottie and Hella.”
“Using threats?”
“No, though Ican’t turn off the glare, can I? I don’t know why you’re being so obstinateabout this. You’re snowed under with work. I’ve offered to throw my weightaround as Head of the Valkyrie Legal Department, and travel to Yemen-Poh to getour sisters’ official version of events. That’s what you need, right?”
Again, a pause.Jordan must be reeling, a first, it made Shaw even happier that she’d made theoffer. Keeping her brethren on their toes. “It’s just no one at Corporate hasever… cared enough to help before.”
