EV B2 Chapter 34:

"Alana," I half-whispered as I studied her, and she kept her gaze locked with mine.

"How?" I eventually asked as I leaned forward, my elbows on the table. "How did you get here so fast?"

She gave me a dazzling smile, and I could see a twinkle of mischief in her eyes that I had missed. I swallowed hard, fighting back any honest emotional response as I waited for her to answer my question. She reached out and grabbed one of my hands on the table, squeezing it for a second before releasing it.

"Well, I don't know how it is for you, but the lesser hall that I had to deal with was not the most challenging—especially when we have a mutual friend assisting."

A sharp knock at the door cut her off, and she froze. I could see her mind going back over the words she had just said, worrying that she had somehow implicated us in being involved with the Cult of the World Eater. She hadn't. Not yet. And a half-second later, when the door opened, she seemed to relax, realizing that it was just our drinks arriving.

They were nothing fancy, but Alana had no problem taking a sip and seemingly enjoyed the mead far more than I did. She laughed at the grimace I made after the server left and shook her head.

"If I didn't already know you were Alaric, that would have convinced me."

I gave her a snort. "I don't think you ever saw me drink mead as Alaric. There was plenty of wine to go around, and if there wasn't—"

"I know," she said. "I could never imagine you enjoying the drink, though."

"You don't seem to mind and enjoy it," I interjected. "And I've never seen you drink it either."

She shrugged. "I got used to it."

"I'm pretty sure you have only been here for a few weeks. Nowhere near long enough to get used to this swill. I think you just like it." I accused.

She just smirked into her cup. We sipped our drinks for a couple of seconds before I could see the questions starting to boil out of Alana's ears.

"Go ahead. Ask," I instructed my ever-curious student.

The dam burst. "So I guess this is how you knew so much! You come from another world with all that extra knowledge, and the afterlife is real! And you know which one to go to! And you told me where to go, and—"

I leaned back and just let her excited word salad wash over me. It was something that she didn't do unless she was extremely excited about some sort of law of reality or something she didn't understand. With all her enthusiasm for metaphysics and her general quickness for learning, I guess it made sense.

I eventually held up a hand to interrupt her. "There was a library in your lesser Hall, wasn't there?"

She nodded. "I don't see how that's related to—"

"It involves you learning a lot quickly, which is how you got out, right? Not by learning how to fight properly."

She looked down and shook her head. I remembered that her martial training had never really gotten very far. I was still teaching her, helping her learn how to throw a basic series of punches, and that had taken me a significant amount of time. So magic had to have been it. Besides, I'd seen her fight, and she just stood there. Just knowing more magic wasn't enough, though. Even magical combat required some instincts.

"So I bet you learned a lot of magic from unfettered access to the library and with some advice… But… your deal? What do you owe?" I asked bluntly, my expression serious.

She shook her head. "No! Well, yes, I did. But he—" she hesitated, then met my gaze with a significant look in her eyes. "He said he was doing me a favor and… well, he expected great things from me," she added with a blush.

I nodded. Loki was right. If he just had access to her and prevented any other god from getting to her, it was worthwhile—especially with someone of her talent. And I did consider it a favor. Shit, I owed him again. Not in a binding way, but I did owe him nonetheless.

"Okay," I said. "That's good to know. But yes, that's how I knew so much about reality. And, well, other stuff. I am not from your world. Originally, I was Miles, and now I'm here. Died in a way not too dissimilar from what you saw. Probably a little less heroic, though."

Alana leaned forward. "Miles," she whispered a couple of times as if cementing the name in her mind. "Yes, I can see how that suits you," she said. "You never really did bear the air of a noble."

I raised an eyebrow, and she waved her hand slightly. "Not in a bad way. But you were more willing to think. But so tell me, Miles. Tell me who you really are."

I sighed, taking a long sip of my drink to give myself a chance to gather my thoughts before setting it down carefully. "Well. My original world was called Earth…"

***

I talked about Earth and my life there. I told her about my wife and kids and how I died. She asked me about all the little details until I was laughing till I cried, and she clutched her side as I explained how my son, at four years old, had managed to hit his tee-ball coach in the balls with his baseball bat, the catcher in the face with the ball, and accidentally kicked the umpire in the shin—all on accident. And how he explained to me on the car ride home that it hadn't been an accident after all.

It was quite the sight when the server came in and found us barely able to breathe. I pulled myself together and thanked him for the food, tossing him a coin as a tip. Alana watched the interaction with a smile on her face.

"Thank you," I said. "I haven't laughed like that—" I paused, thinking, considering. "Not sure if I've laughed like that for a very long time. At least since my..."

What if I died?

That sobered us both up slightly. Memories of my late wife flooded past, and what I had learned about her not being here anymore. Not just dead. I had always thought we'd be reunited after death. But I was dead. We were both dead, and I existed, and she didn't. It was hard. It was... well, I only hoped that she was happy in the Heavenly Host, whatever that meant.

Alana, though, seemed to be going in a different direction with her thoughts.

"And what's become of her?" I asked.

"Well," I said, "that takes us down a different route."

I began to explain the little I knew about the different afterlives, how I had been offered Valhalla or Hell, and how little I had learned about what we believed to be Heaven. Alana nodded.

"That's not too different from what some faiths from my world believed. I am glad I ended up here—still myself, but not tortured for eternity. Thank you, Miles," she said with a smile. "But your wife... she is fully gone, then?"

I looked at her, understanding. There was a certain weight behind the question, and depending on how I answered it... well, I wasn't that much of an idiot. I had enough life experience to know that.

Alana had been my fiancée. But at the same time, I wasn't going to—I knew I couldn't have her hold onto hope for too long.

"Yes," I said. "She's gone, and I will always grieve her."

I was trying to dampen the idea that I knew she held. I looked Alana in the eyes and swallowed. Did I actually see her as a daughter? Not really. Maybe it was a tricky question. Still...

"Well..." I started to say something, and Alana waved me off.

"No, you don't need to say it. I—I think I'll change your mind eventually, though," she said with a knowing smile.

I sighed in relief, not having to speak the awkward words that I knew I should probably say. But at the same time... well, the gap in experience was always odd with her. She had seemed so naive, or maybe innocent, was a better description when I first met her. I knew that wasn't the case exactly, but I had still been more her teacher and mentor than a suitor. But with enough time, I guessed that wouldn't be a problem. Could she change my mind? Well, maybe. It might take some decades, but...

I mustered up the courage for the awkwardness—something that I didn't particularly enjoy doing—but I looked her in the eye and smiled.

"I don't think you want to wait that long," I told her.

She shrugged. "We'll see."

I figured that was as good as I was going to get. She was an adult—if a young one, after all. And well, from what I could tell, we had no time limit in Valhalla. But that wasn't something I was going to entertain anytime soon.

Still, that only explained part of the story.

I jumped into a much more abbreviated version of the events I've had since I first came to Valhalla and what happened after I got back.

After we finished eating, we had the room to ourselves for a bit, and Alana had many, many more questions.

"So we are waiting for this Astrid to do some sort of mission before we go back to the challenge?" she asked.

I shook my head. "No. We don't have to wait entirely. I was just not interested in doing it by myself. But I'll take you through it at least once so we can get some idea. And introduce you to Astrid when she gets back."

"And your mission for Loki?" she asked, having loosened up a little about being too cautious dropping names.

I shrugged. "It shouldn't be too hard."

"I want to help," she said.

I shook my head. "There's no need. I think we need to focus on making sure you get a class as soon as possible."

I hadn't shared my entire stat sheet with her, but I had mentioned that getting a class was the best way to make sure we increase our stats faster than everyone else. The earlier the class, the better.

"I have some ideas," I said, "but I think first we should go over your status sheet and maybe take you to see Phil the Gnome. Get some spells. Run the challenge. See how you do."

"And then?"

I shrugged. "We'll go from there."

Alana, though, leaned forward, intensity in her eyes that I hadn't seen in anyone else in my entire time in Valhalla.

"Okay, but how do we move on to tier five?" she asked. "Valhalla Proper is not the peak"