"Valkyrie?" Skulduggery tilted his head and peered at the 13 year old who was currently looking at the ground obviously deep in concentration. "Valkyrie, is there something you want to tell me?" he tried again. Suddenly Valkyrie's head shot up and she looked him straight in the eye-socket.

"OK, here's the thing…" she paused. "Y'see the thing is…" she paused again "Well-"

"Just tell me what's bothering you before I go insane!" Skulduggery said, for the first time Valkyrie noticed a hint of annoyance to his normally velvet voice

"Ok, the reflection's been keeping things from me for a while and it's been hiding more and more over the past few months. I don't know what's wrong with it but it's definitely not right. Anyway, with the memories from today there's hardly anything there. She-" Valkyrie hesitated "It, might aswel have not even bothered sharing what happened today!" she sighed. This was not going to be good and Skulduggery would be mad for sure. He never liked being kept in the dark. There was that time that Tanith organised a party for him and Skulduggery got so mad that he ended up capturing Tanith, tying her to a chair and pointing a big light into her face and questioning her for hours on end. It would have been comical if Tanith hadn't have been so angry. In the end he let her go and she told him to celebrate his birthday on his own preferably in a furnace. He just blamed it on 'women problems' and went on his way. So, suffice it to say, that Skulduggery Pleasant did not like being kept in the dark about the smallest thing. Not even the tiniest detail. So why at this time was he not getting mad and storming about the house? Why was he simply standing there nodding his head?

"You're not shouting…" Valkyrie tested the waters with a gentle tone.

"No, I'm not shouting. I can understand why you kept this from me. You thought I'd insist that you never called upon the reflection again went back to school and left this life behind."

"Umm… no. Not even close." Valkyrie looked at the skeleton sceptically.

"Oh well. It was worth a try. I think you're reflection may have been possessed." Skulduggery was obviously not in the mood right now to discuss matters further with Valyrie as to why she was being secretive and he just wanted to get straight down to business. "Well, that is the most likely of all the answers but it makes me wonder whether this has something to do with Ms. Thorpe…"

"Yeah, what was all that about? You never did explain properly. Just told me to go and ask the right questions."

"Well, there have been rumours that Serpine, or someone imitating Serpine, is back. Now, we know that Serpine was killed but that doesn't mean that there isn't someone finishing off what he set out to do. Now Serpine had a list of all his followers and if you know the right people and can get the right kind of actors required to play villains then you can get your hands on that very piece of paper. Knowing as many people as I do, I made a few calls and obtained it through, err… well let's just say I managed to get it. Anyway, Serpine had put the people in order of importance and in his top 5 was one name I'd never heard of. Ms. Donna Thorpe. Naturally I went looking for her and when I found she was working for some secret drugs company then I knew that there had to be something more. You don't just go from following Serpine's every move to working in pharmaceuticals. I did some research and, out of every 10 people that offered themselves up as Guinea Pigs, only 2 came out of the building and, eventually, even they disappeared. No records of what happened to them and no records of the people inside the building ever coming out. My theory or hunch or whatever you want to call it is that Donna Thorpe is finding some way of bringing Serpine's dream to the forefront of everyone's minds, humans and magicians alike, and one way she will definitely be trying to do that is by making it known to me first because of my obvious past with Serpine. Why she'd want to alert the one person who can (and will) stop her is anybody's guess but I think she may have done something to make your reflection turn against every part of you that's you and it's doing her bidding. Of course the whole memory blocking thing is something that she may have done to it and it may not even realise it or she might have taught it how to do it and it just does that wherever it sees fit to do so. It might not realise that it's taking such chunks out of you memory but it's just doing what it thinks it should do for you not to realise what's happening. The problem with reflections is that they can't be taught things They can be told things which they'll memorise with a photographic memory and be able to repeat immediately after. Whether it be a piano concerto or how to tie a shoelace it only has to watch you once and it can do it."

"But what's the difference with being taught and seeing how it's done and repeating it?" Valkyrie was truly confused now and there was such a lot to take in.

"Being taught something normally takes time and effort but if you see something once and can repeat it immediately then it's not stressful and can take immediate effect in the brain."

"Right…" Valkyrie agreed with herself that she would never understand what he was on about when he was on one of his rambling trips that only he knew the directions for.

"You have no idea what I just said do you?" Skulduggery questioned her. She could just imagine his eyebrows raising on his forehead.

"Not. A. Clue." She admitted.

"Suffice it to say that instead of your reflection having to go to school it need only go to the library, pick up books on different subjects, read each page and it would be smarter than the smartest person in the world. Understand now, Valkyrie?"

"Yeah." Valkyrie turned her head to the side and then whipped it back round to face him. "HOLD ON ONE SECOND! You mean that all this time all I needed to do was send my reflection to the library and I'd never need school again and you forgot to tell me?! And with all the stupid 'I'm so brilliant' stuff you go on about!" she rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

"I'm trying not to be offended. I am brilliant…" he trailed off.

"Of course you are, and I'm going out with a vampire called Edward Cullen." she snorted and shook her head. Skulduggery just got up and began walking to the Bentley. He didn't need to turn around to know that Valkyrie was following.

"Stupid bloody skeleton…" and the Bentley came to life with a twist of the key.

**********************

Valkyrie slumped down on the sofa in Skulduggery house.

"Food? Drink?" Skulduggery asked as he walked past her.

"What kind of food?" Valkyrie looked at him suspiciously. "You don't own food. Remember?"

"Ah," said Skulduggery. "I do, however, have take-out menus."

"Awesome" Valkyrie said and jumped up from her seat. She dialled the number on one of the leaflets and ordered a rather large portion of egg fried rice, Chicken balls and prawn crackers (Or as the people in the shop called it: 55, 172 and 96). She placed the receiver back on the pedestal and walked into the kitchen where Skulduggery was reading various things that he'd dragged down from upstairs.

"I'm paying, I presume…?" he queried. Valkyrie could imagine him raising an eye-brow.

"Well, obviously. You're the one who suggested it." she tried her most adorable puppy-dog look and he sighed 'haha,' she thought. 'I've won again.'

"Yes Valkyrie, OK." Skulduggery said "There's no need to try that face with me. You know it works just as well as I do and we both knew I was going to pay regardless so go and answer the door for the poor delivery guy."

"Skulduggery, the delivery guy hasn't even kno-" there was a knock at the door. I could feel the smugness radiating from Skulduggery. "Money, please." Skulduggery handed her his wallet and she walked to the door. She hated how he was always right about stuff. Bloody egotistical maniacal skeleton. She paid the guy and came back indoors. Getting a plate, knife and fork out of the cupboard Valkyrie sat down and began to place the meal on the plate.

"You see the problem here is that we know where Donna Thorpe is and we know who works for her but we don't know who she works for herself." She sat looking at him as she shovelled some rice into her mouth.

"Ah, well. I did some research and by research I mean talking to her body-guard and when I say talking I mean er… persuading him to give us the information I required."

"Did the persuading work?"

"Yes and No." Valkyrie raised her eyebrow and tilted her head slighty (she just noticed she had taken on some of Skulduggery's mannerisms.) "Well, yes he gave us his pass key which is a platinum level security meaning we can get ANYWHERE in the building and, No, he doesn't know who her bosses are. The guy just know that she pays his pay check and he accepts it and asks no questions."

"The thing is that there were 2 body-guards. There was one called Tim. He disappeared just as me and the other one got in the lift. He knew who I was and he knew LOADS of other stuff. You don't think he was on a secret mission or something? Part of the sanctuary? But Guild…" Valkyrie decided to shut up as she knew she couldn't answer these questions herself and she doubted Skulduggery could yet.

"I don't know who the other one is but he sounds like he could be the person we need to talk to. Until we find him though we may have a few problems…"

Valkyrie sighed. "Well, it's not as if we're going to find him anytime soon is it? Ireland's a big place and he could be anywhere by now…"

Valkyrie put her plate in the sink and grabbed her jacket from across the back of the chair where it was draped. Skulduggery also got up from his chair and went to unlock the door.

"I mean," continued Valkyrie "it's not as if he's just gonna be right outside the door or leaning against the car is it?" she laughed and Skulduggery opened the door… and there was Tim the security guard leaning against the door frame.