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Valkyrie Cain is the fictional character from the book series Skulduggery Pleasant by author Derek Landy. She is introduced in the first book Skulduggery Pleasant (novel) as Stephanie Edgely and is later known by her true name, Darquesse. She appears in all 15 books of the series so far (and will appear in the last book Until the End which is coming out in 2022), as well as most short stories and novellas attached to the series.

Skulduggery Pleasant
In Skulduggery Pleasant (novel), we are introduced to Stephanie Edgely, a twelve year old girl who has recently lost her uncle, a wealthy author, Gordon Edgely. She notices a strange man who looks as if he is wearing a bad disguise at both the will reading (where she inherits Gordon's mansion and estate) and the funeral. After the will reading, Stephanie is left alone in the mansion and is attacked by a mysterious man who is searching for a key. Stephanie is saved by the man from the will reading, who throws a fireball at the attacker who subsequently runs away, despite being impervious to fire. The man who saves her is revealed to be Skulduggery Pleasant, the skeleton detective, who is also a sorcerer. Stephanie faints but convinces Skulduggery to let her help him investigate the case.

Stephanie then meets China Sorrows, a beautiful collector of magical books, who tells them about the Sceptre of the Ancients , a magical weapon with powers of disintegration. Nefarian Serpine, an old enemy of Skulduggery's, is after it. Following this, they are attacked by the same man from before, Vindick Leather who is dissolved in a river (he is weak to water) after Stephanie leads him to it. The next day they visit Ghastly Bespoke, a tailor and friend of Skulduggery's, who has a collection of books about the Ancients who made the Sceptre. He refuses to let them see them, but does make Stephanie a set of black armored clothes. Skulduggery and Stephanie decide to break in to the Vault where they're kept, after Stephanie is taught to bring her reflection to life in order to keep up with school and appear normal to her family, and a visit to the Council of Elders, a group of sorcerers who run the Irish Sanctuary (the sorcerer government). After evading the vampires of the Vault, Stephanie and Skulduggery are able to talk to Oisin, a dead sorcerer copied in an echo stone , who reveals to them that the Sceptre is in the caves under the mansion.

Upon heading back to the mansion, Skulduggery is captured by Serpine. Stephanie goes to China for help who refuses and controls Stephanie by using her name. Stephanie overcomes this by taking the name Valkyrie Cain, breaking China's control. She rescues Skulduggery with Tanith Low, a swordswoman (who she meets in China's library), and some cleavers (silent Sanctuary soldiers)

Skulduggery works out the key is a cheap brooch owned by Valkyrie's aunt, which Valkyrie steals. She discovers she can do elemental magic. Her father also tells her they were descended from the Ancients, though he does not believe in magic. Following this, Skulduggery and Valkyrie prepare to go to the caves to retreive the Sceptre but are betrayed by Mr Bliss, a Sanctuary man sent to help them, who steals the key. They race through the caves and battle Serpine, but lose.

Serpine takes the Sceptre and uses it to murder the Elders who are protecting The Book of Names, with which he can control every sorcerer in the world using their true name. Valkyrie, Skulduggery, Ghastly and Tanith all battle to stop him (Ghastly sacrificing himself by turning himself to stone as to not be destroyed by The White Cleaver, a cleaver modified by Serpine, in the process) and succeed when Serpine is destroyed with the Sceptre, breaking it.The Book of Names is also destroyed, but not before Valkyrie catches a glimpse of her true name in it. After this, Skulduggery formally takes her on as his partner and student.

Playing with Fire
After one year, Valkyrie (now 13 years old) takes down criminals with Skulduggery for Thurid Guild, the new head of the sanctuary. During this time, Baron Vengeous, one of The Three Generals of Mevolent , breaks out of jail. He is seeking the armour of another general, Lord Vile, in order to resurrect The Grotesquery and bring back The Faceless Ones , dark gods from another dimension.

Valkyrie is visiting China when Vengeous appears in her apartment, revealing that he was broken out of jail by a Billy Ray Sanguine, a man who can travel through solid surfaces, and Dusk the vampire. A battle ensues which is resolved when Sanguine chases Valkyrie who is rescued by Tanith. Valkyrie scars Sanguine using his favourite razor, which she also steals.

Following this, Valkyrie and Skulduggery, using convicted criminal Vaurien Scapegrace as a guide, go to the run- down town of Roarhaven to find The Torment, a man with knowledge about The Grotesquery. The Torment agrees to help if Skulduggery kills Valkyrie, who he despises due to being a descendant of the Ancients. This condition is met by swapping Valkyrie out with her reflection, who takes the bullet for her. The Torment reveals The Grotesquery's location and Scapegrace is returned to prison.

Upon returning home, Valkyrie does the usual transfer of memories between her and her reflection that allows her to keep up with daily life. She remembers being shot but realizes that there's a blank spot. She thinks the reflection must be hiding something but doesn't tell anyone. She is then kidnapped by Sanguine and taken to the church of the faceless ones. There she is bled over The Grotesquery and Vile's recently discovered armour by Vengeous. Skulduggery rescues her and they manage to take The Grotesquery with them to the lab of Kenspeckle Grouse, a sorcerer scientist and doctor.

As The Grotesquery was mid-resurrection, it is able to bring itself back to life in the middle of the night.It slaughters some of Kenspeckle's assistants and escapes. Subsequently Skulduggery realizes that someone is working with Vengeous and accuses Guild of being a traitor. He fires Valkyrie and Skulduggery. Valkyrie is the attacked at her family reunion by Dusk. She wins the fight after injecting dusk with a solution that traps him between human and vampire form. Another villain called Springheeled Jack assists her.

Valkyrie, Skulduggery, Tanith, Mr Bliss and some cleavers track down and battle The Grotesquery. Vengeous arrives with China who he has kidnapped and turns the tide of the battle, killing the cleavers and subduing everyone else. Valkyrie tricks Vengeous into releasing her by promising to kill Skulduggery but releases China instead, creating a distraction that allows her to free Skulduggery. Valkyrie and Skulduggery attack Vengeous togther, who is then killed by The Grotesquery. Valkyrie kills it and The Grotesquery screams as it dies, calling The Faceless Ones who are now aware of their universe.

The Faceless Ones
The book opens with the murders of four teleporters (sorcerers who can teleport), which Valkyrie and Skulduggery investigate, discovering a connection with a teleporter murder 50 years before. They report to Guild who has replaced them with the inefficient and corrupt Remus Crux and so refuses to rehire them. They carry on investigating anyway, going to the murder scene which also happens to be the lake where The Sea Hag lives. They are able to briefly talk to the murdered teleporter with her help, and he reveals that a man named Batu killed him. He also tells them that an Isthmus Anchor (an object connected to The Faceless Ones dimension) and a teleporter would be enough to open the gate to The Faceless Ones who could then destroy humanity. They promise to bury him on land which The Sea Hag objects to, trying to drown Valkyrie but Skulduggery saves her.

They then switch their focus to protecting the remaining teleporters and manage to rescue Fletcher Renn, a teenage teleporter, just before he is killed by Sanguine using China's help. Sanguine is working for the Diablerie, a religious group attempting to bring back The Faceless Ones. Kenspeckle then admonishes both Skulduggery and Valkyrie, as she cannot be a normal teenager when being constantly put in mortal peril. Following this, they go to see Finbar Wrong, a Sensitive who reveals that location of the gate is Aranmore Farm. Solomon Wreath, a Necromancer , then pledges his and the other Necromancer's help. Skulduggery punches him because of an as yet unrevealed grudge, but accepts his offer.

Valkyrie and Skulduggery then talk to Paddy, the owner of Aranmore Farm, to tell him to watch out for strange occurrences. They realize the corpse of The Grotesquery is an Isthmus Anchor as it is part Faceless One and so attempt to steal it from the Sanctuary but are attacked by Crux, despite using Scapegrace as a distraction. Sanguine uses his wall walking magic to take The Grotesquery from them before they can escape. They manage to get away using a secret exit.

After this, Ghastly wakes up and they reunite. Fletcher then teleports Valkyrie to the tailors. She is annoyed by this and punches him but they have a nice conversation when waiting for the others to arrive. Ghastly then makes Valkyrie some new armoured clothes and reveals that he was reluctant to help them in the first book as his mother had told him of a vision she'd had of Valkyrie dying a very painful death. He wants her to leave magic but Valkyrie decides to stay.

Paddy then reports strange activity on his farm. They tell him about magic and the danger the world is in, and Fletcher is able to find the gate. As the only thing that can destroy a Faceless One is a black crystal (like the one in the Sceptre) Skulduggery and Valkyrie go into the caves to find some. There they find a replica of the mansion where the ghost Anathem Mire lives. He attacks them but eventually shows them where the crystals are. Valkyrie is one of the only humans to be able to touch them due to her Ancient blood. Anathem attempts to prevent them leaving but fails. They use the crystal to fix the Sceptre.

Valkyrie then heads home, where she is home alone as her parents are on holiday. Crux attempts to arrest her and succeeds after chasing her through her town. She is put in a cell with Scapegrace who tries to kill her but she defeats him, uses him as a hostage and tricks the guards into letting her out. As she escapes, she sees the Administrator of the Sanctuary attempt to kill Mr Bliss, revealing her as the traitor. Valkyrie kills her and escapes to the farm, where a battle is already taking place.

Most of her friends are taking refuge in Paddy's house and Paddy convinces her to wear his ring. Fletcher is forced to open the gate. In the chaos, Valkyrie slices open Sanguine's torso and he flees. Three Faceless Ones arrive and kill Mr Bliss, taking over the bodies of the Diablerie members. Paddy takes the Sceptre and knocks Tanith out, revealing he is Batu. Valkyrie takes off the ring he gave her after realizing its blocking her magic.

Valkyrie loses sight of Batu and is nearly arrested again by Crux, who took the Sceptre off Batu. She realizes he's gone insane, a side effect of looking directly at a Faceless One. China convinces him to give the Sceptre to Valkyrie who blasts a Faceless One with it. Another destroys the Sceptre, the crystal and itself forcing the group to come up with another way to destroy the last one.

Skulduggery decides to lure the last Faceless One back into the gate. The plan goes wrong and Skulduggery is taken into the dimension of The Faceless Ones. As the portal is now closed it cannot be reopened without another Isthmus Anchor, and The Grotesquery was destroyed in the battle. Valkyrie is very sad about this but a few weeks later Solomon tells her that if she can find Skulduggery's original skull, that should be enough to act as an Isthmus Anchor so they can bring him back. He also offers to teach her necromancy and she accepts.

Name Origins
Derek Landy has stated that Valkyrie Cain was the hardest name for him to come up with. It comes from the Irish expression 'raising cain' which means to make trouble. Valkyrie refers to the women in Norse mythology who choose who live and die in battle before escorting their souls off the battlefield. It is unclear what Derek Landy's inspiration was for the name Darquesse, however it is an Irish name meaning influencer, freedom lover and charisma.

Physical Description
Valkyrie is described as being strong and athletic, with straight dark brown hair and brown eyes. She is frequently described as being tall for her age. She usually wears the protective clothes that Ghastly made for her, though as Darquesse in The Last Stand of Dead Men she wears the Bride of Blood Tears outfit and reverts to casual clothes for a while after The Dying of the Light. In Phase 2 she also wears a necronaut suit.

Powers and Skills
Valkyrie begins as an Elemental sorcerer but later learns Necromancy. Usually she would have had to choose between them as she became an adult, but because of her transformation, and then relinquishment of Darquesse, she loses them both. Instead she can use lightning and energy waves. She can also fly and shows signs of being a Sensitive. When they were one, Darquesse also gave Valkyrie immense power and Valkyrie sometimes let her take over in battle if she was facing a particularly hard opponent due to how limitless Darquesse was.

Valkyrie is very skilled in martial arts, as well as a variety of armed fighting techniques. She is also very intelligent and prides herself on having an excellent sense of humour.

Personality
Valkyrie is confident, independent, intelligent and stubborn, which can lead to her being read as arrogant and selfish. She dislikes authority and isn't afraid to respond with violence when needed. She is sarcastic and often provokes her enemies whilst fighting them. Despite this, she is incredibly loyal and caring. She isn't afraid to risk herself for her friends, her family or the world.

Valkyrie is bisexual and has been in relationships with men and women throughout the series.

As Darquesse, she is essentially an entirely different person. Darquesse has a childlike way of exploring the world and her immense powers, regardless of the consequences, and is often needlessly cruel. She will deliberately seek out conflict to find someone who can challenge her, and she values her own life above anything else. She does retain some of Valkyrie's wit however, as she also verbally attacks her opponents.