The Vampire & Her Witch

Sitting on her frozen throne in the Great Hall, Ashlynn felt ice grip her heart when Hauke was carried in. Chains bound his body, securing him to the chair that was so heavy it took several men to move, but even if he wasn’t bound, there was nothing the young man could do.

His wounds from the battle the night before had been washed and bandaged but with healers in such short supply, no one had done more than provide minimal care for the young Frost Walker lord who many felt was responsible for starting the night of tragedy. If he could feel, the pain of thouse wounds would likely be immense but at the moment, seeing his vacant, glassy-eyed stare, Ashlynn could only hope that he wasn’t suffering.

”The dead cry out for justice,” Zedya said formally when the soldiers set Hauke at the front of the hall and Erkembalt joined Aspakos with the remainder of the delegation. ”Many witnesses saw how last night’s tragedy began. Young Lord Hauke cried ’defiler’ and launched an unprovoked attack at Lady Heila. Because of that action, what should have been a simple, ceremonial greeting between two allies turned into a night of blood and death.”

”Lady Ashlynn,” Zedya said, turning to face the Mother of Trees on her throne of ice. ”You understand what happened better than anyone, and while the Willow Witch suffered at his hands, you suffered far more grievous wounds. Will you tell everyone gathered here, living and dead, what happened last night?”

”I will,” Ashlynn said smoothly as she tried to assess the mood of the crowd. Several of the youngest Frost Walkers present glared at Hauke with open hostility while the elders among them wore far more complicated looks that contained a measure of guilt and sorrow. Surprisingly, the hostility was far more intense on Nyrielle’s side of the Great Hall, though Ashlynn wasn’t sure if it was hostility on behalf of the fallen soldiers or for something else entirely.

”But not yet,” she said. ”Last night’s tragedy comes near the end of a story and too many here, including the honored dead, have never heard it,” she explained, casting a glance at Nyrielle and giving her lover’s hand a gentle squeeze. ”Let my love speak first.”

”Some secretes should stay buried with the dead,” Nyrielle said with a heavy sigh. She’d discussed whether or not to reveal these secrets with Ashlynn and she’d been strongly opposed to doing so, but her lover wanted to build toward something greater and insisted that lies and secretes would only undermine the foundation of anything they tried to build in the aftermath of this nightmare.

Nyrielle, however, was worried that a poorly understood truth could do more harm than good, and while she knew more of the truth now than they had before, there were still many questions that only her mentor, Shubnalu, could answer. Without his cooperation, some things could never be fully understood, even if the fragments they possessed were revealed. In the end, they’d compromised, and Nyrielle agreed to reveal a portion of what she had learned in the ancestral cave where they had first encountered the Blood Golems.

”My darling Ashlynn has asked me to share a piece of history long lost to your people,” Nyrielle said, looking out over the Frost Walkers. ”But understand that this comes from a time long ago. So long ago that my teacher, the Fangs of Death, was a young man under the tutelage of Acat, a True Vampire who bore the title of ’Jaws of Death.’ Acat fell more than five hundred years ago, leaving his seat vacant until Bardas was born into the world to inherit his title and traditions.”

Several mutters swept through the crowd at the revelation, particularly among the Mongrel Hord. Savis and Tausau shared an even more troubled look. Hamdi was one of Bardas’s progeny so they had some interaction with the famed Jaws of Death of the current age, but to hear that events last night began with their progenitor’s predecessor cast things in a very different light for every vampire in the room.

”At the height of your clan’s power, the Frost Walkers brought about an Age of Ice that covered the world beneath a blanket of ice and snow,” Nyrielle explained. ”By rights, according to the traditions of the Jaws of Death, your clan should have been exterminated for what they had done. Those who threaten the lives of all people cannot be allowed to continue their rule.

”But instead of slaughtering your people,” Nyrielle continued. ”Acat sealed away the power that threatened the world, breaking the bloodline of Frost Walkers into its component parts and ending the tyranny of a clan where almost everyone possessed an iridescent horn like Haukes.”

”Tyranny?” Commander Jannik said derisively, unable to contain the storm of emotions that engulfed his heart at Nyrielle’s words. ”You mean to tell me that this Acat stripped us of the chance to grow into greatness the way Hauke could have, breaking the power of our clan and turning us into prey for the likes of Tuscans and artificers who would turn our horns into weapons, and yet we were the tyrants?”

”Jannik!” Odette cried out, rushing from her chair to his side to hold him back before he could do anything impulsive again. ”Please, hear what Her Eternity has to say before you speak. I’m sure there is more to this.”

”There is more,” Nyrielle said calmly as she looked down at the troubled commander who had already demonstrated his poor opinions about vampires and their traditions once during this evening’s proceedings. ”But you should understand one thing first. The Frost Walker clan of today is not the Frost Walker clan of old. That power was broken because it caused untold deaths and devastation. So when I call the Frost Walker clan of old ’tyrants’ I mean it. They deserved the label for nearly exterminating every other clan on the continent,” she said in a voice dripping with condemnation.

”I will say it again,” Nyrielle said as he eyes filled with a deep darkness and her voice grew distant as though she spoke from the depths of a limitless abyss. ”The Frost Walkers of old deserved their eradication, but they were spared by Acat’s hand all those years ago. Instead of destroying your clan, he stripped your clan of the power to destroy the world.”

”But you can see that even then, your clan wasn’t left without hope for a bright future,” Ashlynn added, squeezing Nyrielle’s hand gently before she pointed at Hauke, sitting in chains at the foot of the dais. ”Iridescent horns are still born into the Frost Walker Clan. It is too much power for everyone to have,” she said, nodding at Savis and Tausau who quickly nodded in agreement.

”But in the hands of the right person, that power can still pave the way to a brighter future for the entire clan,” Ashlynn said. ”I know that that’s what Hauke was trying to do,” she added in a softer tone. ”And he was trying to learn how to do so from ancestors who shared his unique gifts, because no one could understand what it really takes to master an iridescent horn other than the people who possessed one before him.”

”If only it were as simple as learning from those who came before,” Nyrielle said, calming herself enough to continue telling her tale. Inwardly, she worried that what she had to say next would draw even more ire from Commander Jannik and those who thought like him, but... she had promised Ashlynn that she would try.

If words failed, there was still the option to use force... she only hoped that, for Ashlynn’s sake, it didn’t come to that so soon in their attempts to forge something greater.