The Vampire & Her Witch

Ashlynn shook her head at the distinctly ’manly’ display between Ollie and Thane. Try as she might, she couldn’t understand why standing in place and allowing a friend to hit you was an important ritual, but the look on Ollie’s face told her that even if she didn’t understand, he did.

The moment shared between the old knight and the young one forged a bond unlike any other. It transformed Ollie from a simple kitchen boy into the latest link in a chain of proud knights stretching back to before the founding of the Kingdom of Gaal. Thane had once stood where Ollie did, receiving a painful lesson from his father and a reminder of his virtues. His father had once stood in the same place, receiving his lesson from the future Lothian Marquis who had in turn received a lesson from another knight...

The chain continued unbroken for generations, and even if Ashlynn couldn’t understand the ritual, she could understand the significance of carrying on such an ancient tradition. And so, even though it was uncomfortable to watch, it warmed her heart to see that it meant so much to Ollie.

”Sir Ignatious,” Ashlynn said, turning to look at the fallen Inquisitor. ”It’s time for everyone else to leave. Take the villagers away. What happens next belongs to witches alone.”

”Your, your Dominion,” Milo said, his tail drooping in anxiety when Ignatious approached him. ”I thought that I would be allowed to stand with Ollie during his vigil. Do I, do I really need to go?”

”You care for him deeply, don’t you?” Ashlynn said, smiling at the cloaked archer. While Heila hadn’t hesitated to voice her concerns during Thane and Ollie’s exchange, the Heartwood archer’s tail had thumped the ground nervously each time the flame-haired youth was struck and his whiskers twitched with worry every time his human friend stood back up.

”I owe him more than a life can repay for what he’s done for my family,” Milo said, lowering his head and casting a glance at Ollie that was filled with deep emotion. ”Standing with him during his vigil is a small way of showing my respect, and since he’ll be defenseless while he faces the trial of the Cypress seed...”

”It’s fine that you stand over him during his trial,” Ashlynn said warmly, reaching out and resting a hand gently on Milo’s shoulder. ”But the ritual itself is a thing of witches. You can return once his trial has begun.”

”We’ll watch over him together,” Heila added, stepping up beside Ashlynn. ”I hope Ollie doesn’t need as much time as I did,” she said, looking anxiously at the tall young man. ”But it will be good if we can take turns resting, and you can tell me all about him while we watch over him.”

”I see,” Milo said, bowing deeply to the Mother of Trees. ”Then, I’ll help Ign- Sir Ignatious to clear away the villagers,” he offered. ”It may be better if it comes from me.”

Sitting in one of the remaining cedar trees within the village, Darragh frowned as one of the flat-tailed demons accompanied the strange Inquisitor and the vampire knight in dispersing the villagers. He’d hoped to use his vantage point in the tree to watch whatever was about to happen so he could bring it back as proof that Lady Ashlynn wasn’t the Holy Lady that Eamon seemed to have become convinced she was.

Months ago, she’d briefly conjured light, demonstrating a sacred power to the frightened captives after Sir Broll’s death and cementing herself in the older hunter’s mind as a sacred figure. Darragh, however, wasn’t so easily awed by the single demonstration, and everything he’d heard since then only did more to convince him that the ’miracle’ she’d shown them wasn’t as impressive as they’d thought it was at the time.

He never would have believed it then, but after six months spent living among the demons, he’d come to understand far more about their twisted world than he ever wanted to. They called Lady Ashlynn a Witc,h and the flat-tailed demons seemed to have an extra level of reverence for the ’Mother of Trees.’

Now, she was about to perform some kind of ritual, and he wanted more than anything to be able to describe it in detail to the Owain Lothian and the priests of the Church when he managed to escape this place. That kind of information would be worth several gold sovereigns at least, and it would prove that she was a charlatan who used dark, demonic powers to masquerade as a holy woman.

Only, there was no way he could escape the sharp senses of the vampire who had come to chase people away, refusing to allow anyone to bear witness to whatever dark magic was about to unfold. So, rather than get himself in trouble trying to conceal himself when he knew it was pointless, Darragh gave up, dropping to the ground and slapping his hands together to brush off the faint layer of cedar bark and sap that clung to his hands after climbing the tree.

Tonight, he wouldn’t be able to get his proof, he thought as he returned to the small cottage he shared with Eamon. But he’d been a hunter for more than enough years to develop his patience. Here in the Vale of Mists, the demons kept very few secrets from each other, sharing in a sense of unity that came from fighting a common foe.

After months of hunting for the refugees, they had accepted Darragh as ’one of them’, at least enough that they rarely guarded their tongues around him when they spoke. Now that Lady Ashlynn had returned, he was certain that she would use her dark powers openly in this place that she thought of as ’safe’ from prying eyes. All he had to do was listen to what the demons had to say about her, and sooner or later, he’d find his opportunity.

And once did, he thought with a dark smile on his lips, he’d finally cast off the zealot Eamon to escape from this place of darkness and demons, returning to Lothian City in triumph and earning his rewards for everything he’d suffered since following Sir Broll on that disastrous hunt.

Meanwhile, at the water’s edge, Ollie and Virve stood in companionable silence while they watched Ashlynn and Heila making their preparations. Several stones had been gathered for the ritual, and the pair of witches were carefully placing them along the edges of a circle that Ashlynn had scribed in the soft soil.

”Virve,” Ashlynn called out after the last stone was placed. Already, she could feel the power of the world gathering around the circle, flowing from the dark soil, the nearby trees, the water of the pond, the chill autumn air, and even from the cook fires that still burned in many of the homes of the village. Everything came together in this place, pensively waiting to be given shape and form under Ashlynn’s command.

”You have the offerings from the carriage?” Ashlynn asked, looking at the five smaller circles spaced evenly around the perimeter of the large circle.

”I do,” Virve said, nudging Ollie gently on the shoulder so as not to prod any of his tender wounds and bringing him along with her to retrieve a small wooden box. ”A skin of water, a feather, a knot of wood, a candle and a polished stone,” the bearish woman said, opening the box to show Ashlynn that the contents were all present.

”I can tell what you’re thinking,” Ashlynn said, reaching out to take Ollie’s hand as he frowned at the contents of the box.

Ashlynn had told him that she had prepared offerings for this ritual in order to aid his transformation into the Cypriss Witch but hen he looked at the contents of the box, most of them looked like odd trinkets or ordinary items. Only the dark feather and the polished stone seemed to hold any kind of special significance but what it was that made them special, he truly couldn’t tell.

”These things may look ordinary,” Ashlynn said, picking up the small waterskin and holding it carefully in both hands. ”But people likely said the same of you. But just like you’re no ordinary kitchen-boy, these things are more than they appear. Help me place them,” she said, holding out the water skin for him to take. ”And I’ll explain what each of them is for.”

”Tonight, you take your first step on the path of a witch,” Ashlynn said with a smile. ”Your hands should help to shape the ritual, don’t you think?”

”I do,” Ollie said, taking a shallow breath that still felt painful after the strikes he’d received from Sir Thane and trying to still his racing heart. Everything up to this point had been normal, even if Thane wasn’t your average knight and Ignatious was a strange priest, the things they’d done with him followed the structure of things every knight had done on the evening of their vigil for hundreds of years.

This, however, was something entirely different that would transform him in more ways than one. After taking this step, he wouldn’t just become a knight, but a witch and a member of Ashlynn’s coven. The pressure felt mounted until he had the illusion that the whole of the world had gathered to hear his next words, weighing his decision to stop now and accept life as an ordinary knight or to continue forward and become something more. But Ollie had made his decision days ago, and even though he felt tremendous pressure, his next words spilled easily from his lips, setting his feet firmly on the path of the Cypress Witch.

”Just tell me what to do,” Ollie said simply, holding the water skin and looking at the circle with eyes that were firm and determined to succeed, no matter what this trial demanded of him.