The Vampire & Her Witch

”I have forgiven Ignatious for his crimes of many years ago,” Nyrielle said in a voice that was colder than the air had been when Ashlynn held Frost Fang in her hands. ”I have forgiven him, but even I couldn’t help him to forgive himself. For that, he required the help of the first person to join my Ashlynn’s coven,” she said, turning to smile warmly at Ashlynn.

At this point, every person in the great hall sat perched on the edge of their seats, hanging on Nyrielle’s every word as they tried to imagine the kind of horrors an Inquisitor could have inflicted on a vampire to make them beg to see the sun. For many of them, their imaginations were several times darker than what had actually transpired, but that only made their image of the monster named ’Ignatious’ more terrifying.

A few of the warriors present nodded uncomfortably at Nyrielle’s words when she said that she had forgiven him. After all, any weapon that could threaten her progeny was a weapon worthy of using against their enemies, even if it was someone who had been her enemy in the past. As long as he had been brought to heel and could be counted on to turn his terrifying skills on the Lothians and his former brethren in the Church, then they didn’t care what crimes he had committed in the past. All that mattered was his ability to inflict harm on their current enemies, and much could be forgiven so long as he piled up enough victories for his mistress.

But what then was this notion of forgiving himself?

”When I arrived,” Ashlynn said, stepping forward to take over where Nyrielle had left off. ”I said that there were two people who made me feel like the Vale was more than just a place to escape my former husband and plan my retribution,” she said, glancing briefly toward Thane before she turned her gaze to the table of honored guests where Heila’s father sat with other members of her family.

”Like Ollie, she is someone of humble origins with common duties,” Ashlynn explained. ”But I have never before seen so much courage and kindness packed into such a diminutive figure as I have in the woman who became my Willow Witch and the first witch to join my coven.”

Sitting at the table of honored guests, Helga began to shift nervously in her seat, looking briefly around the hall as if to reassure herself that Heila wasn’t standing among the servants while she listened to Lady Ashlynn speak. Her hand clutched tightly at Kaisen’s as she felt the weight of the Mother of Trees’ gaze grow even heavier as she very clearly focused on their small, little family out of all the honored guests sitting at their table.

”She’s a woman who would throw herself into the waters of a frozen lake, diving beneath the ice to stop an enemy from dragging me to my death,” Ashlynn praised. ”She’s also a woman who would stand for ten days upon the bloody sands of High Fen City’s arena, fighting to win recruits to our cause in the same way that Mistress Nyrielle once fought in order to gather forty-seven champions to retake the Vale of Mists from Lothian hands.”

”But at her core, the willow is a healer’s tree,” Ashlynn said. ”And Heila possesses a healer’s heart, capable of mending wounds so deep within Ignatious’s heart that he was able to transform his Holy Flames of wrath and judgment into a flame that is pure and untainted by greed, hatred, and ambition.”

”She is my lady-in-waiting,” Ashlynn said warmly as she looked at the stunned expressions on the faces of Heila’s family. ”She has been at my side nearly every step of the way since my arrival in the Vale of Mists. In the arena of High Fen City, she is a champion called the ’Willow Whip’, and they have built statues in her honor. But more than that, she is the greatest friend I have ever known, and she has earned her place at this table a thousand times over,” Ashlynn said firmly.

By this point, the people in the great hall were uncertain where they should look. From the way Lady Ashlynn addressed the people at the seat of honor it was clear that the members of the Horned Clan there had something to do with this Willow Witch, but those people seemed to be just as surprised at the news as everyone else in the room.

Others turned to the door, expecting the famed witch and Inquisitor to make an appearance any moment now. But the doors stayed firmly shut, and no one made a move until Lady Nyrielle began to speak again.

”Ignatious and Heila are both people of rare and extraordinary character and capability,” Nyrielle said as the smile on her lips widened. ”But they aren’t the only ones shattering unspoken rules that have persisted for hundreds of years.”

”Not once in two hundred years have my progeny founded a line of their own,” Nyrielle announced. ”Not because I forbade it, but because each and every one of my progeny has been driven by purpose, whether it is vengeance, service, or the protection of the Vale of Mists. None of them had encountered a reason to take in progeny of their own... just as none of them had found love great enough that they could not bear to let old age and death rip their loved one from their tender embrace,” she said in a voice that grew increasingly gentle.

”But now, I have borne witness to the first wedding among my progeny,” Nyrielle said proudly. ”And I have seen the first of them take the person they loved under their fangs in the name of a love that will last as long as they can resist the call of the abyss.”

”Tonight,” Nyrielle said as the heavy, iron bound doors began to open once again ”We welcome not only Inquisitor Ignatious and Lady Heila, but also the first wedded couple among my progeny, Madame Zedya and Sir Lennart!”