The Vampire & Her Witch

When Sybyll reached the stretch of woods where Lady Nyrielle had told her Ashlynn would be waiting, she was momentarily shocked by the scene of devastation that greeted her.

Great gouges had been torn in the earth, leaving trenches deeper than she was tall and more than three paces long in the sodden earth. From the way many of them had filled with water, it was clear that they had been made the night before, or perhaps a few nights ago during the intense storm.

Whole trees had been torn in two from their trunks to their tips and several trees bore circular impressions as if they’d been hit with a boulder thrown by a Tuscan or some other giant. What little underbrush remained looked like it had been trampled beneath the hooves of dozens of horses, crushed into the soft earth or torn from its roots and hurled across the clearing.

And standing there at the center of the clearing she found Thane’s familiar armored figure along with a shorter, blonde woman in armor who could only be the Mother of Trees. The two of them were standing at close distance with their blades pressed together as Thane demonstrated a half-swording technique, grabbing the sword by the blade with his off-hand in order to thrust toward a gap in a visor or between plates.

”Teacher Thane!” Sybyll called excitedly as she set down the heavy chest she’d been carrying with a solid -CLANK- before she rushed toward the man who had helped turn her into the woman she was today.

”Looks like I’m ’ere on time,” she said, throwing her arms around his armored figure as soon as he stepped away from Ashlynn and giving him an embrace that was fierce enough to make his armor creak in complaint. ”Mistress Nyrielle was worried you wouldn’a last a second night.”

”I might not have,” Thane chuckled as he unlatched his helm and pulled it off, revealing a face that was as handsome and charming as it had ever been with a smile on his lips and a twinkle in his eyes that held a significant measure of pride for his first pupil.

”Dame Sybyll Hanrahan,” Thane said, giving a light hearted bow with a dramatic flourish. ”May I present Lady Ashlynn Blackwell, the Mother of Trees, and betrothed of our Mistress Nyrielle,” he said as he straightened up.

”Don’t let her gentle look at the moment fool you,” he added. ”If she hadn’t offered me a spoon’s worth of her blood tonight, I wouldn’t be looking nearly so spry.”

”Dame Sybyll,” Ashlynn said, holding out her arms and offering an awkward, armored hug to the towering woman who nearly matched Thane for height. ”Nyri has told me a bit about you. Thank you for coming to help me train.”

”Nyri?” Sybyll said, blinking in surprise at hearing such a cute, diminutive name applied to her fearsome Mistress. But then again, the look on Lady Nyrielle’s face when she’d spoken of her ’darling Ashlynn’ had been just as shocking to the woman who had only known Nyrielle’s cold, emotionless face, ”I’m sorry, me lady, ya took me by surprise there.”

”She does that,” Thane said, though his tone held a hint of warning as he gestured to the devastation around them. ”Especially when she’s angry. And she was already half exhausted when we started last night.”

”It’s your own fault for provoking me,” Ashlynn countered. ”But it’s true that I need to be provoked. I’m calm enough right now because Nyri spent the whole day giving me pleasant dreams, but if not for that, I wouldn’t be nearly so calm. When I face Owain, I can’t lose control like this,” she said, looking down in embarrassment.

”I told you,” Thane said gently, resting a hand on Ashlynn’s shoulder. ”Last night was already an improvement. You devastated a few acres instead of conjuring a storm that stretched from here to Hanrahan and Dunn, almost all the way to Lothian if the messenger’s reports are to be believed. A little more time and focus, and the sharpness of the pain will fade,” he added gently.

”Once your mind is clearer about what you need to do next, you’ll be able to restrain yourself more,” Thane said, speaking from experience. In the days after he’d lost his sister, he’d felt like a man lost at sea, battered against the rocks and the cliffs one moment and swept under the waves the next.

It wasn’t until he worked out a plan to obtain his vengeance that he began to see the world clearly again and the pain hadn’t left him until he’d watched the life drain from the eyes of the man who condemned his sister to die. Even then, nothing could ever fill the hole in his heart that had been left by the loss of his closest family.

”Well, since Mistress Nyrielle an’ Teacher Thane want me help, ’ere I be,” Sybyll said a touch awkwardly as she watched Thane directing a familiar, gentle reassurance toward someone else. ”How can I help?”

”Let’s get ya properly dressed for battle,” Thane said, gesturing at the chest that Sybyll had brought with her. ”Lady Ashlynn, we’ll need your help as well. Dame Sybyll’s armor is a bit... heavy.”

”How heavy can it...” Ashlynn began, then stopped as Sybyll opened the chest. The contents seemed to drink in the moonlight, revealing armor so dark it appeared to be cut from midnight itself.

”Every piece is darksteel,” Sybyll said simply, already reaching for a deep crimson gambeson that lay folded at the top. ”From the smallest rivet ta the grandest plate. It cost a small fortune ta have made, an’ years ta forge it all but Mistress Nyrielle wouldn’a accept anythin’ less fer me,” she said with a hint of pride in her voice.

There was one piece missing from the set, the two-handed ax that Nyrielle presented her with when she asked Sybyll to serve as her personal executioner, capable of wading onto any battlefield to kill anyone that Nyrielle said must die.

But tonight, she wasn’t here as an executioner, she was here to help Lady Ashlynn learn how to fight and kill an armored knight.