The Vampire & Her Witch

”Stop!” Loman called to the column of soldiers, holding up a hand before he dropped out of his saddle and strode through the muddy, slushy snow on the cobblestone road to reach the widower.

”What happened, goodman?” Loman asked as he reached out to put a hand on the other man’s shoulder, feeling the bone-deep cold, weariness, and despair that had seeped into the man’s bones.

”It, it happened last night, yer lordship,” he man said, momentarily startled that anyone had bothered to listen to his pleas. ”I, I weren’t home, but, but when I came back this morning after tha snow stopped, it were like this, yer lordship,” he said as his shoulders shook with a combination of suppressed sobs and shivering from the cold. ”Me wife, Saela an’ me daughter, Hannah, she’s only two winters old, yer lordship, they were home alone when it happened an’ now... now...”

The man couldn’t make himself say it again. It had been hours since the roof caved in, and there was no way that they had survived, trapped under the snow through half the night and all the morning, but he couldn’t rest until he saw them with his own eyes.

”Don’t pity Dannil, yer lordship,” a gray haired woman standing outside a small shop selling woolen goods said. ”He were out drinkin’ an’ whorin’ all night long. He’s alive fer runnin’ out on Saela in tha night, yer lordship. If he’d’a been ’ere like a real husband an’ father, he’d a been ’ere ta’ dig ’em out instead’a leavin’ ’em ’ere ta’ die.”

”It doesn’t matter,” Loman said as he supported the man who nearly collapsed under the weight of his neighbor’s condemnation. ”This is his struggle to meet, and he’s asking for help doing what’s right. The Holy Lord of Light illuminates our path to transform stranger into neighbor and neighbor into friend because no man is meant to bear his struggles alone,” Loman recited.

”Besides,” he added in a more somber tone. ”The dead deserve to rest on pyres tonight to make their way to the Heavenly Shores,” Loman said as he looked around the street and took in the number of broken homes that lined the street.

”How did a single winter storm cause so much damage?” Loman asked the gray haired woman. ”It shouldn’t be like this, even for a sudden storm.”

This home was already the third one he’d seen with a collapsed roof, just along a single street, and there were many more that creaked and groaned under the weight of snow atop their roofs. The number of people out in the street who had come to beg for help was also a surprise to the Lothian lord. In Lothian City, he had done much to support the poor and the people who had no where to live, but this was the first time he’d seen people holding out their hands because they’d lost half their home in a single night, or encountered people who were doing well enough to have a roof over their heads who died as a result of the storm.

”We still havn’a recovered from tha’ Demon Storm, yer lordship,” the aging shop keeper said. ”We’s all done our best, but not every man can mend ’is own roof after that nightmare ’an no one comin’ down from on high ta’...”

”Enough, Cattea!” another neighbor snapped from nearby, interrupting her before she could speak ill of Baron Hanrahan and how little he had done to help the people in the outer areas of Hanrahan when they needed to repair their thatched roofs and broken shutters after the horrible storm that had come along with the demon raids on the caravans carrying the tithes from villages.

”His lordship don’t want ta hear our troubles,” the neighbor said firmly, hoping that his scolding would save her from a public flogging for embarrassing the nobility. ”We take care of our own, yer lordship,” the man said as he made an awkward bow in the street. ”No need fer ye to waste yer time on us now. A few snips if you have ’em to hire a couple local boys wit’ shovels will be more ’an generous to Dannil ’ere.”

”No, no, it isn’t enough,” Loman insisted as he turned to look at the Lothian soldiers marching behind the Temple Guard. ”Captain Vebra! Bring up your men and some shovels from the wagons. We didn’t just come to fight demons,” he said as he turned back to the folk lining the street. ”We came to help.”

”Captain,” Loman said, speaking loudly enough for the whole crowd to hear. ”Stay with the people until dusk. If there are others like Dannil here with loved ones buried in their homes, see that they’re dug out so they can know the warmth of a pyre and follow its light to the Heavenly Shores. Then, if you have solved all that, help the people shore up their homes. Too many people here have lost more than they should. Take care of them.”

”The Temple Guard will help as well,” Sir Tommin said as he slid off of his saddle and joined Loman in the street. ”Sir Jusip,” he added, turning to one of the templars who was still sitting astride his horse.

”Ride to the temple and speak with the Priest in charge about building pyres for a service at sunset. And find out if his kitchens can prepare food for the people who need it,” Tommin added as he fished into a pouch at his hip and passed the man a pair of gold sovereigns. ”No one should go to bed hungry, cold or alone tonight.”

”Thank you, Sir Tommin,” Loman said with a warm smile for the recently elevated templar whose gaze remained fixed on the house buried beneath the snow. ”I know you miss your wife and child,” he said quietly. ”But I’m sure they’re doing well. Hurel Village is very large and far from the borders with the demons. They should be safe, even with all of this going on...”

”I know they are,” Sir Tommin said as he forced himself to give the young Lothian lord a reassuring smile. ”Bors is a good lord for the whole march, and you’ll be a good one too. I wish I could be there to watch over my boy, but if I can’t... At least I’m helping you to take care of everyone, and that will be better for them than the alternative.”

As the two men spoke, several soldiers began to move, taking up not only shovels to clear snow, but hammers, axes and saws to repair roofs, working side by side with the locals to help clear away the effects of the earliest and worst winter storm Hanrahan Town had faced in living memory.

At the same time, Loman Lothian and Sir Tommin Pyre’s name spread through the streets like wildfire, long after the lords themselves along with the leaders of their forces had marched the rest of the way to Baron Hanrahan’s manor.

The snow had finally stopped falling and when the sun appeared, it brought with it two saviors who would help them in a way no other lord cared to... From the Demon Storm to what some were already calling the Winter Blight, the people of Hanrahan had suffered greatly in the past few weeks, but their luck was finally beginning to change and they had Lord Loman and Sir Tommin to thank for it!