The Vampire & Her Witch

”No wonder Jocelynn never asked about her missing sister,” Percivus said with a sour expression on his face. ”Perhaps I was wrong to think that she would do anything to help her struggling cousin,” he said, frowning at Eleanor as he picked up the spoon to place a single spoonful of stew into Jocelynn’s bowl before adding three spoonfuls to Eleanor’s.

”I pity you, Eleanor,” Percivus said as he looked down at the trembling woman. ”Samlet, fetch a blanket for Eleanor. Her cousin won’t do anything to earn comfort for her, so we should see that she’s taken care of instead.”

”Here,” Percivus said, getting up from his chair to bring the steaming cup of stew with a few meager spoonfuls of broth and a single piece of meat in it over to Eleanor. ”You’re too cold to speak, and I have many more questions for you. Eat,” he said as he took one of her cold, frail hands and wrapped it around the warm, wooden bowl.

Eleanor had to fight her body to prevent it from shaking so badly that she spilled the few precious spoonfuls of food. The chains around her wrists made it cumbersome to eat, and Percivus hadn’t bothered to give her a spoon, so she could only raise the bowl to her lips, tilting it back and eagerly gulping at the warm, hearty, creamy stew.

She was so cold that the stew felt almost scalding when it hit her tongue, even though it wasn’t actually that hot. Still, she didn’t care as her parched lips and tongue worked to lick up every drop of the savory delight before she began chewing on the succulent, tender turkey that all but fell apart in her mouth as soon as she began to chew.

It was embarrassingly undignified, and for a moment, she realized how much she must resemble the lost and starving beggars she’d helped guide back to the light as a Confessor. For many of them, a warm meal and a safe place to spend the night were the first steps in a journey of a thousand steps to return to the Light.

A person who was hungry and cold would do almost anything to survive so long as they still had the will to do so, even if that meant turning to wickedness they would never normally consider, and Eleanor knew very well that the first thing she needed to do to help such people was to care for the needs of their bodies before she could tend to the wounds in their hearts. She’d never imagined, however, that she would find herself sitting in the very same position she’d helped so many of them find their way out of.

”I’ll get you some water too,” Percivus added as he returned to his small table and pulled a small waterskin out of his leather case along with a small cup that he made a show of filling with clean, clear water. ”You’ve already told me something your cousin would never have revealed, and there’s so much more I want to know...”

He was interrupted by the return of Samlet as the acolyte strode into the room carrying a thin blanket that he draped around Eleanor’s shoulders with surprising gentleness for a man who had so roughly taken away her bedding just days before.

The blanket itself felt warm and comforting despite being so thin, as if it had been sitting near a fire or... Or had recently been wrapped around someone else, Eleanor realized as she caught a familiar scent on the blanket that reminded her of Lady Jocelynn.

”Don’t worry, Eleanor,” Percivus said with a smile that was supposed to look comforting but only looked more disturbing coming from a man with such a chilling gaze. ”If your cousin won’t do anything to help you, we’ll teach her how to share her fortune with others. And you can still show her that you’re the better woman,” he said as he returned to her side, taking away the empty bowl and pressing the cup of water into her hands instead.

”I’m sure that you know many more things,” he said confidently. ”And so long as the things you tell me match up to the things she’s told me, I’ll keep adding to her bowl,” he promised. ”She might not have done anything to relieve your suffering, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still help her.. Right, Eleanor?”

”So tell me something else,” he said as he returned to his seat. ”Recently, Jocelynn has spent a great deal of time with Sir Elgon and Captain Albyn, but I can’t find either of them to learn what they talked about. How much do you know about their conversations?” Percivus asked innocently. ”Or, perhaps you can tell me where the two men have disappeared to?”

Sitting on the rough cot, draped in a blanket that was still warm with the heat of Jocelynn’s body, Eleanor’s hands trembled in a way that had nothing to do with the cold.

Warm. She was finally beginning to feel warm after days of bone-chilling cold. She could still feel the warmth of the stew spreading from her throat, chest, and stomach, and that had only been a few spoonfuls. Her mouth watered at the thought of more even as one of her hands clutched at the blanket, greedy for its warmth.

But the hand holding the cup of water could barely keep from spilling the precious liquid as she realized the cruel truth of Percivus’s twisted game. With her answer to a single question, she’d received food, water, and warmth... and the Inquisitor had stripped that warmth away from Jocelynn to give it to her.

Eleanor knew all too well the kinds of wickedness a person could resort to when they were cold and starving... That was why caring for them was so important to help them find their way out of the darkness. But now, Percivus was using those very same methods to lead her into betraying Jocelynn, and he was changing the rules of the ’game’ whenever he saw fit.

He’d never said anything about taking away Jocelynn’s blanket... But he’d done it in order to ’reward’ her, and to punish Jocelynn for withholding information from him. The ’game’ had suddenly become much, much more dangerous to play. The most righteous thing she could do at this point would be to refuse to play and keep silent as she’d done for several days when the Inquisitor had simply been asking for names.

It would be the best thing, but... it also wouldn’t save her life, or let her help Lady Jocelynn.

Slowly, moving carefully to make sure she didn’t spill any of the precious liquid, Eleanor raised the cup to her lips and took a careful sip as she tried to think of an answer to Percivus’s question that wouldn’t risk too much and that would match up with what Jocelynn would likely say.

”I, I don’t know where they are,” Eleanor said carefully after rolling the sweet, clean-tasting water around in her mouth to wet her tongue and licking her parched lips. ”But I know what they were helping Lady Jocelynn with before... before they went missing...”