The Vampire & Her Witch

”I have enough enemies in the world, Loman,” Ashlynn said as she checked on each of the dishes she’d set to cook on the hearth, turning a few and stirring others. ”I don’t need to keep their ghosts with me in the place where I sleep. I’ve dealt with too many ghosts as is,” she said, shaking her head at the memory of the ghosts she’d encountered in the Eldritch world.

She hoped that, as she prepared to make her official return to the world of the living, coming ’back from the dead’ before Owain and all the people of the Kingdom of Gaal, that her life would be filled with fewer revenant spirits who felt compelled to control the lives of those who followed in their footsteps.

”There,” Ashlynn said with satisfaction as she hung the final pot on a hook high above the flames where it would receive slow, gentle heat. ”That should be able to sit for a bit while we talk properly. I’m sorry for keeping you waiting,” she said as she joined Loman at the table beside the hearth, bringing a fresh pot of tea with her and pouring them each a cup before she sat.

”I expected that you would take longer to freshen up after your trip,” she said with an awkward glance at her brother-in-law’s missing arm. ”Were your chambers at least comfortable? I hope you don’t mind sharing quarters with Hugo and Liam, but we’re running out of space to house distinguished guests until we finish the renovations.”

She couldn’t come out and directly ask what she wanted to know. Was he comfortable living in a place filled with the Eldritch? Was he at least reassured by the presence of a pair of human lords who had already been guests in the Vale for a number of days or weeks? But, even though she came about it obliquely, Loman seemed to understand her intentions, and he answered her just as politely as she’d asked him.

”Lord Liam and Sir Hugo were both very accommodating in helping me to settle in,” Loman said. In truth, even though he had the greatest status among all of the young lords present in the Ancient Fortress, he found something vaguely comforting about entering the cluster of rooms used by the other ’captive’ lords as the latest newcomer to their ranks. It reminded him of entering Exemplar Domas’ service as the youngest among his disciples.

Everything around him might be new and strange, but at least he hadn’t entered this strange new world alone, and both men had already given him several pieces of advice about how to conduct himself while he was here. Much of that advice, however, boiled down to a single phrase. ’Accept the hospitality that’s offered, and be polite to everyone, no matter how strange their appearance may be or how powerful they are.’

Loman kept that advice firmly in mind as he picked up the delicate tea cup with his only remaining hand and took a tentative sip of the pale, fragrant tea.

”Mint?” the young priest asked, doing his best to act as though he was once again sitting down to tea with his sister-in-law, just like they had in Lothian Manor before her wedding, and not like he was sitting across the table from a powerful witch who might have turned simple tea into some kind of magical concoction. ”And something else I don’t recognize that’s... lemony? But it tastes more herbal than that,” Loman observed carefully.

”The herb is a cousin of thyme,” Ashlynn said with a smile as she watched Loman struggling with his impulses. He might not realize how obvious he was with his furtive glances and his careful movements, but with all the guidance she’d received from Nyrielle and Marcel on using her enhanced senses to understand a person, she would have to be as blind as Knot to miss how uncomfortable Loman was in her presence, despite everything she’d done to make her sitting room warm and welcoming.

”I know it isn’t a very strong tea for such a cold day,” she said, looking out the window of her sitting room at the fog that would certainly turn icy overnight. ”But when I was studying in the Briar, I always found this blend helped me think, and it’s almost as good served chilled as it is when it’s hot and fresh.”

”The Briar?” Loman asked as he tried to think of any academy that had ever referred to itself as such. ”I’m sorry,” he said after a moment. ”Was it a school in Blackwell?”

”No,” Ashlynn said with a wistful smile. Her parents would never have allowed her to attend one of the few academies that accepted women as students. Even her sister, Jocelynn, hadn’t received such luxurious treatment. ”The Briar is my ’second home’ on the far side of the mountains. I spent the summer there studying under the Mother of Thorns, another of the ’Great Witches’ of the Eldritch world.”

”You crossed the mountains?” Loman said, momentarily taken aback before he collected himself. ”But, wouldn’t that be dangerous for you? Don’t the, um, the Eldritch hate humans?”

”Loman, the Eldritch on the other side of the mountains barely know that humans exist,” Ashlynn said with a light laugh as she sipped her tea. ”The First Crusade was a long time ago for many of them, and the Second Crusade was still more than a hundred years ago. Outside of places like the Vale of Mists that border the Kingdom of Gaal directly, or nearby territories like the High Pass, most of the Eldritch don’t think very much about humans.”

Those that did often had low opinions of the Eldritch nations who had fallen to the combined might of the fledgling Kingdom of Gaal and the Church of the Holy Lord of Light. They tended to dismiss the threat that the Templars, Inquisitors, and other miracle workers of the Church represented, and they completely misunderstood the Kingdom’s method of waging war, which slaughtered warriors and workers alike.

Most of the Eldritch had never faced a foe like the Kingdom of Gaal and the Church behind it, and Ashlynn sincerely hoped they never would.

”I wish I could take you there, Loman,” Ashlynn said wistfully as she thought of the towering waterfall that looked like a river of gold in the light of dawn, along with countless other things she’d seen when she traveled through Eldritch lands. ”But even when the High Pass opens in the spring, I’ll be too busy here to go sightseeing again. It might be years before I can visit the friends I made over there.”

”Friends?” Loman said as an unintentionally bitter edge crept into his voice. ”Friends like Lady Heila and Dame Sybyll? Are you sure that the people across the mountains aren’t thinking about making war on the Kingdom and its people? The friends you sent to Hanrahan from across the mountains seemed to be a fairly capable army of invaders.”

As soon as he said it, he wished he could take the words back. It wasn’t a fair accusation and he knew it. After all, Dame Sybyll might have claimed his eye and his arm, but she’d left him with his life, much like Ashlynn had done for the fallen Templar she just sentenced to exile. And Heila had fought against Loman, not just to stop him, but to rescue the acolytes who would otherwise have died to the sacred rite that Loman used to summon a rain of luminous arrows.

But, as he touched the stump where his left arm had once been, there was a pain deep within his heart that wanted to lash out at Ashlynn for acting like they could still be friendly after what he’d been through.

It was a small piece, and he was certain that she’d suffered just as badly as he had after Owain beat her to the brink of death... but sitting in this luxurious room and seeing her moving about without any visible signs of great injury, the petty, bitter part of him grew strong enough to take command of his tongue, and once the words were said, he couldn’t take them back.

”I told you, Loman,” Ashlynn said, letting out a huff that contained the smallest fraction of the frustration she felt at the way he’d chosen to approach this issue. ”This war is older than both of us. I don’t blame you for the soldiers you killed when you fought against Dame Sybyll in Hanrahan, and I’ve made it clear to everyone that you won’t be punished for participating in Liam Dunn’s raids over the summer.”

”But you have to admit that my armies fight differently than yours do,” Ashlynn said firmly. ”When Lord Liam or your brother attacked an Eldritch Village, they didn’t stop until the people who lived there had been slaughtered or driven from the lands and the homes they’d raised their children in were burned to the ground.”

”I’m trying very hard to bring our people together,” Ashlynn said, reaching out to top off Loman’s cup of tea. ”But I can’t do that if every battle we’ve fought in the past becomes a justification for the next one. So tell me, Loman,” she said with a challenging look in her eyes and a slight smile on her lips that she fought to keep friendly.

”You’re the son of Bors Lothian, and according to some, the son he would prefer to have inherit his throne,” Ashlynn said. ”So, from your perspective, what would it take to bring our two sides together in peace. What would they need in order to end this eternal war?”