The Vampire & Her Witch

”Heila, Hauke,” Nyrielle said, shattering the silence that had followed Ashlynn’s proclamation. ”Welcome home, I hope that Sybyll wasn’t too rough with you while you were in her care.”

”There were a few moments that were rough,” Heila said diplomatically as she thought of the moment when Lord Jalal had been struck by Loman’s luminous arrow and Dame Sybyll had cried out to attack without mercy.

”But she fought hard to keep us from harm,” she added, because it was true. Without Sybyll’s assault on the Templars, especially Sir Tommin, the battle would have been much, much more dangerous for the Eldritch army.

”It comforts me to hear it,” Nyrielle said, pausing beside Hauke as she guided Ashlynn toward their seats at the head of the table. ”Hauke,” she said, reaching out with her free hand to gently touch the towering Frost Walker’s shoulder. ”Ritchel has been doing well while you were away. Talauia says that he should be strong enough to attempt the healing ritual by the next full moon,” she said with a smile that revealed the slightest hint of her fangs.

”Thank you, Lady Nyrielle,” Hauke said, trembling slightly at his proximity to Lady Nyrielle and her comforting, gentle touch. ”If it weren’t for you constantly supplying him with Blood Vitality Crystals, I know he’d have fallen within a few days of being wounded. I owe you...”

”You owe me nothing,” Nyrielle said gently. ”That night was a tragic misunderstanding, and Ritchel is a good friend. This little bit of care is the least he deserves after so many years, don’t you think?”

”I, um, thank you,” Hauke said awkwardly, stumbling over his words as he tried to figure out how to respond properly to such a heavy statement. That Lady Nyrielle and his father had been friends for many years was true, but that friendship had never contained warmth of any sort until recently.

To say that his father ’deserved’ anything from the Harbinger of Death felt presumptuous beyond words, but to deny her felt even worse, leaving him uncertain how he should respond, and the aura around his horn turned a faintly embarrassed lavender as the pressure of how to respond appropriately overwhelmed his ability to think.

”Nyri,” Ashlynn said gently, tugging her lover in the direction of their seats at the head of the table. ”Don’t make things too hard on Hauke; he’s still young and learning.”

”He might be young and learning,” Nyrielle said with a pointed glance across the table at Loman. ”But he isn’t foolish or reckless. At least, not any more, and he’s learned his lesson about playing with powers beyond his ability to control.”

”You would do well to spend some time learning from Hauke, young Loman,” Nyrielle said as she met Loman’s one-eyed gaze directly. ”He’s suffered, just as you have, for touching powers that turned against him and his allies. He’s accepted his exile gracefully, and he works hard to redeem himself for the harm his actions caused. You could do much worse for a role model than Hauke,” she said, holding Loman’s gaze for several moments before she allowed Ashlynn to pull her toward the head of the table.

It wasn’t until she spoke that Loman was able to break himself free of the paralysis that had gripped him from the moment he saw her, and even after he did, he still didn’t know how to respond. His head turned mechanically, as if it were attached to the water wheel of a mill, and he stared across the table at Hauke in confusion as he wrestled with everything he’d just seen and heard.

”I made a mistake,” Hauke said softly, lowering the point of his horn as he offered an explanation to the wounded priest. ”I trusted the spirits of my ancestors to guide me, but... In the end, they were using me as a tool. They thought they were right,” he quickly clarified. ”And they thought they were protecting their people, even now. But they made me into their puppet to attack Heila and Mother Ashlynn...”

”I’m lucky that Mother Ashlynn spared my life,” Hauke said. ”And that Artificer Erkembalt and Commander Aspakos were able to free me from the curse the ancestors left on me,” he said, lowering his horn even further in thanks toward the two men.

”Hmpf,” Erkembalt snorted. ”It would have been easier if we just cut off your horn,” he said bluntly.

”Erkembalt,” Aspakos said sharply, tapping the table with a pointed talon before his old friend could say anything further. After crafting Snow Fang and Frost Fang, Lady Heila and Sir Ollie’s personal weapons, from the horns of Frost Walkers who had betrayed Lady Nyrielle and Lady Ashlynn in the High Pass, Aspakos wasn’t entirely certain that his old friend had pure motives in suggesting cutting off Hauke’s horn in order to break the curse that had bound him.

After all, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to craft not just one, but two weapons from Frost Walker horns that Madame Zedya had carefully prepared and harvested to be used as weapons. If he received the opportunity to craft something from a rare iridescent horn, the resulting weapon could easily become the artificer’s crowning achievement.

Thankfully, Lady Ashlynn had insisted on a more humane approach to freeing Hauke from the chains of ice that bound his mind, even if it had been much more difficult and had required all three of them working together to save the young Frost Walker from the curse of his ancestors.

”The world will be a brighter place because of the efforts you’ll make,” Aspakos said sagely, hoping to comfort the young Frost Walker lord. ”It would have been far too tragic to see you fall before you had a chance to achieve great things.”

”Don’t mind him,” Erkembalt said with an exaggerated snort. ”Just live your life, boy. You got your life back, and that curse was as cruel as they come. What you do with that life is up to you, but don’t go around thinking that you have to fulfil some great destiny just because this buzzard sees greatness in your future,” he said, pointing an accusing claw at Aspakos.

”Find yourself a good woman,” Erkembalt suggested. ”Raise a litter of brats. Try to be a good father, and you’ll have done something harder than most men accomplish in their whole lives. You don’t have to go looking for greatness,” he added. ”If you’re meant for it, greatness will come looking for you. And if not, you won’t have wasted your life on things that might never come to pass.”

”I know,” Hauke said humbly. ”I still have a lot to learn from Lady Ashlynn and the others. And, even if she’s forgiven me for what I did, I still haven’t made up to her for half of it. She could have died and it would have been my fault,” he said, with his head bowed so low that his horn pointed at the table.

”But, um, Loman,” Hauke said awkwardly, uncertain about how he should address the human lord. ”If, um, if you want someone to talk to, you can talk to me. My teachers lied to me too,” he said, thinking of how distorted Loman’s understanding of his own sorcery was. ”I’m still learning from what they left behind, but it’s hard sometimes to know what was true and good and what was dangerous and wrong.”

”So, if you want a friend,” he said, extending his large, furry hand across the table. ”I’ll try to be a good one.”

Loman hesitated for several heartbeats as he stared at Hauke’s outstretched hand. It hadn’t been that long since Hauke sat with Dame Sybyll, serving the court that had passed judgment on him for calling down a miracle that claimed the lives of seven acolytes. Moreover, it had been Hauke’s ice magic that thwarted Loman’s miracle, sheltering demons and humans alike from the rain of luminous arrows that Loman had unleashed.

And yet, when he looked into the other man’s eyes, he saw a pain and sense of loss that was surprisingly familiar. He didn’t understand everything that had happened to the powerful Frost Walker, but it was clear from the conversation around him that he’d also been judged harshly for using power that he couldn’t control, and that Ashlynn and others had suffered because of his actions.

And yet, here in this strange place, where demons gathered around a dinner table with more warmth and friendliness than he’d seen at his father’s dinner table when the lords of Lothian March gathered... Hauke was greeted fondly as a friend. And now, that very same man was extending a hand with an offer of friendship, even though Loman had tried to claim his life just a few days ago.

”I don’t know about friendship,” Loman said honestly, extending his hand as he accepted Hauke’s offer. ”It might be too difficult after everything,” he admitted. ”But, it would be good to have someone to talk to,” he said, leaving the door open to the possibility. ”And we can see what happens from there...”