The Vampire & Her Witch

While Sir Gavin reveled in his regained strength, Ollie took two small steps back from the reinvigorated knight, stumbling slightly and quickly lowering himself to one knee. Were it not for Liam springing out of his seat to catch him, Ollie would have toppled all the way to the straw mats that covered the ground inside the tent.

Sweat covered Ollie’s brow, and his flame-red hair was plastered to his scalp, slick with sweat as if the young knight had just fought a fierce battle. His breathing was ragged and shallow, and his muscles trembled with exhaustion.

”Ollie?” Liam asked, dropping to one knee next to the pale-faced witch. ”Sir Ollie, are you well?” Liam asked.

He’d seen Lady Heila pushing herself to the limits by healing dozens of people at once, and even though she hadn’t healed any of those people completely, she’d stabilized countless injuries, stopping bleeding and mending torn flesh before the wounds could get worse. When he’d seen Lady Ashlynn focus on healing just one man, the energy that overflowed from her efforts had been enough to ease the minor aches and pains of a courtyard full of people who witnessed her miracle.

”I’m fine,” Ollie explained, offering a feeble smile as he collected his breath. ”We’re just a bit far from the forest for me to mend such an old wound,” he said as if that explained matters. ”I’ll be better once I can rest for a bit, or at least spend an hour or so in the forest.”

Around the table, almost everyone was standing, including Baron Loghlan and Lady Mairwen, as they looked from Sir Gavin, who seemed full of life and vigor, to Ollie, who looked like he’d been drained of that very same strength.

”Sir Ollie, you didn’t...” Lady Isolde began, suddenly torn between overwhelming joy at her husband’s miraculous recovery and horror at the notion of what it might have cost their benefactor to bestow that miracle on them.

”It’s fine,” Ollie insisted as he tapped on Liam’s arm and gestured for the other man to help him stand. ”It’s just a little... painful,” Ollie said. ”To treat such an old wound.”

”Ah, I understand,” Liam said, nodding as comprehension dawned on him. Moving slowly, he helped Ollie return to his seat while he explained to his parents and the rest of the court what Ollie meant.

”Lady Heila explained this in Hanrahan,” Liam said. ”In order for a witch to heal someone, they have to take on the pain of the wounds they heal. When Lady Heila healed dozens of men during the Battle of Hanrahan, she felt the pain of hundreds of wounds, all at once. For Sir Ollie, he must have felt the pain of that wound... two years of it, all at once.”

”Merciful light, lad,” Sir Gavin said, staring at the young knight in shock. Only he knew how bad the pain of that wound had been over the past two years, and the notion of suffering all of that at once...

”Why? Why go so far for someone you only met once in passing?” Gavin asked. ”I haven’t done anything to deserve that kind of generosity from you.”

”Because it’s what Lady Ashlynn would do,” Ollie said simply, as if that explained everything. ”I’m not as good at healing as she is, or as Lady Heila is, but I can manage this much so you understand who she is, and how far she’ll go for the hope of peace between our people.”

”It isn’t easy,” Ollie said as he slumped in his chair. ”And she works so much harder than any of us do. She endures so much more than we can. So if I can take on just this little bit of her burden and help make peace between us... Then I’ll do whatever it takes. Not because I owe you, Sir Gavin,” Ollie admitted. ”But because I owe it to her, for everything she’s done for me.”

He knew it probably wasn’t the right thing to say. There should have some better way to express what he meant, and he was certain that he would think of it by dinner tomorrow, but right now, at this moment, he just wanted them to understand how important it was to Lady Ashlynn that they find a way to put an end to the fighting and work together instead of trying to destroy each other.

It wouldn’t be easy. They’d been enemies who hurt each other in more ways than one. But for Lady Ashlynn, he would try, because she’d suffered even more than he had, and she was still trying every single day.

”Father,” Liam said, once he’d poured Ollie a fresh cup of wine and saw that color was slowly returning to the younger man’s cheeks. ”Lady Ashlynn really is committed to finding a way to put an end to the fighting between humans and the Eldritch. That’s why she sent me with a letter for you, one that expresses her intentions and her offer to you as the Baron of Dunn should you decide to align yourself with her,” he said before fetching a sealed document roll and presenting it to his father.

”I spoke to Lady Ashlynn about the contents of that letter for several days,” Liam said as his father’s thumb hovered near the heavy wax seal. He didn’t recognize the crest, but he imagined that the tree and flowers were something that a witch titled the ’Mother of Trees’ would choose to represent herself.

”There’s one more thing you need to know that isn’t written there,” Liam said before his father could open the seal. ”Lady Ashlynn is going to put an end to Owain Lothian,” he said flatly, as if this were a simple, inevitable truth. ”When she does, she’ll lay claim to Lothian March as its Marchoiness by right of marriage. After that, she intends for the march to secede from the Kingdom of Gaal, to join with the Vale of Mists.”

”The maps will be redrawn, Father,” Liam explained. ”Dunn will no longer be within the borders of Gaal, but if you ask me, this isn’t a loss for us, and her Dominion’s letter makes that clear. She’s willing to welcome us as partners with status equal to Dame Sybyll Hanrahan’s, and her domain has already expanded to encompass almost all of Airgead Mountain and all the lands between there and Hanrahan.”

”What?” Sir Brennus exclaimed, no longer able to hold his tongue. ”The Hanrahans have gained Airgead Mountain in exchange for submitting to Dame Sybyll?”

”Dame Sybyll is an old friend of Lord Jalal, the former Eldritch Lord of Airgead Mountain,” Liam explained. ”He surrendered his throne to her as soon as she ascended to the throne of Hanrahan. Now, he serves as her... You know, I don’t precisely know what his position is,” the young lord admitted. ”Titles seem to be... flexible at the moment. But he acts as her second in command, overseeing matters during the day while she sleeps.”

”The offer that Lady Ashlynn is making us would see our domain grow just as large,” Liam said as his father popped the seal on the letter at last. ”Look at the last page, Father, and you’ll see the borders she’s proposing for our new domain...”