The Vampire & Her Witch

”Eira,” Liam said sharply, giving the young lady next to him a warning look. ”Don’t. Don’t make the mistake I did to ask such things,” he warned. ”Lady Ashlynn was very forgiving when I asked about joining her coven, but I don’t think Lady Nyrielle would be so gentle. Best to banish any thought of it from your mind,” he said firmly.

”But, surely it isn’t that...” Eira started, only for Ollie to interrupt her.

”No,” Ollie said, and the single word carried weight. ”No, the last thing either of you should want is to become the sort of person that Lady Nyrielle takes as one of her progeny.”

”I’m sorry,” Eira said, blinking in surprise at the intensity of the response from both men. Suddenly, she felt like all of the ground she’d gained with them today had withered like grapes left too long on the vine, and she didn’t know how to get it back. ”I didn’t mean...”

”I know what you meant,” Ollie interrupted gently but firmly. ”You’re thinking about positions in Lady Nyrielle’s court, just like you would think about finding a place in the court of the next Marchioness,” he said gently. ”But that’s not how it works. Lady Nyrielle doesn’t choose her progeny based purely on their skills or their usefulness or their political connections.”

He paused, his hands clenching slightly in his lap.

”She chooses people who have suffered,” Ollie said quietly. ”People who have been deeply wronged, who carry wounds that go far deeper than anything physical. She gives them power and eternal life, but she also gives them the means to obtain their vengeance for the terrible wrongs done to them. And the price they pay for that chance is to lose the light of day forever and to face the constant threat of the Abyss dragging them into the Void.”

”A vampire’s life might look perfect from the outside,” Ollie said around the lump that formed in his throat when he thought about some of the things he’d learned both from Sir Thane and from Ashlynn about vampires.

”But it’s only half a life,” he said softly. ”Without witches in their lives, it isn’t any kind of life to envy. Lady Nyrielle’s progeny are... changing, because of Lady Ashlynn, Lady Heila, and even Virve,” he explained. ”But all of them have suffered greatly before arriving at the place they are now.”

”I, I see,” Eira said delicately. ”Then, there isn’t really a way to reach the highest levels of power in Lady Nyrielle’s court, unless, maybe, someone marries into it the way you said Lennart married Madame Zedya,” she said, giving Liam a glance filled with questions that the young lord refused to answer.

She’d listened to him talk at length about Dame Sybyll and the things he’d learned about her and other vampires in the time he spent watching her lay claim to the throne of Hanrahan. At the time, she thought that he was just impressed by her strength as a knight and as a commander of her army.

After all, both Liam and Dame Sybyll had conquered territory for their respective families, though it was a bit different in Dame Sybyll’s case. It was a strange thing to have in common with a woman, but perhaps that had been enough to draw Liam’s eye, despite his mentioning that Dame Sybyll was similar in age to his own father.

”This kind of power,” Ollie said gently, breaking Eira free of her thoughts. ”It’s not what you think it is. I almost died joining Lady Ashlynn’s coven, and Lady Heila came close to dying, too. I’m told that it’s the same for vampires,” he added. ”Not everyone survives the transformation.”

”For right now,” Ollie said, glancing out the window at the darkening skies. ”It’s better not to think too much about the sort of position you might find. That kind of thing won’t take you very far in the Vale of Mists.”

”But, I can’t just sit passively by,” Lady Eira said, frowning at the flame-haired knight on the opposite side of the carriage. ”If I do, then others will pass me by, and I’ll be left behind. I, I don’t want that,” she said in a voice that grew fainter the more she said. ”I don’t want to be left behind as others rise... and I know that the people I care for are certain to rise in times of transformation and crisis. So how can I make sure that I rise with them?”

”Ask a different question,” Ollie said with a polite smile. He liked the people he’d met in the Dunn court well enough, but Lady Eira had just reminded him how differently the aristocracy thought about things, and for the kitchen boy from Lothian Manor, it wasn’t a pleasant reminder.

”Don’t worry about your position, that will sort itself out in time,” Ollie promised. ”Instead, ask how you can help. Just look for chances to do what you can, not because it will help you to advance, but because it’s a thing that you can do and it needs doing. The Eldritch are more straightforward than the lords and ladies you’re used to,” Ollie said with a heavy sigh. ”So, learn from their example.”

”Sir Ollie is right,” Liam said, feeling the young man opposite him starting to close himself off despite the warmth of the carriage. ”Right now, Lady Ashlynn is certain to need our help. She’s preparing to confront Owain Lothian, and she needs to rescue her sister before Owain harms her. Those should be our priorities for now. The rest, we can think about later.”

”Sir Ollie,” Morwen said hesitantly from her position on the seat beside the young witch. ”Can you, can you tell us about Lady Ashlynn? I only saw her once or twice when she first came to the March, but she was always with Lord Owain or the daughters of the barons,” she said. ”So, I never got a chance to know what she’s really like.”

”That,” Ollie said, pausing to take a deep breath as he turned away from the window to look at the kind young lady who had been caring for him the entire carriage ride. ”That I think I can do,” he said with a gentle smile. ”The first thing you should know is that she loves her family very much, both the family of her birth and the family she found in the Vale of Mists...”