The Vampire & Her Witch

Eira sat on the edge of her seat as she listened to Nyrielle telling a story of a time so long ago, it not only predated the Kingdom of Gaal, it predated the Great Prophet, the Saint Teacher, and the Church of the Holy Lord of Light.

For the first time since she met Sir Ollie, she felt like she was beginning to understand. Not the ancient history, though she was carefully committing every scrap of information to memory with the same diligence that she’d once applied to studying the Kingdom’s laws and the methods of governing a barony.

No, she finally understood why Ollie had reacted so strongly when she suggested that she could win a position as Nyrielle’s progeny by performing the duties of a lady-in-waiting.

Nyrielle wasn’t an ordinary ruler, and it had been a mistake to think of her even as a mighty queen. When Nyrielle spoke of Acat, a vampire who lived more than a thousand years ago, she wasn’t speaking of a mythic person lost to the mists of time; she was speaking of him the way a young woman spoke of her grandfather, and when she spoke of the Age of Ice, she recounted lessons learned from a teacher who had experienced it.

That perspective pulled the ancient past into the Great Hall in a way that made it feel recent and fresh rather than something so dusty and old that no one could say whether it was true or a myth. A person with a perspective like that wouldn’t choose a follower like Eira because of any set of common skills...

Nyrielle had likely seen dozens of talented young ladies pass by over the years, some even more skilled than Eira. Looking at men like Lord General Thane, who had compelled the entire city to kneel just by speaking the word, Eira was certain that Lady Nyrielle only took the most extraordinary of people into her service.

But Eira had never been one to accept that her starting point was too low or her station too humble to chase after her dreams. Now, as she listened to Nyrielle, she eagerly soaked up every word, hoping to understand the sort of people who carried the power to reshape the world... and maybe a hint of how to find her way among them.

”At the end of the Age of Ice,” Nyrielle said, continuing her tale. ”The Sovereign of Stars did far more than lead the surviving remnants of the Eldritch people to lands that had begun to thaw. He formed a Celestial Court, known by many as ’The First Ones,’ to help the Eldritch people find ways to thrive.”

”Clashes between clans or nations were settled by duels between champions, and the strongest protector of a people was granted the right to rule,” Nyrielle said. ”This tradition was enshrined in the name of the First Warrior,” she said, pointing at a banner displaying a constellation that humans knew as the Ascended Swordsman.

”It was intended to ensure that conflicts over scarce resources and limited arable land didn’t lead to the extinction of a whole people,” Nyrielle explained. ”It created an order where the strong were bound to protect the weak from the giant beasts that still roamed the land, and from those who turned to violence when their own settlements failed.”

”Under the old order, the victor in a conflict was obligated to care for the defeated,” she said, nodding to Lord Loghlan. ”Again, this was to ensure that people survived a world that had nearly caused mass extinction.”

”So what her Dominion did for us,” Loghlan said. ”The Eldritch consider this... normal? This is how a defeated adversary is supposed to be treated?”

”My darling goes much further than custom demands,” Nyrielle said, smiling at Ashlynn and touching her gently on the shoulder. ”In this way, she is much like the Mother of Forests. It was the mission of the Sovereign of Stars to guide the Eldritch people and to build an order where they could thrive, but it was the Mother of Forests who brought life back to the world.”

”She broke frozen ground with the roots of strong trees,” Nyrielle said. ”She filled bellies with fruits and nuts, built shelters with the mighty trunks and branches of her forests, and offered up all the bounty of lumber and firewood that she could provide...”

”Every time the Mother of Forests created a new witch to help transform the land, she didn’t just bestow a title or share a portion of her power,” Nyrielle added, her gaze turning soft as she looked at Ashlynn. ”She tore out a piece of her heart so it could nurture her coven and give them the strength to save countless more.”

”Those who have never seen it can’t imagine the pain a witch suffers to share their gift,” Nyrielle said quietly. ”The Mother of Forests did so twenty-one times because the needs of her people were so great. No witch has rivaled her in more than a thousand years since she laid down her head and returned to the earth.”

”This is the origin of the Eldritch way,” Nyrielle said as she briefly stroked Ashlynn’s hair before returning her attention to the speechless audience. ”It was born in destruction, shaped by survival, sheltered by kindness... For a thousand years or more, it allowed the Eldritch people to return from the brink of extinction and find their place in a harsh world that slowly became more forgiving, especially here, to the east of the mountains where the lands are twice as lush as those to the west of them, and the needs of life are most abundant.”

”It wasn’t perfect,” Nyrielle added. ”From time to time, powerful individuals or groups arose within the Eldritch world who threatened to shatter the balance. Dangerous sorcery or knowledge that had good reason to be forbidden. Vampires like Shubnalu, Bardas, Philosar and myself intervened. We honored the pacts of old, killed no more than we should, and ensured a tragedy like the Age of Ice never came again.”

”And then, humans arrived, along with their Church, and the Eldritch ways failed the Eldritch people completely,” Nyrielle said, shaking her head as she returned to her seat.

For a moment, the entire room went absolutely still. For the first time in their lives, the people of Lothian heard the history of the people they’d conquered, from their own lips, and it was... tragic.

To claw their way back from the brink of extinction in a world so cold and frozen that it took the help of a Great Witch for anything to grow. A great witch who kept tearing out pieces of her own heart to heal the land with the help of her coven.

Several knights in the Great Hall looked down in shame.

Outside of the Vale of Mists, few of the Eldritch had organized themselves into armies who fought with the discipline of soldiers. For decades, they’d called the Eldritch savages and primitive for failing to understand how wars were fought. As individuals, they were strong, and even a fully armored knight trembled at the thought of confronting bearish warriors like the one sitting beside Master Isabell.

But now they understood. The Eldritch weren’t primitive, nor were they pacifists who refused to learn how to fight... They were something else entirely... Something precious and fragile that had barely survived extinction, only to be crushed beneath the armored boots of soldiers who thought they deserved their fate...

Some in the crowd, like Sir Gilander, still thought the Eldritch did deserve their fate. They’d mourned for fathers, or sons, brothers by blood and brothers-in-arms, some of them as recently as a few days ago. Several had even faced the terror of bloody battle themselves. Whatever their reasons, Nyrielle’s sudden transformation from an alluring woman who could pass for human into a winged, Eldritch being made it impossible for them to see the Eldritch as anything other than a threat.

But while some hearts hardened, others found themselves asking what it had all been for.

Sitting here, sharing a table with the same people they’d have ridden off to slaughter just weeks ago, with a meal ready to be served and gifts on the tables... What was so ’demonic’ about the people they’d been fighting?

No one could say, and the silence stretched on for several minutes as the room grappled with everything they knew about how they’d arrived here.

”Across the sea, things unfolded differently,” Ignatious said as he stood. ”But in the very beginning, things weren’t that different at all...”