The Vampire & Her Witch

In the Imperial Box, Micheline turned away from the spectacle outside, where her cousin was once again personally tending to the match’s victor, and instead regarded the young women around her.

It had been Lady Morwen who suggested that she might feel more comfortable if she had some companions closer to her own age and station to watch the events with, and Micheline had agreed almost automatically.

What exactly was meant by ’her own age and station’ could, of course, vary widely. If someone had made that comment in Gaalen, while she attended the Royal Academy, it would have referred to a very small list of young women within two or three years of her age, likely classmates, and all daughters of counts or viscounts.

The only exception to the rule would have been truly extraordinary young women of slightly lower station or younger women with status too grand to be ignored who insisted on being included.

Here in the frontier, however, she couldn’t think of anyone who matched that definition. There were no counts in the Frontier, and while a ’Lord Governor’ seemed comparable to one, none of the people she’d encountered with that title had daughters of their own.

Beyond that, Micheline was the cousin of the Evergreen Empress, and if the way Marcel treated her aunt, Maela, was any indication, that made her part of the Imperial Family. Who then could be considered to be a match to her age and station?

”Lady Micheline! It’s been so long,” Charlotte Otker bubbled when Morwen brought her over with another young lady that Micheline didn’t recognize hanging on her arm.

”Lady Charlotte?” Micheline asked, blinking in surprise when she found the daughter of Baron Serle Otker in the Imperial Box.

It wasn’t that Micheline had a problem with Lady Charlotte, per se. It truly had been a long time since they’d seen each other, at least two or three years before Micheline had left for the Royal Academy. The barons of Lothian only rarely attended social events in Keating, so while Micheline and Charlotte had met often enough to recognize each other, they could hardly be said to be friends.

But it wasn’t the fact that they were acquainted with each other that caught Micheline by surprise. Micheline had seen the ’evidence’ of crimes committed by her father’s vassals that Marcel had brought to DuCoumont with him. Evidence that came from the confession of Charlotte’s father.

So what, exactly, was the daughter of a criminal doing in the Imperial Box?

”Lady Micheline, this is Lady Adala Leufroy,” Charlotte said smoothly, as if she was completely oblivious to Micheline’s confusion. ”She attended an academy in the Iron Kingdom,” Charlotte explained. ”I’m sure you both have a great deal in common,” she said, proudly pulling forward the dark-haired woman beside her while still holding tightly to her hand.

”Lady Micheline,” Adala said in a calm, collected tone, speaking with a faint accent that Micheline hadn’t heard since leaving Gaalen, where foreign dignitaries were a much more common sight.

”I’m sorry to have missed you when I passed through DuCoumont on my way home,” Adala said as her dark eyes swept over Micheline with a disconcerting intensity, as if she was filing away several details at once and storing them for use later.

”A pleasure,” Micheline said, donning a carefully practiced smile as she gestured to the pile of cushions where she’d been sitting so far. ”Will you join me for a bit of wine? I can have some snacks brought over as well if you’d like,” she added, glancing around at the few servants who were carrying trays of small dishes for guests to nibble on.

”Ash and Jocey cooked an amazing meal for Aunt Maela and me, so I haven’t been snacking very much but if you’d like, I wouldn’t mind having something brought over,” she said, taking the opportunity to emphasize her closeness with the Evergreen Empress while watching to see how the two young ladies reacted.

”Oh, that’s a shame,” Charlotte said as she waved over one of the servants. ”Master Jean included a number of Eldritch snacks in the menu tonight. He’s very practiced at different cuisines, you know, and he made the most delightful meal for ’Dala and me the other night,” she said, blushing slightly as she bestowed an affectionate kiss on Adala’s cheek.

”Char,” Adala chided lightly as her cheeks heated. ”I’m sure that Her Dominion is more than capable of introducing her cousin to Eldritch dishes if she wanted to. It might even be best to hold off a little bit and hang on to things that are more familiar. This can all be a bit overwhelming to take in, can’t it, Lady Micheline?”

The words were perfectly polite, but Micheline had met too many people like Adala to take them as idle chatter. She just hadn’t met many people who were so sharp while also being so young.

Silently, Micheline wondered how much of Adala’s Iron Kingdom accent was an affectation, something she cultivated to conceal the sharp, prodigy tone she used to provoke reactions from others. Few nobles in Gaal had much contact with foreigners unless they spent time in cities like Gaalen or Blackwell.

”Overwhelming might be an understatement for some things,” Micheline said carefully, keeping her eyes on Adala and Charlotte lest they drift to the Eldritch people in the Imperial box and betray the turmoil in her heart at being so close to so many powerful beings.

”It seems like you’re both very comfortable here, though,” Micheline said, picking up her goblet of wine and taking a careful sip of the heady, red liquid. ”Perhaps you can tell me a little bit of what I’d missed,” she said, glancing briefly at their hands and letting the implied question linger in the air without commenting on her observation directly.

”Oh, there’s been so much that’s changed,” Charlotte said excitedly. ”And there’s so much that’s still going to change. Did Ashlynn tell you that she’s going to open an academy in the Vale of Mists? She’s invited many of the young lords and ladies of the Verdant Hills to attend, and Adala and I are planning to be there in the fall when it opens. Are you planning to attend?”

”I finished my years at the Royal Academy in Gaalen,” Micheline said with a smile that was only slightly wistful. It wasn’t the classes at the academy she missed; after all, it was the people who were there, and one in particular, that she truly missed. ”I’m afraid I wouldn’t have much to learn if I went back to an academy now.”

”You should reconsider,” Adala said directly, not bothering to mince her words. ”Her Dominion said that the academy in the Vale of Mists will teach sorcery,” she added. ”And if you watch tonight’s matches, you’ll see how powerful it can be.”

”It’s a new world, Lady Micheline,” Adala added. ”No one is going to hold us back for being women anymore. In a few years, you could find yourself in a position like Lord Erling or Lord Reynold, fighting for what matters to you instead of hoping some champion will come defend you,” Adala said with a very intense look in her eyes as she glanced at Charlotte.

”I think it’s better that way,” Adala added, turning her intensely evaluating gaze back to Micheline. ”Don’t you, Lady Micheline?”