The Vampire & Her Witch

”I think it’s better that way, don’t you, Lady Micheline?”

Adala’s question was far from innocent. She’d just suggested that women belonged on the field of battle, risking their lives to fight for what mattered to them. And not just risking their own lives, but turning away from the champions who should stand up for them in order to represent themselves.

Micheline had no immediate response to the notion. Despite her desire to remain calm and composed, her eyes drifted over to the Eldritch woman, Khorijin, sitting next to Lord Erling and smiling as she passed him what looked like a small piece of toast topped with a creamy cheese of some sort, winter herbs, nuts, and dried berries.

Even from halfway across the room, it looked like she was flirting with the injured lord, despite the fact that she was the cause of his injuries... and he was the cause of hers!

”I’m not certain if that’s better or not,” Micheline said in a carefully neutral tone, returning to the conversation at hand. ”Not everyone is meant to fight for themselves. Some of us were raised to fill other roles.”

”If you asked me to ride a horse like Lord Reynold, I could, though not as well as he did,” Micheline said. Briefly, she tried to imagine the look on Lady Efa’s face if any of the young ladies under her charge had asked to learn how to ride while standing in their stirrups or leaning out of their saddles... Her poor, aging riding instructor might have fallen from her saddle at the scandalous thought.

”But if you handed me a lance and asked me to don armor, I wouldn’t know where to begin,” Micheline said, pressing her hand to her chest as though she were faint at the very notion. ”I grew up around tournaments and jousting; I’ve watched my brother help men in and out of their armor, and I know very well how it’s all scored. But doing it? I could never...” she said, shaking her head at the unthinkable notion.

”Ashlynn never learned to wear armor or fight duels until Owain tried to murder her,” Charlotte said gently. ”But I’ve seen her do it. She wasn’t fumbling or flailing; she was fighting, and in the end, Lord Owain couldn’t beat her.”

”That’s different,” Micheline protested. ”My cousin is a, is a witch. A Great Witch. She isn’t ordinary...”

”It’s true that she isn’t ordinary,” Adala acknowledged. ”But what about the people around her? Did you know that, a year ago, Sir Ollie was just a kitchen boy in Lothian Manor? But I heard he fought a duel against Sir Franc and bested him despite facing a man in plate while he wore little more than chain.”

”That part is true,” Morwen said, fidgeting awkwardly in her seat near the young ladies. She was supposed to be Lady Micheline’s attendant for the evening and she didn’t want to get above herself, but when it came to details about Sir Ollie, she had to speak up.

”I was there for Sir Ollie’s duel,” Morwen added. ”Sir Franc tried to take me hostage and it was Sir Ollie who saved me from him. He threw his cleaver with enough force to cleave through Sir Franc’s armor and claim his life. He, he did it to save me,” she said as her cheeks turned a faint shade of pink.

”I’ve seen him do more as well,” Morwen said. ”He used up a whole copse of trees to save Lady Cerys’s life, but before he left, he re-sowed the seeds of the forest to bring it back. He nearly died saving her, and he’s one of the bravest men I know,” she added, glancing across the room at the young knight who had gone to speak with General Thane and Dame Sybyll about Lord Reynold’s joust.

”And he was ’just a kitchen boy’ a year ago,” Morwen said, shaking her head at the notion that someone so extraordinary had ever been so ordinary.

”The world is changing, Lady Micheline,” Adala said, after nodding her thanks to Morwen. If she noticed the way Morwen’s voice grew soft or the sparkle in her eyes when she spoke about Sir Ollie, she pretended not to, or at least she kept her observations to herself. ”We all have a chance to find new places in it. Dame Sybyll is training young ladies to be knights,” she said, gesturing at Cossot and Roseen.

”Though, I suppose they’re something of exceptions themselves,” Adala said. ”Cossot is only a squire now, but she intends to become a vampire, and Roseen along with her. At that point, they’ll have powers like the Crimson Knight, and even Lord Reynold might not be their equal.”

”And what about you, Lady Adala?” Micheline said, looking desperately for a chance to turn the tide of conversation and to take the focus off herself. ”What do you intend to become in this bold new world that my cousin is building?”

”I intend to marry the woman I love,” Adala said, wrapping her arm around Charlotte’s soft waist and pulling her close enough to give her a peck on the cheek. ”And I’m going to go to Her Dominion’s academy to learn everything I can. Swords. Sorcery. I need to learn the Eldritch tongue and their history too...”

”We’re going to do it together,” Charlotte said, giggling lightly as she wrapped her arms around Adala, not bothering to hide her affection despite the startled looks that Adala’s declaration had drawn from several people around them. ”Whatever opportunities life brings us, we’re not afraid to chase after them. Together.”

”And... And your parents are fine with this?” Micheline blurted before she caught herself. ”I mean about the swords and the sorcery and living with the Eldritch,” she said quickly when she realized they might think she had opinions about their non-traditional thoughts on marriage.

Given that her cousin, the Empress, intended to marry a woman, she could hardly find fault with the notion that other women would do so as well. So, even though it was shocking, she did her best to prevent it from appearing like she was judging their relationship.

”It doesn’t matter what they think,” Charlotte said, looking a little sad. ”I don’t know what will become of my family. My father has been sent across the mountains as a Lord Ambassador to the High Fen... But he may be gone for many years.”

”For now, my mother rules our lands in his stead,” Charlotte added. ”But we all know that won’t last for long. If Ashlynn intended for Mother to rule, she’d have named her Lady Gardener of Otker and she might have been invited to join us here tonight,” Charlotte said.

”I think Her Dominion is waiting to see whether or not you want to become the Lady Gardener of Otker,” Adala said. ”You’re not like me. You still like your home and its people. You’ve done so much to help them, even while your father,” she started to say, only to cut herself off short.

”Your father doesn’t matter, any more than mine does,” Adala said. ”And neither do our idiot brothers. What matters is what we want. Just because I turned down the chance to rule Leufroy doesn’t mean you have to turn down a chance to rule in Otker. If you want it, you should let Her Dominion know.”

”I don’t know if I want it or not,” Charlotte said honestly. ”There’s too much I don’t know about what we’ll learn at the academy. I still barely understand what sorcery can do. That’s why I’m so interested in this next match,” she said, leaning forward in her seat as she watched Ashlynn, Hauke, and Heila begin to reshape the arena yet again.

”I’ve heard that Commander Aspakos led a renowned force of sorcerers on the far side of the Umber Mountains,” Charlotte said. ”They’re called the ’Sorcerers of Sundered Earth.’ Anyone with a title that impressive must be extraordinary, and Ashlynn picked him out herself to help the Aleese in this challenge,” she said.

”The Sorcerers of Sundered Earth against the captain of Lord Dirar’s Stone Guard,” Adala said, giggling slightly at the irony of the names. ”If it’s like either of the last matches, it’s going to be very impressive.”

”You won’t want to miss this, Lady Micheline,” Adala added, her eyes shining as she turned to watch. ”This is the power we could learn to use...”