Chapter 139: Nyrielle’s True Face
When they reached the windowless room in the depths of the castle, Ashlynn found that several changes had been made. Several oil heaters had been lit in the corners of the room, raising the temperature to a level that felt like a sauna after so much time spent in the icy cold even though it was little warmer than a late spring day in the Vale of Mists.
Beyond that, dozens of candles had been lit around the room and soft fabrics had been draped on all of the walls, trapping the heat and filling the room with a softly flickering golden glow. This much open flame in the Frost Walker fortress would doubtless be considered rude by their hosts but Nyrielle had ceased to care when they failed to keep her precious Ashlynn safe on a simple fishing trip.
Once they were alone, Nyrielle did something completely unexpected. After setting Ashlynn down on the bed, the ancient vampire knelt on the cool stone floor and bowed her head low.
"My darling, Ashlynn," she said softly. All traces of her domineering and commanding presence had vanished from her voice, replaced by a slight tremble that started in her voice and spread along her arms to the tips of her fingers.
"I should never have trusted others to keep you safe. Today, I nearly lost you," she said, looking up at Ashlynn with her dark, inhuman eyes. "And it would have been my fault. Please, forgive me," she said, searching Ashlynn’s face for a trace of what her young lover felt.
"You cannot protect me from everything," Ashlynn said, reaching out to caress Nyrielle’s sharp features with the tips of her fingers. "If you did, I would be no different from a violet grown under glass. Beautiful, fragile, and unable to be touched. You don’t want that," Ashlynn said firmly. "And neither do I."
"Still," the vampire said, capturing Ashlynn’s hands and holding them gently like a captured dove. "It was too soon. I will keep you closer in the High Fen. Once you have learned from the Mother of Thorns, perhaps my heart will be at ease even when I am not by your side."
"And will you be like this in the High Fen?" Ashlynn said, looking over Nyrielle’s altered figure and her dark, feathered wings. Seen up close, she realized that far more had changed about Nyrielle than just her wings, fangs, and eyes.
Her entire body felt... longer. Her fingers were longer, more slender, and ended with long, sharp nails. Her legs had grown longer as had her arms and torso and in the process, the bones of her body felt sharper and more prominent as if her pale skin had been stretched to accommodate a longer, taller frame.
Her face looked even sharper with higher cheekbones and eyes that weren’t just dark, they felt like they’d sunken deeper into the sockets of her eyes. It was a transformation that made her look fiercer, hungrier, and more inhuman than Ashlynn had ever seen her before.
"Is this," Ashlynn began to ask, biting her lower lip as she sought the words. "Is this the real you? The ’vampire’ version of you? Is the face you usually show the world just a mask?"
"It’s not like that," Nyrielle said. "This is real. That is also real. I should have told you sooner but I didn’t want you to..." I didn’t want you to be afraid of me. She couldn’t bring herself to say it but she felt it to her bones. She’d shown Ashlynn early on what it looked like when she fed on others so that she would understand but she’d never shown her this side of herself.