Chapter 158: The Purpose of her Visit
"Allow me to devour this one and I will find you someone better."
Tension hung thick in the garden the moment High Lady Erna made her offer. None of the servants in the garden were armed, it would be useless to think they could fight off someone like Lady Nyrielle and they’d been told that having armed guards present would be insulting as well as useless.
But, seeing the dark stares from both Heila and more importantly, the amethyst-eyed Zedya, some of the servants wondered why they weren’t at least offered some protection against Lady Nyrielle’s companions. If a fight broke out between Eldritch Ladies over Erna’s words, it would be nice to have someone to stop the conflict from spreading to others, wouldn’t it?
Nyrielle, however, said nothing at all. Her face remained calm and impassive though people who had seen her wear an expressionless mask often enough would detect a slight smile tugging at the corners of her lips and a twinkle in her eyes as she looked at her Seneschal staring down the Eldritch High Lady.
"Heila," Ashlynn said without looking away from Erna’s unblinking stare. "I’ll need to trouble you to fetch my sword and armor. It sounds like we’ll be adding snakeskins to our collections of Frost Walker horns and Tuscan tusks at this stop of our trip."
The Ashlynn from a few weeks ago might have said something different. She might have deflected the challenge by pointing out that Nyrielle’s choice of Seneschal was no one’s business but hers, or that she might be weak now but she’d only just begun to master her powers.
The Ashlynn who stood before High Lady Erna had come to realize that those excuses, true as they might be, would only be taken as signs of weakness by the Eldritch. A challenge had been issued. If she retreated from it, then it was as good as declaring that she wasn’t worthy of Nyrielle.
While she could accept people calling her weak, because she still was when compared to the likes of Nyrielle and Lord Ritchel, she would never accept the implication that she wasn’t worthy of her partner’s love.
"How many bodies would you need to see piled up at my feet to feel that I belong at Mistress Nyrielle’s side?" Ashlynn asked directly.