Chapter 357: Ashlynn’s Efforts
After leaving Heila to prepare for the evening’s main event, Ashlynn returned to High Lady Erna’s palace to prepare herself for the grand spectacle of Nyrielle’s reception. Unlike her previous visit to High Fen City, this time Ashlynn had several days in advance to make her arrangements and there wasn’t a single detail that she neglected.
She started with a green dress several shades darker than her usual emerald tones, opting for something in a stately hue similar to the great pine trees that covered the mountain slopes between the High Fen and High Pass. She paired it with spills of delicate black silk lace and a cutout panel across the bodice in the same black lace that emphasised the fullness of her pale bosom.
Tonight, while she was the Mother of Thorns, she was also Nyrielle’s Seneschal and she wanted to send a strong message that they stood together. Last night, she’d dressed for Nyrielle, wearing a sleeveless dress that bared her shoulders and neck to arouse her lover’s hunger. Now, on the high collar of her full-sleeved gown, she wore a string of blood-red garnets spilling from one side of her neck to make her allegiance clear to everyone who looked.
Even her hat was something she’d had prepared just for occasions when she attended grand events with Nyrielle. The dark green fabric paired with her dress but in place of black lace, she’d adorned it with long, slender, black feathers that held a hint of blue or green depending on how the light struck them.
"You look stunning, my lady," Virve said with genuine praise as Ashlynn settled her wide-brimmed hat in place. "Even more so than you did on our first visit."
To the newly elevated soldier, Ashlynn seemed almost as otherworldly as Lady Nyrielle. Seeing them together the night before, she’d glimpsed a hint of it, but she’d been too embarrassed at the very public display of affection to look too closely. Now that she had a chance to see Lady Ashlynn up close, however, she had to admit that the transformation her lady had undergone went far beyond the physical.
If Virve were to put on a fancy dress, she might pass for modestly charming but no one would use words like ’beautiful’ or ’enchanting’ to refer to her, even if she were a decade or two younger. She knew that she was a soldier with a soldier’s strong build and there was little that people found conventionally attractive about that kind of power no matter how you dressed it up.
When Ashlynn donned her gown for the evening, however, the impression she gave was very similar to the aura Virve radiated when she donned her armor and weapons. The evening ahead would be a different kind of battlefield, one that Ashlynn had studied as a young woman but had far too little experience fighting on. Now, however, it seemed as though she’d taken a significant step forward as she prepared to play host to the elite of High Lady Erna’s nation.
"Stunning doesn’t begin to describe it," Nyrielle said as she swept into the room. "My darling looks as though she’s ready to conquer in my name, whether I attend or not," she said with an amused smile.
After several months of either feeding on the unwilling or only taking the bare minimum offerings from her own people, Nyrielle had looked increasingly inhuman over the past several months. Among the vampires and the Eldritch, no one would comment, but those who knew her best knew that she had been holding herself back for quite a while.