Chapter 360: New Partners
On the first floor of the arena, the small crowd of influential locals gave much more restrained applause when Nyrielle and Ashlynn made their entrance. There was a round of soft applause and a scattering of shouts from former champions of the arena, but there were no spontaneous acts of kneeling or other demonstrations of subservience from this crowd.
"Teacher, our reunion last night was too brief," High Lady Erna said as she slid gracefully across the stone floor to greet Nyrielle.
"Little Snake, you don’t need to call me teacher anymore," the powerful vampire said, momentarily leaving Ashlynn’s side to embrace her former student. "We’re old friends now, each with our own territories to rule."
The gesture was simple and the embrace didn’t last long, but the wave of whispers it set off couldn’t have been louder if one of the women had slapped the other. Less than six months ago, when Nyrielle had passed through the High Fen, they hadn’t been so close and companionable and the only event they’d held was a masquerade ball in the palace. It could be said that High Lady Erna had paid proper respects to a visiting Eldritch Lady and her former teacher but nothing more.
Yet now, on what was supposed to be the first of many nights of celebration, they embraced so readily... None of the people gathered here were simple but if you asked them to speculate about what the apparent closeness between these two powerful rulers meant for the future of the High Fen, none of them could say for certain.
"The entertainment will begin soon," Erna said as Ashlynn joined them. "I’m sure your seneschal has arranged for several people to bend your ears tonight so I won’t delay you. We can watch the final match of the evening from my private box when the time comes."
"This feeling of being passed from one thing to the next, like a puppet on a string," Nyrielle said with a wry smile on her face. "I can’t help but wonder if the Mother of Thorns taught you how to bind people in webs with the way you’re doing this to me, darling."
"Don’t blame her too much for that," Erna said with a light, musical laugh. "My first minister does the same to me. At times, you would almost think he had usurped my throne!"
"I could never usurp Mistress Nyrielle’s throne," Ashlynn protested with a light laugh of her own. "What’s hers is hers and will always be hers, me included," she added as she stepped close enough to Nyrielle for the other woman to wrap an arm around her.
"All right, enough, you two," the esteemed High Lady said, shaking her head at the youthful displays of affection between the two. "You make me feel like I’m the old one when you do that, and I’m still far too young to feel old in this company."
Ashlynn, she could understand, but the more time she watched Nyrielle with the young witch, the more the image in her mind of her wise and powerful teacher crumbled, replaced with a woman who wasn’t all that different from herself. Though, perhaps that had been Nyrielle’s point when she said they were old friends now.
"Mistress Nyrielle," Ashlynn said, tugging slightly on Nyrielle’s arm to lead her toward a group of waiting tradesmen. "There are a few men I’d like to introduce you to who have agreed to accompany us back to the Vale of Mists when we leave. If you’ll entertain them?"