Chapter 408: Impossible Dream (Part Two)
"Because the Vale of Mists is still weaker than it needs to be," Ritchel said, placing a heavy hand on the younger man’s shoulder and giving him a firm squeeze. "Her Eternity is borrowing an army. She has taken the Mongrel Horde, the Black Wolf Brigade, the Sorcerers of Sundered Earth... None of these forces belong to her, but she must make use of them to defend the Vale of Mists against the humans."
"Say what you will about the Tuscans," Ritchel continued, his grip on his son’s shoulder growing tighter as he wrestled with his own conflicted feelings. "They are true giants who will accomplish almost as much by striking fear into the hearts of humans as they will by crushing them underfoot. That isn’t the kind of resource that Her Eternity can easily turn away. Lady Heila may not have had a choice in the matter," he added.
The diminutive maidservant had made very little impression on Ritchel during her first visit. She’d been intimidated by Torsten at the gates, retreating from her duties as Lady Ashlynn’s translator, and from Hauke’s account, she spent most of the time they were under assault by Tuscans cowering behind his barriers. To hear that she had become a witch and a champion of the arena... He couldn’t imagine what she must have been through in these few months to change so much.
"Shouldn’t you be focusing more on Lady Ashlynn?" Ritchel prompted his son. "You were able to teach her at least a little of our sorcery when she last visited. Now that she’s become the Mother of Trees, I’m certain she’s looking for talented people to join her coven. Do you intend to become one of them?"
"Is that even possible, Father?" Hauke said, blinking in surprise that his father had been the one to bring up the topic. "Has there ever been a Frost Walker witch?" As much as the young lord tried to keep his voice neutral, the faint glimmer that rippled through his horn betrayed just how interested he was in an answer to the question. He’d searched the archives months ago after Ashlynn left but he never found anything in the public records.
Of course, there were things that were known only to Elders and the Eldritch Lord of the High Pass, but Hauke hadn’t been willing to press his father for access to information that he wasn’t entitled to have. If he’d asked, he was certain that his father would have told him, but by asking, he felt that it would have been as good as announcing his intention to abandon the High Pass to join Ashlynn’s coven instead. Whether he intended to or not, or would even have to, just the thought of it was enough to keep his lips sealed on the matter.
"There was, in my great-grandfather’s time," Ritchel said, giving his son an awkward smile. "He joined the coven of the Mother of Storms as her Blizzard Witch. He had a horn of the purest white and according to my grandfather, the mountain his horn was enshrined on is covered by a near eternal blizzard."