The Vampire & Her Witch

Three days after the battle that fundamentally reshaped the balance of power in the High Pass, Ollie stood nervously at the western entrance to Orava Village, fidgeting with the spill of lace that fell from the cuffs of his fur trimmed coat and trying not to draw any more attention to himself than his appearance in this village already had.

Messenger birds arrived at the ancient fortress at the heart of the Vale of Mists two nights ago, carrying word that Lady Nyrielle and Lady Ashlynn had arrived in the High Pass and would be returning to the Vale soon. That piece of news alone took the entire Vale by storm as preparations were made for a grand welcoming ceremony to take place when they arrived.

The more detailed letter, meant only for Sir Thane and the others who managed the Vale of Mists in Nyrielle’s absence, carried much more concerning news. A battle had been fought in the High Pass and Lady Ashlynn had suffered extensive injuries. According to the letter, the injuries were extensive enough that Lady Nyrielle was sending Ashlynn ahead of the rest of the returning army so that she could spend time in the forest recovering from her wounds before returning to the ancient fortress.

"The people of the Vale don’t need to know how serious Lady Ashlynn’s wounds are," Thane told Ollie when the two met in Sir Thane’s office in the ancient fortress. "When she returns, I’ll need you to prepare a place for her to recover away from prying eyes, at least until Mistress Nyrielle returns."

Over the past six months, Thane and Marcel had taken Ollie under their dark wings, coming to view the former kitchen boy as something between a lost puppy in need of care and a little brother in need of a good mentor.

Ollie had shown himself early on to be a man who could inspire others with his kindness, compassion, and a deep desire to do the right thing. Some of that idealism, in Thane’s opinion, flowed from an almost unhealthy fixation on Lady Ashlynn and Ollie’s determination to show her that the faith she placed in him wasn’t a mistake.

In truth, Thane didn’t think Ashlynn wanted to see the young man pushing himself as hard as he did, but Ollie had formed his opinions about what was ’proper’ when he watched Ashlynn driving herself to the brink of exhaustion during the final weeks of her blossoming period. Ever since then, the former kitchen boy had thrown himself into trying to master his new responsibilities with a vigor that was achievable only by the very young and people like Thane and Marcel who were no longer human.

All of that hard work had paid off, and Ollie had grown into his new role in the Vale of Mists in more ways than one. When he arrived at the ancient fortress, he had been a tall, gangly youth with a wild mane of flame red hair and an awkwardness that came from constantly bowing and scraping before his supposed betters at the Lothian Manor.

Now, he stood tall and proud with a confidence that came a growing series of successes. His cheeks had lost the slightly sunken look of a man who never got enough to eat and his once gangly frame had filled out with lean muscles honed by hard work building a village and long nights spent training with weapons. If Thane could find any fault with the man that Ollie was growing into it was that he was still too naive in matters of politics.