Chapter 636: Sir Ollie’s Surname (Part One)
When the servant stepped into the sitting room outside the great hall to collect Ollie, there were several surprised looks from the small room’s occupants, including Ollie himself.
"There was a slight disturbance," the bearish man acting as an usher for the evening said, bowing deeply to the gathering of some of the most powerful people in the Vale of Mists. "Lord General Thane admonished the crowd because someone called for the death of humans. When he spoke of unity between humans and the Eldritch, there was a cry to see Sir Ollie," he explained with ears that lowered themselves flat against his head in shame at the way some people had disrupted Lady Nyrielle and Lady Ashlynn’s careful plans for this evening.
"Go, Ollie, I don’t mind," Heila said as she wrapped both of her arms around one of Ignatious’s arms, pressing her diminutive figure up against him as she snuggled close to his unique warmth. "I’ll enjoy a few extra minutes this way before we have to sit on opposite sides of the table."
"In that case," Ollie said, giving a polite bow to the other members of his new family. "I won’t take long," he said before awkwardly scooping up the wide brimmed hat that matched the jade-green tunic and dark brown breeches he wore for the evening.
The hat was one of two that Ashlynn had gifted him after the completion of his trial and was what she referred to as a ’Fancy Hat,’ suitable for formal occasions like the one he was attending now. The hat itself was formed from fine silk, trimmed with a band of black and green brocade.
Ashlynn had kept the hat’s ornaments to a bare minimum, placing only a single, long, dark feather in the hat band. But even if it looked simple, it was a feather that carried the same chilling, almost haunting aura as the one used in the ritual where he received his seed of witchcraft, which meant that it was a feather taken from Nyrielle’s own wings and that it carried a trace of her dark power.
The hat wasn’t the only unfamiliar piece of his wardrobe tonight, but the half cloak that he wore across his left shoulder felt strangely lighter on his body than the hat atop his head. Whether that was because Thane had actually selected a lighter fabric for his apprentice’s rich, earthen brown cloak or because Ollie had become accustomed to the garment over the months that he studied under Thane’s tutelage, he couldn’t say.
One thing was certain, however. When Ollie entered the great hall, he was grateful for both the hat’s wide brim and the cloak’s partial concealment as he felt the eyes of hundreds of people falling on him, watching his every movement as he strode down the central aisle to where Lady Ashlynn and Sir Thane waited for him in front of the high table.
"Ollie of Lothian City," Thane said formally, his voice clear and strong enough to echo off the walls of the great hall without the slightest hint of his otherworldly powers. "You are summoned to this hall tonight by Lady Ashlynn Blackwell, Daughter of Count Rhys Blackwell, Eldritch Lady of the High Pass, and Seneschal of the Harbinger of Death. She has called you here tonight to account for your actions. Are you prepared to accept her judgment tonight?"
Throughout the great hall, many eyes widened in surprise when they heard the Lord General’s stiff, formal pronouncement. Hadn’t they just heard that he represented the best of the humans? Didn’t he wear the hat of a witch, as though he were a member of the Lady of Trees’ coven? Then why did it seem like he was being summoned like a criminal about to face a trial?
Only a few people in the crowd recognized the stiff, formal phrases for what they were, and each of them wore wide grins as they watched Ollie drop to one knee before Thane and Ashlynn.