Chapter 643: Disappointment (Part One)
The whispers filling the hall grew louder and louder until what had begun as a sound as faint as footfalls on cedar boughs became loud enough that even ordinary people could hear their neighbor’s opinions on the couples that Lady Nyrielle proudly presented to them.
"I thought her human progeny would have chosen human lovers..."
"I don’t care how it happened, do you see? Our Clan of the Great Claw has a vampire again..."
"My horns are lighter and thinner than hers, does he really expect to live a happy life with a woman who’s horns are so... manish? If he doesn’t want to find himself rammed into submission by his own wife he should look for someone a little more demure, don’t you think..."
"Is he going to make her a vampire too? Can witches even become vampires?"
"Why are you all so excited, thinking about one of them falling in love with you? Don’t you see what your children would turn out like, sitting right there at the front table? You want to give birth to one of the Clanless?"
"That poor dear, do you think she really has any choice in this? Or do you think that man tortured her until she submitted?"
Standing at the head of the great hall, it was impossible for either couple to miss the comments of the crowd and even more impossible for Nyrielle to fail to hear the thoughts that rippled through the hall.
"It seems as though you have many questions," Nyrielle said from the front of the hall, instantly silencing the whispers with a single sentence. "You are owed no answers," she said flatly as her gaze sharpened, seeming to pierce directly through a few members in the crowd who had cast doubts about the motives behind these unusual unions.
"You have doubts about their love and their intentions toward each other," she said as shadows began to gather behind her wings, making it appear that Nyrielle stood at the edge of a great abyss. "You are even less entitled to those doubts than you are to your questions about their relationships. I am disappointed," she said as she scowled at the people occupying most of the tables in the great hall.
For a moment, Nyrielle’s last three words hung over everyone in the hall like a shadowy headsman’s ax, ready to descend upon them at the slightest breath. Several people who had spoken openly to their neighbors of their doubts or concerns now swallowed heavily, sinking down into their chairs and casting nervous glances about.