Chapter 692: Love Is Love
Outside the carriage, the fog grew thicker, muffling the sounds of hoofbeats on ancient pavers and the creak of the carriage as it rolled along at a speed that would have been impossible for any human driver to match on such a dark and foggy night. Inside the carriage, however, the dark of night and even the fact that they were approachign the legendary Vale of Mists seemed distant compared to the revelation of Ashlynn’s relationship with the vampire, Nyrielle. For the past two years, both guild masters had seen what had looked like a proper and even happy courtship between Ashlynn and Lord Owain. There had been numerous formal banquets and balls where the Blackwells hosted the young Lothian Lord and his enterouge of knights and Ashlynn always looked happy to be hanging on the young lord’s arm at those events.
She’d seemed even more delighted when they toured Blackwell City and the county together, particularly the year that Owain had visited during the Holy Light festival when he’d taken Ashlynn around the festival, proving his skill and winning piles of prizes for her at the festival games. She’d looked so happy that everyone on the outside had assumed that they weren’t just entering into a political marriage but one of genuine love as well.
The truth, however, was very different than it appeared to be from the outside. Compared to Owain, Nyrielle had been more open and more vulnerable with her the first night they’d shared a meal than Owain had been in the entire span of time they’d been courting. Owain worked hard to present a perfect appearance of what a lord and gentleman was supposed to be, but he never once shared his pain or his fears with her the way Nyrielle had. He engaged in all of the ritual and spectacle of courtship without ever once attempting to understand or relate to the woman he was supposed to be courting.
It made Nyielle’s openness and honesty both confusing and a little frightening in the beginning when she’d mistaken Nyrielle’s honest admission that she hoped to benefit from Ashlynn’s powers as a witch for a statement that she only wanted Ashlynn for her powers.
That misunderstanding hadn’t been the only one while they each learned to understand each other, but her memory of that first dinner together and the way she’d overreacted to some of Nyrielle’s statements was something she still felt embarrassed about, even all these months later.
"Nyri and I both still learning about each other," Ashlynn said, breaking the silence that had begun to feel awkward after she revealed how much she and Nyrielle had opened their hearts to each other.
"She’s so much older than I am, and my life has been very different from hers," Ashlynn admitted, because it was true that there was still a great deal that she didn’t know about her lover and the reverse was also true. "But we’re walking forward, hand in hand, discovering more and more about the person who holds the other half of our heart in their chest each and every night we spend together."
"Pfft," Isabell said with a snort as she shook her head at Ashlynn. "You sound like my husband with all those pretty words," she said, laughing for the first time in what felt like several hours since the carriage ride began.