The Vampire & Her Witch-Chapter 1193: Charting A Course (Part Two)

Explaining things took time. Esselk’ti had only spent a few days with the Mother of Thorns and her coven, and while she had learned a great deal about the young Mother of Trees from her Aunt Amahle, when it came time to relate information to Rhys, the most she could do was to pass things on second hand.

She hadn’t met Ashlynn, and she could only share the impressions of her that Amahle and Jacques, the Sandbox Witch, had shared with her. The language barrier didn’t help matters. Some things were easier, like explaining the power and strength that Ashlynn had gained as the Seneschal of a True Vampire, but some things got bogged down in the nuances.

At times, Esselk’ti’s attempts to explain things like the closeness of the bond between witches, particularly members of their own covens, but between each other in general, had led to some awkward misunderstandings.

"This Jacques person," Rhys asked at one point when Esselk’ti mentioned that he had spent several days and nights guarding her while she harvested a seed from the Ancient Willow, and again when she gave that seed to her first witch. "He doesn’t have inappropriate intentions towards Ash, does he? The intentions a man has for a woman?" 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Rhys had seen it often enough. A woman escaped one abusive man only to fall into the arms of the first man who stood up for her and treated her better than the last man had. Only, in Ashlynn’s case, the last man was Owain Lothian, and there were very few men in the world who couldn’t prove they had better character than him.

If this ’Jacques’ was taking advantage of Ashlynn while she was still mending her heart from everything she’d suffered, then he would find a way to have words with him, witch or not.

"No, no like that, like... like brother," Esselk’ti said, shaking her head furiously enough to send droplets of water flying. "Or like cousin. Impossible for him to make... make pair with Auntie Ashlynn," the Witch of Deep Currents added. "In her heart, another person already is."

"Oh?" Rhys asked, staring deep into the dark eyes of the witch and trying to decide if she was making a joke or if she was telling the truth. "Someone she’s known for half the time she knew Owain Lothian, no, even less than that... And they’re already in her heart?"

"Told you," Esselk’ti said, twitching her whiskers in confusion. "Eldritch Lady of the Vale of Mists. Harbinger of Death. Vampire. Bound together. Saved your daughter, but bound, heart to heart, forever," she explained again. "Hearts beat, as one. Hearts beat for each other. Two as one," she said, placing a webbed hand over her chest and tapping out a double beat; -thump thump-, -thump thump-, -thump thump.-

"Yes, you said that," Rhys said, nodding in what he thought was understanding. "I, I don’t like that she had to bind her life to a vampire, to anyone really, in order to survive what Owain did to her, but... I can accept it, and I can be grateful for it. But this and love, they aren’t the same," he insisted.

"I mean the love between a man and a woman," Rhys added. "The love that makes a family, that, um, that leads to children," he said. "I want to know if this Jacques person is trying to..."

"No, no," Esselk’ti said firmly, shaking her head again. "Her heart, filled with feeling. For vampire, for partner, for vampire."

"Because they are bound together," Rhys nodded. "Because she became a ’Seneschal’ for this vampire. I understand," he said. "As long as she hasn’t fallen into the arms of some man who’s taking advantage of her, then that’s good enough for now."

"She can introduce me to this ’Harbinger of Death’ when... when," he repeated, his voice trailing off as he realized that he had no idea when he would next be able to see Ashlynn again, even though there was nothing he wanted more in the world than to rush back upriver, to Lothian March and beyond, stopping along the way to regather his scattered family.

"Auntie Esselk Ti," Rhys said, leaning back against the cold, wet stones of the rough-hewn chamber and looking at the witch who had turned his world on its head in a handful of broken sentences. "I know you didn’t speak to her, but the other Great Witch, the Mother of Thorns... Her Dominion said that Ashlynn intended to come against Owain Lothian for Vengeance. Do you know when she plans to attack the Lothians?"

Too many things were happening at once, and timing was about to become critical. Winter storms would enforce a lull in activity across the Kingdom of Gaal, and that included places like Blackwell County. It was a time to turn inward, to rest, reflect, recover from the previous year and to prepare for the next one. But how long Ashlynn would give herself for those things before she went on the offensive would determine the kind of force she was likely to confront.

Failures in Owain Lothian’s negotiations with the Wayfinder’s guild had postponed the arrival of any soldiers, knights or lords from across the seas this year, which meant that there weren’t any men who would be ready to march come spring.

At best, the vanguard of the Church’s rag-tag collection of ’Holy Warriors’ would arrive in four month’s time, with the remainder following a few ships at a time until the end of summer. At that point, there would be a scramble to be the first ones to reach Lothian City, pledging their loyalty to Bors Lothian and his son Owain to fight in the coming war.

It would take a year for Owain to gather those forces and turn them into an effective army that could challenge Airgead Mountain. During that time, the young lord would doubtless spend next year’s summer campaigning season fighting small battles against the Eldritch villages that were within the borders of Lothian March.

The ’nests of demons’ that the Church had allowed to continue to struggle, like fish in the net, would serve as training fodder for the new Holy Host gathering under the Lothian banner.

Ashlynn was clever, and the Harbinger of Death had fought against the Lothians for a century. Rhys was certain she’d understand the importance of the timing. She could strike in the spring, before the Church’s forces had time to arrive, or she could strike in the summer, when those forces were disorganised and fragmented...

"This, I am not told," Esselk’ti said, shaking her head and wishing that there was more she could offer the Lord of Black Sails Harbor. "But she hurts. She wishes end pain. She leaves Briar before winter, before snows block High Pass, to be home in Vale of Mists during winter. She refuses stay with Mother of Thorns until snow in High Pass melts."

"She’s marshalling her forces in the Vale of Mists this winter," Rhys said, nodding in understanding. "She’ll strike against the Lothians as soon as winter ends."

"You know her," Esselk’ti said, neither confirming nor denying the human lord’s hypothesis. "You know best. But why matters to you when she strikes? Why care so much if end of winter or start of summer, or any other time?"

"Because I need to speak to her before she does," Rhys said firmly. "Because I need to talk to her and her sister before anything happens. But I also need to do things here, or none of it will matter in the end."

At most, Ashlynn had two witches, just like Claire du’Gaal once had, but one of those witches wasn’t even a member of her own coven. She might be able to fight against the Lothians, but once the forces of the Church began to arrive, life would get much, much more difficult for his daughter, and history would repeat itself once again.

But worse than that, worse than the idea of her waging a successful war against the Lothians, only to be defeated by the forces of the Church once the Lothians had a chance to wear down and weaken her forces, was that she’d face her sister, standing at Owain Lothian’s side, across the field of battle... and that she would learn the truth of that tragedy before Rhys had a chance to talk to her about it.

He didn’t know if his daughters could ever live together again. He had no idea if Ashlynn could forgive Jocelynn for what she’d done after everything Ashlynn had endured. But Rhys had experienced the pain of losing a daughter once already, and he wasn’t about to go through that again...