The Vampire & Her Witch

”My darling,” Nyrielle said, momentarily stunned by the sight of Ashlynn before her. When Ashlynn arrived in the Vale of Mists, she had nothing, and everything she now owned had been given to her by Nyrielle since her arrival, including her jewelry.

But the Ashlynn before her now wore refined strings of pearls around her neck and delicate pearl studs adorned her ears. The dress she wore, rather than the earthy greens and browns, was a deep ocean blue that hugged her narrow waist before offering up a stunning view of her bosom with a neckline cut low enough to be considered scandalous in places like Lothian March.

”You look beautiful,” Nyrielle said, reaching out to trace a finger along her lover’s cheek, marveling at the intricate curls Ashlynn’s hair had been styled in, adorned with strings of pearls dangling from elaborate hair pins. The entire ensemble gave her the appearance of a goddess of the sea, stepping onto land among the press and crowds of lesser beings.

”How does it feel like you’re really you,” Ashlynn whispered, closing her eyes and feeling the echoing pulse of Nyrielle’s heartbeat in the other woman’s touch. Memories flashed through her minds of a burned and scarred Nyrielle on the edge of death but as real as it had felt when the Nyrielle in her vision took every last drop of blood from her body, it hadn’t felt as... present as the woman in front of her.

”Every other vision has been a hollow imitation,” Ashlynn said softly, still struggling to believe that Nyrielle was truly before her. ”But this... This all feels real.”

”Because it really is me, my darling Ashlynn,” Nyrielle said, wrapping her arms around the younger woman’s slender waist and pulling her close. ”Once before, you touched a dream, a memory of mine. You entered a place you could never have appeared in a time long ago and...”

”And we danced the night away,” Ashlynn whispered, her brows furrowing as she tried to recall more details about the strange dream. She had only the vaguest memories of a dream of dancing with Nyrielle at an extravagant Eldritch ball.

At the time, she had been desperate to find a way to survive after a fallen Tuscan dragged her beneath the ice of a frozen lake. She’d used sorcery to place herself in a state of false death where her heart barely beat and her lungs could sustain her for several minutes off a single breath of air. In that state, she’d fallen into a dream unlike any she’d ever experienced before.

She remembered that the dream felt far too vivid and real to be an ordinary dream, but the chaotic and terrifying events she woke to afterward left her mind scattered and her memories of the dream hazy at best. By the time Nyrielle had arrived to rescue her, Heila and the Frost Walker Hauke from the abomination of melded ancestral blood golems, Ashlynn had almost completely forgotten the strange dream she experienced while trapped under the ice.

Nyrielle, however, seemed to remember the event in far more detail. The banquet Ashlynn appeared at had occurred over two centuries ago, long before the death of Nyrielle’s parents. For Nyrielle, it should have been a joyous moment of reliving a memory of days before her parents fell to Lothian savagery, but it had instead transformed into something even more precious - a dream where she danced with Ashlynn while her parents and grandsire watched with approving eyes.

”It seems that our dreams have touched each other yet again,” Nyrielle said, blinking back tears as she recalled their last shared dream and looking away from Ashlynn for a moment to look around the seaside city.

”Only this time, the memory we’re sharing isn’t one of mine, but one of yours.”

For what felt like several minutes, Ashlynn stood trembling in Nyrielle’s arms, leaning against the vampire and clinging to her as if to reassure herself that this Nyrielle, the one who stood calmly looking around the vision of Blackwell City, wasn’t just a manifestation of the Ancient Willow in yet another strange and twisted test.

”How are you here?” Ashlynn whispered, pressing her ear against Nyrielle’s chest and listening to the heartbeat that matched so precisely with the echo of a heartbeat within her own chest. ”Why is this happening?”

”I don’t know for certain,” Nyrielle said, returning her attention to Ashlynn and gently stroking her lover’s pale golden curls. From the way Ashlynn shook in her embrace, it was clear that whatever had attacked their bond had been an arduous trail, but what she had faced to feel like this, she had no idea.

”Something was attacking our bond,” Nyrielle whispered gently. ”I felt it probing at us, then pulling you away from me like it wished to tear us apart. I fought back against it but the energy never retreated,” she said with a hint of bitter frustration. Fighting the invasive energy felt like pushing sand uphill. It yielded and moved under her touch only to flow back as soon as her attention turned elsewhere.

”The Ancient Willow,” Ashlynn said, her tone growing sharp as she pulled back to meet Nyrielle’s gaze. ”The witches seem to want to rescue me from you. The Ancient Willow even offered to strip away our pact, ’freeing me’ from our bond.”

”You know I disapprove of burning down such powerful wonders of nature,” Nyrielle said, her tone growing even darker than Ashlynn’s. ”Do I need to make an exception for this Ancient Willow? If it is bent on its own destruction, it has only itself to blame.”

”I don’t think so,” Ashlynn said, closing her eyes and reaching out with her own senses to feel the energy of the Ancient Willow. Cecile, the spirit of the previous Willow Witch, had said they would no longer stand in her way when it came to her relationship with Nyrielle. Now, however, when she reached out to the ancient tree, she felt something completely unexpected.

”I think, I think I understand now,” she said as she gingerly explored the energy that felt like roots wrapping around her bond with Nyrielle. ”I think that this is the Ancient Willow’s apology. It’s helping me to reach you, giving me the energy to connect so deeply. It really is a healer’s tree,” she said with an ironic smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

”Is that the case?” Nyrielle said, raising an eyebrow in doubt. ”If it is, then I suppose I can withhold any punishment for this Ancient Willow. But Darling,” she said, placing a finger under Ashlynn’s chin and lifting the other woman’s gaze to meet hers. ”The distress I felt from you, what happened?”

”I can explain but, I’d rather not do it in the middle of the street,” Ashlynn said, gesturing to the crowds of people milling about. It was hard to make out the features of passersby and no one seemed to pay any attention to the two noblewomen standing in the middle of the road but it still felt strange to be out in the open with Nyrielle like this, especially in her home city.

”This feels like some of the visions the Ancient Willow immersed me in,” Ashlynn said. ”Some of them were memories where I could only watch things as they replayed but others were more open. I think I should be able to take you somewhere quiet where we can speak. I’ll explain everything,” she promised.

”For a chance to see my darling Ashlynn’s home,” Nyrielle said, holding out an arm as though she were a gentleman escorting a lady. ”I’ll go wherever you like.”