The Vampire & Her Witch

Heila and Ashlynn had to remind themselves on more than one occasion to continue eating as Captain Lennart and Virve narrated the intense battle to capture the Tangled Tower. While neither of them had been present for the confrontation between Nyrielle and High Lord Hamdi, Inquisitor Ignatious had been very forthcoming with Nyrielle’s inner circle of loyal soldiers and servants from the Vale of Mists about what happened.

”I’m still struggling with this bit,” Ashlynn said at one point during the narration. ”Lady Nyrielle took an Inquisitor as one of her progeny and he’s been living in exile this whole time?”

She knew, intellectually at least, that Nyrielle had been at her coldest and most cruel in the years following the death of her parents but she never imagined that Nyrielle would take a member of the Inquisition as one of her progeny, just to inflict immortal suffering on him as retribution for what he had done to one of her first forty-seven progeny.

”I spoke with Inquisitor Ignatious last night, my lady,” Heila added. ”He’s quiet and he defers to Madame Zedya in all things, but he seems to have a genuine reverence for Lady Nyrielle.”

”I’m told it wasn’t always that way,” Captain Lennart said. ”Evidently, he destroyed the south tower of the fortress in the Vale in a fit of rage when he discovered what Lady Nyrielle had done to him. Now, it seems like he’s a different man, and Lady Nyrielle said that he used his Holy Flames to burn High Lord Hamdi’s flesh all the way to the bone.”

”I see,” Ashlynn said, pausing as she wrestled with the implications of taking one of the Church’s holy inquisitors captive. Or rather, turning him into a strange sort of ally. ”I’ll speak with him myself in the coming nights,” she finally said. While she had many questions, including how a vampire could call down Holy Fire on another vampire, Captain Lennart couldn’t answer any of them and her curiosity would have to wait.

”After the battle, Lady Nyrielle arranged a summit of local Eldritch Lords and notable figures,” Virve said, taking over the explanation so her captain could finish his meal. ”From comments she made, I gather that she expected any other vampires we reached out to would resist us in much the same way that High Lord Hamdi did.”

”Isn’t Hamdi the sire of Lady Nyrielle’s grand-sire, High Lord Torbin?” Heila said, blinking in confusion. ”I thought they were on good terms. She wanted to bring him to visit High Lord Torbin’s tomb...”

”I think the reasons are something you’ll need to hear from Lady Nyrielle,” Virve said helplessly as she licked a few stray drops of sauce from her claws. ”But after the battle at the Tangled Tower, our plans changed. Lady Nyrielle asked us to show visitors how she’d imprisoned Hamdi at the top of the tower where the sun could penetrate the cracks between boards of the pine box she trapped him in.”

”Everyone understood the message,” Captain Lennart said. ”None of them had the power to fight back against High Lord Hamdi if he set his sights on their domains, so seeing him fall to such a wretched state made it clear that Lady Nyrielle couldn’t be resisted.”

”So she demanded a tribute of soldiers?” Ashlynn asked. When Nyrielle had left, Captain Lennart had less than twenty soldiers under his command, but when they returned, Nyrielle’s army had swelled to more than a thousand soldiers and likely just as many servants and skilled tradesmen.

”Not exactly,” Virve said in a tone that was as awkward as the expression on her face. ”She offered to solve their problems for them. She demanded the right to hunt rebels or rivals for their thrones within their territory.”

”The people in our army,” Captain Lennart said. ”With the exception of the soldiers taken from High Lord Hamdi’s territory, they’re the rebels, misfits, and traitors that were too strong for the local Eldritch Lords to eradicate and too weak to overthrow their local lords.”

”Those men,” Lennart said, his eyes growing distant as he recalled the look on those men’s vases when they fell into Nyrielle’s hands. ”Something died within them when Lady Nyrielle put her hands on them. Something about them is horribly broken now.”

”Lady Nyrielle snuffed out the spark of rebellion in them,” Virve said, shuddering as she recalled the blank, lifeless stare she’d seen on the faces of men who had been proud, arrogant, and defiant only moments before Lady Nyrielle whispered in their ears.

”She hasn’t done it to all of them,” Lennart added. ”Just enough to bring them under control. Now, they obediently follow orders and they’re generally fairly competent but...”

”They’re no longer capable of taking initiative,” Virve said. ”We’ve trained with them, many times. The warriors are strong enough and they fight with skill, especially when they’re pressed to the edge of life and death. But they fight mechanically most of the time, and they don’t offer up any ideas.”

”So she’s gained an army of foot soldiers,” Ashlynn said as she suppressed a shudder of fear at the way the two bearish soldiers described the men who had fallen prey to the sorcery of the Harbinger of Death. Nyrielle had explained in the past that she could destroy a man’s soul, snuffing out the fires of ambition and desire like the flames of a candle. She’d even felt the power when Nyrielle demonstrated it for her, but hearing about it put to use like this...

”And Mistress Nyrielle did this to every group she conquered?” Ashlynn asked hesitantly. ”Was no one able to resist her?”

”There are a few special cases,” Lennart explained. ”The soldiers taken from the Tangled Wood have submitted willingly. If they rebel against Lady Nyrielle, she’ll kill the greatest progeny that Hamdi has ever made. You should have seen him yesterday, Lady Ashlynn, the white-furred vampire called Savis.”

”I don’t recall,” Ashlynn admitted, lowering her head and fidgeting with her hands as her face turned a deep shade of crimson. Last night, once she’d seen Nyrielle exit her carriage in a swirl of flowing black silks and delicate lace, she’d completely lost track of everything else occurring around her.

”Well, Sir Savis has been well-behaved,” Virve said, leaning back casually in her chair now that she’d eaten her fill and then some. ”He keeps his men under control, I think because he’s afraid that Lady Nyrielle will do to him what she’s done to so many others. And Sir Tausau can be considered a brother of High Lord Torbin,” she added.

”He’s been nothing but loyal since Lady Nyrielle offered a place for him and his Mongrel Horde to fight against the humans,” Virve explained in a tone that was uniquely devoid of revulsion for the twisted men born of forbidden unions. Rather, she seemed to have built up a bit of respect for the misshapen vampire and his unique progeny. ”He wants to prove that there is strength to be found among the Clanless.”

”There is another exception,” Captain Lennart added. ”Since you’ve been studying with the Mother of Thorns, you might already have some knowledge of them. Tell me, my lady, have you ever heard of the Sorcerers of Sundered Earth?”