The Vampire & Her Witch

When Ashlynn emerged from Nyrielle’s chambers, she was greeted by a sight that she’d never expected to see. Thane’s handsome features were unmistakable, and his casual demeanor as he leaned against the wall couldn’t have been more normal.

It was the suit of armor that he’d donned that truly surprised Ashlynn. During most of their training, there had been little need for Thane to don more than a simple padded gambeson to cushion the occasional glancing blows that made it past his guard, but now, he’d donned a full suit of three layered armor.

Unlike most of the forces of the Vale who wore a padded gambeson as their primary armor, Thane wore one as a foundation garment, covered by one of the most intricate suits of blackened steel chainmail she’d ever seen. For a moment, she almost mistook the chainmail as being darksteel, but the armor lacked the weight and presence of the Eldritch’s people’s enchanted steel.

Chain over gambeson was what Ashlynn had learned to fight in when she wore her armor. The protection it afforded the body against swords and arrows was substantial and even axes and maces were substantially blunted against a person wearing two-layered armor. But Thane had gone even further, covering the suit of chain with a complete set of blackened steel plate armor.

Some would call Thane’s armor an antique, lacking the sophisticated articulation at the joints of more modern armor and relying on the skill of the knight to protect his most vulnerable joints that were only protected by two layers. His chest and back, however, were protected by a sturdy steel cuirass, while bracers, rerebraces and pauldrons protected his arms. Steel greaves covered his shin while tessets hanging from his cuirass covered his thighs.

Modern armor increasingly favored the mounted knight, with many of the innovations in the past hundred years coming from a desire to produce tournament victories rather than to fight in true wars. On the frontier, where wars against the Eldritch were more common, armorers worked relentlessly to adapt innovations from tournaments into new methods of closing up gaps, trading flexibility for the ability to survive the swarming attacks favored by many Eldritch forces against armored knights.

To Ashlynn’s eyes, however, Thane’s armor didn’t just look like an antique, it looked like a carefully considered compromise between maximizing the defensive capabilities of three-layered armor and allowing him the freedom of movement to employ his vampire speed and strength. Without his armor, Thane had always had a presence that felt both noble and playful, but with it, he felt... Commanding.

”Do you, do you really need all that?” Ashlynn asked as she looked at the knightly vampire. ”I’m still a long way from posing a threat to you.” Far from being a threat, Ashlynn wasn’t even wearing armor. At some point, while she was bathing, her mud-stained gambeson and chain had been taken away to be cleaned, likely by Heila, and in its place, a fresh tunic and breeches had been laid out along with a simple gambeson from the ancient fortress’s armory. Against someone like Thane, it felt like barely wearing armor at all.

”Tonight’s lessons will be frustrating,” Thane said, pushing himself off the wall to retrieve his longsword and a small cloth sack from the floor next to him. ”Heila showed me what you did to your room yesterday and we all saw the storm you conjured last night. So I thought I should keep myself safe,” he said in a light, jovial tone.

”I even brought treats from Georg,” he added, passing her the cloth sack that had been stuffed full of everything from savory hand-pies to sticky, sweet honey rolls. ”If you lose your temper again, I think throwing one of those at you will help more than the armor, but the armor doesn’t hurt,” he teased.

”Why does everyone think that food will pacify me?” Ashlynn asked, pausing with her hand in the sack, caught in the middle of inspecting the delights that Georg had packed for her. As soon as she spoke, however, her stomach grumbled at her, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten in more than a day.

”Ashlynn,” Thane said, placing a hand covered in chainmail lightly on her shoulder as they began to walk toward the outer areas of the ancient fortress. ”I haven’t met anyone who can’t be swayed, at least a little bit, by Georg’s cooking. And if the day ever comes that you’re hurting so badly that one of his pastries can’t put even a ghost of a smile on your lips, then I promise to destroy whoever hurt you so badly.”

”Not Jocey,” Ashlynn said, almost instinctively, before she caught herself. ”I, I don’t know what to do about Jocey yet.”

”You don’t have to decide yet,” Thane said, keeping his tone light. ”If you need to keep her locked up for years while you sort it out, we can do that. I don’t think you’ll need to, though,” he added. ”I think, once you see her and talk to her, you’ll figure out what you need to do. Until then, you’re only borrowing worry from the future to try to work it out now.”

”Focus on Owain,” Thane said, unknowingly echoing Nyrielle’s advice. ”That’s what I’m here to help you with and it’s the other reason I’m wearing all this,” he added, tapping the steel plate over his chest lightly. ”When you face Owain, there’s a good chance he’ll be wearing his armor. You need to learn how to defeat an opponent in armor.”

”I miss my falchion,” Ashlynn said, finally selecting a pastry and beginning to munch on the still warm hand-pie. Soft, flaky, buttery crust surrounded a filling of minced mutton, peas, carrots and onions with just the right amount of a dark brown sauce to keep the pastry from feeling too dry. Even though it was something simple that could be eaten with one hand while she followed Thane to wherever they were going to train, Georg’s care and attention to detail came through in every bite.

”I suppose it’s out of the question to use a darksteel blade when I face Owain,” Ashlynn mused. ”Do you have another sword in mind for me, oh wise Sword Master Thane?” Ashlynn asked, giving the vampire knight the best playful look she could.

Her smile wasn’t as bright as normal, and her teasing sounded slightly forced, but Thane smiled brightly at the signs that the Ashlynn he’d come to think of as a little sister wasn’t completely broken by what her own little sister had done to her. She might be hurting right now, but one day, he was certain she’d recover that dazzling, cheerful smile that so many of the people who served Nyrielle had come to treasure.

”For now, a blunted training sword is best,” Thane said. ”But when the time comes, I’m sure Master Erkembalt will have something for you that won’t lose to your last blade. At the very least, you won’t need to worry about shattering another sword when you face Owain,” he teased.

”Now, come, we still have a long night ahead of us, and once we leave the castle behind, I’m going to stop being nice to you,” Thane warned. ”So eat up and then we’ll get to work.”