The Vampire & Her Witch

Deep within the Vale of Mists, in the quiet hour before dawn, what had started as a gathering of Ashlynn’s coven to stand vigil over Isabell as she underwent the trial of her seed of witchcraft had turned into something much greater. And, to Ollie at least, something stranger than any morning he’d yet experienced since coming to the vale of mists.

”The trick is to watch the way drops of water dance on the surface of the pan after you’ve pulled it out of the fire,” he explained to his attentive student as he dipped his fingers into a small cup of water before sprinkling several droplets across the surface of the cast-iron pan.

-HSSSSTTT-

”You see how the water turned into steam in an instant? That’s too hot,” he said, keeping most of his attention on the task. ”If we drop butter into the pan when it’s that hot, it will scorch and brown, and our eggs will come out dark and chewy. We need it to cool down more before we add anything to the pan.”

”Can you do this with many kinds of cooking?” Nyrielle said, smiling at the young knight as he tended to his cooking tools with the same level of focus and seriousness that she’d seen Thane apply to his weapons. It was as if it was part of the nature of knights that she’d never appreciated, to treasure their tools and care for them as much as she had cared for her prized paintings or Zedya cared for her tapestries.

”Georg stays so close to the fire when he cooks,” Nyrielle said, feeling more relaxed than she had during any of her lessons with the bearish Master of Kitchens. Georg said that temperature was one of the most important things to monitor, and he was constantly moving his pan on and off the flame to maintain the correct temperature, something that made Nyrielle nervous every time she tried to imitate his calm confidence around flames.

”But you’re going to cook this entire dish after you’ve taken the pan off the flames,” Nyrielle marveled, watching as Ollie sprinkled another set of droplets on the pan, watching them skitter and dance before he added a large knob of butter to the pan and began swirling it around. They were more than ten paces away from the bonfire that had sprung up in the midst of Ashlynn’s gathering, and at this distance, Nyrielle didn’t even think of the heat of the flames, yet Ollie insisted he wouldn’t need to return the pan to the flames even once to finish his eggs.

”I never thought of doing this for anything other than eggs,” Ollie admitted, shifting nervously as the vampire hovered over him, watching every detail of his cooking. He’d finally gotten used to thinking of Lady Ashlynn as family rather than seeing her as one of the most beautiful women he’d ever laid eyes on, and the bond he shared with her as a member of her coven helped with that, but he had no such immunity against Lady Nyrielle’s charms, and her presence was... intense.

”The, um, the pan cools quickly once you pour in the eggs,” he said, picking up a bowl of thoroughly beaten eggs and pouring them into the pan filled with lightly foaming butter before taking up a wooden spoon and stirring vigorously.

He did his best to focus on the eggs and his lesson because if he thought of Nyrielle’s faintly floral scent drifting on the night air or the way her silky dress clung to her lithe figure then he was certain that he’d do or say something that would embarrass not only him, but Lady Ashlynn as well.

”If I were making this for a lord’s breakfast, I’d add a bit of cream to make it richer, and a good cheese for melting,” he continued as he reached into another bowl for a pinch of freshly picked and hand-torn herbs. ”But keeping it simple lets you enjoy the eggs more, and the herbs help it to not feel as heavy.”

”In Blackwell, we’d add shredded crab meat at this point,” Ashlynn said as she joined the pair for their cooking demonstration. ”A dash of spices, too. But simple is also good,” she added with a smile as she wrapped her arms around Nyrielle. ”Simple is probably best for eating before you go to bed or when you have to wake early.”

”I’ll add ’crab’ to the list of things that Marcel needs to find a way to import from your home,” Nyrielle said, as though it were a serious matter. ”Can it be packed in salt or pickled? Would it still work in eggs if it were?”

”That... that might be tricky,” Ollie admitted as he thought about using salted or pickled fish in a dish with eggs. ”Look, our eggs are already done,” he said as he scooped the light, fluffy, scrambled eggs into a large bowl. ”See? Almost no time at all if you want them to be delicate. Is the bread ready, Ashlynn?” Ollie asked, grateful that she was occupying most of Lady Nyrielle’s attention.

”It is, and so is the rest of breakfast,” Ashlynn said with a smile. ”Everyone pitched in a little bit, and Thane’s slicing the bread for finger sandwiches now, so we can all eat a few bites together before sunrise.”

Ashlynn had never intended to gather the leaders of the Vale of Mists in the space that she and her coven had been slowly preparing to become their Enchanted Grove, yet it had happened, seemingly all on its own.

Everyone knew the timing for Dame Sybyll’s attacks on Hanrahan Town, along with the attacks to be carried out by Commander Tausau’s Third Army, with the support of Commander Savis. While no one was worried that the human villages in Hanrahan Barony would put up much of a fight, everyone had some level of anxiety about the attack on Hanrahan Town itself.

Nyrielle had been the first one to arrive, stepping out of the evening fog almost as soon as the sun had set, much to the surprise of Virve and Ollie. She hadn’t said anything when she arrived, but her appearance alone was enough to remind everyone about the stakes of the battle happening far to the south and east.

Everyone was as confident as they could be when they sent Dame Sybyll to reclaim her ancestral home, but of everyone present, only Nyrielle knew the terror of a Templar armed with a Holy Light Blade or the horror of an Inquisitor’s flames when they were unleashed on one of her progeny.

Heila and Hauke had gone along to compensate for the risk that came with the trio from the Church, but none of them could say for certain what would happen once the battle began...