The Vampire & Her Witch

”You’d be surprised how heavy her armor really is,” Ollie said lightly as he stepped in to start unlacing the spaulders from where they connected to Ashlynn’s shoulders. He said it lightly, as if it were really just a comment about Ashlynn’s armor.

He could hear the uncertainty in the young lady’s voice, and he’d learned well over the past several months what a voice sounded like when it was trying to find the courage to say what needed to be said, even if it wasn’t really ready to speak the words.

”Here,” he said, passing over the first set of heavy plates to Jocelynn, both so she could understand the weight her sister carried and to give her something to do. He couldn’t delay things for her for very long, but he could give her a few moments more, and from the look he saw in Ashlynn’s watery, emerald eyes, she could use those moments too.

Jocelynn was no stranger to armor, and she’d played with the pieces of her father’s armor on more than one occasion as a child. But Rhys Blackwell’s armor was ornate and mostly ceremonial, and even the most intricate, gilded pieces of his armor couldn’t compare to the heft of the battered, scuffed plates in her hands.

”Is it, is it all like this?” Jocelynn said, looking at her sister with wide open eyes as her fingers traced over the scuffs and places where the plates had been hammered back into shape. It didn’t look like the sort of armor she’d seen at tournaments at all, even after the matches were over and the brilliant plates were scuffed and worn. It looked like armor that had gone to war...

”It’s the armor that I learned to fight in,” Ashlynn said, sighing in relief as Ollie helped her out of the heavy breastplate that had come to feel like a steel cage around her chest. It had been necessary to face Owain, more so than she would have believed when she first donned the armor, and it had done its job well tonight.

For moments like this, however, it made her feel like she was trapped in a cage that cut her off from feeling the world or truly touching the people around her, and she couldn’t wait to be rid of it.

”It had to be strong enough to stand up to training with Sir Thane and Dame Sybyll,” Ashlynn explained, making small talk as she tried to find a way to work up to the more serious things she needed to say. Her sister wasn’t the only one who needed a bit of extra time.

”The plates are extra thick,” Ashlynn said, gesturing to the vambrace that protected her forearm and the large crack that had been forged back together after a particularly stupid move on her part on her second day training with Sybyll. ”Even then, some parts had to be repaired.”

”I’m not looking forward to practicing with Dame Sybyll,” Ollie said, shuddering lightly as he imagined squaring off against the famed Crimson Knight. ”I saw what the forest looked like after you two were done practicing there....”

”I’m sure she’ll be gentle,” Ashlynn said with a light laugh as she started helping with the laces on her tessets, passing the heavy plates over to Jocelynn while Ollie went to work on other pieces of her armor. ”She said that she never had a little brother before, but since Thane took you in, she’ll take care of you, too.”

”That’s what I’m worried about,” Ollie said with a light chuckle. ”She’s not entirely happy that Marcel only trained me to fight with knives. She told Erkembalt to start making shields for me, and to make more than one because she expects to break a few before she’s done,” he said, shuddering again at the thought of how much force it would take to destroy anything crafted by Erkembalt’s hands.

But if it was Sybyll...

”Is, is Dame Sybyll really that fearsome?” Jocelynn asked as she looked between Ollie and her sister. ”I, I can’t imagine a knight who would trouble Sir Ollie...”

”Jocey,” Ashlynn said a touch awkwardly as she shimmied out of her chain mail, dropping the heavy garment onto the floor with a loud -CHIIINK.-

”Sybyll is a vampire,” Ashlynn said once she’d straightened up. ”Her strength isn’t something that most people can contend with... even for a witch like me,” she said, looking directly into her sister’s wide, seafoam eyes.

”So, so you really, really are...” Jocelynn stammered, still holding one of the last pieces of Ashlynn’s armor in her hands. Her mind had stopped working the moment Ashlynn said the word ’vampire,’ and by the time she heard the word ’witch,’ she all but forgot to breathe.

”I can explain,” Ashlynn said gently. ”And I hope you’ll hear me out. But if you’re afraid, and you don’t want to be near a witch,” she started hesitantly. ”I can go until you can have someone like Sir Elgon or Captain Albyn at your side...”

”No!” Jocelynn said, dropping the armor in her hands to fling her arms around her sister. ”No, don’t go, don’t leave me alone,” she sobbed. ”I just got you back, I won’t... I won’t let you go,” she cried. ”Even, even if you’re a witch. I, I’m so much worse than that,” she said softly. ”And you still came back for me. So how, how could I send you away for that? How could I let go?”

”Oh, Jocey,” Ashlynn said gently, raising her hands to stroke her sister’s hair. There was a sharp, tight pulse of pain in the center of Ashlynn’s chest as the seed planted there constricted around her heart, but she ignored the feeling, focusing only on soothing her sister the same way she had so many years ago when thunderstorms drove a much younger Jocelynn into her big sister’s arms.

A silent look passed between Ollie and Ashlynn over Jocelynn’s head before the young knight quietly withdrew, leaving the sisters alone at last...