Chapter 1020: A Witch’s Secrets
"What was it like for you, Sir Ollie?" Isabell asked, looking for another point of comparison from someone who hadn’t been as old when the transformation occurred. "How much did you change when you became a witch?"
"You don’t need to call me ’sir’," Ollie said, feeling awkward to be addressed so formally now that Isabell had joined the coven. "You’re a lady yourself now, you know, at least in the Vale of Mists. Or is she going to be a knight, since that’s the title the Lothians were going to give her when she came out here?" Ollie asked, turning to raise an eyebrow at Ashlynn.
"We can think about titles later," Ashlynn said, waving a hand as if it wasn’t of much concern at the moment. "I told Sybyll when she left that she shouldn’t claim the title of Baroness when she conquers Hanrahan because we’ll bestow a more fitting title once we reorganize the Vale after the war," she explained.
"But Ollie’s right," she added. "In the Vale of Mists, as a member of my coven, you stand above everyone but Nyrielle and me, and Thane, too, I suppose," she added quickly as she considered his new position as the Lord General of the Vale.
"You’re equal to all of Nyrielle’s progeny and every other member of the coven, so you can treat them like peers if you’d like, or family if you’re comfortable with it," she said with a smile. "As for how Ollie changed since becoming a witch, I’ll let him explain," she said with a nod at the flame-haired knight.
"I don’t really think I changed all that much," Ollie said as he handed over Isabell’s egg sandwich and a steaming mug of warmed cider. "The biggest change was my mark," he said, lifting the edge of his tunic to reveal a portion of the cypress tree-shaped mark that dominated his entire side, spreading across his abdomen and chest in the front and wrapping around all the way to the back of his body.
In the process, he revealed a firm, toned body that had grown even stronger since he connected to the power of the Cypress tree, but he’d hardly noticed the subtle ways in which his body had been refined by magic amidst the many changes of leaving adolescence behind. Rather, he attributed much of his enhanced physique to the training he’d received at the hands of Sir Thane and Sir Marcel, failing to recognize how much further those changes had gone in the days since he’d become the Cypress Witch.
"What about you?" Ollie asked as he lowered his tunic, concealing once again the physique that no amount of knightly training could ever have produced in such a short period of time. "Do you know where your mark is yet or what it looks like?" Ollie asked innocently.
"Ollie!" Ashlynn said sharply, reaching out to bop him on the back of the head. "Rude. She can share if she wants to, but you shouldn’t go asking a woman to disrobe and reveal her mark, ever," she said sharply. "But especially not out here in the cold," she huffed as she recalled the time a Frost Walker had demanded to see her mark of the witch before letting her into the frozen fortress in the High Pass.
"Ollie, you should know what Mother Ashlynn did to the last person who asked to see her mark out in the open and the cold," Virve teased with a grin that showed all of the bearish witch’s sharp teeth.
Ashlynn’s display of dominance in humbling the Frost Walker Torsten outside the gates had become legendary among the soldiers of Nyrielle’s personal guard. At the time, Ashlynn had relied entirely on the sorcery she’d learned from Nyrielle and the power of the vampire’s gifts to leap into the air, grabbing the young frost walker’s ear and twisting it to drag his head down to her level while scolding him to mind his manners.
No one who had seen the way she utterly humiliated the brash young Frost Walker would ever dream of asking her or any witch to see their mark, but then, Ollie hadn’t been able to accompany Ashlynn on her journey through Eldritch lands, so he’d missed the ’helpful’ lesson Ashlynn had given to friend and stranger alike.
"After all," Virve continued with a pointed look at the hilt of polished ivory that was visible at his waist. "You’re using his horn as one of your blades."
"What?" Ollie gasped, nearly stumbling over his own feet as he backed away from Virve and felt for the hilt of Ice Fang at his hip. "That was him?" Ollie asked, swallowing heavily as he tried to imagine how upset Ashlynn must have been to rip the horn off the head of a Frost Walker.
"All right, enough," Ashlynn said, shaking her head at the antics of the two witches who were supposed to be Isabell’s seniors. "Isabell, let’s go back inside. We can talk more about your mark after you’ve had a chance to wash up and have a proper rest," she said before shooting a meaningful glance at Ollie and Virve.
"Once we’ve all had a chance to rest," she said firmly. The pair might be riding high on the feeling of a new witch joining the coven, but whatever surge of energy was sustaining them now was certain to be short-lived. Besides, she’d promised Nyrielle that she would take a real rest before doing anything else with her coven today, and she didn’t intend to go back on her word.
"You don’t need to show anyone else," Ashlynn added quickly as she turned back to Isabell. "But I’d like to see your mark for myself. The shape and structure of a witch’s mark can reveal things about her power, and you should understand your own mark and what it will mean for you as you learn to use your powers."
"That would be a good thing, I think," Isabell said around a mouthful of egg and fish sandwich. It wasn’t until she’d started eating that she realized how hungry she was, and even though the simple sandwich offered up everything she usually wanted to break her fast in the morning, she found herself eying the remnants in the pan and wondering if she could ask Ollie to make her another sandwich before they started hiking back to the castle.
"After that, if you wish to talk about your trial, you’re welcome to share it with everyone," she said, hoping that it would help Isabell to find her footing with her fellow witches. "But whether you share or not is up to you," she added. "After all, a witch’s secrets are her own."
"Thank you, Ashlynn," Isabell said, licking her fingers as she finished the last bites of the egg sandwich before looking at Ollie in surprise as he held out a second, already prepared sandwich for her.
"Witchcraft drains your body just as much as a hard day’s work," Ollie said sheepishly as he offered up the second sandwich. "So, um, if you’re a bit hungrier than usual, don’t be surprised."
"Thank you, Ollie," she said, relaxing enough to drop the title and treating him as nothing more than the young gentleman he presented himself as. "I know a number of knights and lords who would have paid bags of silver for a cook like you who could make something this tasty in the middle of a camp," she said, gesturing to the simple setup around the bonfire. "I know Georg means well, but don’t ever let him talk you into giving up simple pleasures like these," she praised, taking a large bite of her second sandwich. "It’s very good."
"Just don’t ask me to teach you how," Ollie said, blushing slightly in embarrassment as he remembered what it was like to teach Lady Nyrielle how to make the delicate, softly scrambled eggs. "I’ll teach you other things if you really want to know," he added quickly lest she misunderstand. "It’s just..."
"I do know how to cook, you know," Isabell chided. "I managed to raise up two children to the point of starting their apprenticeships after all," she said with a teasing smile. "But every cook needs their specialties, so don’t worry that I’ll go poaching yours. But don’t expect to go stealing my fishcake recipe either!"
With that, the group of witches fell into light banter as they quickly packed away their camp, loading things up onto the hand cart that Georg had left behind and pulling it along with them as they made their way up the winding trail to the ancient fortress.
As they walked, Isabell carefully considered Ashlynn’s offer of a chance to discuss her vision with the group. Perhaps for some witches, the visions confronted them on aspects of themselves that were deeply personal, so she could understand why many would want to keep them secret.
But when Isabell thought about the ways that Ashlynn was already working to transform the Vale of Mists, and soon the lands beyond it... She felt like she couldn’t ignore the warnings she’d received from the Hemlock Seed. Some lessons were far too important to be kept to herself, and this certainly felt like one of them...