Chapter 1016: A Pensive Breakfast (Part Four)
Over the next several hours, many of the people who had gathered at the start of the evening drifted away, leaving behind only the vampires, witches, and Hauke’s father, Ritchel, to pass the time until dawn.
Zedya brought out a half finished blanket that she intended to present to Samira when her child was born, along with a matching blanket that she’d already finished for Noomi’s son, Saku. Both women had settled into Ollie’s village in the days since their rescue from the Summer Villa, and Zedya had taken them under her protective wing in Ollie’s absence.
Old Nan and the other villagers had given the pair of women something close to a heroes’ welcome when Noomi returned from what should have been certain doom, and when they learned how Samira had helped to protect her and her infant son, the Heartwood clan had all but adopted the woman who bore a striking resemblance to Lady Ashlynn.
Other people found their own ways to pass the time through the long hours of the winter night while they awaited Nyrielle’s word. Lennart happily accompanied Zedya in crafting, though the pipe he was carving was unlikely to see much use unless the newest vampire of the Vale found someone to bestow it on.
Virve and Thane retreated into the woods when the Oak Witch asked if Thane was willing to help her work through the restless energy that no quiet pursuit could dispel and not long after the sound of steel ringing on steel could be heard echoing through the night air as the pair lost themselves in the rhythms of practice.
The most surprising moment, however, had come when Nyrielle approached Ollie and asked for a cooking lesson from the young knight.
"But, weren’t you learning from Georg?" Ollie asked, blinking in surprise when the powerful ruler of the Vale of Mists asked for his help to pass the time. "He’s a much better cook than I am, especially when it comes to those refined, small bites he crafts for you."
"I like the things that Georg cooks," Nyrielle agreed with a brief look at Ashlynn where she was sitting in quiet prayer with Ignatious. "But you know how to cook in the kitchens of human noblemen. The sort of kitchens that would have cooked for my darling, Ashlynn," she said with a smile that made her midnight blue eyes seem like they held all the light of the stars in the night sky. "So I’d like to learn how to make the sort of dishes she would have grown up enjoying."
"Oh," Ollie said, blushing as he realized what Nyrielle’s motive had been for learning to cook in the first place. "Well, I don’t know about the home cooking in Blackwell County," he admitted. "Lady Ashlynn is always talking about the fish markets and how creative cooks had to be in order to adjust to what was available each day, but there are some basics that I think every lord in Gaal would have had on their tables at some point..."
That simple idea had prompted Ashlynn to fold Nyrielle’s progeny into her coven’s tradition of cooking a meal together, and over the course of the dwindling hours of the night, everyone had found something to help with as they assembled a breakfast to greet the dawn with.
The meal they assembled in the camp was simple, consisting of an assortment of toppings that could be spread on small pieces of toast and nibbled on by the vampires in attendance or piled high for the heartier eaters among them like Virve and Ritchel.
Whether it was Ollie’s soft, buttery, scrambled eggs, or the delicately smoked smelt that Talauia and Ritchel had fished out of a nearby stream, there was something for everyone that not only filled the belly but soothed the worried mind with familiar, comforting flavors to greet the dawn.
"How did you catch so many of these tiny fish?" Ollie asked in surprise when he saw the number of smoked smelt filets, each no longer than his palm, that the Thistle Witch and Lord Ritchel had set out.
"He cheated, cheated shamelessly," Talauia accused, pouting at the diminished Frost Walker lord who didn’t seem to have any guilt over what he’d done. "I thought you were supposed to be proud people, proud people and great hunters! How could you use such a shameless trick to win? I was winning you know, winning until you cheated," she proclaimed.
"My people aren’t hunters like yours are," Ritchel said with a laugh. "I could never spear such tiny fish by throwing needles the way you do, even if I summoned needles of ice to do it with. But when it comes to small fish like these, we need many of them to make a meal for anyone but the smallest of younglings," he said as he patted his furry belly.
"Still cheating, it’s still cheating," Talauia said. "I won’t challenge you to a contest again if you’re going to cheat like that, I won’t," she threatened.
Over the weeks that she’d spent tending to Ritchel’s wounds, she’d mostly forgiven him for using sorcery to trap Ashlynn during the battle in the High Pass that no one had wanted to fight other than the ancestral spirits who possessed Hauke. It would be a stretch to call them friends at this point, but she’d hoped that a simple contest to see who could collect the most of the small fish from the stream would be a fun way to pass the time and take their minds off their worry over Heila and Hauke.
"But, what did he actually do?" Ollie asked, looking at the towering Frost Walker in confusion. "How did you ’cheat’?"
"It’s a simple trick," Ritchel said with a deep, rolling chuckle, waving his hand as his horn glowed a dull violet. Suddenly, a thin layer of ice formed between the tips of his claws, catching and reflecting the firelight into dozens of dancing motes of light the way a crystal would.
"You can craft a lure that will attract dozens of these little fish," he explained to the young human witch. "Once they’ve gathered in a small enough area, all you have to do is freeze the water around them and then pluck the block of ice out of the stream."
"Cheating! It’s cheating," Talauia huffed. "You might as well have used a net."
"Well, I think it’s brilliant," Ollie said, wondering if he could create a similar effect with his witchcraft. Cypress knees created plenty of spaces in shallow waters where fish would gather, after all. If he took Talauia’s idea and just used a net, he could probably scoop several fish out of a stream with ease, just by creating a spot in the stream where the water moved slowly past his ’knees.’ He might even be able to do it just by standing in the water and convincing the fish that he was a tree himself...
While everyone was doing their best to focus on the meal without staring at Nyrielle and hoping for an announcement that Sybyll had touched the Void to execute her murderous cousin, Ashlynn suddenly leaped to her feet, turning toward the ritual circle that had been drawn in the earth days ago at the beginning of Isabell’s trial of witchcraft.
Less than a dozen heartbeats after Ashlynn stood, the trees surrounding them began to bend and sway, as if they were caught in a fierce wind that failed to disturb the early morning mist that clung to the forest of the Vale. Here and there, towering Hemlock trees shed glittering needles, filling the air with a soft, pale green light that drifted in the direction of the ritual circle.
"She’s finished?" Virve whispered, blinking in surprise as she rose to her feet, dropping her half finished toast and eggs in the process as she stared in the direction of the sleeping engineer. "Ollie took twice as long..."
"Ashlynn said it would be easier for her than it was for me," Ollie said as he set his breakfast down before rising to join Virve as they approached the waking witch. "But isn’t this a little too fast?"
"YAAAAAAAAWWWNNNN," Isabell said, stretching her body that hadn’t moved in several days while she lay on the cold earth while her mind was drawn into the vivid visions that accompanied her trial of witchcraft.
"Is that... breakfast?" Isabell asked, raising a hand to brush silvery hair out of her eyes as she looked at the gathering of witches and vampires surrounding a bonfire just a few dozen paces away. "How did you know when I’d finish? How many days has it been?"
"Congratulations, my darling," Nyrielle said as she rose to stand with Ashlynn. "Your coven has gained another witch," she said with a relieved smile as she felt the tremor across the surface of the void that she’d been waiting for at last. "And your war has gained another victory," she said as her smile grew even wider.
For a moment, no one said anything as they processed Nyrielle’s words, but then, Virve broke the silence with a thunderous roar of victory that echoed through the still morning air.
After an entire night of worry, they finally knew for certain that Dame Sybyll had claimed her vengeance, and with it, an entire barony had fallen to the Vale of Mists. And if that wasn’t enough, Master Isabell had cleared her trial of witchcraft, days earlier than even the other members of her coven had expected.
Instantly the mood became joyous as Ashlynn strode forward to embrace the newest member of her coven.
By this time tomorrow, they would receive a detailed report from Sybyll and her forces and they could begin planning their next and final move against the Lothian forces... but for a moment, Ashlynn let herself set all of that aside to celebrate the victories at hand.
"Welcome to the coven, my Hemlock Witch," Ashlynn said formally as she embraced the friend who had come all the way from Blackwell County to join her here. "Welcome home."