Page 264

It didn’t take long for the two women to leave the brightly lit core of Blackwell City.

Ashlynn may have only left the Blackwell Manor infrequently but she still lived in this city for more than twenty years before she left to marry Owain Lothian.

In order to escape the crowds that packed the brightly lit festival, she led Nyrielle to a quiet stretch of docks used mostly by local fishermen.

The air smelled of the briny water of the harbor, the mingled tar and wooden scents of the small ships, and an underlying fishy odor that clung to everything long after the day’s catch had been delivered to the fishmongers of the city.

In the relative quiet of the empty docks, they could hear the gentle lap of waves against weathered hulls and the creak of mooring ropes as the fishing boats shifted with the incoming tide.

The distant sounds of the festival, music, and laughter carried on the sea breeze across the open water, seemed to belong to another world entirely.

On the far side of the harbor, the tall ships that sailed across the sea were far grander and were certain to have a small crew of unfortunate souls who stayed aboard even during the festival, but here, with nothing but local fishing ships, the docks were deserted, giving the two women a quiet space in the darkness completely to themselves.

"So this is what it looks like when the stars touch the sea," Nyrielle said, gazing off into the darkness of the ocean.

The glittering sight of so many stars was unlike anything she had seen from the Vale of Mists, though the view of the night sky from the High Pass came close.

"It’s beautiful," she whispered as she sat next to Ashlynn at the end of the dock, pressing up against her lover and holding her close.

"I didn’t realize how much I would miss it," Ashlynn said softly. "But the more I attune myself with the trees, the less this feels like ’home.’ I think I miss the Vale of Mists almost as much as I miss Blackwell County."

"Almost?" Nyrielle teased.

"Almost," Ashlynn said, giving Nyrielle a playful poke. "You’re not there right now. Even if I rushed home right this instant, I would still be missing you. But if I rushed back to Blackwell County..."

"You still have family and loved ones here," Nyrielle said, nodding in understanding. Inwardly, her heart warmed at the way Ashlynn mentioned ’returning home’ to refer to the Vale of Mists.

It was something small but also profound.

As much as she could feel Ashlynn’s desire to visit Blackwell County and her loved ones here, that was all she yearned for. A visit.

"I’ll keep my promise to you," she said, giving Ashlynn a reassuring squeeze. "I’ll bring you here to visit in the winter when the nights are long."

"Thank you," Ashlynn said, looking over the twinkling lights of Blackwell City.

"You wanted to know what happened to me," Ashlynn said, changing the topic before things could grow too heavy between them. The time to return to Blackwell City and to confront Owain Lothian and his family would come, but that time wasn’t now.

"It started with the process to bring Heila into my coven and creating a seed of witchcraft for her.

.." Ashlynn began. She kept her explanation brief, sticking mostly to facts but Nyrielle paid just as much attention to the subtle expression on her face and the faint tremble in her voice as she did to the words themselves.

By the time Ashlynn had finished recounting her arrival in the Briar and the trials she faced from the Ancient Willow, Nyrielle had a very good idea of just how hard the trials had been on Ashlynn.

"So you’ve decided that Heila will become the Willow Witch," Nyrielle said with an approving smile after listening to Ashlynn’s explanation. "I think it suits her. And I’m glad you’ve been able to learn so much, so quickly after arriving in the Briar."

"I am too," Ashlynn said, standing on the end of the doc and extending a hand for Nyrielle to join her. "But I’m also glad that the Ancient Willow has given us a chance for me to share a piece of my past with you. For as long as this connection lasts, will you let me show you around?"

"Of course, my darling," Nyrielle said, rising elegantly to take Ashlynn’s hand. "This is one of your memories. When was this?"

"Two years ago," Ashlynn said. "It was during the Holy Festival of Light. I went out with Jocey to mingle with the common folk of the city and escape the more formal rituals held by the church. Father didn’t want me to spend the whole night out but it was just after we received Owain’s proposal and I pleaded that I would only have a few more chances to see it before I moved to Lothian March. .."

"I see," Nyrielle said, picking at the seafoam-colored dress she wore in this vision. "So I’ve taken the place of your younger sister in this memory."

"Yes, but," Ashlynn said awkwardly. "The color really doesn’t suit you and the dress makes you look almost as young as she was at the time," she added with a giggle. "I can’t imagine being older than you by even a day."

"Then change it," Nyrielle said with a smile. "It’s your memory."

"Can I do that?" Ashlynn asked, her brows creasing slightly as she thought about it. If she had to think of Nyrielle and her memories of all the things she’d seen Nyrielle wear... A moment later, Nyrielle’s dress shimmered, the seafoam blue growing darker as though a drop of pitch-black ink had spilled onto the dress only to spread across the entire surface of the garment.

Within a few heartbeats, Nyrielle was dressed once again in the elegant silks and dark lace that she had worn on the night that she and Ashlynn first met.

"I’m surprised you remember this dress so well," Nyrielle teased. "You weren’t at your best that night."

"No, but," Ashlynn paused for a moment, biting her lower lip before she said something that felt deeply personal and a little embarrassing. "It was the most important night of my life," she said. "Sometimes, I feel like that night, I became your bride as well as your Seneschal."

"Would you like a real wedding?" Nyrielle asked, gently stroking Ashlynn’s pale blonde curls. "One that your family can come to witness?" Among the Eldritch, every clan had their own traditions for formal unions, whether they were unions of love or politics.

Some were as private and simple as the ceremony she’d held with Ashlynn beneath the Ancient Oak, but others were much more intricate, sometimes turning into festivals in their own right as entire kingdoms celebrated the union of two noteworthy individuals.

If Ashlynn desired a ceremony, whether it was attended by a dozen or a thousand people, Nyrielle was prepared to give it to her.

So long as it made her lover happy, there was little she wouldn’t do.

"I would," Ashlynn whispered, stepping close to Nyrielle and wrapping her arms around the other woman’s lithe figure. "But right now, it feels impossibly far away. And, I don’t know if they will still accept me as their daughter once they find out that I really am a witch."

"They loved you enough that they never turned you over to the church, despite the mark you bear," Nyrielle said, pulling Ashlynn in close and stroking her lower back to soothe her.

"I’m sure that you and your happiness matters a great deal to them.

They may not understand at first, but given time, the day will come.

And you and I, we have all the time we need. "

"I know," Ashlynn said, pulling back from Nyrielle and trying to put her other thoughts out of her mind. "But that’s for the future. For now, let me show you the festival," she said, pulling Nyrielle in the direction of the well-lit heart of the city.

Her mind, however, couldn’t help but wonder how much her family truly loved her.

Despite the risks, her father had pressed ahead with her marriage to Owain Lothian and that had proved disastrous.

More than that, someone betrayed her to Owain and she still didn’t know who or why.

Until she could find the truth... It was impossible to put her faith in them without answers to her questions.

Once she knew, then and only then would she decide if it was important to have a ceremony to celebrate her union with Nyrielle in front of witnesses. After all, with a bond so close that they could share a dream like this together, did they really need a wedding to prove things to each other?