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"Parents really would do anything for their children..."

The soft, almost broken way that Talauia said it swept over Ashlynn like a sneaker wave, drawing her into a world so filled with sorrow and hurt that she was momentarily disoriented.

Without thinking, she reached out and wrapped an arm around the slender witch, pulling her into a soft embrace and gently stroking her hair the same way she’d once comforted her younger sister.

"It’s fine if you want to talk about it," Ashlynn said when she saw the stream of tears silently spilling from Talauia’s multi-faceted amethyst eyes.

"It’s also fine if you don’t. We’re here if you need us," she said, glancing briefly at Heila who hovered uncertainly nearby.

"Or we can leave you alone for a while. Whatever you need," she whispered.

For a few minutes, Talauia said nothing as soundless sobs wracked her body.

She buried her face in Ashlynn’s full bosom and her tears soaked the younger witch’s tunic.

It had been years since she last thought about her parents and she’d thought that the wounds had long healed over, but as she sat and wept into Ashlynn’s embrace, she realized that the hurt had shrunk but it never truly went away.

"I’m sorry," Talauia said with a sniff as she pulled back from Ashlynn’s tender embrace. "It was a long time, a very long time ago. I, I didn’t mean to..."

"It’s fine," Ashlynn said, blinking back the mist that threatened to overwhelm her vision.

"I miss my parents too. Most days, I don’t think about it and I can keep going.

And then, something reminds me and... see?

" Ashlynn said, wiping away the moisture collecting in the corners of her eyes.

"You don’t have to apologize for missing people you loved. "

"Auntie, can I, can I ask you something?" Talauia asked, giving Ashlynn a deeply troubled look. "About the vampires, and... and about the Harbinger of death."

"You can always ask," Ashlynn said while she gestured at Heila and pointed at the pitcher of chilled, sweet tea sitting in the corner.

Understanding immediately, the horned woman began pouring not only fresh cups of tea, but she also brought out chilled fruit and began slicing it into small pieces that were easy to nibble on.

"I may not be able to answer," Ashlynn added. "Nyrielle and I, we love each other very deeply and we’re bound together," she explained. "But it’s still only been a few months since we met and there’s still so much about each other that we don’t know."

"But, if she ever told you that, told you that you had to destroy a whole clan," the winged witch said, looking at Ashlynn with pleading eyes. "You wouldn’t do it, would you? You wouldn’t kill a whole clan because they were too, too good at what they do, would you?"

Suddenly, Ashlynn froze and Heila stumbled, nearly spilling the collection of cups and bowl of fruit she was carrying.

Ever since coming to the Briar, and in fact, even before that, when they’d met Jacques, there had been a tension about Ashlynn’s relationship with Nyrielle and about vampires in general.

At first, it had been easy to dismiss as something abstract and philosophical.

After all, Nyrielle had told Ashlynn that the blood of a witch could restore a vampire to life.

Such a miraculous thing was bound to create conflicts between vampires and witches in general, but there was never anything personal about it.

Ashlynn had felt that time and getting to know each other as real people would smooth out any misunderstandings.

But now, thinking back, when she’d first talked to Amahle about the ’purpose’ that vampires felt defined their existence, there had been a certain derision in the older witch’s voice when she proudly proclaimed that nature had no desires, only people could care one way or another.

To the elements, it didn’t matter who was in power and who wasn’t.

Looking at Talauia and the slight tremble in her lips when she asked the question, Ashlynn started to feel like this wasn’t just a question of abstract philosophy for the Thistle Witch.

"I don’t think it works that way for Nyrielle," Ashlynn said, choosing her words carefully.

"For the longest time, she’s dedicated herself to protecting her people in the Vale of Mists from humans.

She knows that if humans break past her at the Vale of Mists or find other ways through the mountains, it will be a horrible tragedy for thousands of Eldritch people.

She wants to stop that from happening," she explained.

"What if, what if one day, the humans became peaceful? What if they didn’t want to exterminate all Eldritch people anymore and only fought normal wars with their neighbors.

" Talauia asked, refusing to let go of the question.

"What if, what if humans weren’t any better or worse than anyone else?

Would you still destroy them all if Lady Nyrielle told you to? "

"No," Ashlynn said firmly. She couldn’t imagine a world where Nyrielle wanted her to destroy an entire people without a good reason to do so but even she wanted to bring the Lothians to their knees for what Owain had done to her.

Ashlynn had come to accept that taking vengeance against a ruling family like the Lothians would cause untold amounts of misery for people who had nothing to do with their feud but failing to act would only create more misery for other people.

No response was perfect and she could only do the best she could at any given moment and reduce the harm to innocents wherever she could.

Trying to answer hypotheticals about what she would do if this thing or that thing happened... It was too difficult to say what she would do when so many other things could change and so she shifted the conversation away from the hypothetical and toward things that were more factual.

"Is that what happened to your family?" Ashlynn asked in a softer tone. "Were vampires responsible for..." Her voice trailed off since she wasn’t certain of the extent of what had happened to Talauia’s family.

It didn’t sound like the sort of thing Nyrielle would have done, but if she thought about it, there was another True Vampire that was known for wiping out whole populations and it was the very same vampire that Nyrielle’s parents were descended from.

"Not just my family," Talauia said. "It was all of us, every single one of us, the whole Glimmerwing Clan that they said had to die. Father he," she started only to lose her voice as another set of sobs shook her petite frame.

"Here," Heila offered gently when the storm of barely suppressed sobs seemed to subside. "It’s just sweet tea and chilled melon but..."

"Thank you," the winged witch said, taking a wedge of melon and sinking her pointed teeth into its juicy red flesh. A bit of juice dribbled down her chin, but Talauia didn’t care as she let the sweet flavor and soft texture ground her in the present, pushing back on some of the pain she’d long kept bottled up in her chest.

"Did you know, did you know," Talauia finally said after devouring a second wedge of melon.

"They used to say that there were no better hunters than the hunters of the Glimmerwing clan," she said with a proud smile that revealed her wickedly sharp teeth.

"And they also called us the best assassins too. "

"But nobody, nobody was ever a better assassin than my father," Talauia said in a tone that still contained a strong core of pride but this time was wrapped in a dark shroud of sorrow. "Nobody, nobody... until there was me."