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For a moment, Ashlynn stared at Hauke’s stooped figure, too stunned by the ancient spirit’s proposal to articulate her thoughts.

The cold wind blowing across the mountainside and the creak of weapons and armor from both Nyrielle’s army and the forces on the walls were the ounly sounds in the barren landscape between the two.

"Ha ha, haha, ha, ha," Ashlynn laughed, finally lowering the Holy Flame Blade and allowing it’s flames to fade away. The muscles of her arm shook with relief and her whole body relaxed as she let go of the tension of maintaining her threatening posture to laugh at the ancient spirit’s proposal.

"Drop your sword," Ashlynn told the old woman possessing Hauke. "I accept your surrender. Since you understand that you are defeated, we don’t need to make this any uglier do we?" Ashlynn asked with a light smile on her face.

On the walls, Savis stared at the young witch in open-mouthed shock.

She’d been offered a chance to fight for the throne of the High Pass.

If she won, all of this would end. He’d already been forced to watch as several soldiers from the Black Wolf Brigade died to the Frost Walker’s sorcery while he and Tausau were trapped atop the gatehouse.

He knew that there had been casualties among Tausau’s Mongrel Horde as well, yet their mighty Seneschal was laughing and treating their challenge like a surrender? Had she lost her mind?

"Young woma-, that is, your Dominion," Kimsel stammered, utterly confused by the witch’s reaction to her solemn challenge for the throne of the High Pass. "Perhaps you have misunderstood..."

"I haven’t misunderstood anything," Ashlynn said calmly, using the time to steady her breathing and regain a bit of her strength. Her wounds burned with the stinging cold of the mountain air, and her muscles ached from the abuse she’d subjected them to, but she could already feel Nyrielle’s presence returning.

The echo of Nyrielle’s heartbeet within her chest was going stronger by the moment and at this distance, she could feel Nyrielle’s deep sense of worry for her and the all the people with her. Soon, this nightmare could come to an end, she just had to drag things out a little bit longer.

"Only someone in a position of weakness would demand single combat to conclude this matter," Ashlynn pointed out in a tone more cutting than the mountain air.

"Your blizzard is broken. Our men have breached the walls of the fortress, and the rest of our army is now able to move.

The sword you used to suppress me has been countered by an even more powerful artifact, one whose nature is more dangerous to you than yours is to me," she said, calmly ticking off her points.

"The prison of ice that stopped anyone from interfering with our battle is shattered and broken, and there is no one else coming to your aid," she said.

"You are alone, fighting a battle no one else wants to fight for a cause no one else believes in.

The only path you have forward is to declare Lord Ritchel unfit to hold his throne so you can seize it for yourself and force the Frost Walker clan to do as you wish. "

"I respect the Frost Walker tradition of honoring your ancestors and seeking their advice," Ashlynn said, turning to face the Frost Walkers standing on the walls.

Her voice was loud, and she used a subtle manipulation of the winds to ensure that everyone in the fortress could hear her words.

"But these are not the first controlling ghosts I’ve had dealings with, and they are no different than the last one who tried to force a member of my coven to bend to her will. "

Though Cecile’s attempts to influence Ashlynn had been limited by her deference to the next Mother of Trees, the way the ghost of the former Willow Witch attempted to twist Heila into the same kind of witch that she had been in life was something Ashlynn and Heila had discussed at length.

Ashlynn’s encounter with the ghost of Lady Claire du Gaal had been even more concerning, and seeing the actions of these ancestors now, she was increasingly convinced that the dead should leave the living alone.

"Ghosts and remnants of people long dead may have wisdom that we can learn from," Ashlynn said, turning back to Hauke’s stooped figure.

"But you are little better than a book on a shelf. The world has changed since the days when you ruled, and your wisdom is increasingly divorced from the events of today, so I refuse your challenge and I refuse everything it’s based on. "

"I refuse to submit Heila to your ’justice’ when she has committed no crime," Ashlynn said, positioning herself between Hauke’s figure and the place where Ignatious held the sleeping Willow Witch.

"I refuse to gamble her fate on a contest between us when I cannot you to act reasonably if you won, and since you know you are defeated, I have no reason to! "

"I refuse to believe that Lord Ritchel is unfit to hold his throne!" Ashlynn shouted, ensuring that everyone, including the weakening Frost Walker Lord, could hear her declaration. "Unless he is dead, he holds his throne still!"

"Auntie! Auntie, no!" Talauia protested, pressing her needle firmly into Ritchel’s neck. "He tried to trap you, tried to trick you, tried to help kill Hiela. He can’t, he can’t be allowed to live!"

"I don’t think he was trying to trap me," Ashlynn said, looking deeply into the eyes of the fallen lord of the High Pass. "You were trying to trap Hauke and the ancestors possessing him, weren’t you?"

As much as it brought him great shame to admit because he realized how terribly his action had been misunderstood, Ritchel gave a slight nod at Ashlynn’s words.

He still didn’t understand why Lady Nyrielle had unleashed her army before flying away.

Or why the Thistle Witch had come so decisively for his head when they could have cleared up the misunderstanding and worked together to subdue the ancestors.

But he didn’t need to understand in order to admit that his mistake had contributed to this mess.

"Talauia," Ashlynn said. "Please remove your poison and let Lord Ritchel go. His eyes are filled with worry for his people and his son," she said, hating the way that the proud lord was being forced to watch his kingdom crumbling from the edge of death. "He isn’t our enemy."

When she looked at Ritchel, it was hard not to see all the things he shared with her own father.

Ritchel was struggling to hang on to his throne long enough to pass it to Hauke, while Count Rhys Blackwell had done everything he could to secure a way for a grandson to inherit his own throne rather than watch Blackwell County fall into years of bitter succession disputes.

Both of them were doing their best to be good rulers and good fathers in a world that kept forcing them to choose between the two.

If her father could have handed his throne to her instead of needing a male heir, she was certain he would have.

Or if he didn’t because of her mark of the witch, he would have at least handed it to Jocelynn.

And if Ritchel could have promised his throne to Hauke, even though the young lorde needed a few years more to grow into his strength, then perhaps Hauke wouldn’t have given himself over to these manipulative ancestors in a desperate attempt to become strong enough to assume the throne.

"But what about him, what about him?" Talauia asked, pulling back her needle and pointing it at Hauke. She hadn’t forgotten who had started all of this, and as he currently was, treated like a puppet on the strings of his ancestors, she was afraid that even if he submitted now, it would only be a matter of time before someone else turned him into a weapon to use against her loved ones.

"It’s his fault, all his fault that this happened! "

"Enough of this," Ansgar’s booming voice thundered from Hauke’s mouth as the young lord abandoned Kimsel’s aged, stooped posture. Now, the young Frost Walker lord stood with a warrior’s pride, lifting the Runic Blade of Eternal Ice in his hand and pouring his energy into the weapon.

"We offered reasonable compromise," Ansgar snarled as several hooked runes on the blade began to glow in menacing shades of purple, dark blue, and brilliant white. "We offered a fair contest. But since you ’refuse’ our kindness, then you can ’accept’ your death!"