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Three days after the battle that fundamentally reshaped the balance of power in the High Pass, Ollie stood nervously at the western entrance to Orava Village, fidgeting with the spill of lace that fell from the cuffs of his fur trimmed coat and trying not to draw any more attention to himself than his appearance in this village already had.

Messenger birds arrived at the ancient fortress at the heart of the Vale of Mists two nights ago, carrying word that Lady Nyrielle and Lady Ashlynn had arrived in the High Pass and would be returning to the Vale soon.

That piece of news alone took the entire Vale by storm as preparations were made for a grand welcoming ceremony to take place when they arrived.

The more detailed letter, meant only for Sir Thane and the others who managed the Vale of Mists in Nyrielle’s absence, carried much more concerning news.

A battle had been fought in the High Pass and Lady Ashlynn had suffered extensive injuries.

According to the letter, the injuries were extensive enough that Lady Nyrielle was sending Ashlynn ahead of the rest of the returning army so that she could spend time in the forest recovering from her wounds before returning to the ancient fortress.

"The people of the Vale don’t need to know how serious Lady Ashlynn’s wounds are," Thane told Ollie when the two met in Sir Thane’s office in the ancient fortress.

"When she returns, I’ll need you to prepare a place for her to recover away from prying eyes, at least until Mistress Nyrielle returns. "

Over the past six months, Thane and Marcel had taken Ollie under their dark wings, coming to view the former kitchen boy as something between a lost puppy in need of care and a little brother in need of a good mentor.

Ollie had shown himself early on to be a man who could inspire others with his kindness, compassion, and a deep desire to do the right thing.

Some of that idealism, in Thane’s opinion, flowed from an almost unhealthy fixation on Lady Ashlynn and Ollie’s determination to show her that the faith she placed in him wasn’t a mistake.

In truth, Thane didn’t think Ashlynn wanted to see the young man pushing himself as hard as he did, but Ollie had formed his opinions about what was ’proper’ when he watched Ashlynn driving herself to the brink of exhaustion during the final weeks of her blossoming period.

Ever since then, the former kitchen boy had thrown himself into trying to master his new responsibilities with a vigor that was achievable only by the very young and people like Thane and Marcel who were no longer human.

All of that hard work had paid off, and Ollie had grown into his new role in the Vale of Mists in more ways than one.

When he arrived at the ancient fortress, he had been a tall, gangly youth with a wild mane of flame red hair and an awkwardness that came from constantly bowing and scraping before his supposed betters at the Lothian Manor.

Now, he stood tall and proud with a confidence that came a growing series of successes.

His cheeks had lost the slightly sunken look of a man who never got enough to eat and his once gangly frame had filled out with lean muscles honed by hard work building a village and long nights spent training with weapons.

If Thane could find any fault with the man that Ollie was growing into it was that he was still too naive in matters of politics.

"Why keep her hidden?" Ollie asked, scratching the close cropped hair at the back of his head as he tried to understand why Thane wanted to be so quiet about things.

"You don’t think anyone here would try to harm her, do you?

" Ollie asked, giving the only reason he could think of that Lady Ashlynn’s injuries would need to be kept quiet.

"There’s no way that anyone could harm her in the fortress.

Not with you here, and Commander Bassinger has plenty of men to stand guard during the day. "

"That’s not what I’m worried about," Thane said, turning away from the young man to gaze out the window to the west, where he could feel Nyrielle’s presence closer than it had been for several months.

Evening fog had already enveloped the Vale, and only the mightiest of trees poked up through the gray blanket that covered the vale on this dark, moonless night, but no amount of fog could ever shroud his ability to sense the woman who had transformed him from an ordinary night into a powerful vampire.

He might not be able to sense Ashlynn through the bond she shared with Nyrielle, but he knew she was out there as well, drawing closer even now.

"Rumors have a way of growing wings, and people who haven’t seen her or heard the entire story may believe the wrong things," Thane said as he watched clouds drift across the moon, dimming the silvery light that filtered into his dimly lit office.

"The fighting with the Dunns has only just died down, and many of our people, especially the newcomers from the outlying villages, are looking to Mistress Nyrielle and Lady Ashlynn as sources of strength. "

"What do you think they would feel if one of the people they had been pinning their hopes on finally arrived, but rather than a powerful witch, they see a woman so badly injured that she can only spend a few hours a day out of her bed?

" Thane asked, turning back to the young man and giving him a questioning look.

"It would shake their faith," Ollie said, understanding Thane’s point instantly. "But it’s just a few days before Lady Nyrielle will arrive. Will Lady Ashlynn really be able to recover enough by the time Lady Nyrielle arrives? If she’s that badly injured," he said, his voice quavering with a sudden, terrifying thought. "Will she ever truly recover?"

"Don’t get the wrong idea," Thane said, stepping around his desk to clap an arm around Ollie’s broad shoulders. "Lady Ashlynn is the Mother of Trees. The High Pass is a bad place for her to fight and a worse place for her to heal. Once she’s back in the forest, she’ll be right as rain in no time."

"I hope so," Ollie said, putting his faith in the vampire’s long decades of experience.

"Can I bring a few people with me to prepare her welcome?

" Ollie asked, turning the conversation to practical matters.

"If she needs to recover in Orava Village, then it would help if I could bring a few people from the castle to help make her comfortable. "

"Pft, don’t think I don’t know who you have in mind," Thane said with a barely suppressed snort of laughter. "Go ahead, I’m sure that Georg is eager to cook for her, but you have to take him quietly," the vampire knight emphasized.

"Don’t let him yammer on about cooking for Lady Ashlynn while he tries to pack up half the castle kitchen to go with him.

Lie to him about where you’re taking him and why if you have to," Thane added with a firm look.

"Georg is a good man with a good heart, like you, but he can’t keep a secret to save his life. "

"I understand," Ollie said with a wide, toothy grin. "I’ll only take him from the kitchens, and a few others to help make things easier for her in the village. No one will even notice they’re missing."

"Good lad," Thane said, clasping Ollie’s wrist firmly. "And once Lady Ashlynn has recovered, I promise that I’ll talk to her about your position here in the Vale. She may have her own ideas, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s long past time for you to become ’Sir Ollie’ in truth, and not just in the eyes of everyone you’ve helped since coming here. "

Thane had made the offer to formally knight Ollie on more than one occasion in the months since Ashlynn’s departure, especially when the young man completed the construction of a new village for the refugees in just a few months’ time.

But Ollie stubbornly refused, insisting that he would wait until Lady Ashlynn decided he was worthy of the honor.

Now, Ollie stood at the western gate of Orava Village, his eyes fixed on the bend in the road where the lead carriage of Ashlynn’s entourage had just rolled into view. Six months ago, she had completely changed his life in ways that the former kitchen boy had never dreamed would be possible.

Finally, after months apart, he would get to see her again. In his dreams, he’d eagerly introduced her to Milo, Old Nan, and all of the other villagers he’d come to know so well in the past several months before guiding her on a tour of the freshly constructed village.

He imagined telling her stories about recovering carvings from the burned village of the Heartwood Clan, or the kitchen he’d built next to a stream in order to feed refugees or.

.. or a thousand other things, all in the hopes of seeing that kind smile on her lips and perhaps a bit of pride reflected in her emerald eyes.

But now that she was almost here, his heart was filled with anxiety over her injuries and doubts clawed at his heart, filling it with worry that his preparations for her arrival hadn’t been sufficient in some way that he should have thought of but failed to.

The time for worry, however, was long over as her carriage pulled to a stop directly in front of Ollie and the people who had come with him to welcome Lady Ashlynn home.

As the door of her carriage opened, Ollie took a deep breath before striding forward and offering an old-fashioned bow, exactly the way that Thane had taught him.

"Lady Ashlynn," he said with the slightest tremble in his voice. "The Vale of Mists welcomes you home."