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Deep underground in the ancient fortress of the Vale of Mists, Nyrielle stood with inhuman stillness on a raised step while Zedya moved carefully around her with a needle and thread.

The hearth in Nyrielle’s bedroom filled the space with uncommon warmth while dozens of oil lamps scattered about the luxurious room filled the space with their flickering golden glows.

"Will Lady Ashlynn be visiting you tonight, Mistress?" Zedya asked as she adjusted the lace accent draping over Nyrielle’s slender hip before pinning the dark lace against the midnight blue silk of the dress.

"As much as I wish that she would, she’s gone to visit Ollie’s vigil tonight. Now that he’s entering his eighth day, I don’t expect to see her again until he passes his trial," Nyrielle said with a trace of audible disappointment in her voice that surprised even her. "Why do you ask?"

"Because you’ve lit a fire in the hearth," Zedya said simply as she circled around to Nyrielle’s other hip to hang a matching piece of lace.

"You don’t require the warmth, and neither do I.

You could have left the room cold and settled for lighting the lamps, but you didn’t.

You lit the hearth, so I assumed that you were warming your room to entertain Lady Ashlynn. "

"Am I that obvious in my desires?" Nyrielle asked, turning ever so slightly so she could meet Zedya’s gaze. "Do you think I’ve become foolish like a maiden since Ashlynn..."

"No," Zedya said before Nyrielle could even complete her thought.

"No, Mistress, you haven’t become foolish," she said, standing up straight so she could look directly into Nyrielle’s midnight blue eyes.

"You are happier, less restrained, and forgive me for saying it, but more driven than I have ever seen you before. "

"None of that makes you foolish," she said as she returned to her work, adjusting the lace accents on Nyrielle’s dress. "You have desires now that you didn’t have before, and you act on those desires, even if it’s something as simple as lighting the hearth in the hopes that Lady Ashlynn will visit your chambers tonight. "

"Zedya, do you, do you mind answering a personal question? You don’t have to if you don’t want to," she added, her face heating slightly. "But I wanted to ask you something about Lennart and how the two of you are... adjusting, I suppose. To life together."

"Mistress, I have no secrets from you," Zedya said, smiling up at her suddenly awkward lady. "You can gaze through my eyes at any time, and I imagine you could do the same with Lenny’s if you needed to. I’ve never expected to hold anything back from you."

"This is different," Nyrielle insisted. "What you do in your private time belongs to you alone, and I would never intentionally intrude on your time with Lennart.

But, how is he adjusting to sleeping through the day?

And are you, are you sharing a bed when you sleep for the day, or do you withdraw from each other until night falls? "

"Oh," Zedya said, her face heating slightly as a shy smile formed on her lips.

"At the end of his first night as my progeny, we didn’t want to be apart, so I brought him to my room and I held him through the coming of dawn.

I had forgotten how frightening it was the first time I had to surrender to the abyss and take shelter in my memories," she said, her hands pausing in their work as her gaze grew distant.

"I told him to hang on to a happy memory as the sun rose, and he told me that I’d just given him the happiest memory of his life," she said, blushing with mild embarrassment as she thought of the memories she’d just finished creating with her husband on their wedding night.

"When the sun set, I brought him to Kobir Village to feed for the first time. "

If Lennart had been descended from Bardas the way Savis and Tausau were, he would have been brought somewhere to hunt people, and it was likely that the first person he fed on would die under his fangs.

Nyrielle, however, enforced an entirely different tradition of voluntary offerings.

For Lennart’s first feeding, Zedya had carefully selected the nearest village settled by the Clan of the Great Claw, where she asked for a strong warrior who had made an offering in the past to serve as Lennart’s first meal.

Between receiving an offering from someone who was young, strong, and experienced and having Zedya available to intervene if necessary, Lennart had been able to feed without harming anyone, taking one of the most important steps of his new life without the burden of an unfortunate accident.

Since then, Zedya spent at least half of her time each evening helping Lenny adjust to his new life.

As a new vampire entering his blossoming period, now was a time of significant growth for the former captain of Nyrielle’s personal guard, and with the approaching war, neither of them wanted to waste this precious time.

Still, at the end of each day, they reunited in Zedya’s chambers at least an hour before dawn, taking time to enjoy each other’s company and to savor the delights that any newlywed couple would.

"The first night, I held him until the sun rose," Zedya said with a dreamy, wistful smile. "But every night since then, he’s wrapped me up in his arms like I’m an important treasure he has to protect.

And every night, I wake up there in his arms," she said.

"I never knew how good it would feel to wake with someone else at my side, but... Even though he’s cold, he warms my heart more than any hearth. "

"Zedya," Nyrielle said, softly biting her lower lip as she imagined the scene her long-time attendant described. "I’m happy for you. And a bit jealous as well," she admitted. "I, I haven’t been willing to allow Ashlynn to stay with me until I fall asleep. I’m worried that she’ll find it disturbing to see me reduced to little more than a corpse in our bed. .."

"But you want her to be there with you," Zedya said, setting aside her needle and thread to take Nyrielle’s hands in her own. For a moment, their roles of mistress and servant fell away as they became two women, one recently married and the other preparing to announce her betrothal.

"You want her to hold you as the abyss takes you for the day," Zedya said. "And you want her to be there holding you when you escape its clutches at nightfall. There’s nothing wrong with wanting that for yourself, and I’m sure that Lady Ashlynn would understand."

"Do you think she could truly rest down here?

" Nyrielle said, gesturing to the solid rock walls of the room that had been carved from the bedrock of the mountain itself. "It must be hard to feel nature here, where there are no windows and no fresh air. I feel like it isn’t fair to her to ask her to lock herself away in a dark cave with me, even if it’s only for part of the day. .."

"So talk to her about it," Zedya advised. "If you’d like, I can look for plants that can be carried in here easily. We may have to rotate things in and out so they get enough light, but that would be a small price to pay if it makes your room more comfortable for Lady Ashlynn to join you..."

"And you don’t think she’ll be disturbed by what happens to me when the sun rises?" Nyrielle asked, still feeling doubtful about subjecting Ashlynn to the feeling of her lover ’dying’ in her arms as the sun rose.

"I know that Lenny and I are different because we both fall to the abyss when the sun rises," Zedya said.

"But I think, if I had offered to take him into my bed before he became my progeny, he’d still have stayed there to hold me through the day.

I think if you ask her, Lady Ashlynn will be the same.

You just have to decide when you want her to join you for the day. "

"And since you’re already keeping your room warm, even when she isn’t here," Zedya said with a teasing twinkle in her amethyst eyes. "I’m sure that day isn’t far off."