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Following Hauke’s success at the iron puzzle, Ashlynn’s coven moved on from one stall to the next, competing in everything from ring tosses to knife throwing and puzzles that challenged their ability to find matches among rows of face down cards.

There were dozens of games and hundreds of people clustered around cheering for successes and crying out in frustration at failures, but Ashlynn’s group seemed to consistently fair better than most. Though their talents differed, everyone played the games together, quickly accumulating enough prizes and treasures that Heila had to fetch a sack to carry it all, though Hauke insisted on being the one to do the heavy lifting as the bag began to bulge with their winnings.

"Thank you, everyone," Heila said, bowing deeply in gratitude to the other members of the coven. "I can’t wait to see Ignatious’s face when we surprise him with all of this.

Do you think, do you think we could invite him up to the tower in a few days to surprise him?

" Heila asked, turning to Ashlynn for permission to invite an outsider into their private tower.

"I think it’s fine to invite him in," Ashlynn giggled. "We’ll have to cook something special that night to help you sweep him off his feet."

"But, he’s the one sweeping me off mine," Heila said, blushing furiously. "And I’m too little to carry him," she said, looking dejected before her face broke into a wide grin at the expressions of the other witches.

"Joker," Virve said, giving Heila a playful shove. "I didn’t know you had it in you to be so coy."

"She’s using us to practice for Ignatious," Ashlynn teased.

"But truly, I’m happy to see everyone having so much fun while doing something to help a friend.

But we only have a few hours of daylight left," she said, noting the gathering gloom and the thickening mists rising up from the forest around the ancient fortress.

"So, I think it’s time to head for the inner wall. "

When Nyrielle rebuilt the defenses of the ancient fortress after the Vale of Mists fell to Cellach Lothian, she’d opted to build human-style defensive walls instead of the simpler walls that had been intended mostly to keep wandering beasts from entering the city and grazing on the resident’s gardens.

Each wall in the Vale of Mists stood at least thirty feet high and they were wide enough for soldiers to fight atop with small defensive towers spaced every hundred paces along the wall.

During the festival, however, the tops of the walls became home to two distinct markets, each one bustling with people moving from shop to shop exploring wares that were both locally produced and carried from across the mountains.

The outer wall held shops that were suitable for most residents of the Vale of Mists.

The prices were much lower with very little costing more than four or five silver tails and most items selling for half a tail or less.

It was the inner wall, however, that Ashlynn led her coven to where the most prosperous of merchants sold goods that would fetch a high price no matter which Eldritch nation they were sold in.

"Everyone," Ashlynn said when they arrived at a shop selling intricate tapestries that depicted scenes that varied from majestic mountains to tranquil lakes, bustling cities or mighty fortresses standing guard over nations that no one in her coven had ever visited.

"Take this as a gift from me," she said, handing one of her pouches of silver coins over to the shopkeeper.

"You all have new rooms to decorate and make your own, so choose something that makes you happy and I’ll have it hung for you. "

"Mother Ashlynn," Ollie said, his eyes growing wide in shock when he saw the slate board with carefully written prices displayed based on the size of the individual tapestries.

The cheapest of them was twelve silver tails, and some cost as much as twenty!

"Isn’t this a bit too much just to hang in our rooms?

These are finer than the ones hanging in the great-hall at Lothian Manor," he said as he reached out gently to touch one of the intricate tapestries depicting a vast marsh filled with cypress trees and hanging moss.

"Good sir," a well dressed shopkeeper wearing an elegantly embroidered tunic said when he saw Ollie’s reaction. "These are all woven by great masters from the Night Weaver Clan. Each one of them is a faithful reproduction of a real place, representing the most beautiful views from across the whole world, and they’re treasures that will last for a hundred years or more if you care for them well. I promise, they’re worth the price. "

"These are real places?" Ollie said, blinking in surprise as he returned his gaze to the tapestry depicting the grove of Cypress trees. "Then, Mother Ashlynn, is this the Briar you told me about?"

"No it’s not, no it’s not," Talauia said, standing almost perfectly still and unable to take her eyes off the tapestry. "That’s my," she started, only to correct herself almost immediately. "That’s the Endless Marsh. My father was, he was the High Lord of the Endless Marsh before he, before..."

"I’m sorry, I’m so sorry," Ollie said, turning away from the tapestry to gather the Thistle Witch into a tender embrace. Ashlynn hadn’t given him many details about Talauia’s personal history but she had mentioned that the Thistle Witch was lucky to have escaped the destruction of her clan and the pursuit of Shubnalu, the covetous Fangs of Death who sought to turn Talauia into a vampire assassin.

"You should take this one then," Ollie offered in a quiet, soothing tone. "Since it’s a depiction of your home..."

"No it’s not, no it’s not my home," Talauia said, shaking her head fiercely as she pulled back from Ollie’s tender embrace.

"Not anymore, it isn’t. It hasn’t been in a long time," she said as she wiped tears away from her multi-faceted amethyst eyes.

"It just surprised me, that’s all. My home is in the Briar with Mother Amahle and my coven.

So, if you like this because of the trees, then, you should have it, you should have something that speaks to you. "

"Are you certain?" Ollie asked, looking from the Thistle Witch to the tapestry and back again. "That was just the first one that caught my eye. There are others I would like just as much," he offered.

"It’s fine, it’s fine," Talauia said, pointing at a different tapestry entirely, one that depicted a majestic golden waterfall spilling over a cliff into a cloud of mist below.

"I want that one," she said, looking to Ashlynn to confirm that it was all right to select such an expensive tapestry that made extensive use of gold thread.

"I remember that waterfall," Ashlynn said, standing next to the tapestry and thinking back to the day she’d been so entranced by it that Nyrielle had to rescue her before she stepped off the edge of the cliff to immerse herself in the powerful energy that surged along with the waters of the White River as they spilled over the cliff above the Briar.

"I think it will look beautiful in your room," Ashlynn added, hoping that it would also provide some comfort to their coven’s guest witch.

The news that Shubnalu had ordered High Lord Hamdi to capture Nyrielle for him had shaken several people in Ashlynn’s small but growing family, but only Talauia had a reason to feel a deep, personal fear at the news.

If the Fangs of Death was willing to make a move against one of his peers, attacking another True Vampire because he wanted to possess her, what would happen when he learned of the power that could be gained by taking a witch as his Seneschal?

For decades, Talauia had taken a certain amount of comfort in the knowledge that becoming a witch meant she was ’spoiled’ as a candidate to become one of Shubnalu’s progeny.

Turning her into a vampire would destroy the powers she gained as a witch and even if she gained a different power as his progeny, she would still be damaged in ways that she wouldn’t have been if she never became a witch.

Now, however, Ashlynn was living proof that there was a different way for the powerful Great Lord of the Dark Forest to make use of one of the greatest assassins to ever live, and if he wanted to come for Talauia, even the Briar might not be able to keep her safe.

Escaping across the mountains and taking shelter under Nyrielle’s dark wings was the best idea that Ashlynn and Lady Amahle had been able to come up with to keep Talauia safe from the possessive vampire lord, but it wouldn’t keep her safe forever.

Eventually, they would have to confront the Fangs of Death and put an end to his covetousness, one way or another or it would be too dangerous for the Thistle Witch to rejoin her coven in the Briar.

But for now, if a tapestry depicting the waterfall that fed the waterways of the Briar could help reduce the feeling of pain and separation that haunted the Thistle Witch, even just a little bit, then Ashlynn wouldn’t begrudge a single silver tail, even if it took all she had planned to spend today and more.

It wasn’t the freedom from fear that she wanted to give the winged witch who had made her feel so welcome in the Briar, but at the moment, it was something concrete that she could do to make her friend’s life just a little bit better.

.. and that would have to do until she and Nyrielle could do more.