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When the servant stepped into the sitting room outside the great hall to collect Ollie, there were several surprised looks from the small room’s occupants, including Ollie himself.

"There was a slight disturbance," the bearish man acting as an usher for the evening said, bowing deeply to the gathering of some of the most powerful people in the Vale of Mists.

"Lord General Thane admonished the crowd because someone called for the death of humans.

When he spoke of unity between humans and the Eldritch, there was a cry to see Sir Ollie," he explained with ears that lowered themselves flat against his head in shame at the way some people had disrupted Lady Nyrielle and Lady Ashlynn’s careful plans for this evening.

"Go, Ollie, I don’t mind," Heila said as she wrapped both of her arms around one of Ignatious’s arms, pressing her diminutive figure up against him as she snuggled close to his unique warmth. "I’ll enjoy a few extra minutes this way before we have to sit on opposite sides of the table."

"In that case," Ollie said, giving a polite bow to the other members of his new family. "I won’t take long," he said before awkwardly scooping up the wide brimmed hat that matched the jade-green tunic and dark brown breeches he wore for the evening.

The hat was one of two that Ashlynn had gifted him after the completion of his trial and was what she referred to as a ’Fancy Hat,’ suitable for formal occasions like the one he was attending now. The hat itself was formed from fine silk, trimmed with a band of black and green brocade.

Ashlynn had kept the hat’s ornaments to a bare minimum, placing only a single, long, dark feather in the hat band.

But even if it looked simple, it was a feather that carried the same chilling, almost haunting aura as the one used in the ritual where he received his seed of witchcraft, which meant that it was a feather taken from Nyrielle’s own wings and that it carried a trace of her dark power.

The hat wasn’t the only unfamiliar piece of his wardrobe tonight, but the half cloak that he wore across his left shoulder felt strangely lighter on his body than the hat atop his head.

Whether that was because Thane had actually selected a lighter fabric for his apprentice’s rich, earthen brown cloak or because Ollie had become accustomed to the garment over the months that he studied under Thane’s tutelage, he couldn’t say.

One thing was certain, however. When Ollie entered the great hall, he was grateful for both the hat’s wide brim and the cloak’s partial concealment as he felt the eyes of hundreds of people falling on him, watching his every movement as he strode down the central aisle to where Lady Ashlynn and Sir Thane waited for him in front of the high table.

"Ollie of Lothian City," Thane said formally, his voice clear and strong enough to echo off the walls of the great hall without the slightest hint of his otherworldly powers.

"You are summoned to this hall tonight by Lady Ashlynn Blackwell, Daughter of Count Rhys Blackwell, Eldritch Lady of the High Pass, and Seneschal of the Harbinger of Death.

She has called you here tonight to account for your actions.

Are you prepared to accept her judgment tonight? "

Throughout the great hall, many eyes widened in surprise when they heard the Lord General’s stiff, formal pronouncement.

Hadn’t they just heard that he represented the best of the humans?

Didn’t he wear the hat of a witch, as though he were a member of the Lady of Trees’ coven?

Then why did it seem like he was being summoned like a criminal about to face a trial?

Only a few people in the crowd recognized the stiff, formal phrases for what they were, and each of them wore wide grins as they watched Ollie drop to one knee before Thane and Ashlynn.

"As I have been summoned, I have answered the call," Ollie said formally, reciting the words he’d practiced countless times in front of the mirror in his chambers. "My deeds are my own and I will not deny them. If my lady wishes to judge me for my deeds then I stand ready to accept her judgment."

"Ollie of Lothian City," Ashlynn said in a tone that sounded grave and solemn.

"When I met you, you toiled in the kitchens of the Lothians’ Summer Villa.

Your highest station was as an assistant to Head Cook Otis, and even he was only a Head Cook during his time in the Summer Villa," she said, pitching her voice to ensure that it could be heard throughout the great hall.

"Your parents held no office of honor nor position of valor," Ashlynn continued. "Rather, they served the Lothian family as a stablehand and chambermaid. Your origins could not be more humble or common, and you were born into bondage to the Lothian family. Have I said anything that is not true?"

"This is the best of the humans?" a serpentine woman at Daithi’s table said softly under her breath. "A boy from the kitchens? Would he survive even a single fight in the arena?"

"Quiet," a Golden Eyed soldier whispered fiercely before Daithi could say anything else. The strange human at their table had drawn the attention of everyone in the hall when he spoke up for this ’common’ human but neither the Lord General nor the Mother of Trees seemed to think it was wrong to summon the young man here.

Clearly there was more to him than his common origins would suggest.

"Be patient," the golden eyed soldier hissed when he noticed that even Commander Savis, sitting at one of the tables reserved for honored guests, seemed to have an interest in the young man. "I’m sure we’ll learn of his great deeds soon enough."

"No, my lady," Ollie said in a voice that didn’t hold the slightest trace of shame or embarrassment at his humble origins.

He enjoyed the love of his parents growing up and he did everything he could to support his family from the day he was old enough to start working in the kitchens.

There was nothing about his lowly birth that he had any reason to be ashamed of.

"My lady’s words contain no falsehoods, I am a common man of common birth," Ollie said simply. "There are as many men like me as there are leaves on trees."

"I could search the servants’ halls of a hundred castles, and the leaves of a thousand trees," Ashlynn said, smiling as she looked down on Ollie’s kneeling figure.

"But I would never find another man like you, Ollie from Lothian City.

In this world, you are unique, and you are precious.

Not because of an accident of birth, but because of the nobility of your deeds. "

"Six months ago, I ventured into the Summer Villa, intending to spy on my former husband and uncover his plans," Ashlynn said. "During that time, it was a simple kitchen boy who became my guide to the villa’s hidden places, who helped me succeed despite my amateur attempts to pry secrets from the lips of Owain Lothian’s underlings, and it was you who fled into the wilderness with me when my actions threatened to reveal my presence. "

"I saw then, the kind of man you are," Ashlynn said with a warm smile.

"But then I left the Vale, and left you behind to make your own way here at home.

So I would hear others speak of your deeds during the time I was gone.

Tell me," she said, turning to address the crowd sitting in their seats.

"Who will offer testimony of Ollie’s deeds in the time that I was absent from the Vale? "

"I will," an aged voice said as Old Nan stood up from her place at the table for guests of honor. "I will offer testimony of his deeds," the old woman said. "And I will offer my thanks, because without Ollie, this old woman and many others would have lost their lives..."