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In the great hall, the sounds of people banging their cups on the table, stomping and cheering in enthusiastic acceptance filled the air as Ollie made his way to the seat that was waiting for him behind the high table, though he left a seat conspicuously empty between himself and Ashlynn, prompting a few people in the audience to wonder who that space was reserved for.

"The world is changing," Nyrielle said when the hall had quieted enough for her to be heard. "Things I long considered impossible have begun to happen, and both the power and the people of the Vale are transforming as a result of those impossible, wondrous miracles."

"Lord General Thane speaks of five pillars of strength in the Vale of Mists," Nyrielle said.

"The common soldiers who answer to Commander Bassinger, men who guard our walls and gates and shield us from harm.

We also have powerful soldiers who form the sharp point of our spear, thrusting at the heart of the enemy under Commander Savis, as well as irregular soldiers who will tear our enemy down by raiding where they are weak, striking where they do not expect us.

These men follow Commander Tausau," Nyrielle said proudly as she gestured to the pair of vampires who were brothers to her own grandsire.

"Though it will take longer to ready them for war, Commander Aspakos is preparing our fourth pillar of strength," Nyrielle continued, gesturing to the second table for honored guests.

"He will pull together the many diverse traditions of sorcery among our different clans and peoples, gathering them into a force to counter the Church’s Inquisitors and Miracle Workers. "

Some in the Vale had already heard of the four armies that Lord General Thane was organizing their people into, but for many, this was their first time realizing the scale of the forces that the Vale was assembling in its quest to retake the lands they had lost and strike back against their enemies.

As Nyrielle announced each new army, a cheer rose among the warriors in the hall, with more and more voices joining the welcoming cry with each new name she called.

"We have said nothing so far about the fifth and final pillar of our strength," Nyrielle said with a wide smile on her lips.

"Because this power answers to myself and Ashlynn alone.

They are my progeny and her coven and the Lothians and the Church have never once faced any of them at their full strength," she said as a dark, hungry smile that revealed a hint of fangs spread across her bow-shaped lips.

"But to think of them only in terms of their strength is to miss how truly unique and precious each and every one of them is," Nyrielle added as she looked briefly at Thane and Ollie in turn.

"Tonight, you will meet many of them, but four of them have shattered barriers that have existed for hundreds of years and achieved things that I would have called impossible before Ashlynn proved that the rules that bound us were little different than chains around our own throats. "

Throughout the crowd, people began to mutter and whisper among each other.

Nyrielle’s progeny were well known to everyone in the Vale of Mists, but Ashlynn’s coven was a complete mystery.

Already, they’d seen a human kitchen boy elevated to the position of a knight and only one seat separated him from the Mother of Trees herself.

But to hear Lady Nyrielle speak, these next four people would be even more shocking than the newly ascended Sir Ollie Heartwood?

"For two hundred years," Nyrielle said, speaking over the whispers of the crowd.

"I have taken progeny because they were strong when I needed strength to fight our enemies.

I have taken in progeny who shared the same hatred that burned in my heart and the same enemies that threatened the Vale of Mists.

But once, and only once, I encountered someone that I hated enough to take as my progeny because I refused to give him a quick or merciful death," she said, instantly stilling the whispering tongues as countless people held their breath, waiting to hear what kind of crimes this person had committed to earn such a punishment.

"Lord General Thane has reminded you all that our enemies are the lords who rule in the Kingdom of Gaal and the leaders within the Church of the Holy Lord of Light," Nyrielle continued.

"But he has said little about why some enemies must not be allowed to survive the coming war.

Among all of the Inquisitors I have encountered, only one had both the skill and the unflinching zealotry to capture and torture my progeny until they begged to be left in the open when the sun rose," Nyrielle said.

As she spoke, memories swirled within her midnight blue eyes, accompanied by ghostly cries of men and women who had become her progeny on the blood-stained sands of High Fen City’s arena.

The humans called her retaliation ’The War of Undying Demons’ and they sent the very best of their Templars and Inquisitors to Lothian March, plotting for years before they launched their counter-attack, proving in the process that even Nyrielle’s powerful progeny could not only die, they could be broken so badly that they begged for death.

"For close to eighty years, he has lived in exile, suffering torture far worse than what he inflicted on my first progeny," Nyrielle explained, closing her eyes briefly to clear away the ghosts of the past and focus on the wonder that had been born from that tragedy.

"I would expect an Inquisitor to lose their faith after eighty years of unending torture," Nyrielle said.

"But Ignatious emerged from that torture with a clearer understanding of his faith and the people within the Church who had perverted it in the name of worldly power than any man I’ve ever seen. "

Sitting at the table for the Guests of Honor, Achim’s brow furrowed in thought while he tugged absently at his beard.

In all his years of service, he’d never been called on to torture someone for information.

He wasn’t a fool, he was well aware that the man he answered to didn’t always restrict himself to ’gentle’ methods, but Achim himself was grateful he’d never been the one to hold a knife or wield an iron brand.

He’d seen firsthand, however, the way that surviving such an experience could change a man, so when Lady Nyrielle said that this ’Ignatious’ emerged from decades of torture with his faith intact, Achim could only marvel that the man had emerged with his sanity intact.

Just how deep must such a man’s convictions run to endure for an entire lifetime and still hold true to his calling?

He didn’t know, but he did know that any man with that much strength of will was a dangerous man, capable of enduring anything and perhaps sacrificing anything in the service of his cause.

Such men could either be the sharpest swords in their master’s hands.

.. or the most venomous of snakes who would twist in their master’s grip to sink their deadly fangs into the hand that attempted to control them.

Achim had no way to know, yet, what kind of man this ’Ignatious was’, but he was certain that they would all find out soon.