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"This isn’t right, is it?" Darragh said, looking at Eamon with a dark scowl on his face. Perhaps this would help him convince his friend that Lady Ashlynn wasn’t some kind of saintess descended from the heavens but a true heretic and a demon that they had to escape.

"She’s already married to Lord Owain," he whispered, leaning in close to his friend as Lady Ashlynn knelt before the powerful vampire, confessing her love.

"You think Lord Owain is still entitled to call himself her husband after what he did to her?

" Eamon snorted. "The Church would never tolerate such an offense. Look, there’s even an Inquisitor sitting next to the one they call the Willow Witch," Eamon pointed out as Heila snuggled closer to Ignatious while Ashlynn made her proposal.

"It’s none of our business," Eamon said firmly, lest his younger friend get the wrong idea that he had any room to comment on Lady Ashlynn’s affairs.

"But I’m sure the Inquisitor, Ignatious, has already annulled Lady Ashlynn’s marriage to Lord Owain.

The real heretic is the one who stands to inherit the throne in Lothian March if you ask me," he said, unwilling to see any fault in Lady Ashlynn finding love and forming an alliance with the ruler of the Vale of Mists

"But will the Church even accept a vampire as an Inquisitor?

" Darragh whispered too softly for Eamon to hear. He’d thought that Lady Ashlynn might finally have crossed a line that would allow him to snatch his former mentor back from her clutches but all her actions achieved was to prove that Eamon was completely mad.

The old hunter had lost himself to worship of a witch posing as a saintess and nothing would shake his faith in the woman he saw as some sort of divine miracle.

Which meant that Darragh really was on his own in the Vale.

There would be no one to help him escape and when he went, he wouldn’t be able to trust anyone to keep silent about his departure.

.. But that also made it essential that he find a way to escape the Vale as soon as possible.

If he stayed much longer, he was afraid that Eamon would begin to doubt his ’conversion’ to a life of heresy among the demons, and if that happened, he was truly doomed.

At the tables of honor, the reactions were as varied as the guests themselves.

"So, this is the prophecy you came all this way to see?" Erkembalt said, leaning over and whispering to Aspakos. "The marriage between life and death that will remake the order of the world?"

"Perhaps," the Dark Feathered sorcerer said as he shifted uncomfortably in his chair. For some reason, such a pure display of affection and love struck him like a spear of ice to the chest, twisting painfully as if to remind him that such a fantastical fate was forever denied to him.

"They certainly have the power to remake the order of the world, don’t you think?

" Aspakos countered. "A witch’s growing coven and a true vampire’s progeny.

... They could sweep over the world if they didn’t choose to restrain themselves and with the army they’re building," he said, shaking his head gently.

"You’ll hear the news soon, my old friend, but these may be the last days of peace we enjoy for some time. "

"That just means more work for me," Erkembalt said with a snort as his fluffy tail swished behind him and a gleam began to form in his dark eyes.

"You know, Lady Ashlynn has already asked me to forge her a blade to replace the once that shattered in the High Pass. I’m sure that Virve woman will need something too since Lady Heila and Sir Ollie already wield my works. "

"Being the artificer to the Mother of Trees for a few years... it won’t be a bad thing for my business once I return to High Fen City," the artificer said as his eyes grew distant, imagining the sorts of things he might build for Lady Ashlynn and her coven over the next few years.

Beside him, Aspakos only shook his head as darkness enveloped Ashlynn and Nyrielle.

A remaking of anything involved a period of destruction followed by a purge of impurities before anything new could truly be built.

Ashlynn and Nyrielle were certain to usher in an era of unprecedented destruction, but once it was over, who would be considered impure and need to be purged for their new order to form?

And what kind of order would emerge from a marriage between life and death?

Sitting two seats away, Milo and Juni’s reaction was much less complicated than many of the people around them.

They had fretted about returning to the Vale of Mists and while they put their faith in Sir Ollie and had seen no reason to doubt their decision since coming here, they were also well aware of the fact that they entered the Vale while the Eldritch Lady of the Vale was far away across the mountains.

The decision to take them in had been made by Lord General Thane and by putting a relative newcomer like Ollie in charge, Lady Nyrielle could have easily disavowed Ollie’s actions, putting entirely new rules in place and seizing control of the village they had built over the course of the summer.

But now, as the couple from the Heartwood Clan watched Lady Ashlynn and Lady Nyrielle express their love for each other, Milo and Juni wrapped their tails around each other and held each other tightly, basking in the warmth of the moment.

For all the stories they’d heard about the terrifying and powerful vampires that ruled over the Vale of Mists, when they saw her here, Lady Nyrielle didn’t seem that different from them.

She was a woman in love and she would fight to defend the home that she and Lady Ashlynn would build together.

"We should make something special for them," Juni said softly. "This is only their betrothal. The wedding will come later. What... what do you think we should make for them?"

"We can ask Sir Ollie," Milo whispered. "I’m sure he’ll have an idea of something they’ll welcome. But I think, as long as it comes from the heart, they’ll treasure it, even if it’s just a decorative carving."

"If you want to carve something," Old Nan said, leaning in close to the couple.

"Then remember this moment well. Remember the carving of Lady Nyrielle with her wings unfurled that my grandfather once made. It stood as tall as she did and the Black Merchant never stopped trying to buy it from me," she said, blinking back the tears the threatened to spring up when she thought of the way Owain Lothian’s men had burned her grandfather’s greatest piece of art.

"If you present them with a statue of this moment, I’m sure they’ll treasure it for many years to come," Old Nan said. "And, if you’ll accept an old woman’s help, I’ll add my touch as well," she added, hoping that she could do something to honor what was lost in the process of creating something new, carved with the feelings of warmth and love that this moment gave them.

"Of course," Milo said, his whiskers twitching in excitement.

"I’ve never made anything so grand so please, teach us how," he said enthusiastically. With each passing day, it seemed like his mother walked a few steps further out of the darkness of the destruction of their home and the death of his brother Lako but this was the brightest he’d seen her eyes in a very long time.

So, if his mother wanted to undertake an ambitious statue to commemorate this moment, then he would happily work beside her for as long as it took to bring her vision to life.

At the high table, as the darkness enveloping Ashlynn and Nyrielle began to fade, Heila leaped up onto the table, unconsciously imitating her parents just a few minutes ago as she began to applaud.

Ignatious quickly stood, joining her in the applause and prompting everyone else at the high table to do the same.

Soon, the darkness surrounding Ashlynn and Nyrielle faded completely away, dispersing in a cloud of darkness that grew thinner and thinner like mist formed from shadows before revealing the slightly breathless couple holding each other in a loving embrace.

When the darkness parted at last, they were greeted with thunderous applause that filled the great hall.

Every guest, even the towering Ipiktok, was standing, clapping, stomping or beating the ground with their tails.

As the applause began to fade, Thane stepped forward, holding up a goblet in one hand to offer the first toast to the flushed and radiant couple.

"To Nyrielle and Ashlynn," Thane shouted in a voice rippling with power. "May their love be eternal and their domain never fall!"

"May their love be eternal and their domain never fall!"