Love that lasts beyond Death

"I'm going to kill Alexzander," Lord Ivan growled, a tension to his body that Adelia had never seen before, his tattoos glowing a dark, deep, swirling gold and she swore his eyes downright gleamed a darker blue now.

Lord Ivan turned to leave and Adelia found herself reaching out, fingertips brushing his arm and to her quiet surprise, he stilled in his tracks, his intense, too wide-eyed gaze falling to her. The expression on his face was caught between destructive rage and howling grief.

"Lady Miriam already tried," she said. "It didn't stick."

Lord Ivan rumbled a low noise that was tinged in something otherworldly, the light within the room flickering, though rainbows light no longer danced, instead there was something ominous about it, the way sudden, dark storm clouds clouded the sky, lightning flashing through them and Adelia swore she could taste something divine in the room, the air growing thick.

Then Lord Ivan took a deep breath and exhaled long and slow and bit by bit he seemed to settle, the pulsing light falling through the window calming, though it retained its dark, stormy quality.

"I suppose we should speak with Miriam, in that case," he said, the rage and grief not gone, but held still and tightly beneath a band of iron control. He blinked and seemed to come back to himself a little more. "If you wish to come with me, that is. I know this doesn't concern you, but if you are not opposed, I would love to have your brilliant mind on board."

"Of course," Adelia answered right away. "I hate for innocent people to  get hurt. And don't forget that Alexzander went after my husband, as well, and gave a true monster a sunlight ring. If there is a way to stop him, I will gladly be part of it."

Lord Ivan reached into his pocket then, withdrawing the ring he had stolen from Emmertal's finger and stared at it, something desolate and intensely furious making his jaw clench.

"Here," he said, holding it out to her without looking at her. "I want you to hold on to this for now."

"Are you certain?" she asked, quietly startled and he took a sharp, deep breath.

"As much as it... pains me to not set this destroyed soul and stolen faith to rest I don't know if this won't be useful for something later." He did look at her now, grim but certain and added, "I trust you to give it back to me once we are done. But if I hold on to it I won't be able to ignore it for long."

Adelia swallowed, a heavy sense of responsibility settling over her, but at the same time, it was made bearable by how touched and honored she felt to be given this much trust. She accepted the ring, quickly slipping it into a pocket and touching it as little as possible in the process.

"Let's speak with Lady Miriam," she said and Lord Ivan – no, just Ivan if he had this much faith in her and after everything he had done to aid her, he was a true friend – closed his fingers around her wrist.

The world turned into a wild swirl of glittering, golden sparks and then she found herself suddenly adjusting her stance, blinking as she found herself on a ship in the middle of a storm.

Rain immediately soaked through her dress, icy and fierce and she flinched and then nearly got thrown to the side as a mighty wave swelled beneath the ship, lifting it up the way a child might lift a toy to play with it, throwing it forward as it cleaved through the water, racing back down the swell of the wave.

Ivan cursed, his hold on her shifting to guide her along and keeping her from an unfortunate fate like falling over board, thunder cracking through the sky with such force as though it wished to split the very earth itself open like a god cleaving down a mighty axe.

The crew, rushing about and expertly handling the ship, tension but surprisingly no concern on their faces, took note of them and two tall, broad sailors, a man and woman with muscular arms and thick legs, guided them along the deck and through a door, shouting after them to head down and then left and find something to hold on to until the captain had a moment.

"I will never understand Miriam and her crew," Ivan muttered, dripping wet himself, hair plastered down against his head as he braced himself against the walls of the staircase, half walking and half stumbling down. "Their love for storms is utterly bizarre."

Adelia followed after him, half stumbling as well, the ship's rocking throwing her left and right, but they managed to reach the end of the stairs and to the right awaited the kitchen, two cooks keeping things rather orderly and they looked rather unconcerned. A bit annoyed at best.

"Take a seat," one of them called out and gestured vaguely towards the various, nailed down seating areas and tables. "And hold on, this will take another hour or so."

And Ivan, who had been so tightly controlled and mindful of Adelia, seemed to snap.

"No, it won't," he downright growled and a sudden, fierce swell of magic rolled through the air like a second sea unfolded with him as the center, his tattoos glowing a bright, pure, molten gold, the blue of his eyes bleeding gold through his iris, his hair and clothing and skin drying in the blink of an eye.

Adelia felt it when the presence of something enraged and divine poured out of him, forcing itself atop the ocean to demand it calm and flat, only for something powerful from deep below to swell up against it, two divine forces clashing with a rage strong enough Adelia swore she could taste it on her tongue, could feel it rattling in her very bones, polluting her breaths.

All at once every single hair on her body stood up, a cold shiver gripping her that had nothing to do with the freezing rain and all at once she felt mortal in a way she had never experienced before. Small and insignificant, an afterthought at best, if that. Like she was an ant caught between two giants.

A moment later the door got thrown open and Lady Miriam entered, dripping rain  and ocean water, her eyes eyes a deep, dark green, the glow within her chest strong and pulsing, revealing the outline of bones beneath her skin as the Deep reared up against the essence of the sun.

"We need to talk," Ivan said, curt and firm. "Because I believe that Alexander is gutting the souls of my fellow clerics to make sunstones out of them."

Lady Miriam paused briefly, her expression grim and she said, "Then calm your goddess, the Deep won't listen otherwise and you are guests here." There was a strange growl accompanying her words and Adelia saw the green glow reach tendrils up into her throat. It looked like unnatural veins spreading through her body.

For a moment that felt suspended in time the two warlords stared at each other, the goddess of the sun and the Deep clashing like they intended to grind the world to pieces between them if that was what it took to gain the upper hand.

Then Ivan sank back onto his heels and exhaled long and slow, a soft hum filling his chest as his gaze grew distant, as though he was reaching out to something that laid beyond the world itself.

A moment later the sun goddess eased up and Adelia watched as the glow beating beneath Lady Miriam's skin slowly lost its intensity, until both Ivan and Lady Miriam looked mortal again at last, eyes returning to their natural color.

Well, mostly mortal. Adelia had always been able to tell that there was something more to them and it was impossible to forget how they had turned, if only for a moment, into conduits for divinity and something ancient and powerful respectively.

"I see the Deep is as temperamental as ever," Ivan remarked dryly and Lady Miriam snorted, a wry smile tugging on the corners of her mouth.

"You'd think it would calm down considering it's older than fucking dust." She rolled her shoulders as though she was shaking some tension. When she took them both in her gaze was focused and intense, something predatory to it that reminded Adelia of hunting jungle cats.

The ship got rocked by another massive wave and while Adelia and Ivan were quick to reach out to hold on to something, Lady Miriam merely adjusted her weight a little, standing as securely as though she was on solid ground.

"So," she said and her smile now looked as deadly as a sharp blade. "What was that about Alexander?"

Ivan gave her a quick run-down of his most recent discovery, Lady Miriam's smile falling away to a serious expression. "And now our sweetest Adelia here told me you have killed the bastard once before," Ivan ended his story.

Lady Miriam exhaled heavily, mouth twisting unhappily. "I did. I drowned him on dry land and left him to be claimed by nature." A hint of dark anger crept into her features. "Imagine my surprise when I see him waltzing through the door at our annual meeting."

"Do you know where?" Adelia asked, taking a small step forward, only to stumble back when the ship rocked sharply again. "Did you check if his body was still there?"

"I did," Lady Miriam answered. "And it wasn't."

There was a beat of silence and then Ivan cursed, turning away, his shoulders and back tense, long golden-haired braid swishing with the sharpness of his movement.

"I tried to find answers, of course," Lady Miriam continued, thunder crashing outside the ship with a fierceness that made Adelia feel the rumble in her very bones. "But none of my spies come back and no matter who I bribe, they either vanish, too, or can't tell me anything of value."

"He guards his home like a jealous broodmother," Ivan hissed, turning back around to face them, a complicated expression on his face. "He never invites anyone in."

"Then we need to get him out," Adelia said, their gazes falling to her. "If he's not at home, would that make it easier to break in?"

Lady Miriam gave the grimmest shrug Adelia had ever seen. "I don't know. I don't know anything about his home aside from where it's located and by now I'm not even sure if that isn't a decoy castle."

So they needed a way to track him first. Her hand fell to the ring in her pocket and she remembered the things Alexzander had told her, his viciousness and that he had given her one of the sunstones.

"He's done hiding," she murmured and the temperature in the room seemed to drop, a sudden chill in the air that made her glance at Lady Miriam instinctively, that glow within her chest having grown deeper and stronger.

"Whatever he's up to, he either needs us to figure something out or he's just about to reveal his hand," she continued. "He must be close to something big."

"He's a braggart who likes to show off his superiority," Ivan muttered with an unimpressed pull to his mouth. "I think he wants us to know that he's doing something and he wants us to scramble."

Alexzander had given a stone to her and a ring to Emmertal, but why her first? She had been new to the Wilds, hadn't really known anyone back then – unless he had truly believed that she would risk exposing Rowan to the stone just to uncover his secret.

However, it wasn't like Alexzander knew her, either, after all. But he likely knew the nobility back in the kingdom, their opinions and behavior and preferred comforts. He must have thought her miserable and lonely and cold and then he had given her something harmful while telling her just enough to make her curious. Just enough to make her feel small and stupid and unsettled.

Still, he must have full faith in the fact that he couldn't be stopped now. That he had done too much to be foiled. Her eyes widened slightly as a sudden thought found her.

"I doubt whatever he is up to, he did it all by himself," she said. "So someone else has to know things we dont." And most of all, people like Alexzander took care of such dangerous loose ends. "Have people died recently? Mages, alchemists, anyone of note?"

They fell silent, visibly thinking, before both their eyes widened.

"Yes, actually," Lady Miriam whispered. "A well known alchemist who was experimenting around with magic died last year. I was told he died in his sleep." She made a vague gesture. "Since he was already over a hundred years old, none of us thought much about it at the time."

"Indeed," Ivan whispered. "He wasn't allied to anyone, though he always got invited to our shindigs. He had some revolutionary discoveries about alchemy and medicine in his time, but as he got old, he started hunting for a way to live eternally."

"It's not like there weren't options," Lady Miriam muttered. "Just look at Rowan, for example. I think he was looking for more than that." The next moment she closed her eyes and hissed out a sharp curse. "I just remembered that his research never got recovered."

Ivan looked as though he had bitten into something rotten. "And I remember Alexzander being on a collection spree, buying all sorts of... ah, fuck, all sorts of tomes and scrolls about magic and legends and alchemy. I just thought he just wanted to be a dick to people who could have made the world better with those texts."

"And I doubt there are any copies, right?" Adelia asked and they nodded. Lovely, so Alexzander was working on something and they could only make some educated guesses.

The ship rocked again, starting to list and Lady Miriam glanced to the side, a glimmer of green in her eyes. "I need to take care of this," she murmured. "One of the ocean's beasts got loose and the Deep is working on containing it again. I'll seek you out once this storm settles?"

Ivan gave her a quick nod and added, "I'll do some research in the meantime. If there is any evidence left that Alexzander murdered someone, we would be allowed to confiscate the research material from him." A grim, downright harsh smile appeared on his face. "I would love to ruin everything he has right now."

"I'll help you once I'm done here," Lady Miriam said and they both glanced at Adelia. "Will you join us?"

"Most certainly," she answered, carefully shifting her balance to try and avoid stumbling around like a drunk fawn. "But, uh, for now I would appreciate leaving."

Lady Miriam gave her a small smile. "I promise sailing is far more fun than this, but I understand. I will drop by Ivan's temple later to meet up with you two." With those words and a last, polite incline of her head, she swept outside, moving along with the rocking ship like it was nothing.

Ivan offered his hand and Adelia took it, the world dissolving into a glittering shower of golden sparks. They appeared outside of the Grim Keep, sunshine making the snow around them glitter, and Ivan left swiftly after that, though not without letting her know that she was welcome to join him and Lady Miriam whenever she liked.

Adelia was quick to enter the keep and escape the cold, though her mind kept circling around things over and over. She ended up in her workshop, staring at the big disk they had made when experimenting with the corrupted crystal.

She hesitated for a moment, before she pulled the ring from her pocket, glancing down at it. It was made of a destroyed soul and torn-away faith, did she have a right to experiment with it?

... then again, they needed answers and this shouldn't harm or destroy it and Ivan had entrusted her with it.

Taking a deep breath, she placed the ring into the hollow center, with the sunstone pressed up against the metal. Once it was properly situated she started to carefully shift the various rinks and individual plates the disk was made of around, shuffling and shuffling and replacing various plates with others, since there was an incredible amount of elements and sigils and runes. The way they could be combined seemed downright endless.

Sorceress Iva and Ivan had originally narrowed things down to drawing something from the corrupted crystal, after all, so there were far more uses for their various magics.

Nothing happened over and over until, right before she was about to stop and head up to her office to take care of her correspondence and duties, she tried a combination on a whim that looked interesting more than that she knew what the alignment of elements meant and suddenly the gentle, light sunshine glow of the stone grew cool and pale. Like moonlight.

How fascinating. How strange. She also had no idea what was happening and she really needed to reach out to her two lab partners to ask them about this. To show them this.

She didn't dare touch the disk while the stone looked like it was carved out of pure moonshine and instead she grabbed a blank page to copy what the disk currently looked like, before she pressed some buttons to reverse the effect and the glow vanished, the ring starting to release that sunshine shimmer again.

As much as she wished to keep going, to find out more, there was nothing she could do on her own. Pocketing the ring again, she took a moment to jot down her questions, just in case she forgot anything later, before she headed into her office.

It had grown quite late, she realized as she glanced out a window in passing. Rowan would rise soon and she felt her heart lighten at that. She wished to hug him and perhaps kiss him and steal away a moment of... of goodness, of sweetness, amidst these grim discoveries.

She had started working on her correspondence, a mage light lit to combat the vanishing light, when she happened upon a polite but still firmly worded letter from her mother.

Her mother told her to listen to her father and return home before she got defiled, for no lord would want her then. Before she could make a mistake she couldn't take back and live in squalor and disgrace, since her father would banish her from his house.

Staring down at the letter, Adelia couldn't help but feel... abandoned by her mother all over again. There was also a cold, hard curl of disgust at the way she got reduced to what laid between her legs and the empty womb many lord wanted to fill with their heirs. As if her worth was tied to how much men could claim of her, how much of her they could own and keep for themselves like jealous thieves.

Not that she had expected anything different, not with the values of the nobility back home and her father's cruel ruthlessness. And yet, deep down, the part of her that had once been a child, desperate to try and do right by her parents, to be good, that part of her ached. Her mother had had her kind moments, after all, but those had also always ended the moment her father had entered the room or they had come across one of his boundaries.

Because of course only one of them was allowed boundaries.

A knock at the door made her pause and glancing up she noticed how dark the room had become. When she bid the person to enter, she felt herself relax a little upon seeing Rowan.

"Good morning," she said with a small smile. "I hope you rested well?"

"As dreamless as ever," he answered as he closed the door behind him, steps silent as he approached and she reached out a hand to him. Rowan rounded her desk to lace their fingers together and when she tipped up her head and gave his hand a small tug, he smiled, warm and charming and glad and leaned down to give her a sweet kiss.

"You seem a bit tense," he murmured as he pulled back a little, brushing a cool, gentle kiss to her forehead. "Did something happen?"

"Quite a bit," Adelia sighed and sank back into her chair, nodding down at the letter. "This is just the newest thing."

He shifted her hand into his other one so he could reach for the letter, picking it up and swiftly skimming over it, his brows rising and his expression turning supremely unimpressed.

"How quaint," he said with a dark undertone. "They truly don't think highly of you, do they?" There was a bit of a bite to his words, his lips pulling up slightly to reveal a hint of his fangs as he spoke. "They don't think you capable to build a life of your own, to make allies and friends of your own or anything of the sort. Pathetic."

His hard words soothed the ache in her chest a little, allowing the lingering, stiff tension in her spine to unwind. She gave his hand a gentle squeeze.

"You are so much more than they see," he murmured as he set the letter down and turned towards her, leaning down to press a kiss to her hair. "Brilliant and brave, clever and kind, I'm lucky to have you, to be chosen by you."

It softened her heart and she leaned into him, taking a moment to just breathe before she pulled back and told him about the sunstone. His expression was grim and thoughtful.

"If there is anything I can do to help, let me know," he said. "While I never set foot into any sun temples due to my nature, I still care greatly about the people in my lands. The attacks on our temples cannot stand."

Something about his words gave her pause and Adelia couldn't help but think of the things Ivan and Lady Miriam had said. The things they had found out about the sunstones and Alexzander.

Alchemy and medicine and magic, and sunstones that were made of the gutted remains of a soul and of distilled-down faith.

It felt as though Adelia was looking at a finished clockwork creation someone else had created, taking it apart in her mind to figure out what it was made of, how it worked, how it was put together in the first place.

It felt as though she was missing something – wait.

"The sun temples," she said, things clicking together like gears slotting into place, teeth interlocking as they started to turn and move. "I need to see one of the ruined sun temples."

There was a red gleam in Rowan's eyes and he smiled at her, delighted and adoring and smitten. "I love that mind of yours," he said and stepped back, pulling her up as she moved to rise. "I think Iva is busy at the moment, but we can take the nightmares."

"Then I will get my coat and shoes," Adelia said. "I'll meet you down in the hall in a minute?"

He gave her a smile and leaned in to brush a kiss against her cheek. "I'll be waiting for you."

The next moment he was by the door, opening it and then he was gone. Adelia swiftly tidied her letters aside and she threw her mother's letter into the fire crackling merrily in the fireplace.

She reached her rooms within a couple of moments and grabbed her fur-lined coat, her gloves and she switched her indoor slippers for thick boots. Snagging a scarf on the way out, she wound it around her neck as she hurried down the hallway.

When she reached the entrance hall, Rowan was already waiting and she saw a black carriage outside, six equally black horses stomping impatiently, their breaths misting thickly in the icy air.

Rowan was about to open the door for her, when they heard Steward Lambrecht's voice call out, "Master Rowan, a moment please!"

They glanced back to the stairs and Adelia felt her brows furrow slightly, concern seeping into her at the expression on the steward's face. He looked tense and rather displeased.

"Did something happen?" Rowan asked, stepping forward to stand side by side with her.

"Sadly, yes, that king who insists on calling you a friend sent a letter," Steward Lambrecht said, holding out a neatly folded piece of paper as he reached them. "He insists on speaking with you tonight, even went so far as to send his mage to deliver this letter. The man is currently waiting to bring you along."

Rowan frowned as his expression turned hard and cold. "Harold can wait," he said, voice firm and unyielding. "My wife takes precedence."

"Only, you're no longer married," a voice called out and Steward Lambrecht's face became unreadable as he turned around, all of them looking up the stairs to see the king's court mage descent.

The man was dressed in flowing, midnight blue robes that glittered faintly in the light, his fingers bejeweled and a gem-encrusted amulet around his neck. He looked as pretty as always, moving with grace and purpose. His smile was bland and empty as he stopped in front of them.

"Allow me to bring you along, my lord," the mage said. "My king has some urgent questions pertaining your desire to divorce your wife."

Rowan's expression was calm and collected and she realized he always looked like this whenever he had been seen at court back in her old home. Even around the king, where his smiles had been mild and his laughter as rare as snow in summer.

"I will see him later," Rowan said and the mage offered another bland, empty smile.

"I'm afraid he was rather distraught," he said. "He was quite insistent I come fetch you for a conversation."

Emmertal must be trying to move the process along as quickly as possible and her father had likely joined in that effort. They wanted her away from Rowan and back where she was "meant to be" in their eyes. A proper little lady married to a proper powerful lord, and why should they care if it would be her death, too.

Still, it was rather unexpected that Emmertal had gotten an audience with the king so quickly. Harold usually had few lords and ladies staying at his palace during the winter months, which was a personal preference of his and Emmertal had always preferred to stay in his own lands outside of attending parties and other shindigs.

Something about it felt a little strange, though she couldn't help but wonder if all the secrets and discoveries around here were making her paranoid.

She glanced at Rowan, who was frowning faintly again, before he sighed and turned to her, murmuring, "Would you mind going without me? Harold will likely want an answer as to why I'm spurning a lady of his lands. I'll smooth any of his ruffled feathers and I should be back in two or so hours."

She gave him a small smile. "Go and take care of things." It would be a bad idea to make an enemy of a powerful king, after all, especially with how things currently stood. It would be easy enough for Emmertal and her father to cause trouble, after all, should he refuse to speak with the king and she remain in his lands all the while.

Even if something about all this felt... odd. Maybe she was just imagining it.

"I'll be back soon," he promised as he stepped away and towards the mage, whose bland smile had gained a satisfied little edge. They vanished together as soon as Rowan was close enough and Steward Lambrecht exhaled in a little huff.

"I will never get used to the audacity some kings have," he grumbled, straightening his sleeves. "Might I be of help to you, my lady? Or shall I return to my tasks?"

"Would you mind getting a message sent to Ivan and Lady Miriam?" Adelia asked. "Preferably by Sorceress Iva, I'd like them to receive it as soon as possible. I'll be at the ruined temple we visited together a little while back."

"Understood, I'll be sure to reach out to them on your behalf. Depending on what Iva is currently busy with it might take half an hour or an hour for her to send anything."

"That is perfectly fine. Thank you." She gave him a grateful little smile and his expression softened.

He gave her a brief smile back, then politely inclined his head and left. Adelia tugged her cloak better into place, starting to feel rather warm beneath it, before she left the keep, icy winds immediately enveloping her.

One of the night guard was up on the coach of the carriage and another vampire spawn stood by the carriage, clearly waiting for her to appear. As she stepped forward, one of the nightmares snapped at the other, only to get bitten back viciously, sharp teeth sinking into black fur and nearly black blood spilled, before they jerked apart as far as the tack allowed, snorting and blood dripping into the snow.

Adelia was about to ask if the nightmare was alright when the bite mark already healed over, flesh seamlessly stitching itself shut and fur regrowing healthy and winter-thick.

She was about to move on with a soft, relieved sigh, when another nightmare caught her attention. It watched her, calm and quiet and she recognized it as the one who had watched her in the past. She wondered what it was about her that drew its attention, or if it was the mere fact that she was human. Rowan had mentioned that nightmares partook in the blood he ordered, that it kept them fed.

And yet... why was there something familiar about this creature that went beyond her recognizing it from past encounters? It niggled at the back of her mind and this time the niggling felt even stronger than before.

An icy wind blew against her back, swirling some flakes away from her and towards the carriage and she shivered slightly, stepping forward to move on and the nightmare lifted its head, nostrils flaring and suddenly its dark red eyes gleamed like glowing blood as it exhaled in a loud, fierce snort.

It nickered at her then and something about the sound tore at the not-yet-healed wound of loss across her heart, of losing her precious, sweet horse. The one being who had been a source of warmth and love in her life and it ached to the point where her throat hurt with the tears she forced herself not to shed.

Taking a deep, shaky breath she briskly stepped forward, the nightmare nickering at her again, a downright rumbling quality to the sound that was a little deeper than what her horse had managed to achieve while alive. It still sounded... just like her dear companion.

Entering the carriage with a soft thank you directed at the night guard, she settled down and a moment later the carriage jerked into motion, swiftly pulling out of the courtyard before she got thrown back into the seat as the nightmares thundered along the road with a speed that still sent her reeling a little.

Taking deep breaths until the shakiness of emotion vanished and the grief settled again, until the loss became that quiet, constant weight she was used to, she closed her eyes for a moment. The carriage creaked and rattled, snow crunching and snowbanks getting torn through as though they were merely made of drifting mist and the horses snorted and ran even faster.

It felt like mere minutes before the carriage slowed and pulled to a stop and she opened the door, the driver remaining on the coach and keeping the nightmares in check. For now.

The monstrous horses had stopped a good distance away from the ruined temple, as unwilling to get close as they had been in the past. Adelia firmly didn't look at them this time as she stepped down and into snow that reached up to her calves.

The driver removed one of the lanterns at the side of the coach and leaned down, stretching as much as possible to hand it to her and she inclined her head gratefully as she shuffled closer to accept it.

As she stepped towards the temple, she soon found herself with a dress and cloak-hem that grew heavy with clinging clumps of snow and not even they could fully protect her from getting some into her boots. It was a bit of a miserable trek to the temple, her breath misting in front of her face strongly as she panted with exertion, but she was finally there.

The sunflowers were dead and covered in snow, none of the warmth from other sun temples remaining. This place was a cold grave, snow and snow-covered crystals shimmering in her lantern light. It looked unexpectedly eerie, she had to admit, a sickly feeling curling through the air. It was likely the crystals' doing.

There were no footprints around, so no one had been by recently. It also meant that Adelia was making her own way to the back of the temple as she tried to find a spot to get a better look inside, for the entrance Steward Lambrecht had used last time was filled with partially broken crystals. It was quite likely that people had come here against all advice to try and find remains of their loved ones. To find answers themselves, even.

It must not have been good to wait for answers, not knowing what was going on or who had done this to their friends and family. Adelia could admit that she, too, would have done something inadvisable had someone murdered Katrina or Izabel, or gods forbid, both this way.

She reached the back of the temple then and the stained glass windows were shattered to unrecognizable pieces, sickly, corrupted crystals jutting out like pointy fists had punched through. But there was also a bit of wriggle room at one spot. Stepping forward and lifting the lantern, she illuminated the space as much as possible, warily keeping an eye on how close she was getting to the crystals.

A strange wind blew against her back in that moment, causing her to shiver and look back and she stilled, breath catching briefly in her throat when she saw Alexzander standing there.

He was dressed in dark blue robes with shimmering, silver embroidery, his smile a sharp thing edged in condescending meanness. What was he doing here? She was quick to turn around to face him, snow crunching beneath her boots and he prowled forward, somehow not sinking into the snow himself, nor was he leaving any footprints behind.

He had one hand in his pocket and she trusted nothing about him or what he was doing.

"I have to say, you are defying expectations," he said, but it didn't sound like a compliment at all.

A blur of movement in the corner of her eye drew her attention and he pulled his hand free whip-fast, holding a fist-sized sunstone up and Adelia heard a pained hiss and the night guard vampire skidded to a stop before vanishing from sight, leaving behind the scent of scorched skin and meat.

"They really should do something about that weakness," Alexzander mused, still with that condescension to him, his ugly little smirk gaining a darkly superior edge. "It is so easy to exploit, after all."

Adelia's mind was racing, her heart pounding in her chest. She knew she stood no chance against a mage, but at the same time, she couldn't help but feel like she was close to something. There must be a reason why he had appeared now of all times.

Not that it would help her if she got killed first.

Alexzander's smile was made of nothing but malice now as he murmured, "You would look so pretty, lying dead in snow soaked with your blood. I wonder, should I make it look like someone sucked you dry? It would be rather poetic, wouldn't it?"

A bad, panicked feeling downright slammed into her gut, like a heavy stone breaking through ice to hit cold water beneath.

His smile grew as though he could read her reactions plain as day and he was still prowling closer, slowly as though he was savoring this.

"And while I was hoping you'd be of more use until now, I am rather glad to still have one more task for you before you are no longer a problem."

He lifted his free hand, a sinister mist appearing out of thin air to coil around his fingers like an immaterial snake of strange gray-purple darkness. "King Harold did say he wanted a reason to imprison your husband, you know. According to him, it will give him all the leverage he needs to get his hands on the Wilds."

While it didn't surprise her at all that Harold wanted the Wilds, how he was going about it was... brutal. Unexpected. He had always appeared like a man of glittering showmanship, but then again, none of the lords had really dared to set a foot out of line unless they were in his favor. There was always a wariness where the king was concerned.

It made a grim sort of sense as well. If Rowan could be accused of something – or... or exposed for his true nature – then King Harold could spin things in his favor and with her now having ties to the Wilds, it would be easy enough to marry her off to someone else and install one of his lords in Rowan's stead.

If done well, even the risk of war would be far lower than in other circumstances. There might still be battles, but he would already have a foot in the door and the support of all his lords.

Swallowing heavily, she found herself taking a step back and Alexzander smirked down at her, a dark glee shimmering in his eyes.

"I've always wanted to remove Rowan," he murmured. "And right now you're the last little piece left that I need to get everything I want."

Her mind felt fractured, taking in what he said, wondering what it meant, what his plans were, what Harold was planning, and at the same time, she desperately tried to find a way out of this. The night guard couldn't help, she had no weapon on her, no way to get help.

She was all alone with a monster.

"Do hold still," he said as he took another step towards her, his smile of cold, ugly malice growing and he reached out to her. "Or fight, either way I will enjoy making you my puppet either way."

Adelia's breaths were coming in faster, shorter bursts, misting in front of her face, a far too visible tell and she saw Alexzander's eyes gleam as he stepped after her when she backed up, her heavy snow-ladden steps clumsy compared to his light, graceful ones.

She could try to run but it would be useless.

"The night guard will tell on you," she said and he scoffed.

"That vampire scum is hiding behind the temple right now, half dead. It won't go anywhere and I'll make sure to leave no traces. Spawn are quite easy to kill, you know?" he took a large step forward and Adelia suddenly found herself cornered against the back of the temple, stuck between two jutting-out pieces of crystal.

"Clever girl," he mocked. "Not even trying to run from the inevitable."

Running would be useless, she could do nothing to escape, to fight him off and she felt fear claw deeply into her, a strange hum appearing in her mind as Alexzander stretched his mist-encircled fingers towards her.

"Stop –" she found herself hissing, hating the fear in her voice, hating her helplessness, how mortal and small and human she felt –

She heard wood break and metal snap and the next moment the large, black nightmare leapt out of the dark, eyes a dark, bloody, ominous red. Immediately its fur and skin started to peel and burn at the exposure of the sunstone's glow, but it didn't stop, didn't hesitate.

Her breath caught in her chest and Alexzander looked dumbfound and surprised, when the nightmare ran straight into him, he flailed his hands to try and conjure magic, but having to drop the sinister spell first robbed him of that split second he needed and he got trampled into the ground. The sunstone got dropped and its bright, golden light turned into a dim, muffled glow as it sank somewhere into the thick snow.

Adelia stared, wide-eyed as the wounded, now heavily bleeding nightmare reared up and came down hard on Alexzander's side, hooves crushing ribs and tearing into skin and she watched with something close to startled horror as Alexzander's ribcage turned into a mangled mess, his wide eyes turning dull and lifeless.

A shaky breath escaped her and her knees felt shaky all of a sudden and the nightmare's head swung around to look at her and its entire expression changed in a way she had only seen once before.

Ears perking from where they had been pressed back against its neck, mouth relaxing and eyes growing warm, a gentle, welcoming friendliness to it that she remembered so clearly it hurt.

And then the nightmare rumbled softly at her, a sound to welcome her, to greet her, to call her its friend, head stretching out towards her as it stepped forward and a moment later its soft nose brushed her cheek as it exhaled against her ear and her vision blurred as tears spilled in no time.

"How?" she gasped out and her horse only rumbled warmly at her again, a calm, relaxed contentedness to her and she reached out with trembling hands, sinking her fingers into soft, thick fur that was a lightless, unnatural black and no warm brown anymore, but there was no doubt about it.

There couldn't be, not when this nightmare, this undead creature, behaved exactly like her dear, murdered companion.

She clung to it before she knew it, trembling a little after what had just happened, her breaths hitching in her chest, love and grief and fear and relief mingled together into a heady, dizzying mix.

She closed her eyes and pressed her face against her horse's neck and breathed in deep and then she truly began to cry helplessly, for this nightmare truly, without doubt was her beloved horse, for it smelled exactly like it. Like fresh hay and warm fur and comfort.

"How?" she whispered wetly again. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."

Her horse only nuzzled closer in the way it had, a gentle, soft brush of its nose against her shoulder and despite the mess of emotions, a trembling, unsteady smile tugged at the corners of her mouth and she whispered, "Thank you. Thank you."

Everything was just a little too much, the corpse of a man who couldn't die behind her horse who was still wounded, though the injuries were slowly stitching closed again. Her mind was a mess and she just... needed a moment.

Thank you for saving me, she didn't say, a sob breaking past her lips.

Thank you for living, she didn't say but her very heart and soul seemed to shout and scream it to the heavens anyway. Thank you. I'm sorry.