The Witching Hour

Ch. 16

Avalonna, town of Asterette

Drow sighed softly as he held Avalonna close in their room at the Astertte Inn. She was in tears, weeping for her fallen city. She heard everything from the guards, how they murdered innocents and burned down the village. Avalonna was stunned beyond words until she sat down in the room and began to let her emotions get the best of her.

She felt terrible sadness for the senseless violence that had occurred She felt a horrible, crippling feeling of guilt that somehow, deep down, she knew this was all her fault. Beneath these feelings lay her rage and anger, her hatred of the Red King and Queen for doing such things. She knew now more than ever that they had to be stopped, for her mother's sake, for Eversong's sake, and for the sake of Aster.

"Drow..." She managed to say after a few moments,
"Connor and Lydia...do you think they are ..." She couldn't even force out the word.

"No. Of course not, Val. Do not worry yourself with such thoughts. If your brother is anything like you, then he would have found a way out and saved himself and Lydia." he replied, embracing Avalonna softly.

"How could the Nitehardts do such a thing?" She asked quietly, almost as if to herself.
"It's all my fault." She said, closing her eyes and touching her necklace softly.

"No, Avalonna." Drow said firmly,
"You must not think that. It is not your fault you were born, is it? You are what you are, and nobody can use that against you. The Red King's malice has nothing to do with you, he's as bloodthirsty as he was before you were born." He paused to brush Avalonna's hair out of her face and kiss her cheek softly.

"Now we know for sure what lengths he will go to in order to eliminate magic. The harder he tries to kill magic just reveals how truly scared of it he actually is." He added.

Avalonna nodded in reply and exhaled slowly, breathing out all her grief.
"Yes, we know magic can defeat him. Magic must defeat him. We can't let this go unpunished." She replied.

"What do you propose we do?" Drow asked.

"We have to accept that...that we may not have Connor or Lydia to help us anymore." Avalonna started, speaking slowly.
"If that is the case, when we get to the 13th Council in the northern wilderness, we must not only get then to train me, but to join us as well." She stated.

Drow raised an eyebrow questioningly but only nodded slowly in reply.

"After that, we hope that our combined magic can defeat the Red Guard and the army of Aster." Avalonna finished, half saying the statement, half trying to convince herself it was at all possible.

"If we are going up against an army," Drow started saying,
"Then we will need one of our own. Witches and warlocks are not the only magical creatures still alive in Aster." He said with a slight grin.

"What? What do you mean?" Avalonna questioned, confused.

"I would have to review my maps and reports, but as far as I know there are several pockets of nonhuman creatures spread out around the kingdom. King Leonidas of course, tried to eliminate them all years ago, but some prove harder to kill than others. " he replied.

"What kind of creatures?" Avalonna asked.

"Elves, dragons, fairies, spirits, vampires, many kinds exist in this world of ours, Val. The trick is knowing where to look."

"My mother told me something similar to that when I was a child." She replied with a soft smile.

"She must have been quite wise." Drow said with a grin and went to go look through his belongings.