"Youâd be surprised how heavy her armor really is," Ollie said lightly as he stepped in to start unlacing the spaulders from where they connected to Ashlynnâs shoulders. He said it lightly, as if it were really just a comment about Ashlynnâs armor.
He could hear the uncertainty in the young ladyâs voice, and heâd learned well over the past several months what a voice sounded like when it was trying to find the courage to say what needed to be said, even if it wasnât really ready to speak the words.
"Here," he said, passing over the first set of heavy plates to Jocelynn, both so she could understand the weight her sister carried and to give her something to do. He couldnât delay things for her for very long, but he could give her a few moments more, and from the look he saw in Ashlynnâs watery, emerald eyes, she could use those moments too.
Jocelynn was no stranger to armor, and sheâd played with the pieces of her fatherâs armor on more than one occasion as a child. But Rhys Blackwellâs armor was ornate and mostly ceremonial, and even the most intricate, gilded pieces of his armor couldnât compare to the heft of the battered, scuffed plates in her hands.
"Is it, is it all like this?" Jocelynn said, looking at her sister with wide open eyes as her fingers traced over the scuffs and places where the plates had been hammered back into shape. It didnât look like the sort of armor sheâd seen at tournaments at all, even after the matches were over and the brilliant plates were scuffed and worn. It looked like armor that had gone to war...
"Itâs the armor that I learned to fight in," Ashlynn said, sighing in relief as Ollie helped her out of the heavy breastplate that had come to feel like a steel cage around her chest. It had been necessary to face Owain, more so than she would have believed when she first donned the armor, and it had done its job well tonight.
For moments like this, however, it made her feel like she was trapped in a cage that cut her off from feeling the world or truly touching the people around her, and she couldnât wait to be rid of it.
"It had to be strong enough to stand up to training with Sir Thane and Dame Sybyll," Ashlynn explained, making small talk as she tried to find a way to work up to the more serious things she needed to say. Her sister wasnât the only one who needed a bit of extra time.
"The plates are extra thick," Ashlynn said, gesturing to the vambrace that protected her forearm and the large crack that had been forged back together after a particularly stupid move on her part on her second day training with Sybyll. "Even then, some parts had to be repaired."
"Iâm not looking forward to practicing with Dame Sybyll," Ollie said, shuddering lightly as he imagined squaring off against the famed Crimson Knight. "I saw what the forest looked like after you two were done practicing there...."
"Iâm sure sheâll be gentle," Ashlynn said with a light laugh as she started helping with the laces on her tessets, passing the heavy plates over to Jocelynn while Ollie went to work on other pieces of her armor. "She said that she never had a little brother before, but since Thane took you in, sheâll take care of you, too."
"Thatâs what Iâm worried about," Ollie said with a light chuckle. "Sheâs not entirely happy that Marcel only trained me to fight with knives. She told Erkembalt to start making shields for me, and to make more than one because she expects to break a few before sheâs done," he said, shuddering again at the thought of how much force it would take to destroy anything crafted by Erkembaltâs hands.
But if it was Sybyll...
"Is, is Dame Sybyll really that fearsome?" Jocelynn asked as she looked between Ollie and her sister. "I, I canât imagine a knight who would trouble Sir Ollie..."
"Jocey," Ashlynn said a touch awkwardly as she shimmied out of her chain mail, dropping the heavy garment onto the floor with a loud -CHIIINK.-
"Sybyll is a vampire," Ashlynn said once sheâd straightened up. "Her strength isnât something that most people can contend with... even for a witch like me," she said, looking directly into her sisterâs wide, seafoam eyes.
"So, so you really, really are..." Jocelynn stammered, still holding one of the last pieces of Ashlynnâs armor in her hands. Her mind had stopped working the moment Ashlynn said the word âvampire,â and by the time she heard the word âwitch,â she all but forgot to breathe.
"I can explain," Ashlynn said gently. "And I hope youâll hear me out. But if youâre afraid, and you donât want to be near a witch," she started hesitantly. "I can go until you can have someone like Sir Elgon or Captain Albyn at your side..."
"No!" Jocelynn said, dropping the armor in her hands to fling her arms around her sister. "No, donât go, donât leave me alone," she sobbed. "I just got you back, I wonât... I wonât let you go," she cried. "Even, even if youâre a witch. I, Iâm so much worse than that," she said softly. "And you still came back for me. So how, how could I send you away for that? How could I let go?"
"Oh, Jocey," Ashlynn said gently, raising her hands to stroke her sisterâs hair. There was a sharp, tight pulse of pain in the center of Ashlynnâs chest as the seed planted there constricted around her heart, but she ignored the feeling, focusing only on soothing her sister the same way she had so many years ago when thunderstorms drove a much younger Jocelynn into her big sisterâs arms.
A silent look passed between Ollie and Ashlynn over Jocelynnâs head before the young knight quietly withdrew, leaving the sisters alone at last...