Holier Than Thou

[Emora Deen]

Her brow furrowed. "Unless you have any ideas I can only think of a few things that could help us with that. One involves a church or ceremony for Attara or calling on Verin to ask him... He knows my mother both before she became a goddess and after." Tenele pursed her lips together. She was frightened of Verin but at the same time facing her mother made her too nervous for words. "So do you think that my healing could be some form of power from the part of my mother that was a goddess?"

Tenele shook her head. "I can't believe I am saying this."

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad shook his head ambiguously. "All I know is that when people need miracles, they pray to gods. And if your father is to be believed, Tenele, you are half goddess."

"Calling on Verin for favors spells bad judgement in bright red paint. If we want to get to your fairer roots, we might be wisest to turn to the people who know Attara best. Though elves are not known to be particularly welcoming of half-elves and vampires. Admittedly, perhaps moreso for the vampires."

[Emora Deen]

Tenele nodded. "I agree about it being unwise to seek favors from Verin, and I am not quite ready to face Attara as my mother... So maybe speaking to the elves is best. There is a village to the west about a day. I am not sure if it is the one Attara was from so many hundreds of years ago, but they would have the answers and know the origin. That means we will need to journey further from Ighten. We are more than a week away already."

Tenele brushed her silver hair behind her ear. "They may not even agree to speak to us, but we have to try."

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad studied her for a few moments, letting the conversation sink in. "You're going to want to leave now, aren't you?" he realized.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele looked to the window, and the snow storm outside. "Yes," she whispered. She'd already put on her boots in the fit of anger she'd had momentarily. Even had her cloak draped across her shoulders. "I want to leave now... But, the storm. We'll have to wait until it passes."

And until then, Tenele would try her best not to climb the walls. "I'll just keep reading." She did just that, reading well into the night until she fell asleep sitting at the edge of the bed, leaning against one of the posts, and hunched over the book. By then, the storm had cleared.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad climbed up onto the second story and lounged there against the banister, watching down between the rails at his new wife. It certainly hadn't taken him long to raise a conflict between them. He watched her turn the pages of the book he'd pilfered and let himself ponder over what Talon had asked of him. The cat was out of the bag now. He admired her anyway, watching the stern line of her eyebrows as she studied into the night. When she finally nodded off, he carried the blanket from the master bedroom down and lay it across her. Sitting on the floor next to the sofa, he leaned his head back on the cushion next to her hip and stared at the ceiling. He thought about what they would need to get to the elves the next day. He thought about Talon, and Tenele, and the holy band encircling his finger. A vampire could accomplish a lot of thinking on a sleepless, snowy night.

When the sun rose the next morning, Vlad had already packed their things.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele blinked her eyes open, glancing around the unfamiliar room until she remembered it was the house that she and her husband were occupying for their honeymoon. The sun was shining outside, glowing a bit brighter from reflecting off newly fallen snow. She gave a heavy sigh, and closed the book. Her body felt stiff from the position she'd kept most of the night, but nothing that walking around wouldn't fix.

She left the book on the cushion and stretched her arms above her head, arching her back to work out the tenseness. Afterwords she gathered the book in her arms and stepped into the foyer.

"Vlad?" she called quietly, knowing that his keen ears could hear her regardless. She noted their bags, stuffed with supplies, waiting by the door.

[Soran Nightblade]

The no-life king stepped out from the master bedroom upstairs. "Morning," he said from the banister. The next moment, he was standing beside her. "How was your studying?"

[Emora Deen]

"Exhausting," Tenele replied with a smirk. "I couldn't make heads or tails of this damned book, and I'm not sure if it was because I was tired or because it really doesn't make any sense." She went to the window. "Seems the storm has cleared. It will take a little while to get to the elves... that is to say if we know where we're going. Are you ready?"

Tenele reached into her bag for her gloves, pulling them on over her slender hands and concealing her wedding band. She wrapped the cloak, with the hood and shoulders lined in a warm fur mantle about her, lifting it to cover her silver hair. "You're lucky you don't have to worry about things like frostbite," Tenele told him with a gentle smile.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad nodded. "I know how to get to their territory. Getting into their city is a different issue, but we can work on it when we're nearer." He reached out and took the book from her. "There's a mare outside who seems like she'll hold us both. I'll study if you'll drive." He met her eyes curiously. She seemed better composed than he'd expected. Perhaps the consequences of keeping Talon's secret wouldn't be as difficult to weather as he'd guessed. He leaned in and kissed her lips lightly. "I'm sure this field trip will be educational," he said.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele accepted his kiss, but didn't return it as she normally would. She loved him, she couldn't deny that. Even still, she was angry with him for keeping something so important a secret. But, what could she do about it now? "I think I can manage driving," she told him as she gathered her bag and stepped out the door. They saddled up the horse with their supplies. Tenele took the front of the saddle, scooting forward as far as she could to allow Vlad the rear. Luckily she was small enough not to take up much room.

Then, they set out.

"We'll have to avoid any towns that look like Arken has taken over. We can assume they occupy many villages, being this close to the border." Tenele frowned as it occurred to her that the elves themselves might be overrun with Arken soldiers and demons alike. "Alright, guide and master scholar... better start giving directions to your driver."

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad sat behind the saddle facing backwards. He leaned back against Tenele and crossed his legs across the horse's rump as they rode. "We can head east for about five miles. Then, we'll leave the train and get lost. Literally, completely lost."

[Emora Deen]

Tenele nearly pulled the horse to a stop. "Lost?" she asked him, nudging their ride onward. "That sounds like a great plan." She set her teeth together, not willing to argue the point with him.

Tenele went the five miles he instructed and veered the horse off the path and into the middle of the woods. She pointed her a direction, and let the beast wander over roots, and dips, and between tight rows of trees and brush until they reached a point so thick in the Ashgrown forest that the canopy in summer blotted out the sun, and it was sparse of short brush. The landscape in warm days would be a cluster of root webbed earth sprinkled with pine needles and leaves. With the coldness of winter the leaves had fallen, and white peppered the earth. It was a haunting, isolated, landscape of black bark trees and cold snow.

She stole a glance behind them. "Are you sure about this?" Her cheeks were rosy and wind-kissed.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad shrugged as he turned a page in the book. "Every time I've ever encountered elves, this was how I found them. Or in this case, they'll find us. He gestured to the now-exhausted mare they were riding. "Their lot have more empathy for the likes of her than the likes of us. I doubt they'll let us ride her for long. Sorry, girl," he gave the mare a sympathetic pat. She twitched her tail in annoyance at her fidgety rider and picked her way through the woods as she saw fit.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele huffed, hot air billowing as fog before her face. "I don't think this is going to wo-" Tenele jumped at the prick on her neck. She reached up, drawing away a brown dart with a ruffled feather. "What the..." Even as the words started to leave her mouth they slurred together. The dart slipped from her fingers and she slipped sideways off the horse.

Shadows lurked behind the blackened trees, and from the branches. Vlad was left to meet his own onslaught of tipped darts.