The Vampire & Her Witch Chapter 1759: The Missing Sir Rain

Sir Rain Aleese, the younger brother of the heir apparent to the Barony of Aleese, had been missing ever since the first night Lady Ashlynn’s forces began raiding Lothian March. He disappeared along with Hugo Hanrahan and the Guild Masters from Blackwell.

When Hugo Hanrahan and Master Isabell appeared alongside Lady Ashlynn, the entire Lothian Court had been abuzz with questions about where the missing lord from Aleese had gone. Now, Serle had his answer.

At the very least, he could say that Rain Aleese wasn’t living in squalor. His chambers were well furnished with plush sofas, intricately carved chairs and tables, and thick, soft rugs that all looked very comfortable. But ’comfortable’ only encompassed a fraction of the adjectives that could be applied to the room that Sir Rain occupied.

Charlotte would have been delighted. The curtains framing the window were a soft, pastel pink, trimmed with spills of cream lace, and that very same color had been applied to the upholstery of the sofas and chairs as well. Pale yellow cushions dotted the furniture and the floor, where Sir Rain sat, surrounded by a collection of delicate dolls in the midst of what looked like a young girl’s tea party.

"Missus Zedya," Rain squealed in delight, standing up quickly from his ’tea party’ to come rushing toward the door. But not before pausing to retrieve a soft, stuffed bear dressed in the same emerald green and midnight blue harlequin pattern as the gambesons of Lady Ashlynn’s soldiers.

"Missus Zedya," Rain gushed. "Did you bring a friend for me to play with again?"

"Rain," Zedya said in the stern sort of tone a mother uses with unruly children. "What did I tell you about greeting guests?"

"I’m sorry," Rain said sheepishly as he composed himself to offer a deep curtsy, yes, curtsy, to the open-mouthed baron.

Rain wasn’t a small man, and as a knight, he’d put the word ’heavy’ in ’heavy cavalry.’ He was built like a charging boar, and he had a face to match, with a pronounced underbite and a thick, heavy brow. Yet, for some reason, he was wearing a pale lilac colored dress, trimmed in even more spills of cream-colored lace and embroidered with dark purple butterflies. There was even a silver necklace hanging across his broad, hairy chest with a faceted amethyst jewel glittering just above the lace trim of his bodice!

"Hello," Rain said cheerfully. "My name is Rain Aleese, and I’m very pleased to meet you. I hope we can be good friends and play together," he said in the serious tones of a child introducing themselves to an important adult.

"And this is Rey," Rain added excitedly, holding out the stuffed bear and smiling widely as he straightened up from his curtsy to meet Serle’s horrified gaze. "I named him after my big brother, and he’s been my best friend ever since Missus Zedya gave him to me," he said proudly.

"I, I see," Serle said awkwardly as he stared at the knight who had once been known across the whole of the march for his unstoppable charges and the fiendish accuracy of his lance.

"Rain, I need to speak with Serle before he can play with you," Zedya said as she stepped into the room. "Why don’t you straighten up your dolls? You can pick one to keep out to play with, but the rest need to be put away by the time I’m done talking to your new playmate," she said sweetly.

"One plus Rey, right? I still get to keep Rey, don’t I?" Rain asked pitifully, clutching tightly to the stuffed bear.

"Of course you do," Zedya replied, reaching up to ruffle Rain’s hair, which Serle only belatedly realized had been tied into two neat pigtails at the base of his thick skull. "But be good and be quiet while Mister Serle and I are talking," she said, sending Rain to put away his dolls.

Serle swallowed heavily as he watched the burly knight looking at the collection of dolls with the same serious intensity Serle would have used when reviewing balance sheets before Rain carefully picked the dolls up, one at a time, and carried them over to a nearby shelf.

"Rain proved that he lacked manners, especially in how he conducted himself around women," Zedya said, drawing Serle’s attention back to her. "Lady Ashlynn felt like it would be good to give him lessons in order to correct his... deficiencies."

"Lessons?" Serle said, swallowing heavily. "And he, he’s playing along with this? Is it because you threatened him or... Or did you castrate the man to make him so.... So...." Serle stammered as he tried to imagine what kind of torture could reduce such a proud, rugged, and womanizing man like Rain to the pathetic creature he’d become.

"His body is perfectly intact," Zedya said, stepping close enough to Serle to place the tip of one finger on the center of his chest. "Just as yours will be," she added sweetly as her amethyst eyes began to glow.

"Me, no, no," Serle said, stumbling backwards as quickly as his feet would take him.

Zedya’s finger refused to budge from his chest, no matter how many steps he took. Worse, with that one finger alone, she was able to put enough pressure on his chest that rather than escaping through the open door, Serle found himself with his back up against the wall, with the door several inches out of reach.

"Don’t worry, Lord Serle," Zedya said as her amethyst eyes swelled in the baron’s vision, blotting out the world until they were all he could see and her voice was the only thing he could hear. "You don’t need to learn the same lessons Rain did. Your lesson will be entirely different."

"So tell me, Lord Serle," Zedya commanded. "Tell me about your life as a young boy. Was there a time in your life when you wanted to grow up to be strong and brave? Did you want to be a great knight like Sir Ollie? One who could ride to the rescue of his beautiful bride the way Sir Ollie rescued your Melsinde?"

"It’s not too late, you know," Zedya added, her voice coming from seemingly everywhere at once, wrapping around Serle’s mind like a soft, cozy blanket. A blanket so inviting that it wasn’t just pointless to resist; the idea of resisting itself felt silly. Why would anyone resist such a beautiful voice when it was so warm and filled with comfort?

"You can still grow up to be a brave and bold hero, just like Sir Ollie," the musical voice said. "We just have to go back to the beginning, when you still wanted to..."