The wine affected Conner even more than Vero, and he started to doze. She kept a firm eye on him to be sure he did not slip under the water and drown. The pleasant buzzing in her head also led her closer towards Diana.

  “How did a giantess come here in the first place?” Vero asked. “I’ve heard that it’s not as uncommon for women to become hunters or warriors among your people as it is with us, but you seem to be the only giant within the Order.”

  Diana laughed. “Yes, I sometimes forget that humans want to treat their women like they’re made from glass. I suppose we’re so used to being much stronger than other races that the marginal differences between male and female lose their relevance. I’m only half-blood, mind you. My mother is over a foot and a half taller than I am. And she told me they sometimes made fun of her for being short as a girl.”

  “I suppose it must have taken some bravery for a man of human proportions to court such a lady.”

  “Well, we Vangrians have interbred with giants for millennia. Among us, he was considered a human due to some Imperial roots in his family tree, but my father was nearly seven feet himself.”

  “I wondered how a giant came by a name like Diana. I’ve heard stories about your people, but I’ve never come so far north before.”

  “It’s obvious enough in the lackadaisical way you pronounce your old Imperial.”

  “Is it true that you have no kings?”

  “Yes and no. Each tribe has a jarl, who rules as a king does- more or less. The jarls of southern tribes have even been known to act as electors in Teutonia. However, we pass no rights or privileges through heredity. The clan elders select the new jarl, typically when the previous dies. But they also assemble to remove a living jarl, if he proves himself unable to lead. Life is very harsh on the tundra, so we show less tolerance towards incompetence in our leaders than you do in the south.”

  “A wise attitude, whether one’s climate is harsh or not.”

  Diana smiled at her. “I’m glad you think so.”

  Vero put a friendly hand on her knee. “Do your people often become slayers?”

  “About as often as any other type of person, since the academy closed itself off from the outside world. Many Vangrians and giants served proudly in the old days.”

  “How did you come to join the Order?”

  Diana’s face turned hard, but it did not seem that Vero herself had caused the offence. After a moment of silence, she spoke. “Almost two decades ago now, very soon after I first grew into a woman, Konstantine came to our clan while hunting a draugr. What you call a vampyre in the south.”

  “I know the term.”

  Diana continued. “Even then, Konstantine was the eldest of our order to still draw free breath. Along with Iosephus, he’s the only full-blooded elf still among the Order not locked up in that damn tower.”

  Diana spat, as was her habit. “He’s more than a thousand years old, or so he told me. Although he still looks fair enough to my eyes for such a fossil. We were traveling the tundra, following the mammoth migration. My father was our clan elder, and sensed the vile presence even before the slayer’s arrival. Konstantine sought shelter with our clan, and requested hunters to assist him in bringing down the abomination he sought. I know you’ve lost the ancient traditions in the south, but we still follow the old ways, and my father agreed at once. I was among those to accompany the slayer, along with my mother, and my husband.” She paused.

  Vero had obviously tread upon a difficult story to retell. “You don’t need to say more- if it troubles you.”

  “It doesn’t profit a woman anything to let the past control her. We went with Konstantine, found the creature’s resting place, dragged it out into the sunlight to burn, and celebrated our easy victory. We didn't know that the draugr had foreseen our arrival, and blooded a decoy to lure away our best warriors. When we returned to our camp the next day, we found a slaughter- without bodies. That night the draugr fell on us with the animate corpses of my clan. I watched my mother kill my own father to grant him the final rest that striga denied him.

  “The battle was ruthless and lasted almost the whole night. The draugr murdered Ragnar, my husband, with his own hands. He might have even killed Konstantine, if I hadn’t stopped him with an arrow through the heart. When the sun finally rose, there were less than a dozen of us left.”

  “I lost…” Vero began, before trailing off. “My own story is similar…”

  “They all are. Our profession is no more natural than those we hunt. A living creature only comes to it by certain means, and they’re few in number. My mother led the remains of our clan to join the maiden-clan she was born into- but I could not go with them. My father and husband were dead, and someone – something – needed to pay that blood debt. I knew one destruction could never satisfy the yawning void I felt in my heart. I intended to exterminate those foul creatures until nothing preyed in the night, or until I fell in battle.”

  “You became apprentice to Konstantine?” Vero asked.

  Diana nodded. “He refused, at first. I don’t think any slayer with a remaining shred of dignity in their breast could do otherwise. But he saw the look in my eyes, and knew it too well. I followed him… learned from him… and became close to him in the way men and women do. I never laid eyes on this fortress until I was already nearly a journeyman- he trained me himself. I only came here as a formality to end my apprenticeship- not so different from you, perhaps.

  "Should have brought another skin...” Diana drank the greater part of the first by herself, and her words were beginning to gently slur together. “...two wineskins for three people- not enough. Nor enough for two and a half people either.” She barked a laugh.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Pour it into one cup, and we can share it,” Vero suggested.

  “Sensible girl. Putting your mind to something useful, at last!”

  Vero ducked herself under Diana’s arm to take a sip of wine, and did not remove herself when she was finished. “Do you ever go on hunts? Now that you hold a rank like master slayer, I mean?”

  “So many questions! I sometimes forget you haven’t always been one of us.”

  Vero leaned against the giantess and rested her head across Diana’s shoulder. “It makes me happy to hear you say that. You’re one of the few here I would like to consider a friend.”

  Diana had a funny sort of smile on her face. “I think you may have had too much to drink.”

  “No, not too much-” Vero’s fingers started to explore the interior side of Diana’s leg. “-but answer my question.”

  “Yes, sometimes. But not when so many masters are away from the fortress.”

  Her fingers played along Diana’s thigh. “I’m glad you’re here with me now. How long has it been since you last left?”

  “Two years now. And it feels it. I hope Demetrius returns soon- but I won’t go on another hunt until your matter has been settled.”

  “You’re very kind to me.” Vero kissed her cheek. “Where has he gone- Demetrius. And when is he expected to return?”

  “He went down into the Pict highlands. There've been stories of hauntings coming from there, probably barrow wights. But there’s hardly any civilization there- no offense intended. I only meant that there’s no way to know what’s really happening. Stories are becoming less frequent, so he must be hard at work. He’ll return when he’s finished, with a whole flock of new apprentices, if I know Demetrius.”

  “My father came from the highlands, but he stayed in Velois when he married my mother. I was raised there.”

  “I though some root of your own family tree must come from there when I saw your hair. Pentarch’s looked just the same before it turned grey. He would have been the one to go on that barrow wight hunt- Pentarch I mean… but he was ordered to watch you. Listen Vero, that tickles…”

  Vero continued to kiss Diana along her face and down her neck. The giantess eventually needed to wrap her arm around Vero to hold her back.

  “You taste so sweet; you must be sweating wine.”

  “You’ve had enough wine,” Diana replied.

  “I told you I haven’t.” Vero squirmed playfully, but Diana kept her hands pinned with a single armed embrace. Diana offered her the cup for another sip, which Vero accepted. “But I promise I won’t try to kiss you again so long as you hold me closer to you like this. What about the master who trained you? Where has he gone?”

  “Konstantin is the next eldest after Iosephus- the next-eldest of those of us that can still stand fresh air, I mean. Not that Iosephus does so often. He’s more than half an elf, but not enough that he isn't considered low caste. He was already old when he brought me here as a novice. He left for the Alfsteppe more than a decade ago.”

  “Has he sent word? Why haven’t you sent a party to search for him?”

  “Iosephus and Pentarch say he often stays away for long stretches of time. They knew him before he took me as an apprentice… but I plan to leave and do as you suggest very soon.”

  “Perhaps we could go together. I can make myself pleasant traveling company when I chose to.”

  “You would be very welcome.”

  “Hold me with both arms, won’t you?”

  “No, I think you should sit further away.” Diana held Vero out at arm’s length. “If I wanted to bring a woman to my bed, there are several scullery maids who don’t protest no matter who tries to tumble with them. My desires only extend to those that are natural between women and men.”

  Her words were not harsh, her eyes suggested something more like pity. Vero thought that might be worse.

  She slunk back at the rebuke, saying nothing. Diana was one of the few people in the fortress whose personal esteem mattered to her, so Vero hoped she had not offended her irrevocably.

  Regardless, she still accomplished her goal of learning the location of the remaining master slayers. Offended or not, at least Diana had not noticed anything suspicious in Vero's interrogation.

  She had no intention of going into the Alfsteppe, but some of her possible escape routes could have taken her near the highlands. She decided that if she needed to make an escape, she would stay as far to the east as she could until she passed through Teutonia.

  Conner almost fell asleep, so Vero helped him out of the water. She dressed herself quickly, then helped Conner back into his own things. The lad obviously could not hold his wine, because he was out on his feet.

  Diana packed up everything they brought with them, and they all trudged back towards the fortress.

  Conner needed to pause and make water. He managed without Vero’s help for the most part, fortunately, but then he fell into a snow bank on the way back to them and she needed to help him up.

  They returned to the infirmary, and Diana bid them goodnight before returning to her own quarters. Lothair was there to act as the night watch. He worked on his records and accounts to pass the time.

  Vero helped Conner back out of his boots once more and into bed.

  “May I ask you something personal?” she whispered, quietly enough that Lothair would not overhear them.

  “Anything you wish,” Conner answered, at a similar volume.

  “Have you ever left this fortress?” The air around her felt very chill after the warmth of the hot spring. Vero slipped under the blanket beside Conner.

  “Yes, on occasion. Lothair sometimes lets me accompany him on supply missions to our warehouse in Burgorod... down the ferry to the hidden farm…” He instinctively nestled into an embrace in a wine-soaked stupor, like a babe seeking its mother.

  The ferry to a hidden farm? That was an interesting piece of information for him to let slip. Questioning him about it further risked him noticing what he had done, but the lad obviously knew the way to this ferry, and that she could use.

  “You’ve never been farther than that city?” she asked.

  “No…” His voice sounded lonely a moment, before brightening. “...but once I reach the rank of journeyman, I’ll be able to go where I like.”

  “Do you actually wish to become a slayer?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You never chose to be born here. If there was another way for you to leave here besides becoming a slayer, would you wish to take it?”

  He thought about it a moment. “I don’t know. Didn’t- I mean- don’t you want to be a slayer?”

  “For me, it’s not a matter of want. I believe that it is my purpose in this life to hunt monsters. But I also know better than anyone that it’s a hard and cruel life. You’ve had a better opportunity than most to see the human wreckage this profession leaves behind. In a decade – or maybe sooner – that could be you. I would not wish this life on anyone that does not choose it of their own free will.”

  “Well, it seems I won’t have that choice. But I am determined that I won’t be trapped here forever as part of the garrison… or one of the domestics.”

  He was still gawky and awkward as he grew into his body, but handsome. Vero pondered the lad’s age. How old was he?

  The same age when your master took you.

  Too young.

  Much too young.

  Vero put the matter out of her mind entirely. “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

  Conner shook his head.

  “The dark elves of the south believe that any man who stands with you in the face of death is your brother. I would be pleased to call you my brother, if you wish.”

  “Of course, my Lady.”

  “Now, my only condition is that you stop calling me that. If you must be formal from this point on, call me your elder sister.”

  Vero wrapped him up tight in her arms, and he nestled against her chest. The drink was already putting him to sleep, and his words slurred as he lost consciousness. “Sister... love… you…”

  Vero closed her eyes and joined him in slumber.

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