“Of course.” Herr von Krallemann sighed heavily. “Unfortunately, none of our residents are likely toventure far from here any time soon—and I would never ask it of any of them. I suppose I could write to a few people I know here and there, but when it comes to effectively spreading the news, we would need at least one agent who was actually inclined to travel.”
“Andgood at talking to people,” Herr Fischer said glumly. “Even total strangers! They’d have to meet new peopleall the time.”
Margaret winced in empathetic horror.
“Actually...” The tone of her husband’s voice alerted her; she turned swiftly to him and found him blinking as if stunned–or as if he’d just had a revelation. “As it happens,” he said slowly, “Idon’t mind talking to strangers. I rather enjoy meeting new people. And my wife’s career is likely to take us a good number of places across the continent for many decades to come.”
“It certainly will,” Margaret said. “We have always planned to travel.”
“But would it be too much for us to ask this task of you?” Herr von Krallemann asked. “I haven’t met many noblemen who activelylookfor any practical occupation.”
“Nor have I,” said Lord Riven ruefully, “but my wife’s passionate sense of purpose is inspirational...and it would, in fact, mean a great deal to me if any of my efforts could help younger members of our community enjoy a better experience than my own when I was first transformed.”
Empathetic murmurs soundedaround the room, and pride filled Margaret’s chest with warmth as she absorbed his words and the deep feeling behind them. “There couldn’t be any better candidate,” she told the rest of the room. “My husband isbrilliantat talking to people and forming connections wherever he goes.” How else could she ever have found herself welcome here?
Lord Riven’s lips quirked in reaction. “You honor me, my dear—but have you realized the corollary note? If I take on this role, there will be many more social functions in our future.”
Margaret grimaced, but she didn’t waver. “You’ve always supportedmylife’s work. Of course I would be proud to support yours...even if I do have to suffer through a bit of society along the way.” If nothing else, tonight had proven that shecouldmanage social warfare when it was needed.
And everyone who shared the room with them now was proof that strangerscouldsometimes become friends, after all.
“But is all this secrecy too much to ask of our famous lady scholar?” Olga’s gaze was sharp on Margaret’s face. “Truthfully, Lady Riven,couldyou bear to keep this kind of study private from the wider scholarly community? Every fascinating new detail you uncover about Reflection’s Heart and the Seed? Every radical new finding that might possibly dethrone your rivals in the field and imprint your name into the history books?”
Perhaps, if Margaret had been a better, sweeter, orsofter person, that question might not have stabbed so deeply...but she was no longer hiding from her own reflection, and she answered Olga’s question with steady honesty. “For the sake of my husband and everyone else here, I can. However, I will also hope that one day, in the far future, it won’t have to be kept so secret anymore.”
Olga’s eyebrows rose above her eyes as her internal eyelids flicked open and closed again in a quick, horizontal motion. “How far in the future are you thinking?”
“Far,” Margaret repeated firmly, and turned back to her husband. Perhaps this particular conversation would be better held in private, but after everything the inn’s other residents had done for them today, it felt only fair to share it now and clear the air. “Idowant to take you up on the offer you made me so many months ago. I will share your gift of immortality...but not yet.”
His eyes had widened at her first words, but at her last, he shook his head sharply and stepped back, leaving clear space between them. “Don’t feel pushed to take that step only to please me, my dear! You know you needn’t change anything about yourself for my sake, now or ever.”
“I know,” she said and closed the distance. “I’ve been thinking about it, and thisiswhat I wish to do. I only need to wait another five or ten years, first, to make full use of all the opportunities that I have as a human. I couldn’t have saved you todayif I hadn’t been able to walk in the sunshine! And there isso muchI still want to explore while I can use the daytime hours—but then I can’t wait to explore the night with you for centuries to come.”
Lord Riven had always been a gentleman to his core; he would never disgrace her by swooping down to kiss her in front of others. But his hazel eyes gleamed with emotion as he reached out to lightly cup her face with fingers that trembled against her skin. “I will savor every moment with you,” he promised softly.
“And inthatcase...” Olga smiled enigmatically as she stepped away from the table. “My final questions have been answered. I’ve spent the last two days observing you, Lady Riven. I believe you can, in fact, be trusted,andyou’ve earned a professional reward for all that you did here today for us. So...”
Her big figure rippled, as if muscles were shifting in unusual places—or large, snake-like coils shifting underneath her gown—as she cocked her head. “Didn’t you say, last night, that no scholar had ever managed to study a real tatzelwurm, much less publish their findings in any of your precious scholarly journals?”
Margaret’s breath caught.
“I’ve spent the last two days observing you...”
She remembered that odd rustling in the trees as she had sat by the Diamantensee today...and again the day before as she had explored the forest.
She’d known a large animal was somewhere nearby. But an actual, draconic tatzelwurm?
Any scholar would leap at the chance to be the first to learn real, verifiable details about the most secretive and legendary creature in the Black Forest. And to be able to actually talk to one in person...!
“Iknewtatzelwurms must be able to shift forms!” she said. “Oh, I need a pencil. And paper. Oh,so muchpaper! I have to ask—gah, I haveso many questions! It could take me weeks to ask you all of them!”
The laughter that broke out around her in response was warmly indulgent, the sound of a community taking affectionate pleasure in her delight, and Olga’s smile was broad. “Then it’s a good thing you’re welcome to stay as long as you wish. All of us will be happy to have you here.”
Theyhadplanned,in the beginning, to stay only a month—but it was nearly six weeks later that Margaret found herself walking back towards the inn in the early afternoon with Leonie by her side. They had spent that morning at the Diamantensee, studying Reflection’s Heart together...except for those times when Leonie had been happily distracted by her nixe lover. Lately, Gisela had taken to bringing her ever more astonishing—and occasionally appalling—gifts as part of their ongoing courtship.
A few years ago, Margaret wouldhave frowned in disapproval at what she might have seen as a sad lack of focus from such a promising young scholar. Now, she only smiled indulgently when Leonie disappeared with the nixe in the midst of their studies. After all, how could she begrudge them their pleasures when she had the deep delight of her own husband’s companionship every night?
Even so, now that the nachzehrer was no longer being tormented on a daily basis, she had proven herself a hardworking and clever student, soaking up information from the books that Margaret lent her and asking sharp, probing questions that would never have occurred to a human perspective. Margaret had every faith that, in not many years at all, Leonie would end up taking full direction of the work carried out here in the forest, drawing new students of her own...
