The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

An Old Friend

His frown deepening and his eyes narrowing, Lash peered more closely at his visitor's face since she didn't seem to be in a hurry to name herself. Yes, there was something definitely familiar about the shape of her face, the curve of her jawline, the arch of her eyebrows, those bright eyes ...

"No," he exclaimed, his eyes flying wide. "Naryan??"

The vampiress laughed with delight and stepped close to allow herself to be pulled into a massive hug.

"I knew you'd figure it out eventually," she said as she squeezed him tightly, an embrace he found himself returning enthusiastically. "Ingamon Lash, so very pretty, but not very smart!" A final squeeze then she was leaning back without letting go of him to look up into his face.

"You might have all the liliths convinced you're some sort of vampire god-hero but I know better. You're still that super self-conscious, skinny kid from Frankfurt getting homeschooled by your dad and wondering what the world was like beyond the borders of the Lash family estate!"

Lash laughed with delight.

"You always saw right to truth's very bones, Narya," he said with a grin. "Kahr's Ghost, what are you doing here?" He looked down at her uniform. "Silver Legion?? I thought you were going to become a member of the Nightbreeze Science Academy and explore the world!"

"Yeah, gotta admit becoming m'tada was the furthest thing from my mind when you and I last talked, what? Sixteen years ago??" Naryan said, her smile becoming wry. She let go of him long enough to motion with her head towards the bed.

After they sat on the room's only place to actually do so, Naryan pulled off her boots and moved to sit cross legged in the middle of the mattress while Lash stayed on the edge. It also afforded him the opportunity to get his first real good look at a childhood friend he had last seen when they were both in their teens.

Naryan Kingsguard was the daughter of one of House Lash's allied Houses, and a member of clan Ventru. With wavy brown hair, currently pulled into a neat bun, she was classically beautiful, her oval face blessed with big, green eyes, pale, flawless skin, and the strong jaw of her ancestors. A number of his father's closest advisors and lieutenants were from House Kingsguard, the culmination of a thousand years of mutual support and military alliance.

It was a relationship that often saw children from both Houses, along with a handful of other trusted and allied families, socially mixing with each other from a very young age. Lash had met Naryan when they were both ten years old, when her father had brought her over on an official visit to the estate to talk about an upcoming economic treaty between Ventru and Nosferatu.

The two young vampires, quickly tiring of the dry discussion surrounding gross revenue balancing against logistical options and support, excused themselves to go and play outside under the month's first full moon. And quickly found themselves becoming the best of friends.

It would grow into a relationship that lasted well into their teens, through fights between rivals on the playground, bad romances with others, growing social pressure to properly represent their Houses, and the demands put on High Born children to be leaders in their communities and clans. Through it all they helped each other stay sane and balanced, grounded and real while the complicated world spun in chaos all around them. It wouldn't have been a stretch to declare the two best friends.

Then, in the fall of his sixteenth year, his father announced Lash would spend the next few years at the Ventru military academy in Berlin, learning how to become a proper nestari from the best military minds the clan had to offer. It was a move that had angered and dismayed Naryan, who saw her best friend about to leave her. Pleas to her father, Lord Kingsguard, to send her with him to the academy fell on deaf ears. Her duty would be to her House, not to the Ventru military.