There's no response from Dragon Fairy Elf Witch. 

Nikola comes into the room behind her, sets the oil lamp on the table, then goes and sits on the bed. 

She will watch, and wait, and listen.

Is she overlooking the entrance to the inn? Can she hear the conversation below? Even enough to make out if, say, people started screaming in terror?

Someone's definitely talking below her, but the floorboards muffle it. It sounds like there's being an argument, probably about what to do about the headman being missing.

It's really hard to make out much. The light of the lantern doesn't go far.

She really doesn't think there's anything obvious to do here but wait and peer into the darkness. Heading off alone means she won't be close by to protect the people in the inn, if it's needed.

Whatever's out there will either wait for them to come to it, in which case she should stay here, or it'll attack, in which case she should stay here.

Still. Doing nothing but staring out into the dark is nervewracking.

A humanoid silhouette lurches out of the darkness, dragging one leg in a shuffling limp. 

There's another one behind it to its left, with the same awkward gait, and on its right there's a third. Something gleams in its hands - a crude hatchet. 

She can barely make them out, but she already knows what they are, almost certainly. Slow, jerky, so humanoid.

She turns to Nikola.

"Zombies. Some armed."

She isn't sure whether trying to guard the inn is a better option than striking out and returning. Whatever's guiding these things will likely notice if she destroys them, and they can only reveal her presence once. The ideal moment would be exactly when the probably-vampire in charge reveals themselves. And there are probably zombies coming from every angle, or else one angle has been left open deliberately to herd the villagers into a better location.

Could she just strike out and kill those zombies and then demand single combat with whoever was controlling them? Likely not- they're sending zombies in ahead of themselves to fight villagers, they likely won't jump at the chance to fight another vampire.

Nikola simply nods, as if she'd seen them a thousand times before. 

"It is so." 

She shakes her head. "They will need us."

She steps over and closes the window's heavy shutters, careful not to expose herself to any shot in the process. 

She nods.

"Zombies not plan, so someone control. Could run, fight, kill. Demand duel. But someone is coward, sends zombies to fight humans in their stead. Would not fight, and you would be undefended. Will guard."

She shakes her head, genuinely annoyed. If she was going to have to deal with an evil something-or-other, why could it not be the simple kind of evil? The kind where she can just have a duel and then the problem's done with?

Well, it wouldn't be very narratively interesting, she supposes, if she could solve her problems via a No Thoughts Head Empty kind of plan and avoid any real risk to anything she cares about.

Nikola nods once again, picks up the lantern, and heads downstairs.

She follows.

The stairs down lead them into a crowd of armed men. It seems that the whole village has prepared for... something. 

All heads turn as Nikola leads Alethia into the crowd.

"Vedashnya," Nikola says. "Vargul na kirdath. Kardul kelgrath avanya." She makes a cutting motion with the hand that's not holding the lantern. 

It seems she's saying that there are zombies coming and that Alethia will fight for them. 

The villagers look at each other, but none of them speak to disagree. 

An older man replies. "Vedashnya. Vargul rena kelgrath." He nods to Alethia, then stands from his seat at one of the tables, raises a hatchet of his own, and proceeds out the door of the tavern. 

A half-dozen others follow him in rough order, drawing their own crude blades. Most of them have hatchets and patchy sets of leather armor. 

"They go to fight," Nikola says. "We stay, attack where needed. Not have word."

"Reinforce. Is wise."

It burns, to wait here and do nothing while others fight. But it's the right thing to do, the smartest thing. The one that, in expectation, results in the fewest people dying. She doesn't have a real vampire's hearing or ability to see in the dark. The inn could get broken in behind her and everyone slaughtered, if she runs off because she doesn't want to wait around.

And if she shows herself too early, whoever is controlling these undead might flee, and then they're a problem for other people somewhere else. And it doesn't matter if she doesn't see what happens as a result. It would be real regardless.

She does have the weight of narrative on her side. Does that change things?

Not in a way that changes what she should do here, she thinks. The narrative has its thumbs on the scales to make this a better story, for her and also in a less her-centered way. She doesn't know these people, besides Nikola. It will only work so hard to ensure she doesn't get them killed. And if she deliberately takes the action more likely to result in more deaths just because she feels like she has the narrative on her side, well.

It would be narratively appropriate, then, for her to lose something as a result, wouldn't it?

No, she feels like it's more that- circumstances will contrive so that she will think of the fact that leaving would be more likely to result in more death, and that very realization is the way in which fewer people will die. Because she will, having realized that, think these thoughts and then not take the action that results in everyone in this inn dying as she's away.

And so she will wait just where she is and not leave to help those brave, brave men. Even though she wants to. Even though that makes it more likely one or all of them will die.

Probably, probably, this is the right move.

If the narrative is leaning on the scales more than she thinks, those men will live through the night regardless of what she does. And if it's protecting her less than she thinks, she can't afford to do anything but the straightforwardly best option.

Probably.

Soon there's shouting from outside. 

A second group of a half-dozen men sets out from the tavern, leaving it deserted but for the women - Nikola, a half-dozen unarmored women with hatchets, and Alethia. Two of them take up positions by the door and ready themselves, and the remaining ones take lanterns up to watch the windows.

Alethia will likewise look out. Can she make out where the men are fighting? What's going on out there? Did the second group of men head off in the same direction as the first, or a different one?

There are shifting shadows out there, men and zombies clashing against each other. There seems to be a rough line of battle forming about thirty yards from the inn, but it's hard to tell who's winning.

Nikola watches as well, staring out into the shifting darkness at the edge of lamplight. She says nothing.

Well, there is in fact some way to tell approximately who's winning.They haven't called in the cavalry yet, so they can't be moments away from being overrun.

That distance isn't, well, far. She should be able to hear if anyone screams out in agony. Zombies are slow, not very good at fighting. If you want minions that have anything reminiscent of skill, you use skeletons.Probably the goal is to wear the defenders out.