The Vampire & Her Witch

”Master Tiernan,” Ashlynn said as her eyes and voice softened. ”I never intended to ask you to help us wage war. Not this war at least. Whether you participate in the war that will follow this one or not is a different matter, but one I won’t ask you to decide for now.”

”Then what is it you want from us?” Isabell asked, keeping her focus on the question at hand. ”You went to so much trouble to draw us out here to the frontier. You went to even more trouble to bring us into the Vale of Mists. It can’t just be because of our friendship.”

”Yes and no,” Ashlynn said as she stood to pour fresh tea for each of the guild masters. ”Mater Isabell, no, Isabell,” Ashlynn said, trying to draw the other woman back into a conversation between friends. ”You told me once that you wanted to leave the wars of the old countries across the sea, so you could build something instead of tearing things down.”

”Out here, the Vale of Mists needs people who can dream of grand things to build,” Ashlynn said, gesturing at the ancient fortress around them and the city under construction beyond its walls. ”These wars have been a milestone, grinding away at the Vale of Mists for over a century and now there is very little left to give the people prosperity. They need industry. They need infrastructure. They need people to trade with and they need to produce things worth trading.”

The more she spoke, the more animated Ashlynn became and her eyes began to glitter with a vision of a brighter future, not just for the Vale, but for the humans in Lothian March as well.

”Take a look at this garden,” Ashlynn said, gesturing at the dormant garden as the rain continued to soak the soil of the garden beds and patter off the leaves of the few plants that remained green all through the winter.

”The time isn’t right yet for it to bloom,” she said. ”But come spring, we’ll plant new things in some places, tear out weeds from others, and in the end, it will be a beautiful garden to be enjoyed by everyone. It just needs someone to give it a little help,” she said as she walked over to the climbing trumpet vine that covered one of the columns of the gazebo.

Reaching out with one hand, Ashlynn summoned the faintest trace of power, allowing a rich, woody energy to flow into the vine. Her touch was delicate as she guided the plant into forming a bud, then gently encouraged that bud as it grew larger and stronger until a brilliant orange trumpet blossom sprang forth.

Both Guild Masters had already experienced a small ’taste’ of witchcraft when Heila brought them ’potions’ to mend their hangovers but this was their first time truly seeing it unfold before their eyes. Surrounded by the climbing trumpet vines that covered the ancient gazebo, they had the brief feeling that the plant was... happy to receive Ashlynn’s attention.

To Isabell, it felt oddly like a neighborhood cat. One that spent much of its time tending to its own needs, whether it was out in the rain or luxuriating in the sun. But, given the chance, it would rush toward any open door where a housewife set out the leavings from gutting a fish or a bit of cream to thank the hunter who kept their street free of rats. It shouldn’t have been possible for a plant to ’preen’ under a person’s touch the way an alley cat would, but to Isabell, that was exactly how the scene looked when Ashlynn called forth a blossom in the coldest month of autumn.

”Isabell, Tiernan,” Ashlynn said as she plucked the flower from the vine to present it to Isabell. ”All those months ago when I sent letters to Blackwell County, I had two goals. The first was to hamstring Owain, to slow down his efforts to bring soldiers across the sea for his Holy War. But the second, the reason I wanted to draw as many of you here as I could, was to help build the peace after the war.”

”I know it’s early to think about those things,” Ashlynn said as returned to her chair, flashing Isabell a look that said there were other things she needed to say but only to the other woman. ”It would have been impossible to bring you over once the fighting started, and at the same time, last night and today’s raids have given us cover for your ’disappearance.’”

”So, bringing us here really wasn’t about your war against Owain Lothian?” Tiernan asked as though he couldn’t quite believe it. ”You... you don’t want our help in this at all?” After months of Owain’s incessant negotiating that waffled between bullying and pleading, all to obtain their help to fight the ’demons’ it was strange to hear that the other side of the conflict had no need of their help at all. It left Tiernan feeling oddly... hollow.

He’d felt like he was becoming a man of greater importance, especially as the day he and Isabell would be conferred titles as knights drew closer. He thought himself a levelheaded man who hadn’t become arrogant about his growing profile in the social circles of Blackwell County and Lothian March. It was only now, when Ashlynn said she didn’t need his help to fight off Owain’s forces that he realized how much his sense of self importance truly had inflated, and she popped it like a bubble of soap.

”I told you,” Ashlynn said. ”You’re here as my friends and as my guests. I hope you can help me transform the Vale of Mists into something greater. But while I fight this war against my former husband, I do not expect your help in the fight.”

”Then, you don’t need an answer from us tonight?” Tiernan asked as he fought to regain his internal sense of equilibrium. Glancing at the trumpet blossom Ashlynn had placed in Isabell’s hand and then out at the rest of the vines covering the gazebo, he started to realize some of the more subtle meanings that Lady Ashlynn was trying to convey.

He might not be a courtly nobleman, but he’d spent enough time with them to understand that some things weren’t easily said directly, and that was even more true among noblewomen. It wasn’t that Ashlynn didn’t need him or that he wasn’t important to her cause... It was just that it wasn’t time to blossom yet.

”I’m getting ahead of myself, aren’t I?” Tiernan said with a snort at the realization he’d started to think of himself as someone who could be a beautiful flower in Ashlynn’s garden whose time to bloom simply hadn’t come yet. The comparison might be accurate but it didn’t suit his tastes at all.

”Not at all,” Ashlynn said with a gentle, welcoming smile. ”Take some time to think. In an hour or so, I can take you and Master Isabell on a tour of the city,” she offered. ”I’d like to show you what we’re building here so you can understand what I mean when I say that this is about more than just a war.”

The rain would slow the work in the city, but it wouldn’t bring it to a halt. After all, the Heartwood Clan were perfectly at home in water or on dry land, and many of them were helping to shape the way the city would manage water once it needed to serve thousands or tens of thousands of residents.

At the same time, there were a number of people who had come from across the mountains who were eager to finish their new homes, or their new workshops and businesses. Rain was a near constant companion in the Vale of Mists and if they waited for a dry day in autumn, they’d quickly find themselves building their homes in the snow come winter instead of taking shelter from the cold next to a cozy hearth in a home of their own.

So, while there might not be as much activity to show them as there had been a few days ago before the weather turned, there would still be more than enough happening for the guild masters to understand the scale of her efforts to transform the Vale of Mists. But before that, there was something else weighing on her heart that she could no longer put off.

”But, if you don’t mind,” she said, turning to face Isabell. ”I’d like to spend a little while talking to Isabell,” she said, steeling herself to have the conversation she could no longer hide from. She’d tried earlier in the day, fighting to focus on Virve’s reports and matters pertaining to the war but there were some worries that gnawed at her so painfully, she could never escape them.

Now, even though she knew that Tiernan had likely also spent time with Jocelynn since arriving and her parents in Blackwell County, she looked to her closest friend from home in the hopes that keeping the conversation between the two of them would make things easier to face.

”I won’t press you, either of you really, to give me information about anything you may have noticed about our enemy’s defenses, logistics or anything else to do with the war,” she added quickly. ”But, I hope you can tell me about my family... before you left home, and after you arrived as well.”

”I’m worried about Jocey,” Ashlynn said softly, blinking back the moisture that gathered in her eyes when she thought of her sister being in such close proximity to Owain, and worse, the idea that he would try to marry her sister to complete the alliance between their families that her own marriage to him had been intended to secure.

”I’m worried about how my parents are handling my ’death,’” she added. ”But with Owain around, I’m much more concerned about my sister.”