The Vampire & Her Witch

As soon as Ashlynn mentioned appointing a new lord, a fresh wave of murmurs spread through the hall, particularly among the knights of Hanrahan and Dunn. The elevation of Dame Sybyll and Lord Loghlan to Lord Governor already suggested that some of their knights could find themselves becoming Lord Gardeners, establishing a Ride of their own within their lord’s domain.

That was more advancement opportunity than any of them had dared to think about in the past, and some, like Sir Cynwrig and Lady Cerys, had already begun to whisper about the gap between their well-established villages and small towns like Maeril and Kermeen which had just become the centers of new Rides.

Stormbrook lacked very little and arguably had a more prosperous industry than either of the Lothian Towns... Perhaps, under Lord Governor Loghlan, they’d be among the first to step forward.

But a Lord Magistrate wasn’t a peer of the Lord Gardeners; it was a peer of the Lord Governors, and several of the knights who saw little hope of advancing through the prosperity of their villages suddenly wondered if their long years spent resolving disputes and dispensing justice on the frontier could become an alternative method of seeking advancement.

”Lady Ragna,” Ashlynn said, turning to Erling Fayle’s mother with a warm smile. ”I know we’ve only met briefly these past few days, but the reputation you built during the years you served as Erling’s regent echoes to this day.”

”As Lord Governor, I expect that Erling will be called to the Vale at least twice a year and that his duties will routinely take him beyond the borders of the protectorate,” Ashlynn said. ”And even if he isn’t, the magistrates of the Rides will need someone to look to for direction, to review appeals or hear cases where the magistrate may have a conflicting interest...”

”The responsibilities won’t be light,” Ashlynn said. ”But I believe the people of Fayle would benefit from your wisdom and experience.”

”I’m not unwilling,” Lady Ragna said, doing her best to avoid the look of pride she saw on her son’s face while she tried to understand why this honor was falling on her so unexpectedly. ”May I ask a few questions before I give an answer, your Dominion?”

”Of course,” Ashlynn said, gesturing for Ragna to speak her mind.

”You mentioned my ’reputation,’” Ragna said carefully. ”But what is it about my reputation that made you think I would be worthy of a position like this? Especially when my son already governs the protectorate? Isn’t it a bit much to place two people from the same family in separate positions of power within the protectorate?” Ragna asked, glancing briefly at Liam and Loghlan Dunn.

”Let me answer your second question before the first,” Ashlynn said, silently thanking Lady Ragna for opening a door for her to respond to the whispers that had grown in intensity since her declaration that Liam would serve as Lord Commander of Dunn while his father served as Lord Governor.

”Within the empire, power should rest in the hands of those best suited to wield it for the benefit of the people and the empire,” Ashlynn said. ”We’re breaking systems of inheritance and contests of strength because both resulted in people holding offices for which they were unqualified. We’re also separating the duties of lords because it’s incredibly difficult to find people who are competent in the wide array of responsibilities held by lords under the old systems,” Ashlynn explained.

”But the goal of these changes is, and always has been, to ensure that we have the best leaders available to serve the needs of the people and the empire,” Ashlynn said. ”If I deprived the Protectorate of Fayle of an exceptionally fair-minded and discerning magistrate simply because she was the current Lord Governor’s mother, who suffers?”

Ashlynn’s question could have been taken as rhetorical with an obvious answer that the people of Fayle would be the ones who suffered when some ’less qualified’ person was appointed to serve as Lord Magistrate, but Lady Ragna didn’t take Ashlynn’s tone as rhetorical. Rather, it sounded like a genuine question and, perhaps, a test.

No, not a test, Ragna realized. An opportunity. The Empresses had already appointed several women to positions of power within the realm, but each of them had been different in very important ways.

The men of the march could accept Lady Tosha holding power until her son came of age in the same way they accepted her serving as Erling’s regent all those years ago, though even then, there had been voices suggesting that one of the other barons should be appointed as Erling’s regent and protector, or one of the knights of Fayle... But now, when those same men looked at Lady Tosha, they looked past her to her son Riwal and expected that her tenure as Lord Gardener would be brief.

The fact that Lady Tosha’s Lord Warden was a Lady Warden likely didn’t enter the minds of the people at all. She was Eldritch, and that was reason enough for people who opposed change to oppose her. Those same people wouldn’t dare to oppose Dame Sybyll Hanrahan because the reputation of the Crimson Knight was far too intimidating for any to dare to raise their voice against her.

But Ragna was different. She came from the barony that held the least power in Lothian March; she was a woman, and she’d already retired from her role as Erling’s regent. As far as the more stubborn people of the march were concerned, there was no reason to give her the position of Lord Magistrate other than to curry favor or bestow some additional reward on Erling for forging a peace with the Southern Steppe.

If she wanted to be respected in this position, she would have to demonstrate her qualifications, and Empress Ashlynn had just given her that opportunity when she asked who would suffer for denying a family the ability to hold two positions of power.

”Everyone suffers when the empire can’t select two qualified people from the same family to serve,” Ragna said, speaking in the same tone she’d used many years ago to dispense justice from the throne of Fayle.

”It starts with the family itself,” Ragna explained. ”If a parent must retire before their child can serve, it plants a seed of discord in the family... The same seed of discord that led Owain Lothian to poison his own father in order to claim the throne of Lothian,” Ragna said.

”What you’ve done in Dunn by appointing Liam as Lord Commander removes that tension. Lord Liam has his own path forward without his father blocking him,” Ragna said, pursing her lips for a moment as she sorted her thoughts. ”At the same time, you remove pressure on Lord Loghlan to retire before he’s ready in order to make way for his son.”

”But the family strife goes beyond parents and children,” Ragna said, turning her gaze to Adala and Tulori Leufroy. ”Siblings are always competitive, but if only one of them can hold office, then what reason does the other have to become exceptional? How many second sons have we watched turn into spoiled brats or blights on their family’s name because they knew that they were nothing more than a ’spare’ in case something happened to the eldest child?”

At one of the side tables, Tybal Aleese flinched at the mention of a spoiled spare heir, and even Peigi looked uncomfortable as she recalled her efforts to keep Rain motivated as he searched for a way to step out of his older brother’s long shadow. She’d hoped that winning fame in tournaments would open a path for him, but even a doting mother had to admit that her second son had never found the kind of pride and purpose that helped shape his older brother’s character.

”The discord within a family becomes a rot that poisons the empire from within,” Ragna said, shifting her focus as she arrived at her conclusion. ”It’s a rot the Kingdom of Gaal has accepted since its founding. In the Kingdom of Gaal, the rot could be tolerated, in part, because it only affected men.”

”Now that women can hold positions of power directly instead of through their husbands or fathers, the same rot would spread twice as fast,” Ragna concluded. ”It cannot be tolerated by the empire if the empire is to grow and thrive.”