The Vampire & Her Witch

”Mother will be here tomorrow...”

Jocelynn’s hand trembled as she held the slip of parchment, shaking badly enough that she had to set the message down for fear of dropping it. Just a few words, but suddenly she felt like she was no longer sitting on solid ground. The world tilted as if she were on the deck of a pitching ship, and she could hear the sound of crashing waves filling her ears.

”...cey! Jocey!” Ashlynn said, reaching out and catching her sister before she fell out of her chair.

She said something else; Jocelynn could see her lips moving, but she couldn’t hear the words through the sound of the waves. Then she was falling, or she felt like she was falling. Ashlynn was getting further and further away, and so was the ceiling beyond her and the writing desk and everything else.

The candles weren’t right either... They still burned in the edges of her vision, even the ones that had melted down to stubs, but they didn’t seem to give off any light, and the whole room plunged into darkness.

Some time later, Jocelynn’s eyes drifted open again, and she found herself staring up at the whitewashed ceiling of her sitting room.

”Ash?” Jocelynn said as she tried to sit up. She was lying down on the room’s most comfortable sofa with her feet propped up and a light blanket draped over her, even though she couldn’t remember moving from her desk. Her sister must think...

”Right here,” Ashlynn’s voice came from beside the sofa, followed a moment later by a cool cloth laid over Jocelynn’s brow. ”Don’t move yet, take your time.”

”I’m fine, I...” Jocelynn said as she tried to push herself up, only for the room to tilt again, stopping her from moving before Ashlynn’s hands could arrive to settle her back onto the cushions.

”I’m sorry,” Jocelynn said. ”I.. I don’t know why I....”

”What have you eaten today, Jocey?” Ashlynn prompted in her best big-sister voice. ”Besides the soup and bread.”

”I ate breakfast,” Jocelynn protested. ”A boiled egg and toasted bread with honey.”

”And nothing since then?” Ashlynn asked.

”I was busy,” Jocelynn said. ”Besides the reports from the villages, I met with Onen LeGleau and, and there was another fellow, a master from the Carter’s Guild. What was his name?” Jocelynn asked, struggling to remember the man even though she could picture his sturdy frame and perpetually sour expression clearly.

”You’re working too hard, Jocey,” Ashlynn said gently, pressing the back of her fingers to her sister’s cheek, then sliding lower to feel the pulse in her neck. ”That settles it, you and I are spending the day together tomorrow.”

”Tomorrow,” Jocelynn said, her eyes going wide and her pupils growing large. ”Mother, and Cousin Micheline... Of course, of course, we need to prepare,” Jocelynn said. ”She’s the mother of an empress now; the streets should be lined with townsfolk to welcome her, and we should prepare a retinue for her.”

”I’m sure Sir Elgon will be willing to lead her honor guard,” Jocelynn said as her mind worked rapidly to assemble the details. ”And Sir Beathan, he...”

”No,” Ashlynn said, pressing a finger over her sister’s lips. ”No honor guard. No parade through the city. No grand reception. None of it.”

”But...” Jocelynn started to protest until she saw the resolved expression on her sister’s face. The same expression she’d seen ten years ago when Ashlynn told her they had to stay at their father’s side while he received the barons of the county at the manor instead of going to the docks to watch the ships arrive.

”Ash, if we don’t show her the respect she deserves,” Jocelynn said, hoping a logical argument would work. ”How will the lords learn to treat her like a member of the royal family and not just a countess from the coast? Especially Dirar and the rest of the Eldritch delegation; they don’t know how important she is...”

”Jocey,” Ashlynn said sternly. ”It’s Mother. She doesn’t need all of the fuss. Besides, if we have to put on a show of receiving her, with Ipiktok and his giants and Dirar’s Swift Hooves and Long Horns, Jalal’s Soft Paws and everyone from the Vale... don’t you think that might be a bit frightening for Mother? And if not her, then what about Micheline?”

”We shocked the lords of the march just a few days ago,” Jocelynn pointed out. ”They did fine for the most part, and Mother is much stronger than them...”

”We prepared the lords for that,” Ashlynn said, shaking her head. ”And we had days to do it. This is different. Besides,” she added in a softer tone. ”After all these months, I finally get to see Mother again... I don’t want to welcome her as an empress.”

”Tomorrow night, I have to be the empress in front of everyone for the contest between the Southern Steppe and the Aleese,” Ashlynn said. ”So, before that, I’d like to be just ’Ashlynn,’ having a nice family meal with my sister, mother, and cousin. We can cook something nice for them,” she suggested.

”Ash... I don’t cook,” Jocelynn said as she made another attempt to sit up on the sofa. This time, Ashlynn let her try, and she made it back to upright, even if she did need to lean on the plush arm of the sofa for support once she did. The world only tipped a little, like a ship tied to the pier instead of a ship at sea, and it settled in the span of a few heartbeats.

”I know,” Ashlynn said. ”We’ll do it together. We can borrow the Gilded Horns from Marcell and Master Jean so we don’t have to receive Mother in this stuffy place,” Ashlynn said. ”And there won’t be anyone to bother us in the kitchen.”

”We’ll make a whole day of it,” Ashlynn added with a smile that looked a little bit strained. ”We can take a boat out on the river in the morning to go fishing for something fresh, and then cook whatever we catch.”

”Oh,” Jocelynn said, finally starting to understand what her sister meant when she said they’d make a day of it. It seemed like she really did want to escape from being the Evergreen Empress for a bit.

”I can tell Captain Albyn,” Jocelynn offered, placing her hands on the sofa as she prepared to stand. ”He can ready a ship and a crew for us and...”

”No,” Ashlynn said firmly as she set a hand lightly on Jocelynn’s shoulder, stopping her from getting up. ”Just the two of us, Jocey. We’re Blackwells after all, aren’t we? If we can’t manage a coble and a few fishing lines between us, we should tell Father to strike our names from the family rolls because we’re unworthy of the Blackwell name.”

”A coble?” Jocelynn said in disbelief as she stared at her sister. ”Just you and me on a tiny boat on the river? Fishing? Ash, the river is freezing this time of year, and you don’t know how to swim. If something happens and you go over...”

”I know how to swim now,” Ashlynn said smugly with a wide smile on her lips. ”Nyri taught me. But we won’t go over, I promise,” she added. ”And if I do, then you can laugh at me and tell Mother all about it when she gets here.”

”You have answers to everything, don’t you?” Jocelynn pouted. ”You’re not going to let me say no to anything.”

”Of course I have answers to everything,” Ashlynn said. ”I’m your big sister, aren’t I? But I’ll make it up to you. You get to decide what we’ll cook for Mother. Anything you want, I’ll figure it out, but you have to promise to help. Deal?” Ashlynn asked.

”Deal,” Jocelynn said. ”But do you really think we’ll be able to go out on the river by ourselves without anyone following us? If we’re out on the water surrounded by a bunch of lords who just ’happen to have the same idea’ about a morning fishing trip...”

”You let me take care of that,” Ashlynn said. ”Just dress warm and pack yourself a spare dress for dinner with Mother, nothing fancy, and be ready before dawn. We’ll slip out of the manor through the kitchens,” she said. ”Just like old times...”