Chapter 332: A Warning
Ashlynn paused for several minutes while she considered what the ghost had said. Without doubt, she would fight to protect Eldritch lives from human aggression. But seeing the indiscriminate destruction the other witch had unleashed that spread as far as a village full of people who weren’t trying to fight her... Men, women, children... innocents who had never threatened anyone were consumed by the flames unleashed by this righteous-sounding Mother of Trees.
War was war and in war, death was inevitable no matter how well a person fought. No amount of careful preparations or clever tactics could stop horrible things from happening once the first arrow was loosed from a bow. But innocents? She didn’t think she could ever put whole villages to the torch the way Claire du Gaal had done.
But then, Ashlynn even though the other witch had shown her a vision of a village in flames, she wasn’t sure that all of the atrocities attributed to the first human witch had actually been committed in the first place. There was often a bit of truth in the lies the church told. Nyrielle might not feast on the blood and bones of her victims but she did drink their blood. Likewise, Claire may have been responsible for some genuine tragedies, but was she really the cruel and wicked woman the history books portrayed her as? Somehow, Ashlynn doubted it.
"I understand protecting Eldritch lives," Ashlynn said slowly. "If you smell death on me then you know I am bound to a True Vampire. I... don’t see the world or the Church the way I once did," she admitted.
This time, as Ashlynn spoke, she focused on one of her own memories, filling the darkness with a scene from the night she’d killed Sir Broll in a trial by combat. It had been a gambit originally intended to preserve her life and the lives of Ollie and Harrod when they were caught and outnumbered, but once she reunited with Captain Lennart, the ploy had allowed her to smoothly capture Sir Broll’s men without risking the lives of Eldritch Soldiers.
"There are people who need to die for what they’ve done," Ashlynn said firmly. "But the common people shouldn’t suffer for their leader’s mistakes."
"Niave," the ghostly voice said in a tone heavy with disappointment. "Niave, but it’s still a beginning. Better than if you believed in the lies of the Church even after awakening to your own power. But you are too far from me to do much more than begin. What is your name, young Mother of Trees? Who are you?"
"I’m Ashlynn Blackwell," Ashlynn said almost automatically, introducing herself the way a noblewoman should, though she showed none of the deference that was due from the daughter of a Count to the sister of a King. As far as she was concerned, they were both the Mother of Trees and that made them equals no matter what their more worldly stations might be.
"I am the eldest daughter of Count Rhys Blackwell, and the Seneschal of Lady Nyrielle of the Vale of Mists," she said smoothly. "Most importantly, I am the current Mother of Trees."