Chapter 805: Samira’s Evolution (Part One)
Ashlynn took Nyrielle's hand and slowly guided her over to the sofa in front of the hearth. In the days since she'd learned of Jocelynn's treachery and lost control of her power, Heila had seen to the restoration of her chambers. The scorched rugs had been replaced along with the broken door, and the walls scrubbed free of soot.
Some traces, however, would take much longer to fade away, like the feeling of a dagger plunging into her heart as Isabel confirmed her worst fears and the memory of the devastated sitting room that echoed the devastation in her heart when she struggled to understand how things could have turned out like this.
"Like I said," Ashlynn began slowly as she took her seat next to Nyrielle on the comfortable sofa. "Jocey hated the way Samira reminded her of me. At one point, she demanded that Samira spend time studying so that she could hold a proper conversation."
"Jocey brought most of my books with her when she came," Ashlynn continued as she snuggled up close to Nyrielle, though her eyes remained fixed on the flames in the hearth. "She had to bring them in order to convince people that she was bringing them to 'me.' Since the books were there, she wanted Samira to read them. But… Samira could barely read, or at least, she could barely read in the beginning."
"Your sister taught her to read?" Nyrielle said, raising a brow in surprise.
"I think Jocey was trying to find a way to, I don't know, to grieve? To heal?" Ashlynn said, though she was deeply uncertain about Jocelynn's motives at the time. "Samira said that, in the beginning, Jocey berated her for being slow and stupid, constantly telling her how smart and clever I was and how little Samira was like me."
"As time went on, though," Ashlynn said. "Samira said their conversations started to have more substance. Samira asked questions about things she didn't understand. Not just words she didn't understand, but concepts, and Jocey started to tutor her for real."
"You think your sister started to treat Samira like your replacement?" Nyrielle asked gently. "Was she hoping to turn Samira into a substitute for you?"
The idea was ridiculous. Her Ashlynn was one of the most unique women to walk the face of the world, and that would be true even if she weren't the Mother of Trees. The things that Ashlynn had done and the way that she did them couldn't be matched by more than a handful of people, even if they were given the same powers that Ashlynn had.
While it was true that Ashlynn was born to be the Mother of Trees, everything that defined who she was as a person and the ways she used her powers came from Ashlynn's own heart and mind, and they were the fruits of her own labors.
Her years of turning her captivity into a reason to study, her determination to ensure other people didn't experience the things she'd suffered from, and her unwavering dedication to the people she chose to recognize as her family were all things that defined who Ashlynn was, the mark she'd been born with hadn't imbued her with any of that.