The Vampire & Her Witch Chapter 1860: A Matter of Trust

Jocelynn had been expecting Ashlynn’s question, or at least one like it, for much of the evening.

Before they even entered the city, Nyrielle had told her that Ashlynn would offer her a place in the new empire, but she would have to decide for herself whether or not to take it.

"The task ahead of us is monumental," Nyrielle told her on the first night of their journey from the Vale of Mists to Lothian City. "Even my grandsire never ruled over a territory as vast as the one we intend to govern. No Eldritch Emperor has held a domain so vast in more than a thousand years."

"Your sister and I will need all of the help we can get, and Ashlynn has repeatedly praised your skills in matters of commerce," Nyrielle said. "In the days to come, she’ll turn to you for help that has nothing to do with becoming a member of her coven."

"Even after what I’ve done?" Jocelynn asked. "You think she would trust me with something important?

"Trusting you with her heart and trusting you with her empire are two very different things, Jocelynn," Nyrielle said. "They’re intertwined, but not the same. Tell me honestly, sister-in-law," Nyrielle said, staring directly into Jocelynn’s seafoam eyes with a gaze that exerted tremendous pressure on the young woman. "Are you the sort of person who would abuse your office to enrich yourself, at the expense of the common people?"

"What? No!" Jocelynn said, shocked that Nyrielle would even suggest such a thing.

"Then are you the sort of person who would enrich your friends?" Nyrielle asked, refusing to let up on the pressure she exerted on Jocelynn. "There are young ladies in Lothian who you’d call friends after your time there. Would you appoint them to positions they aren’t qualified to hold as a reward for their friendship?"

"Be honest," Nyrielle added. "Would you take chances on them when you aren’t certain, just to ’give them a chance?’ Would you forgive mistakes from them that you wouldn’t forgive from others?"

This time, Jocelynn wanted to answer the same way she’d answered Nyrielle’s first question, but she couldn’t. Not because she intended to reward her friends, whether they deserved it or not, but because she could see herself giving people second or even third chances in the name of their friendship.

If it came to someone like Adala or Albyn, people who had stood beside her when she was at her lowest and needed the most help, could she treat them the same way she’d treat others? She didn’t think that she could.

"That you won’t answer says two things," Nyrielle said after the silence had stretched beyond a dozen heartbeats. "It says you see the problem, and that you still value your friendships."

"This isn’t a bad thing," Nyrielle said. "Your loyalty to people who have earned it is both a strength and a vulnerability. To pretend it’s only ever one thing and not the other is childish and naive. But this is exactly why your sister can trust you with her empire, even when she can’t trust you with her heart," Nyrielle explained.

"She knows that I’ll do the job well," Jocelynn said, momentarily feeling her heart lift before it sank back down again. "No. She knows that I’ll do my best, and that I won’t exploit the people of the empire. She knows I’ll be good to the people around me..." Jocelynn said, her voice trailing off as she thought about what Nyrielle had just said on a deeper level.

"She’s accepting that I’ve done something horrible to her," Jocelynn said with a heavy sigh. "Something that should cost me any chance to be a part of what she’s building, and she’s going to give me a chance anyway... Is that what you’re saying?"

"I’m suggesting that she’s willing to take a chance on you," Nyrielle said blandly. "And that, whatever she offers you, it comes with the opportunity to either help mend the rift between you, or tear it even wider. She might not punish you for failing her. She’ll give you more chances than you think you deserve because she hopes that the day will come when she can trust you with her heart again."

"What if... What if it really is too much for me?" Jocelynn asked. "The things that you and Ash are trying to do... I’ve never been responsible for anything so big. I know she thinks I’m good at things, but the truth is, I haven’t had many chances to see my ideas through."

"Father gave me a small ’investment’ at my Coming of Age party," Jocelynn said. "It wasn’t very large, just a hundred gold sovereigns, but it was the largest budget I’d ever had to run a venture of my own. The empire will have to spend thousands, tens of thousands of sovereigns every year... If I get it wrong and hurt Ash even more..."

"What happened to your investment?" Nyrielle asked lightly, raising a brow at her sister-in-law.

"I don’t know," Jocelynn said with a sigh as she stared out into the darkness of the night. "It wasn’t the sort of thing that turned a hundred sovereigns into two hundred sovereigns in a year. I rebuilt or expanded the docks in half a dozen villages, funded repairs on two dozen fishing boats, paid a few journeymen coopers to relocate to some of the more remote isles off the shore so we could pack more barrels of pickled fish instead of having to smoke the whole harvest..."

"I didn’t make one or two big bets," Jocelynn said. "I made a hundred small ones... No big risks, but something that I thought would add up to a lot more over the next five years. It’s just, I didn’t get five years to watch it play out."

"I see why your sister has so much faith in you," Nyrielle said with a smile that revealed the barest hint of her fangs. "She’s right to turn to you, and you’re right to doubt yourself. Knowledge you gain from books isn’t the same as the wisdom you gain from experience," she said.

"So I’ll make you a deal, sister-in-law," Nyrielle said. "Do your best. Take the chance. When you have doubts, you can come to me. I know almost nothing about commerce," Nyrielle warned. "But if you can convince me that your ideas are sound, then I will support you if your sister ever comes to doubt your intentions. I will help you to mend that rift."

"But if I ever feel like you’re deceiving me, or manipulating her and taking advantage of her kindness," Nyrielle warned as her eyes transformed into deep pools of starry midnight. "I will kill you myself before you have a chance to hurt her again," she said, holding Jocelynn’s gaze long enough to ensure the threat landed.

"We have a deal," Jocelynn said, looking more relieved than intimidated. "If I ever hurt her again... at least there won’t be a third time after the second."

"Then we have an understanding," Nyrielle said, withdrawing the heavy aura of menace and allowing her eyes to return to normal. "One more thing," she added, as if it were an afterthought.

"I dislike the term ’sovereigns’ for our currency," Nyrielle said, making a face like she’d just bitten into something sour. "In the High Fen, they shape their coins like coiled serpents and call them ’tails.’ We should find something that fits our empire as well. Consider that one of your first problems to solve..."

For a moment, Jocelynn blinked in confusion at the sudden shift in topic, but then a slow smile appeared on her face and a light laugh, what felt like the first in several days, escaped her lips.

"A name for the empire’s currency," Jocelynn said. "I think I can do something about that..."

Now that she sat in the great hall, hearing Ashlynn’s offer to become the Lord Minister of Commerce, she still hadn’t come up with a good answer for Nyrielle’s problem with the currency. But that hardly mattered because she already had her answer to the far more important question.

"I don’t think I’m meant for an idle life of luxury as an imperial princess, Ashlynn," Jocelynn told her sister. "But if you need my help, in commerce or anything else, I’ll never tell you no."