The Vampire & Her Witch Chapter 1894: Familiar & Unfamiliar

Maela smiled as she watched Ashlynn bounce from one dish to the next, explaining each with an enthusiasm that reminded Maela of the way a much younger Ashlynn had burst into her mother’s sitting room with a book in hand, overflowing with the desire to talk about the latest exciting thing she’d read.

Some of the things her daughter said, however, gave her considerable pause, and when it came to visiting the Vale of Mists, Maela put her hand up, shaking it slightly for Ashlynn to stop.

"Slow down," Maela said, holding up the morsel of breaded fish that Ashlynn had called a ’fish fry.’ "You said these are special; should we try one now or wait until you’ve brought the surprise dish? It seems like Sir Ollie has gone to fetch it without you," Maela said, nodding at the servant’s door that Ollie had vanished through while Ashlynn explained the other dishes.

"Oh," Ashlynn said, blushing slightly in embarrassment. "Um," she said, hesitating as she debated whether or not Ollie could successfully carry the special dish upstairs on his own. In the end, she seemed to place her trust in the young knight as she turned back to her mother and cousin.

"Go ahead and try one," Ashlynn encouraged. "They haven’t been out of the oil very long, so they should still be nice and warm," she said.

"They’re better if you dip them in the vinegar," Jocelynn said, reaching out and taking one of her own before dipping it in a small bowl of black sauce that had bits of red chiles, crushed garlic, and thinly sliced green herbs floating on top of it.

"Ash let me try them while she was adjusting the seasonings," Jocelynn said as she bit into the crispy exterior of the fried morsel, eating without any of the refinement expected of a young lady.

"Is it really eaten with bare hands?" Micheline said hesitantly as her hand hovered over the brown lumps.

"The first time I had this dish, I was bound to an Ancient Willow tree in the middle of a swamp," Ashlynn said, taking a morsel for herself and dipping it into the vinegar sauce. "Jacques made it to help lift my spirits in the middle of one of the first trials of witchcraft I ever faced. I had to let him feed it to me, one bite at a time, but I swear, it was one of the best things I’d ever eaten."

"I made this one with yellow perch that came out of the river this morning," Ashlynn explained, showing everyone the white, flaky fish inside the crispy breading. "Give it a try," Ashlynn encouraged her cousin, picking up one of the fried morsels and placing it directly in her cousin’s hand.

"The Eldritch aren’t as fussy about eating with hands as we are," she added. "And several of their dishes are meant to be eaten while walking or attending other events. You’ll get used to it," she promised.

Maela dipped her lump of fried fish into the vinegar sauce before taking the most delicate bite she could manage, encouraging Micheline to do the same. The instant she did, she was overwhelmed by an explosion of complementary and contrasting flavors and textures.

The breading was crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside, while the perch itself was sweet and tender without having gone mushy. On its own, it was a surprisingly refined dish despite its unassuming appearance. There was a faint warmth from black pepper and a trace of herbs that tickled the nose more than the tongue, along with a good amount of richness from frying in beef tallow.

The sauce, however, managed to be sour and spicy in a way that cut through all of that richness, waking the dish up and preventing it from feeling heavy as Maela swallowed her first bite.

"Cousin..." Micheline said in disbelief as a bit of the dipping sauce rolled unnoticed down her chin. "Did you really make this?"

"She made all of this," Jocelynn said proudly, pointing at the dishes on the table. "I was standing by a pot, stirring while she did most of the work, and she made it all look so easy..."

"In the Briar, everyone in Amahle’s coven cooks at least one dish for the rest of the coven at breakfast, and another at dinner," Ashlynn explained. "So I had plenty of chances to learn and practice."

"So this ’Amahle’ is another witch?" Maela asked, raising an eyebrow at her daughter.

"She’s a Great Witch, like me," Ashlynn said. "The Mother of Thorns. That’s why I call her ’big sister.’ She’s the one who helped me learn to use my powers and how to form a coven of my own. Jacques is her Sandbox Witch and Talauia, who’s our guest in the Vale right now, is her Thistle Witch. I haven’t met the rest of her witches, though," she added. "The Rose Witch and Blackberry Witch were away while I was there."

"Five witches," Maela breathed, her eyes going wide as she tried to comprehend a Great Witch with a coven twice the size of the legendary Evil Queen’s. "And you have how many in your, erm, your coven?" Maela asked, stumbling slightly over the word, which was rarely spoken in the Kingdom of Gaal or the halls of the Church.

"Just four for now," Ashlynn said. "You’ve met Ollie, my Cypress Witch already. And of course you know Master Isabell," she said. "Isabell agreed to become my Hemlock Witch when we reunited a few weeks ago. You’ll meet the others later tonight," Ashlynn promised. "Including my apprentice, Hauke, who should be one of my next witches after Jocelynn," Ashlynn said, reaching out to hold her sister’s hand.

"After Jocelynn?" Maela said, as the morsel of fried fish fell from suddenly numb fingers. Her eyes flicked from her eldest to her youngest and back again as she tried to process what she’d just heard, but part of her mind stubbornly refused to accept it.

As far as Maela knew, Ashlynn had never once used her powers as a child, or even as an adult, until Owain tried to murder her. Ashlynn had worked hard her whole life to make up for bearing the mark of the witch, to lead a good and godly life filled with care for others to balance the stain of witchcraft.

Her Ashlynn wasn’t a wicked woman, and even after everything that happened, Maela still believed that she hadn’t fallen to wickedness.

Hearing that her daughter was gathering a coven, just as the Evil Queen had done, was shocking enough. Hearing that Master Isabell had joined them was even more so, but then, Maela was one of the few people in Blackwell who had heard the complete story of Isabell’s life as the famed Engineer of Destruction in the Emerald Kingdom.

That Isabell had been willing to take on the mark of witchcraft was a bit surprising, but it wasn’t completely outside of Maela’s expectations.

Hearing that Ashlynn intended to transform Jocelynn into a witch, however, proved to be even more than Maela could bear.

"Ashlynn Blackwell," Maela said sternly as she struggled to regain her composure. "I think you have some explaining to do, starting from the very beginning and ending with why, in the name of the Light, you would want your sister to become a witch..."