The Vampire & Her Witch-Chapter 618: Ashlynn’s Challenge

"Ugh, no, no challenges," Ollie said, shaking his head and waving both hands in front of himself in response to Ashlynn’s cryptic words. "I just finished one set of trials, I don’t need another one! Wait, I mean," he stammered looking for the right words. "I learned a lot in the last challenge you gave me and I’m still..."

"Just stop before you dig any deeper," Virve said, clapping a hand on his shoulder. "Mother Ashlynn wouldn’t torment you after you passed your trial, and Sir Thane isn’t here to teach you any lessons that require letting him punch you to make sure you understand the lesson," she chided.

"You let a vampire punch you?" Hauke said, blinking several times in surprise at the young human. He’d learned just how tough Ashlynn was in her first visit to the High Pass but he assumed that it was because she was Nyrielle’s Seneschal. Were all humans actually so supernaturally strong, despite their smaller stature? "Was that, was that before, or after you became the Cypress Witch?"

"Before," Ollie said, rubbing his chest as he remembered the power Sir Thane’s punch held. Each time he’d been hit, his vision swam and he felt like he was on the edge of losing consciousness until falling to the ground shocked him back to awareness. "He pulled his punches. It wasn’t a contest of strength or anything. More like a lesson and a little pain to make sure I remembered it." fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

"It’s a thing that knights do to each other," Ashlynn said, still confused by the ritual but willing to accept it because both Thane and Ollie felt it was an important part of becoming a knight. "But this challenge, even though it’s difficult, is much, much easier to manage. It’s more fun too, though it’s not hard to be more fun than letting the Lord General punch you," she teased.

With a flick of her wrist, Ashlynn removed the lid from the box, revealing twelve bulging leather pouches roughly the size of a large plum and tied shut with a bright green silk ribbon. Reaching into the box, Ashlynn selected one of the pouches, bouncing it in her hand and producing a -CHINK- -CHINK- sound as she did.

"Each of these pouches holds fifty silver tails," Ashlynn said, smiling at the people around the table. "You each get two pouches. We’re going to go down to the festival and our goal is to spend every last tail you have."

The money in the chest, six hundred silver tails in total, represented a sizeable portion of the money she’d made for herself while in High Fen City, though at least half of it had come from placing wagers on Heila’s fights in the arena. Most of the wealth that Ashlynn secured went into Nyrielle’s treasury to finance the work being done in the Vale, but now that the festival had arrived, she was glad that she’d kept some back for herself so that she could share it with the members of her coven.

"Tails?" Ollie asked, frowning at the unfamiliar term.

"Take a look," Ashlynn said, tossing the pouch in her hand. When he opened it, several large silver coins, stamped with the shape of a coiled serpent’s tail. "The coins stamped in High Fen City are half again as heavy as the silver pennies used in the kingdom, and twice the weight of the ones used in the Vale so keep that in mind when you’re spending them."

"Half again as heavy?" Ollie said, staring at the volume of coins in mild amazement. "My parents each received twenty silver pennies a year in wages... I only got ten. You, you want me to spend three years worth of my entire family’s wages, in single afternoon?" Ollie asked in a voice that had dropped to a low whisper by the time he was done.

Since leaving the Summer Villa, he’d had little reason to think about money, though Sir Thane had provided him with a small pouch of silver coins in case Ollie wanted to purchase anything for himself from the market in the fortress town.

Since then, he’d spent less than three silver pennies on a handful of trinkets in the market and even then he felt like it was a luxurious indulgence to spend half a penny just for a new cloak pin or a set of cooking knives with handles shaped for his hands. To spend this much money all at once was all but unthinkable!

"I do," Ashlynn said gently as she began to pass two pouches to each person at the table. "First and most importantly, everyone here has been through a great deal recently. Whether it’s been fleeing home, fighting deadly battles, facing trials and transformations," she said, meeting each of their eyes in turn.

"So much has happened in such a short time that I think all of us would benefit from an afternoon of pure joy and relaxation," she said firmly. "That’s why I asked you all to dress casually for today. You don’t need to be the Cypress Witch or the Willow Whip or Young Lord Hauke or anything else while we go to the festival. Just be yourself. Be a family out to enjoy the festival and each other’s company for the afternoon."

"Even if you say that," Hauke said, shifting uncomfortably on the cushion. "We’re all... distinct," he said, pointing at his iridescent horn. "People will know who we are."

"They’ll know when we’re up close," Virve corrected. "So a shopkeeper might recognize you, but the crowd won’t swarm around us the way they would if we all dressed up and wore our fancy hats," she said with a toothy grin. "Still, we only have the afternoon to play. Isn’t this a little much, Mother Ashlynn?"

"That’s why I said it was a challenge," Ashlynn said. "But also, it’s important to spend money during this festival," she added in a more serious tone. "We invited dozens of merchants in High Fen City to join us for the winter, setting up shop, plying their trade and selling their wares. If they don’t see a return on the investment they’ve made by coming here, they’ll leave when the pass clears in the spring."

While Ashlynn wanted to put aside concerns of politics and strategy to give her coven an afternoon of pure joy, she couldn’t deny that her actions were also calculated to accomplish important things during the festival. And if her plans succeeded, then the festival itself would only be the beginning...