Chapter 2088: The Olive Seed’s Judgment (Part One)

"Tell me, Jocelynn," the Olive Seed said. "Do you truly believe that a woman like you deserves a life like this?"

Jocelynn opened her eyes.

The Olive Seed sat in Old Nan’s chair as though it had always been there, a figure carved from silver-grey olive wood in the shape of her sister. It had Ashlynn’s curvy figure and her delicate, expressive features, but where Ashlynn’s green eyes should have been, there were only two empty hollows, like windows looking out into the Void.

Jocelynn didn’t answer the seed. Not right away.

Instead, she looked around the great hall of Ollie’s manor, slowly, as if she knew that it was the last time she would ever see the cherished space before leaving it behind.

The long table still smelled of butter and roasted grouse. A smear of strawberry juice stained the boards where Olver had been sitting, and one of the garden benches had been left askew. Zedya’s blankets lay warm and soft in her lap, jade green and cerulean blue.

If she listened, Jocelynn could almost hear it all again. Charlotte’s bright laughter and Adala’s dry replies. The thump of Old Nan’s tail against the floorboards. Lilee’s rapid questions and Jamys’s rolling chuckle. Ollie’s voice calling from the kitchen doorway, and the whole room erupting into happy chaos when he did.

It had been loud and messy and wonderful, and every person in it had loved her.

Outside the window, down the lane, the last lantern still burning in a cottage window flickered and went out, plunging the village into darkness that was blacker than night.

"No," Jocelynn said quietly.

The Olive Seed tilted its head, patiently waiting for Jocelynn to explain.

"No," Jocelynn said again, a little more firmly. "I don’t deserve a life like this. A person like me doesn’t deserve this kind of happiness." Her fingers tightened on the edge of the baby blanket in her lap. "I haven’t done anything to earn it. I haven’t done anything to make up for the people I’ve hurt, or the things I’ve done wrong..."

"No," the Olive Seed agreed. "You haven’t."

Jocelynn swallowed hard, but she didn’t look away from those empty eyes.

"Ash trusted me," she said. "She trusted me with the one secret that could get her killed, and I gave it to Owain because I wanted what she had. Eleanor died in a cell because of me. I ran away from Mother and Father. I let everyone who ever loved me pay for my mistakes," she said in a voice that cracked and wavered. "What could I possibly have done to deserve a house full of people who love me?"

"Nothing," the Olive Seed said simply. "Nothing at all."

"But I hope to," Jocelynn said, clenching her hands into small fists as she gathered her determination. "One day. I hope that I can become someone who deserves it. That’s why I came here," she said. "That was the whole point of this trial."

The fire popped. A log shifted in the grate and sent up a little shower of sparks that vanished before they reached the chimney.

"But you failed the trial," the Olive Seed said, speaking as though it was a thing that had already happened.

The words were soft. Almost gentle, yet they struck Jocelynn harder than any blow Owain had ever landed.

"What?" Jocelynn said, staring in disbelief.

"You failed," the Olive Seed repeated, in the same matter-of-fact tone. "You failed at every turn. In every way you could have advanced, you failed."

"That can’t be right," Jocelynn said. She sat up straighter in her chair, shaking her head. "That can’t be right. It doesn’t make any sense."

"Doesn’t it?" the Olive Seed asked, tilting its head slightly as it regarded her with those haunting, empty eyes.

"No, it doesn’t," Jocelynn insisted. "I spoke to Ollie about his trial. He told me how you... how his seed showed him his village over and over again, and how Ashlynn came to guide him through it. He learned what it meant to be a guardian. He learned that he couldn’t save everyone, but that he could still fight for them," Jocelynn said, the words tumbling out faster now.

"I heard how Heila fought the Willow Witch who came before her," Jocelynn continued. "And Master Isabell built a whole valley and watched it wash away so she could learn restraint. I heard enough from all of them to know that this isn’t how a trial is supposed to go!"

Upstairs, the floorboards had gone silent. Jocelynn couldn’t remember when Ollie’s footsteps had stopped, or when she’d last heard him humming. The dark at the top of the stairwell had grown deeper, as though someone had snuffed out every light on the second floor.

It felt like the world was closing in on her, or falling away.... Shrinking. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that the Olive Seed said she’d failed, but she’d never even had a chance!

"You were supposed to teach me," Jocelynn said, and her voice cracked on the last word. "That’s what a witch’s seed does, isn’t it? I was supposed to face the trial using the powers of the Olive Witch. I was supposed to learn how to use them. But that part never even started." She spread her hands helplessly, gesturing to the dimly lit room around her. "All you’ve shown me is Owain. Graves. Dungeons. People I love dying because of me, over and over again."

"Yes," the Olive Seed said, refusing to deny Jocelynn’s accusation.

"Then where were the lessons?" Jocelynn demanded. "Where was the part where I learn to be a witch?"

"Did your sister promise you lessons?" the Olive Seed asked.

"She promised me a trial of witchcraft," Jocelynn said. "She told me that no witch’s trial is ever safe. She told me it would hurt. But she never said it would be like this..."

"Your sister told you a great many things," the Olive Seed said mildly. "Most of them were even true, and where she was mistaken... Well, she’s still a very young Mother of Trees, isn’t she? Some mistakes were bound to be made."

"Of course, I could have tutored you," the Olive Seed said after it regarded her for a long moment. When it spoke again, there was something almost like pity in its voice.

"It’s just that you never made it that far, Jocelynn," the wooden Ashlynn said, sounding like it was a genuine tragedy.

Jocelynn stared at it.

"Every witch must pass through a door before her lessons can begin," the Olive Seed said. "Your Ollie passed through it when he learned to set aside his infatuations so he could become a member of your sister’s coven. So did the Willow Witch and the Hemlock Witch, and every witch your sister has ever raised," it said.

"But you," the Olive Seed continued, shaking its head. "You failed at the very first step," it said. "You never reached the point of the trial where you could learn."

"Then show me," Jocelynn demanded, gripping the arms of her chair as she stared at the wooden copy of her sister. "Whatever the first step is, show me and let me try again."

"You’ve had your chances, Jocelynn," the Olive Seed told her. "I gave you more chances than you know, but you never made it."

The Olive Seed leaned forward in Old Nan’s chair. The firelight crawled over the grain of its face, and sank into the empty hollows of its eyes without leaving any trace of light behind.

"The first test was never about magic," it said. "It was a test of character. A test to prove that you were worthy of bearing the power of a witch at all."

The Olive Seed gave her a sad smile with her sister’s lips.

"And you began failing it the moment you woke up in your sister’s wedding gown..."