my darkness won't scare me,
my eyes are adjusting.
That it had been over a year since Ashe had arrived in Caido was surreal. It felt like an eternity - it felt like yesterday. She had been broken and punishing herself and unintentionally punishing the people that loved her. She had hidden and cowered in the shadows, watching lanterns hang... until one little girl and her crystal-eyed father drew her out. Walking through the beautifully lit Greatwood now, the assassin-turned-messenger looked down to the tiny hand held in hers, to the dark haired little girl with bouncing steps and wide, pale eyes, and a sack in her other hand. "..do you see that one! Look, look, look, look--!" Ashe grinned and nodded at one of the larger lanterns hanging from a tree. "Have you found a favorite?" she asked, squeezing Theea's hand. "Show me."The girl pointed to one, then another, and then another, giggling and bouncing until Ashe scooped her up into her arms with a heavy groan. Theea protested with laughter, but soon was pointing, leaning up and reaching to brush her fingers through low hanging branches. She never took her eyes from Theea for a moment. She had been so sure that she would be making a lantern for her tonight. For Kalt. But they were home now. She had her family back. Kalt stayed home, and it was no surprise with their experience last year, but she felt him on the other side of that bond, a comforting and sure presence.
Ashe found them a place not far from where Remi sprouted his spectacular tree, Theea gasping and speechless for the first time that night. It took her a few moments to situate the girl, instructions not to take her hand off of Ashe's cloak, or to move too far for even a moment as she dug into the sack they brought.
One lantern for her father. Simple, round, and painted with the sweeping colors of a sunrise with a forgotten skyline of a capital worlds away, a large black horse galloping across the sky. Ashe smiled tightly as she hung it, lighting it with the fire from her own hand. "For grandpapa?" Theea asked from Ashe's side. She smiled down at her and smoothed her hand through her hair, swallowing roughly. "Yea," was all she managed, making herself remember her fathers smile instead of the way that arrow looked in his eye.
"This is for...?" She looked down to take ahold of the next lantern, and Ashe smiled sadly as she crouched beside her. "Your mother," she reminded, taking a hold of the plain white lantern with Theea's handprints stamped all over in bright colors, suns and moons and unicorns sloppily painted by a five year old. She furrowed her brow and glanced at it again. "But you--" Ashe shook her head, her heart wrenching. "The woman that is the reason Papa and I get to love you." She still looked confused, but nodded. Ashe never learned the prostitute's name, but still she stood and burned the lantern for the woman who loved Theea so much that she gave her her only chance at survival.
"Ashe?" She looked down at the tug on her cloak. Theea held up another lantern, and her throat tightened. "Who's this one for?" It was tall and thin, framed with black iron, deep, royal blue paper stretched across. Her heart stumbled, and she picked it up gingerly, like something fragile and precious. "This one is for a lot of people, Theea," she said quietly. Ashe took a shakey breath as she hung it on a lonely branch, throat constricting as she lit it.
Pin pricks of golden light shined through like stars, the blue paper flickering with deep purples with the flame. Each little dot of light rose up into the less illuminated, dark top of the lantern. Like stars. Like souls. Like each light snuffed out because of her. Deaths she had never honored before. "Ludo guide you, and Mort embrace you," she said hoarsely as she dropped her hand back down to her side and stepped back.
A tiny hand slipped into hers, and her fingers closed around it. She gave a soft squeeze and looked down at Theea, but she was gazing at all the lights, eyes full of wonder.
ASHETTA
