my darkness won't scare me,
my eyes are adjusting.
Deepfrost had come. Ashe stood at the edge of the shrine, silver light of the moon bathing the snow, lightning the clouds of breath in front of her lips. The roses were brilliant against the white, bright blooms of blood, a gift. Some measure of hope as her brother was consumed with sickness, as everyone she had just started to meet and know fell to it. She had said she would do anything to help, would try anything. Even accept something from a god without know what would be asked in return.
She approached finally, kneeling down before the flowers. She swallowed and brushed away any snow, her scarred and slender hands careful. She pulled out one of her knives, her mind drifting back to a beautiful Flowerbirth day in the woods, out in front of a cabin with her mother. When there had been no terror of losing Ronin, when there was only her own mistakes to contend with. Stakes were higher now. The pain greater, when she had never imagined she could withstand any more suffering.
As she gently loosened the frozen earth and reached down for the roots, like her mother had taught her, she felt her eyes prickling. Thank you, Vi, she thought silently, unsure if it was right, unsure if she should thank him, or what it meant to pray. Even thinking the words were a strange discomfort. Was this.. a final hope? The only one? She unearthed one. Then another. Then another.
She would not lose Ronin again. She wouldn't.
ASHETTA
