[PQ] Quality Assurance Testing

While her water's apparent repulsion of the barrier was something she never encountered, struggling to shove it forward until she was to release.. it was her fire assault alongside the others that was promising, at least. It was definitely time to put more work into her fire, to bring it back to where it had been before arriving here. Her lightning's effects were interesting, but fire appeared to be the real key here - with the barrier and with the spire demon, too.    Ashe turned her attention fully to her friend as he began to speak, pulling something from his bag. She narrowed her eyes and.. a mask from Ludo. A full faced, expressionless mask. No, she thought with dread, her heart began thudding at an erratic rhythm. It's just Remi, just Remi, just Remi, she desperately told herself as his face vanished beyond the mask. ”Fuck,” she breathed trying to focus on what was happening, mentally grasping for her tether to Kalt like a lifeline, but she couldn't turn her eyes from the masked man as he began moving to the barrier. Masks, what the fuck was it with everyone and wearing a fucking mask? At first she didn't register that her feet were moving after him, but the others followed after him too, stopped him. He had to be okay, it was Remi, her friend, like her brother - he was fine, he was fine.    She knew he was saying something about seeing through the barrier, and he saw someone important. She knew she was moving after the group, but she stopped several yards behind her mother and Jigano, unable to make herself go further. She struggled for air, staring at Remi like he was someone else entirely. A mask, why did it have to be a fucking mask? As she blinked rapidly, she swore the bone-white surface of it had become a steely gray, sunken eye sockets black and staring back.    It was that dark mask swimming in her vision, the very same one worn by the man Ludo had conjured at the festival. She could see it tilted down at her, leather-clad hand holding her face so hard it hurt. She tried to focus on what was immediately happening. Zariah grabbed for his collar. Vervain and Jigano stood behind him, warning him away from the barrier. Remi himself had been.. Trying to get someone’s attention. He saw something, that was important. More important than the claws of ice and fear sinking deeply in her chest.    Can’t breathe. He was dead. She reminded herself three times, he’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead. Ashe’s hands clenched and unclenched at her sides, but she stopped feeling them sometime around when the alchemist had shown the mask. She didn't let herself leave this behind - what was happening with Remi, with the barrier, far surpassed her struggle just then. Still... Her breath was shallow, painful. She wanted to say her friend’s name, but she stood frozen behind the group, bloodless lips pressed into a thin line. She swore that her very bones trembled.    It’s just Remi, breathe, it’s just Remi, she kept repeating, using the thoughts like some kind of flimsy and battered shield against the assault of the dark things the mask pulled to the surface.