Overwhelmed would have been putting it lightly. Ashe couldn't quite bring herself to speak at her mother's words - she didn't know where Dev was either. She cast her eyes about her, watching as Koel called for volunteers, watched as Ronin began delegating. She glanced at Celosia with the sound of her voice, and she gave the redhead a tight-lipped smile. "Hey, Cel," she said back breathlessly. She couldn't deny that she was grateful to see her.. grateful to see many of her friends, like Remi and Koel and Ronin. Still... others were missing. 'Alistair, please,' she cast out again, pulling with a little bit more force on the bond. Where was he?
At the sound of a bark, Ashe snapped her head around find the source and.. her breath left her as Devrum scooped up Vervain with a kiss, and Ashe nearly collapsed under the weight of relief. The second he released her mother, she was crushed into his arms, and gods she didn't care that her back cracked with his strength - Ashetta threw her arms around Devrum and buried her face into his chest, squeezing her eyes shut against whatever this place was. "Papa," she murmured. He was okay. He was safe. She picked her head up finally to look at him, electric eyes shining. Her family was together. She felt his voice rumble deeply from his chest as he questioned where they were - it seemed none of them knew. Ashe tried to dive into her memory when her mother mentioned it was fuzzy... and a deep feeling of unease crept over her. She'd always had a near-perfect memory, eidetic. It was the reason she'd made such a great messenger in Northaven. Now she could barely think of where she was before she was here. Had she been dozing on the roof? On her way back from seeing Celosia? Had she been bounding on four paws through the Untamed Lands? She couldn't pin it down, and she felt a prickling up her spin. 'Alistair, please, where are you?'
Then without any mental answer, she heard his voice. Ashe locked her eyes on him immediately, her heart suddenly galloping in her chest as Alistair materialized through the rain and dust. Together. They were all together, everyone she'd found and build some kind of life with, they were together. The second Devrum released her, Ashe surged forward with a sound that was something between a laugh and a sob, near throwing herself at her husband with her arms wrapped tightly around him. "You're okay," she breathed. She refused to let him go, assuring herself that he was safe, that she didn't need to tear apart whatever hell-hole this was searching for him. She would have, she would have obliterated anything in her path to save him, to keep him safe and unharmed. But he was there, he was whole.
Ashe only pulled back enough to look up at him, her eyes rapidly glancing over every inch of him, assessing him, searching for damage: there was nothing amiss. Something was in his hand, but she didn't look. She only cared to lean up and claim a brief kiss from him, assuring herself that he was really there. When she pulled away, she kept her hand over his arm, and she offered him a soft smile. "Fucking answer me next time," she scolded, referring to her calls to him down the bond.
Ashe looked away from him finally, casting her gaze to the chaos that was slowly starting to sort itself out. She bit the inside of her lip, her brow furrowing. Whatever place this was, whatever happened to Northaven, they needed to survive if they were going to figure out what the fuck was going on. She looked back at Devrum, Vervain, and Alistair, even to Celosia and Remi. "We should help," she said. "Shelter, food, water, defenses, figuring this place out. We need to help."
ashetta
it's live or die my way.
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