Hale found Ashe alone that evening, away from the fires where Terin was already surrounded by people who were slowly remembering how to be glad about something.
Hale sat beside her without asking permission.
For a while, neither of them spoke.
The camp had settled into an unfamiliar kind of noise. Not celebration, exactly. Nobody was foolish enough to call it that. But there was laughter around the fires now, quiet conversations, the occasional voice rising when someone realized Terin had actually made it back.
Alive.
After everything, that was enough.
"You earned the rest of it today," Hale said at last. "I'd rather give it to you properly than let you keep guessing at the shape."
Ashe didn't answer.
She simply waited.
It was the same patient stillness she'd developed over the past two months, the result of learning that some things couldn't be forced into arriving before they were ready.
Hale looked out into the darkness beyond the camp.
