POV: Ashina
The Silverbrook counselor arrived on a Tuesday.
Her name was Fenra, compact, fifty-ish, with close-cropped gray hair and the particular stillness of someone who had learned to take up exactly the space they needed and no more. She arrived with a single bag, declined the formal welcome Petra had prepared, and asked instead to walk the territory before meeting anyone.
"I need to feel the land before I can help the people," she explained, with the matter-of-fact of someone who had stopped apologizing for how they worked.
Ashina walked with her.
They went mostly in silence, which Ashina found unexpectedly comfortable. Fenra asked occasional questions about the battle, about the prisoners, about the pack's history with Morgana and listened to the answers with a quality of attention that felt almost physical. Not sympathy. Something more useful than sympathy.
"You're worried I'll do more harm than good," Fenra said, at one point.
