Snippet #1369316

Asmara was somewhat surprised, and more than a little relieved, when her pendant was passed back to her and her life was not demanded in exchange for some imagined crime. With a brief grimace, she loosened her deathgrip on herself, and shifted so she was sitting back on her calves, hands folded in her lap. "I thank you for that," she murmured, quietly enough that one or the two of them might not have heard it, though in truth it was meant for both, and perhaps the spirits as well.

She was opening her mouth to once again explain Ostagar when Antius appeared to save her the trouble, and she sank into silence again with gratitude. On an ordinary day, Asmara was a cheerful person, almost painfully naive in her desire to see the best in everything the world threw at her. But no amount of optimism or gentleness could hide what had happened at Ostagar, and the whole incident was challenging everything she had ever held true about, well... mostly anything.

When Antius finished, she shot him a look half thanks, half melancholy. "I imagine that you must have lost friends that day, Ser Le-Guy, and for that I am truly sorry. I am a healer by trade, and when the battle goes so badly that you have to turn away the injured to prevent your own death... there is nothing worse. I watched many of your brethren fall, as well as my own. I cannot attempt to justify what I saw the Teyrn do, because I can think of no reason for it. All I know is what I witnessed, and though the beacon lit, the reinforcements never came. I have spent the weeks since trying to figure it out, but..." she shook her head. What else could possibly be added to that sentence? The results of her search were clear in her present condition.

"What is more, men wearing guilty faces and the crest of the Teyrn try to kill me on sight." It was only ever those that had not been at Ostagar that called her traitor with hate in their eyes. The others knew too well what had actually occurred to stain their tongues with it.