Disclaimer: Although no characters are named I do not own the character referenced.
Feet bare, cold, and cut, numbly padded through the stone molded halls of ruin. Frigid unfamiliar air burned through her lungs with every inhale and misted out her lips with every exhale. Wondering without direction and no more security than the clothes on her back, a woman of integrity, of nobility, searched through the catacombs for the door that would bring her back to the surface. The corridor she knew not, but she knew it would be the only way back to her land, her people, her home. Salvation could not be found down here in the crypt of spectral refuge. Hope and chance lay only just above her, blocked and hidden by tunnels of granite. Without her crown, without her honor, without those that loved her, she was no different than the ghosts echoing around the corners or the gaunt creatures that watched her pass through hollow sockets. Vulnerable and alone. Yet not. Down here there were souls. But they were souls of those without hearts. Here anyone was at the mercy of those who had none. For fanatics with agendas could never see past the means or the ends to such. Stranded. Forsaken. And unforgivable. Did her captors exile her to this forbidden place? Or was it the ones she knew from home?
Oh no. It was only reaping what had been sewed. This was her doing. While others, the corrupt, the callous, the unwary, and the traitorous, may have helped to place her here it was ultimately her own doing. It was her own hand that buried her beneath layers of rock and of ice. There was nothing left now. All that existed was her and for how long she knew not. Hope and chance where locked away as she was barred from it. Neither existed down here. All there was, down here, was her.
But… that was something. While stranded and abandoned, the mind shaken, and the will breaking, she was not left with nothing. Beating against sore ribs that ached from breathing frozen air her heart sternly reminded her that she was alive. That while the monsters who abandoned her here may have taken everything else from her they could not take her heart. Honor could be taken, reputation could be tarnished, armor and weapons could be broken, but there would always be that distinct something deep inside a person that made them who they were. The heart that lived with the soul. It could be buried but it could never be destroyed. She was alive. Because she was alive she still owned her life. She still owned her self. Prisoners and slaves are only truly restrained when their hearts died before their bodies. And hers hammered away in her chest. Reminding her that it was strong and so long as it lived on with everything her life was founded upon she would be strong as well. Lessons are easily forgotten when distractions detour from the things we remember. Remembering what once was is not as hard as remembering why it was. Head high, pronounced with the aura of nobility and the stern fortitude of integrity she walked through the door.
A/N: I wrote this little puppy in about 10 minutes for a friend who was hosting a writer's group. As stated it is about Ashe after she is captured by Lissandra in my other fic which I have affectionately taken to calling "my novel." It's a different take that implies... some things that will be heavy themes in that fic and I felt like sharing with readers who may be interested. Thank you for reading.