Chapter 4: Exposing Truth

Present. Freljord. Avarosa's Palace. The Royal Hall.

"You want to talk about hurting those who CARE FOR YOU!?" Sejuani's face went from shame to fury in less than a second. She reaches forward and grabs Ashe by her collar; Bristle tries to intervene, but Ashe gives him a light shove to let him know it's okay. "That's a riot coming from your icy lips you hypocritical bitch!"

Ashe didn't return anger with anger, but rather with grace as she brought her open palm under Sejuani's arm and set it on her cheek. "See?" She brushed her thumb just under Sejuani's eye. "You had to have seen it as it came out. It's there. It's inside of you. Those feelings-."

"ENOUGH!" Sejuani released Ashe to swat away her hand. She pulls up her flail, ready to lash out once more, but stops when she sees that Bristle has squared his shoulders against her. "AAAAGGGGHHHH!" She roars out in anger as she swings her flail out and around to strike the marble surface behind her. "AGH! AGH! AGH!" Over and over again the near-deafening slamming and shattering of the floor echoes throughout the hall.

Ashe and Bristle watch as a grown woman throws a temper tantrum in The Royal Court of Avarosa's Palace. When she had finally stopped, not from exhaustion, she was far too tough for that release of anger to tire her out; Ashe began again, "You're just so hurt. I see that. You don't have to try and prove it to me. Believe me, I understand."

Sejuani spun around and walked up to Ashe with heavy footfalls. "Fuck you. My anger comes from this silly game you're playing. I don't have something as weak and petty as 'hurt feelings' so fight me!"

Ashe shook her head. "I won't."

The tribal warrior scoffed, before brandishing a most devilish grin. "No wonder she said you needed me. I used to think you were strong, but you're not and you never were." Ashe showed she wasn't hurt, but Sejuani knew that it stung a little to hear her say it. "The truth is you're really just weak…just as weak as she was when-!"

Ashe brought her open palm up to Sejuani's face once more, except at an incredible speed, and struck her cheek hard enough to wake a dead man. "How dare you." Her tone was stern, yet solemn. "How dare you speak so ill of her."

Twenty-three years ago. Freljord. Outside Avarosa's Palace. North Palace Sqaure.

It's one thing to be tardy, but it's a whole other thing to be tardy and not have a good excuse. As Ashe ran towards the palace she rattled her brain for a legitimate excuse for why she was late for training. She couldn't think of one. It just wasn't coming to her. Her mind was still fixated on whether or not it was a good idea to leave Sejuani in Mr. Chandler's hands, alone.

She made her way inside and past guards who hollered and hooted things like, "Ooooooo, she's gone let you have it this time!" Ignoring them she trotted on down the passageways that lead to The Royal Training Arena. An indoor/outdoor complex that had been connected to the palace around forty-three years ago. Its age was made clear by how the walls leading up to it were stacked with newer, smoother stone.

As Ashe entered the chamber she was assigned to be at that day she heard a hushed break in the air and dead-stopped in her tracks. Looking back at the last few seconds in her head, she realized that an arrow had just narrowly avoided cutting a horizontal line across her nose. Her head slowly and frightfully turned to look at the one who shot it.

There they stood, nearly six feet tall and built like a human tank, light-tank, with auburn hair and an amber-white face that showed years of aging without proper skin care. "Do I need to say it?"

Ashe shook her head. "No mam, if it was real, I'd be dead."

Her name was Doris Windtalk Behn; birth name 'Speaks From The Winds'. She was born a member of a tribe that had been conquered by the Royal Family. When her parents were slain, the king had no knowledge that she had just been born. Thankfully one of the soldiers who was there decided that the King would want to know of the child they had found in raiding the tribe. The King decided to have her raised by his oldest sister and she took Doris into her family as if she were her real daughter. Doris grew up to be the noble charged with being the current queen's Highguard. Highguard is a term that bestows the individual all rights to decide security matters for the one they are sworn to protect with and for their entire life. Not even generals can supersede her orders if it relates to the queen's security.

Ashe walked towards her as she said, "I'm sorry mam, I was…" Still, even now she couldn't think of an excuse.

"Excuses, excuses, that's all you ever give me." Doris' voice was slightly demeaning. "Try giving me straight answers."

Ashe looked up into Doris' steely hazel eyes and said, without thinking it through, "I was doing something that was far too important not to, and I don't regret that it made me tardy for your training session." Alarms were going off in her head of the impending danger about to befall her.

Doris grinned. "Finally you start acting like an adult. Good." Doris began to take off her training armor. "Now, strip down to your skivvies," Ashe looked bewildered. "And ditch them too." Now she was just aghast. "You heard me, now do it. That's an order!"

Reluctantly Ashe began to disrobe. The air in the training arena wasn't heated like the palace was, so the temperature quickly became bracing on Ashe's skin. Getting the last of her clothes into the pile she wrapped her arms around herself tight, fearing what the cold was doing to her. "Permission to speak freely, mam?"

"You may."

Ashe shuddered, and didn't stop; she was shivering. "W-w-why?"

Doris sighed. "Well, you got the basics down for fighting, but you haven't been conditioned for the cold. In a fight out amongst this cold, harsh, tundra-like climate that covers much of the Freljord, you will need to be able to continue fighting as your body tries to give up on you."

Ashe could already feel herself become numb. "H-h-h-how?

"By using proper techniques. Just like any fight." Doris took a fighting stance. Ashe watched as she began to move around an imaginary opponent. Dodging and parrying, as she took shots at it with tight fists. "Well, don't just stand there. You'll freeze to death and do your enemy's job for them."

Ashe jittering-ly took up the stance Doris had trained her in and put up her fists to start sparring with an imaginary opponent of her own. For a second her opponent had Sejuani's face, but she quickly replaced it with a faceless dummy. "I'm freezing to death!" She complained.

"That's because your extremities aren't getting proper blood flow. Look at me child."

Out of everyone who said that to her, Ashe despised hearing it the most from Doris. She hated being called child. In her mind she was smarter than most adults she had seen, especially the nobles.

Ashe let her frustration subside as she began to notice what else Doris was doing. She was constantly moving; not just her body, but every part of it. Toes, fingers, hands, feet, everything connected to her body was in a constant flux. As Ashe started to copy the subtle movements of her teacher, she began to get and keep more and more feeling in what was moving.

"Don't slow up your defense and attack. You have to keep a rhythm of keeping the blood flowing and keeping up the fight." Doris was really moving now; going through all the motions that she had been having Ashe train in.

Ashe began to hear Doris' words echo in her head. 'You have to practice any kind of attack you believe an enemy can give you. Remember, if you can do it, they can do it too.'

Ashe and Doris continued this practice for a whole hour. Ashe was able to stay warm, despite the chilling air that surrounded her naked body. If someone had walked in that room; besides taking in a sight in which they may have wrestled with feelings of delight and obviously disgust over, they also would have found the pair to be out of their minds.

Doris transitioned from her fake fight to walking over to a counter, seamlessly, and picked up an hourglass. "Okay child!" There it was again, Ashe's misery. "We're done for today. Go play or whatever."

Ashe grinned. As tough on her as she knew Doris was during training, she was so much sweeter to her the other twenty-three hours of the day. "Thanks Doris!" Ashe quickly got dressed.

Doris walked over and interrupted Ashe as she was about to get her cloak on again. She knelt down and stated, "I saw that look in your eye."

"What?" Ashe was thoroughly confused.

Doris grabbed a hold of Ashe's shoulders. "Don't lie to me, I say your face when you had to push out the real reason you were late. Who is he?"

Ashe's face contorted suddenly, in great fright. "N-n-no it's not-."

"I'll kill him if he's touched you. Tell me now child. I'll get it out of him if I have to."

"Doris, I-I swear! It wasn't a boy!"

"A man?! It was a grown man!? Ashe! Don't you dare tell me you've been spending time alone with a grown man!?" Doris' anger was pouring from out of her mouth in every syllable.

Ashe waved her arms out defensively. "Doris! It wasn't a man!"

Doris had her hands around Ashes face now, so she had nowhere else to look but straight ahead. "Tell me child!"

"I can't!"

"Tell me!" Doris gave her head a shake. She was acting like she was her real mother.

Ashe cringed and started to cry. "I can't! Not yet! She doesn't trust very well! I need more time!"

Doris released the frightened girl but kept her hands up as she paused there in utter shock. "She? You met a girl? Your own age?"

"Yes!" Ashe poured out with sad relief.

"Oh." Doris got back up. "Well." Ashe stared up at Doris who still looked a little surprised. "Then just let me know when I can meet her, okay? I need to make sure she's cleared." Then she strolled off, like she hadn't just been shaking a princess near-violently by her head.

Now Ashe was left in disbelief, but she shook her mind free and donned her robe. At a brisk pace she made her way back the way she came and out towards the North Palace Square. Sejuani was no doubt stitched up by now.

On the way Ashe pondered many things. If Sejuani might have just run off after getting her stitches; of which she feared the most. When would be a good time to tell Doris, or even her mother? Was this a true sign from Avarosa? How did Sejuani get that wound to begin with? Will they get to stay together? Will a noble be tasked by her mother to raise Sejuani, like Doris was raised? And most importantly of all; what are all of these weird…feelings?

As Ashe approached Mr. Chandler's shop she started to hear his voice; it was barking orders. Poking her head inside she began to hear him quite clearly, "No, no, over on the second to left shelf. What?! We have the same left! We're facing the same way. Oh, what you does that child see in you? Yes, there!"

Sejuani peered back to take notice of Ashe, but then continued to stock the shelves with products under the owner's orders. Ashe suspected that she probably had heard her coming a long ways off; but Ashe was perplexed as to why Sejuani would continue to stack the shelfs, knowing she had returned. So she queried that info, post haste. "Mr. Chandler?" Her tone was quite impressively mature and towering for a girl her age; so much so that it caught the man very off-guard.

"M-My Lady!?" Scary thoughts filled his imagination. "You're…you're back! Well, I hope your training was as beneficial as always." He put on the biggest smile he could force in his timid state.

Ashe strolled in, taking notice that Sejuani was still stacking the shelf. "What is this now?"

"T-This is…ah…um…this is just my simple fee for services rendered. We worked it out and as you can see," he pointed at Sejuani, "she had agreed to handle a few chores for me."

Ashe came up to Sejuani. "I think she has done enough. Wouldn't you agree Mr. Chandler?" As he gave a positive response Ashe focused in entirely on red marks she had just spotted on Sejuani's calves and arms. She grabbed Sejuani by the wrists. "WHAT IS THIS!?" She demanded.

"I kept fighting him." Sejuani finally spoke. "He had to tie me down or I would tear the wound deeper as he tried to stitch it." She said it almost like she had been ordered by someone to say it.

Ashe whipped her head in Chandler's direction in a crazed fury. "How dare you!" She bellowed with slowly seething rage. "Explain yourself!?"

The man was bent down so much, he was nearly on his knees. "I had no choice, milady. If she had hurt herself any more I believe you would have found that to be worse. No?"

Ashe reined in her anger and showed a calm face. "Well," in an instant she knew what to tell him to show she was beyond pissed off, "I will have to send Doris down here to get a full account of what had happened."

A loud thud of two knees hitting the ground at the same time preceded a man moaning in superficial, or perhaps quite literal, pain. "OH PLEASE MILADY?! I BEG YOU! PLEASE DON'T?! I WAS ONLY TRYING TO BEST SERVE YOU! PLEASE?!"

"If that's the case, then just explain that to her." She looked directly into his eyes. "I'm sure she'll understand."

Chandler knew he was screwed. He bolted up and went back into his office. When he came back out he was carrying a small bag with him. "H-Here milady! Take this! It has all the necessary medicine your beautiful, lovely, young friend needs to help that wound heal nicely. And please drop by anytime to have the stitches removed. That will be no trouble."

Ashe grabbed the bag. "I'm sure it won't be." She ushered Sejuani out of the shop. "Good day to you Mr. Chandler."

Nervously he replied, "Thank you milady! You bless me! Good day to you too!"

Once outside Ashe quickly led Sejuani away from the shop to a nearby alleyway. "Tell me what he did to you!?" She demanded.

"I told you already. And honestly it made sense, see?" She pointed at the stitched up wound. "He sealed it up like it was never there. You were right, this is way better than burning it closed. And that sal…salb…"

"Salve?" Ashe inquired.

"Yeah. That stuff. He put that on and it feels great." Sejuani, despite being strapped to a table like a mental patient, seemed quite pleased with the whole ordeal.

Ashe still wasn't. "Why were you doing work for him?"

"He said that, 'After the trouble you caused me, it's the least you could do,' so I did it."

"Well you didn't need to. I would have just paid him."

"Paid?" Sejuani was confused. "Like give him some food?"

Ashe pulled a gold coin out of her robe pocket. "No, with this." She handed it to Sejuani.

The tribal girl was in awe. A shiny yellowish-brown hue glistened in the sunlight off of the coin. She saw the image of Avarosa indented in the coin on one side and the Royal crest on the other. Both were new and spectacular to her. "Can I keep it?"

Ashe smiled playfully. "Yeah, for sure."

Suddenly Ashe remembered the other thing she wanted to talk with Sejuani about. "Hey?"

"Yeah?" Sejuani diverted her gaze from the coin to look up at Ashe.

"How is it that you came to receive that wound?"

One hour later. Freljord. Outside Avarosa's Palace. Royal Grange.

"It was one of them?!" Ashe asked in astonishment. "They're practically harmless! Why would it have been them?!"

Sejuani looked puzzled, mostly because she didn't understand why Ashe couldn't see why they would have attacked her. "Don't you eat them?"

Ashe cocked her head to one side. "Well…yeah, but why would they…" It took her a moment, but it finally came to her. She got up in Sejuani's face and asked, "You tried to kill one of them for food, yes?"

Sejuani nodded.

Ashe sighed. "These are stort villsvin and yes, if you don't handle them properly, they can attack you. I'm guessing you climbed right into the pen. Didn't you?"

Again, Sejuani nodded.

Ashe looked at the stort villsvin all huddling in a corner, furthest from Sejuani. Another thought dawned on her. "Sejuani? They're…they aren't that deadly. They've been completely domesticated. How…didn't you kill one of them?"

Sejuani just stared at them, intently.

Ashe took notice of a little stort villsvin that was trying to break free of his elders; one who didn't seem scared. She looked back at Sejuani, the girl looked a little saddened. "You…"

Sejuani looked straight at Ashe.

"You couldn't…could you?"

Sejuani looked back at the little stort villsvin who was almost free of its parents. Her lips began to tremble. "I'm…I wasn't weak. It, just, wouldn't have had that much meat for me! So I…"

Ashe grew a little grin and walked up to latch herself around Sejuani. "L-Let go of me. What are you doing?! LET GO!" Her body shuddered as Ashe clung on tight. "Let go…" She could feel it now. She had felt the same back when she was going to kill the young stort villsvin. It had caught her off guard. These feelings were the reason one of the elder stort villsvin was able to gore her leg. She felt powerless and scared; but, but not now. The feelings had gripped her hard once more. Although this time they didn't give her fright, they gave her relief; and that scared her even more.

Ashe pulled away. Sejuani thought she wasn't ready to stop, but when she looked at Ashe her senses picked up on why she had pulled away. "Oh no." Ashe said. "I forgot what time it was. The guards are making their evening rounds. Hey?" Ashe looked at Sejuani. "Do you still have that thing I gave you?"

She was talking about the robe pin. Sejuani pulled it out from her collar. "Yeah."

"Okay. Head back to the barn house. I have to check in like I'm going to bed. I'll be back for you later, okay?"

Sejuani nodded. Her instincts were raging for her to just leave this place, but she didn't want to. As Ashe began to stroll casually towards the palace, she ran for the barn house. To her the building was less of a place and more of a goal. There, in the barn house, she knew she would be waiting to see Ashe again. Nothing else seemed to matter. Not that she was free to leave. Not that she could have used the gold piece she had gotten to get some great supplies for living out in the wild. Not that staying here could get her killed for trespassing. Only that Ashe, her 'friend' said she would be coming to see her later.

Nightfall came down as soon as Sejuani had reignited the coals from the fire of the night before. It was hours that she waited, but they felt so long as she glanced at the door so very often. Every few minutes she'd walk up to the windowsill and look out to see if Ashe was just coming now, but she wasn't. Sejuani was hungry, but didn't care. She was thirsty, but didn't care. She was tired; and not caring just brought on sleep that much faster.

Sejuani awoke to the sound of heavy footfalls. They couldn't have been Ashe, they had to be from someone larger. She debated whether she should prepare to jump them, or if she should just run out the back, or if she should trust in the robe pin that Ashe had given her. It was too late, the door swung open, she closed her eyes and held out the pin.

"It's just me." Sejuani heard Ashe's voice huff out. "I told you I'd come, and I brought a present!" Clutched in her arms was a few folds of cloth covering something that seemed to be…moving?

Ashe knelt down in front of where Sejuani was sitting and uncovered a small stort villsvin. "NO!" Sejuani hollered. "Ashe! I…I can't! Please!?" She brought her arms into herself and clutched her sides tight.

Ashe was momentarily stunned. "No, no, it not to eat." She let the cloths fall to the ground as the little stort villsvin wiggled about in her hands. "It's for you. I brought him so you could see he's okay."

Sejuani looked at the creature. It seemed intent on reaching out to her with its tiny feet. She slowly unclutched an arm to reach out to the stort villsvin, and as she got close it licked her hand. She giggled and brought her other hand out to get a lick as well. It felt funny and soothing. She got her hands around the little guy and could feel his fluffy, young fur. He was giving her all these other newer feelings. She couldn't help but obsess over him as she cuddle his head.

Again distracted, Sejuani saw Ashe hold up a finger to her mouth. "Quiet." She whispered. "I think I heard someone outside.

The creature licked Sejuani on the face as they heard a low female voice say, "You did."

Leaning on one hand in the windowsill next to the door was Doris. Ashe froze. Sejuani followed suit, fearing anything Ashe, the princess around here, would fear.

"So?" Doris rested her arms on the sill. "Is this her?"

In a flash Ashe spun around and extended her arms at full wingspan. "Please Doris?! She didn't do anything wrong! I-I told her she could stay here! B-Blame me not-!"

"Relax child. I'm not blaming anyone." Ashe sighed a little. "But I am angry at you."

"Why?"

"You said she was important, but you let her stay out in this cold-ass barn! What's wrong with you?" Doris waved an arm towards herself. "Come on, let's get her inside where it's warm."

Sejuani saw Ashe shuddering. "T-Thanks." Ashe said through tears of relief. She had feared the worst, but that was thankfully over now.

Sejuani held up the small boar she had still been clutching. Doris smirked. "Yeah, bring him too. If we put him back in the pen we'd probably be having 'em for breakfast tomorrow." Her smile came out in full.