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Cold winds cut at Ashe’s faith as she makes her way further north. The blizzard is getting bad now, but she cannot falter so close to her destination. In the south, her people are being cut by swords and arrows.
If they can handle that, then she can handle a simple blizzard. She is alone, as she stumbles through the ice and snow. The elders protested at first, but this is something she must do alone. It cannot be the warmother, the leader of the Avarosans, who comes to Sejuani’s doorstep. It has to be Ashe.
The lights of the campfires in the distance, barely visible in the monstrous snowstorm she has found herself in are her only guidance. But she perseveres.
Not because she is stronger than anyone else, not because she is the legendary warmother. She perseveres because she has to, because if she doesn’t then all those who live under her will suffer. So she puts one foot forward, and then the next and this is the way she comes to Sejuani.
The winter’s claw’s settlement is different from what she is used to in Avarosa. Weapons are as common as people, and she spots many injured around the camp. She is greeted with stares and whispers, but no concrete dismissal. Not yet.
“I come seeking the Warmother Sejuani, of the Winter Claw!” She shouts, her voice hoarse as she attempts to speak over the whistling wind. Suddenly, the stares become much more prominent. It takes only a few seconds for a large woman with light blonde hair to step out of one of the buildings. It has admittedly been a long time since Ashe has seen her childhood friend in person, her memories faint and blurry, replaced partially with what she has been told by others of what Sejuani has become. The woman in front of her is striking, blended elements of the girl she knew with the experiences that made her into the woman she is now, so many things familiar, and yet so much she didn’t know. Ashe suddenly had a desperate, aching longing to learn everything about this woman, to never again be unfamiliar with a single aspect of her.
Sejuani’s face is overcome with many emotions, each one after the other, first shock, then disbelief, then anger. Finally it settles on a sternness befitting of a warmother.
“What does the warmother of the Avarosans have to say to the Winter Claw?” Sejuani shouts, her voice easily heard over the wind, loud but devoid of any real emotion.
Suddenly the whispers are much harsher, the stares more violent, and Ashe wonders if this really was a good idea at all.
“I come seeking your ear. I have no expectations, I only request a discussion.” Ashe says.
“Well. I see then, let's ask everyone then. Tribesfolk, what do we do with the Avarosans?”
Ashe hears various shouts and jeers, cries of violence and torture. She suddenly feels the cold chill of the bow on her back.
“Silence!” Sejuani holds her hand up, and suddenly the only noise left is the wind, the only thing in this camp that does not obey the warmother. “Then discuss Ashe. What is it you wish to tell me? I am sure you can do as such in front of us all” She gestured to her tribesfolk with her arms.
Ashe was slightly floundering. She hadn’t expected this. She had expected Sejuani to not greet her with… kindness. She had prepared herself for that. But she had assumed she would maintain the diplomatic coldness so common amongst leaders. This was another type of coldness, one she wasn’t used to.
But Ashe was good at anything it was improvising. So she dropped to her knees and attempted her best piercing stare at Sejuani, directing all attention towards her.
“Great Warmother, I come to you seeking aid!” She began, “Not just aid for myself and for my tribe, but for you as well. As you may know, the Noxians have begun invading our lands. I seek an alliance between our feuding tribes, to unite the Freljord against Noxus.” She kept eye contact during the entire speech, that part was important. Even after she was finished speaking, her eyes were still locked on Sejuani.
The camp exploded into noise then, enough bickering and bluster that even Sejuani’s hand was not enough to silence them. Her voice however, was.
“ENOUGH!” Sejuani shouted, her voice echoing like a giant.
“Our tribe has been… in conflict with the Noxians. That much is true. But how do we know this alliance will last? You Avarosans are liars and backstabbers, through and through. What happens when the Noxians leave our land and the Avarosans turn their sights on us? I will not stand to be the subject of such a weakling tribe.”
This was the hard part, the part that she had spent nights pacing in her chambers about. The part she wasn’t sure was going to work. The part she had to try anyway.
“I ask only for your hand in marriage, Sejuani. To secure the alliance between our tribes.”
There was a beat of silence, and then.
“I accept.”
The deals had been sorted out, the lines in the sand drawn. Every possible person in the Winter’s Claw who needed to be there had been informed and agreed with the plan. Ashe’s head was full of ideas, strategies. But mostly she was just surprised her shot in the dark had worked. The once full war room had dwindled to only a few men and women, who were discussing mostly things of little importance. Ashe listened halfheartedly, intent to pick up on anything important, but it was truly just rehashing of previously laid out plans, or personal dialogue.
It seemed then, that the Winter’s Claw was not all that different from her own tribe. Self important people, talking far more than they needed to. It was just styled up in different clothing, war instead of peace, violence instead of diplomacy. Regardless it didn’t matter. She ended her musings just in time to see Sejuani stand up next to her.
“Enough of this talk, I must take my fiancee to bed to rest. She has been listening to you fools long enough.”
And with that she grabbed Ashe’s arm and began to lead Ashe out of the room. Ashe followed, her cheeks warm with a blush she hadn’t felt since childhood.
When they reached the bedroom Sejuani shut the door behind them.
“Trust that when I accepted this… alliance, I did not do it out of some mistaken trust for your great cause,” Sejuani almost snarled. “I did it for the good of the tribe, not for you.
Ashe nodded her head, resigned. She knew this was the expected outcome, it was all she could ask for really, but she had hoped, when Sejuani had said those words, that it had meant something more. Something like “I accept you. I still love you, like I used to.” But Sejuani wasn’t just going to change like that. Neither of them were.
“I know that,” Ashe said, “I am aware of your… hatred of me. But it was the only option that could unite us against the Noxians. The traditional way.” Something flashed in Sejuani’s eyes but it was gone the moment Ashe thought to look for it. “Well I suppose I have to grant that it’s a brave idea. Especially coming here alone. I could’ve just as easily killed you.”
“You wouldn’t.” Ashe said.
She sat down on the bed, made of furs from previous hunts, one of which she recognized.
“You kept this?” She asked, holding up a Murk Wolf’s fur. It was from a hunt they both did as teenagers, back when they could hold weapons together, instead of at one another.
“I keep all the furs I hunted.” Sejuani said, her voice lower now.
“So am I to sleep in your bed then? We aren’t properly wed yet.”
“Does it matter? You need a place to sleep.”
Ashe could’ve pointed out that she could’ve slept elsewhere, surely there was someone willing to lend some bedding at least, to sleep in one of the other rooms. But she didn’t. Instead she said, “Okay.”
Sejuani sat down, opposite to Ashe and began to undress. Her arms were even larger than Ashe remembered them to be, but the many scars that dotted both them and her back were new. Her hair, which had been done up in a deathly tight knot, was let loose. Ashe knew that she should also prepare for bed, but she was enthralled by this ethereal beauty. The strength that Sejuani possessed, both in spirit and body, was like few Ashe had ever known. To witness it again, after so long…
“Are you going to keep on staring, or are you going to go to sleep?” Sejuani said, breaking up Ashe’s thoughts.
“I- Yes, yes of course. Sorry it’s just been so long since I’ve seen you…” She began, stumbling into the end of her sentence quicker than she intended. Ashe was a diplomat, a queen, but with Sejuani her words never quite came to her.
“Just get some rest. See you in the morning.”
“See you.” Ashe whispered. A promise, a prayer? Who knew. But at least for now, Sejuani was beside her, once again.