Providence, Somewhere

Firewatch

"They're here, Sally. Yes, I'm bringing them to the clinic. No, Mellori isn't with them. Yes, they got the artifact."

A slender lady was talking on the phone, tapping her pen impatiently. She sighed; Sally was always the type to worry. Worrying was the last thing a warrior should do; Lapis and Tara knew that perfectly.

Ashi looked back at the trio she had pulled from the forest; Sunset was busy patching up Finn's burns from the slightly caustic Distortion slime, while Zelda was busy trying to levitate some shuriken with her phone. Magic had just come back, and she knew that from Eclipsa's mass text, so here she was, hiding her latent power.

"I'll take care of Finn," Sunset said. "The salve Tara made should be enough to get him better."

"What about your bike?" Finn asked. "Didn't you leave it at the bar?"

Sunset groaned. "I don't wanna hear it from Sally, please..."

Ashi turned away. "I'll take them home, then. No, not the hospital, home. They need rest, and they have folks who can check in on them. Can you just— Sally, can you trust them? They're not as badly hurt as you think. They're going home, and that's that." She hung up faster than Sally could react. Immediately, she swiveled around and stood up, walking towards the exit, much to a now-curious Zelda. "Come, I'm dropping you all off before Sally can."

"Zelda," Sunset said, helping Finn up. "Make sure she doesn't set fire to anything."

She stood up. "What?"

"No, she just means that Ashi is a bit... temperamental, is all," Finn clarified. "We'll catch up with you in a bit."

It almost seemed like they wanted her to talk to Ashi, like something was about to crack in the ranger girl that no one else could. Yet she didn't know what...

Zelda went outside, hurrying down the steps and over to Ashi, who was near a golf cart docked at a charging station. The raven-haired ranger was just about ready to start the cart, unhooking it from the port.

"Finn and Sunset are coming soon," Zelda said.

"They need to come now," Ashi replied. "Sooner or later, Sally's about ready to show up. I want you three home."

Zelda looked up at the watchtower. "What if she's already waiting for them?"

"She won't reach the apartments; I'm closer to them than she is." Ashi sat in the driver's seat. "I know why they sent you here first."

Zelda walked over to the passenger seat. "Why do you think so?"

"They want to know what Sally said when I told her about Mellori." Ashi glanced up at the watchtower, where Sunset and Finn were walking down. "She wants to close off and plug the storm drains for good. Nevermind the fact we haven't fully mapped out those portions yet. And not to mention that she thinks she has some authority as Ranger Scout Leader. Only Eclipsa can give that order, but of course, it has to be Sally's word like somehow Eclipsa isn't in this equation."

Zelda watched Ashi grip the steering wheel as she ranted, fingertips growing sharp and jet-black as they dug into the plastic. "Um, Ashi?"

She soon realized, and shook off her hands, inspecting them. "Sorry, I just didn't expect magic to come back. Wouldn't expect you to know that about me."

"I haven't really met you in any official regard."

The golf cart swayed and jerked. "Let's go," Sunset said. "Just talk like we're not listening."

Once the click of seat belts were audible, Ashi started off into the dark drive.

"So, you're a princess?" she asked Zelda with a cooler head. "That's what Double Trouble said."