Blacktail Deer Plateau And the two of us went up in smoke

For a long while after Lasher joined him, Dante remained quiet. The peace of the forest, and of the still ruin that lay beside it, lay a silence about that was neither awkward nor uncomfortable. The benign calm gave no clue of the raging inferno that had caused it, or the panic that night had held.

He had no desire to speak on that, nor of what had transpired on his end those days he was absent. So he would not. He did finally break the silence, the tone neutral as he delivered an inquiry that instead would focus on what the plateau had faced these past weeks. "Is all well?" After they were spoken, he turned to look at Lasher, truly studying him for perhaps the first time since his return as he awaited an answer.