The Tangle She says the joys of life are lost among the living

It was one of Ashlar's bigger flaws that he assumed the world was as honest with their feelings as he. When Chacal told him to go, he assumed this was what she wanted. His face fell, but he nodded, turning to leave with his tail slung motionless. He had said what he needed to and she had made her choice. There was nothing else he could do short of promising to join her, but this wasn't something he could give her right now.

Still...

If you need anything, just... know I'm there. And if... if there's.... he trailed off quietly, trying to find the words. If I'm a father. That's important too. If it's important to you. It would change things, he thought. He couldn't change what they had done but he could speak with Avicus about it. And he thought, maybe, there was still a way to give her what she needed.... and yet still be there for a family that was his own.

But if she chose to not include him, he would live with this.

Disheartened, he began his route back to the Rise.