Give me someone to believe in, she begged the universe. Ash didn't want to finish this dire quest alone. She wanted Will to burst through the door with a smile on his face and spellbooks in his arms, telling her that he had everything under control, that his strengths would defeat Malegaunt and win the day, and yet, every cold hour of silence, waiting for him to return, tore at her heartstrings and gave her a chilling reminder that the world didn't care one whit about what she wanted. She'd have to take action, now, and see how far she could get, utterly alone with no other humans for comfort. There was the wyvern, Slick, but he was an animal who could not speak English. The comfort he could give were not human comforts. Kill Malegaunt, that was her charge, her quest, and she had absolutely no clue how to go about getting that done.
