((I know you're busy, Sari, but I wanted to get this started while I still remember what Owle's emotional state would have been.))
It was only a few days after she'd left the letters. It was only a day after she'd gathered her friends, and stepped through the portal to head after Rafe...only to find that she had to stay here, a part of her left behind to care for things in the mortal realm while another piece went to battle Thanatos. Only a day after Vahn had deserted her, walking away without a word. Needless to say, she felt like crap, and could use a child's smiling face.
She wasn't looking forward to seeing Angel. Not like this. He had already been so quick to judge her when she was largely ignorant, if not innocent. What would he think of her now?
She knew Sarielle wasn't there.
What could have happened to her? Owle hoped Sarielle was just out on the town or something...that Angel was just here as a temporary measure, that Sarielle wasn't in danger or anything. It was her fault Sarielle was involved in this...her fault, a lot of it was her fault. Hell, she might even have played an unwitting part in Sarielle's fall from grace...no, she couldn't know that she'd been on that particular battlefield, that she'd killed those particular mortals. But she had been Thanatos' blade, and he'd never seen fit not to wield her at the slightest whim.
And it was she who had created the game, with Oneiros' urging and help. She, in one of her mortal incarnations, who had faced down the gods and persuaded them to duke out their quarrels in an arena with less...collateral damage. No, she had not asked Sarielle to be involved in it, nor offered her redemption had she won. But she had created the game, and that was responsibility itself.
Sarielle was still alive and breathing. Owle could feel her mind, which told the shifter that much. But she knew nothing else, and dared not ask.
...just like she dared not knock on the door?
Sighing at her own stupidity, Owle lifted her hand and rang the doorbell, or knocked on the nearest wood paneling. With fear and hope in her heart, she awaited the answer.
