Aspel Cassul: When in doubt, Aspel! (weaponry) wrote in emillion,
"It.... Will help." The voice was honestly part of the reason she didn't spend half as much time in taverns as she could have. Aspel had grown up with people always being around the Keep, family mostly, and then while housed within the Onyx Guard, they had moved, slept, ate, and even, some might venture to say, breathed together. The system shock of being alone when she had first left had nearly caused her to turn back, to beg herself back into their service but somehow... She had managed. Meeting her summon, as much as he had irked her, driven her nearly into fits at times, had helped her to overcome that deep seated, heart wrenching loneliness.
The chewing was slow, at best, she felt awkward, uncomfortable. It had been so long at this point and the activity had been used to bond them, to show how close they were meant to be, how they were family and needed to stick together even after long days on the road or hard battles they would... Then the question from Ari. Somehow she should have expected it, should have known it was coming but something about it, here, now... Hadn't occurred. Swallowing down the food finally, the fork was used to push around the items on her plate, like a child to some degree.
"I.... " It was hard, so damned hard and she didn't want to talk about it, didn't want Ari to know precisely what her past had been like, it was causing an ice to form in her chest, spreading through her lungs and freezing her words in her throat. "A group." The hand holding the fork raised, twirling it in a circle in the air slightly. "We...." Her thoughts felt slow, muddled in comparison to normally. "Shared meals." Aspel shifted, bring the for back down to her plate to stab into a part of a potato. "Always." If this series of broken words in attempts to share her past would not get across how desperately she was indeed trying with the bard, Aspel had to wonder if anything ever would. "By command of..... our.... lead." Her jaw tightened, eyes dropping away as the potato was brought up and shoved in her mouth to hamper any further words, at least for now.