Did you miss me?

There'd been a worry nagging at the back of Samara's mind, ever since she'd learned of Rhyme's missing daughter. It had taken her longer than she meant to finally act on that worry however and when she'd finally set out to seek out her sister she'd expected to be gone a while, she couldn't exactly transverse distances quickly after all.

And of course with her luck, the damn mountain had exploded. So that had only delayed her longer than she'd wanted. Forced to seek shelter from the cataclysm that had been thrown upon them the woman had suddenly regretted her decision not to tell anyone where she'd gone. Not that she thought it would have been a good idea regardless. The less ties she had to Ashen in the minds of the Abaven wolves the better, especially if her worry proved true. Suspicion would be thrown on her and all the work she'd done would be undone. Still, she'd have rather not been left to weather the eruption all by herself. More than once she'd been certain she would die, alone and her body would never be recovered. In those times her thoughts had turned to Rhyme... how would he handle that? He'd lost so much already, but then he'd been distant to her as of late... She couldn't read if he was actually falling for her machinations or was resistant to them. That alone drove her to survive, proud as she was of her skills she couldn't stand the idea the man was rejecting her. Never mind that deep inside she also couldn't stand the idea of hurting him any further.

So as the season had slowly turned and the calamity started to retract its claws the woman had begun her mission anew, tracing her family to their hiding place. As she arrived at the borders she didn't waste a moment to tip her head back and call for her sister. She sent a silent plea to whatever forces existed that her sister's paws were clean in this case. She wanted nothing more than to return to her work, and if gods forbid Belle was part of the girl's disappearance she knew she'd need to summon all her cunning and resources to return the child to where she belonged. The Kleins were nothing if not possessive of their belongings after all.

Speech