"Oh, I don't know," she answers, keeping her voice dry despite feeling that barely forgotten fear of being lost forever in the storm she'd experienced- that her memory self is experiencing before them. "It gives the readers a chance to breathe between my death-defying acts, right?"

The past Asa now steels herself visibly and resumes her slow trek through the storm, hand up to shield her eyes from the snow.

"... I'm sorry," she adds quietly, moving herself now to keep pace with her past self. "If only I'd pushed harder to find out who the 'Elder One' was instead of brushing it off..."