"Yeah but I almost lost my cock to frostbite once thanks to an elf," he tosses right back because he's still sore about that one, he will take that to his Lady and may he shit on said woman involved in the dragging where his bits ended up frozen. The very worst case of blue balls.

Asher knows Sam pretty well. Knows Sam well enough that he's honest with him - not that Asher lies, not really, shades the truth here and there, recounts the story according to Asher but that's how things go - but well, Sam deserves to know this. "Been doing this since I was fifteen Sam," he admits quietly as he tries to keep himself in the here and now, not the last fight that saw him leaving with his mother packing his things, Aedan and Tobias watching with wide eyes, his father barely able to look, Shannon running off in tears, Aura mercifully too little to even be awake for it. "Even before I was a Reaver. I had a long time doing all this shit, Melisende was there right from the start, always had my back, even when I was worse about looking after myself."

There was worse than this. Boys with no place in the world don't tend to care much about how close they come to death in a battle after all.