Ash Templeton—Morrigan (Companions)

Ash Templeton and Morrigan are joined by a sudden recognition that leads them away from the Mayfair family and into an unknown future. Their companionship is disclosed only in retrospect: Ash arrives in the garden, Morrigan senses him, and she runs to him; neither is ever seen by the family again.

The Meeting and Departure

Before Morrigan’s disappearance, Rowan and Michael had met Ash in New York. He told them the history of the Taltos and believed the species could not survive in the human world, having watched it be wiped out. The two left him in New York with affection and a pledge of eternal friendship, unaware that Morrigan existed.

After Rowan and Michael returned home and discovered Morrigan, Ash came to the family’s home. He entered the side garden and saw her through the windows. Rowan recalls that Morrigan was maddened by the scent of the male on the visitors’ clothes and on the gifts they had received from him. She went to the window, then ran out to Ash. The account offers no certain explanation for his arrival; a possible telepathic pull is raised, but Rowan says they do not know. The encounter itself is clear: Morrigan and Ash found one another, and the family could not stop them.

A Choice the Family Respected

Rowan maintains that the family did not initially understand the encounter as a permanent loss. They agreed to wait for Ash and Morrigan to make contact, respecting their choice to be together rather than pursuing them at once. In retrospect, that restraint appears inseparable from the outcome: the pair vanished, and the family never saw them again.

Michael later explains the fear behind their hesitation. They did not know how the Taltos could multiply or survive in the modern world, or how Ash might control them. Ash’s account of his species’ extinction made those questions urgent, even as the family loved him and had promised lasting friendship. Their respect for the pair’s decision thus coexisted with uncertainty about what life with Ash would mean for Morrigan and the Taltos.

Separation and Reproach

Morrigan’s absence leaves her mother without an answer about whether her daughter is alive or dead. Mona accuses Rowan of having known Ash from Europe and of allowing him to take Morrigan away without telling her about the ancient survivor. Rowan answers that there was no way to stop either of them once Morrigan ran to Ash, and Michael insists that the family searched for him by every conceivable means.

Mona asks for the files, Ash’s name, and the names of his New York companies, emphasizing that he was rich and powerful. Rowan offers the paperwork but explains that Ash liquidated everything and vanished. Mona bitterly argues that they should have searched immediately; Rowan counters that Mona had agreed at the time to wait for contact. The dispute does not resolve Ash and Morrigan’s fate. It instead exposes the cost of the family’s earlier decision: a bond they chose to respect became an enduring separation, with no confirmed account of what followed.