Always.

"What do you mean she isn't waking up!"

Ashes was raging across the sickward, practically chasing the poor Priestess of Maiyo who had been looking over Zana.

"I'm sorry!" She says. "We didn't know she would have these complications!"

Gabriella and myself were watching this horror show of frustration from the sidelines, having only just entered this hall of the wounded and ill.

Gabbie was first to act, grasping at the shorter girl's shoulder in an attempt to comfort and confront her. "Ashes, please stop! They're trying their best."

"Screw their best! Do better!"

I went to the Priestess of Maiyo; a human woman, red of hair, and green of eyes.

"Miss, what do you mean she won't wake up. What's going on." I whisper to her; trying my best to maintain a low, non-threatening posture.

"I don't know... we've tried everything we usually do." She whispers back. "The remaining parts of her arm are healed, and her rhythm is steady. We've called for a specialist to examine her mind, but there are none currently in the city; and with the city on high alert..."

"Her... mind?" I ask.

A purpose for that third spell? Back when Madness showed me what this body could do, it seemed useless for the moment; as well as... risky... given how fragile my mind was.

"Yes. Usually, when someone is dormant like this, we call for an Assassin; oh don't give me that look!" Says the Priestess, seeing my surprise. "There is a certain kind of magic, one Assassins specialize in. One that lets you..."

"I know it." I say, stopping her from explaining further. "Should use it? We don't seem to have any other choices."

The woman looks to me, then Zana, and then to the fuming, still screaming, Ashes.

"I'll turn your bones into whistles!"

The priestess nods with fear fueled vigor.

Without speaking to the others, I head to Zana's bedside, where I see the prosthetic Ashes had made already attached to her; its proportions matching almost exactly to that of her missing hand. After admiring our Artisan's handiwork, I place my left hand over my heart; my right resting over Zana's forehead.

I speak; my first incantation since Madness was burned away.

"Deepest depth, the mind."

"With the blind, leading the blind."

"Peeking, peering. Look."

"Your mind, my own book."

"Within the absence of light."

"My Darkest Insight."

The world fades to black; shattering alongside the sounds of crunching metal, shattering glass, and Her scream suddenly halting.

...

I find myself in an attic, with a young elvish child, playing by herself. Most of her form is hidden by an hat several sizes too big for her, with her little brown shoes just barely poking out.

"Zana? Is that you?"

The little one wiggles about, clearly struggling with the hat. She suddenly seizes up, before removing the hat with ease.

"What would you do without, Z." Says the little Anaz, who then seizes in turn.

"Sorry, A." Says Zana, clearly embarrassed by her inability to remove her own hat. "Its just so heavy..."

The jolting continues with each turn of their conversation.

Anaz speaks, gaining control after a slight jolt. "Granny could show us how to enchant it! Make it lighter!"

"Or have it help us hide..."

"I know! If she enchanted it with Holding, it would be lighter, just like the Red Hoods, and we can hide in it..."

"Ooo! Lets go! Open!"

Casting an utterance on the little door leading down into the library, however, seemed to have been a mistake. As the Wild Magic caused it to instead suddenly transform into a giant duck. The world fades to black once more, with the sounds of townsfolk chasing around a strange giant duck echoing into the black void.

"Ooo, what that."

I find myself in the workshop of Ashes father, with a transfixed little Zana, and Miss Hush; old as ever, looking over what seemed to be the blown out pieces of a firearm's barrel, the stock over to the side.

Rather than the somewhat gruff voice of the old soldier, a squeaky, happy voice calls out instead. "Its the barrel for a guard's rifle thingy! My papa is fixing it."

A diminutive dark skinned girl, with bandages wrapped over several of her little fingers. "I haven't seen you around. Are you new in town?"

Miss Hush remains silent, watching her mousy grandchild speak. "I m-moved in with my gran a w-week ago. I'm Z-zana."

"I'm Ashes! Ooo! Your eyes are so pretty!"

The world flickers black once more, before returning back to the workshop, now in disarray. I see an older Ashes, crying as she is held by an older Zana, and Slag; her father Pyre nowhere to be seen.

"Ma..." Is all I hear of the young Artisan before the darkness engulfs the world.

Once light returns to my eyes, I find myself on a shattered smattering of the previous scenery, and places unfamiliar. The pieces od attic, the library, the town of Saltmoore, all floating about in a void of warping color... but, towards the pieces that are less familiar, that is where I hear it.

Sobbing.

I use my wings to cross, piece by piece, over towards the sobbing; until I reach a extremely regal, dark, wooden door, carved expertly with intricate designs across its body. Opening it, the shattered memories behind me vanish, and I see Zana once more; as a little girl, younger than even the memory of the attic. She is dressed in a very expensive looking little pink dress. This place I find myself in, it seems to be an extravagant manor...

Is this how Zana kept paying for things?

"Mama... why do we have to go live with granny..." The little elf asks, the figure she refers to as 'mama' being a prudish looking elf woman, who looks down at the child with disgust.

"Stewart, get them away! Before they burns my eyebrows off again!" The bitch of a woman shrieks.

Little Zana begins crying, her multi-colored eyes shimmering as she does so.

A strange young man then appears, taking hold of the young girl, and lifting her into his arms gently. "Its ok, my little rainbows. Mama doesn't mean it..."

The man himself seems... off. His face is that of a fit, young elvish man; his seeming simplicity added onto by his simple brown suit, with straps holding up his pants by his shoulders. But his eyes... they speak of age beyond that of the long lived elvish people. His aura of ancient power, even in this distant memory of a little girl, radiates powerfully. Those same eyes... they change each time he blinks...

He turns toward me.

He sees me.

"You shouldn't be here." He warns, as the finery of the manor vanishes; replaced by a blazing inferno.

"Yes... he sh-should." The stuttering voice of Zana comes from behind me; freezing the flames in place, and causing this 'Stewart' to vanish into nothing.

"What the f-"

The manor vanishes entirely, leaving only the warping multi-colored void, myself, and Zana. Looking to her, she seems to be she should be; only, her arm... where it had been severed, a sizzling static of black and white fires from it at random.

"Zana, I came here to wake you up." I say, trying to approach the girl, only for no distance to be crossed by my steps. "The others; Ashes, we're all worried sick."

"I'm... asleep?" She asks, her expression vacant; trance-like. "No, I'm dead, right? I feel... dead."

Her face contorts into an unsure grimace. "I can't hear her... I can't..."

"Zana, you need to just..."

...

"Wake up!"

I fall backwards, knocking over the curtain behind me. Looking up from my fallen position, I see Ashes and Gabbie; the former being rather angry looking.

"What are you doing?!" She yells, grasping me by my shoulders, and suddenly pulling me up and to my feet. "You can't just go around cast magic on people!"

"I was trying to..."

"Wake me up."

The anger over Ashes face is suddenly replaced by a concoction of shock, relief, and joy, as she spins around, grasping the newly awoken Zana in a hug. "Ihsrom's shin bones! You're awake!"

Zana, sitting up from her bed, seemed rather tired despite her rest. "You can thank Monster for that."

Ashes spins once more, grasping me in a ****-grip hug that would put Gabriella to shame.

She whispers in my ear, her joyous voice carrying a hint of naughty intent. "I am paying you back for this..."

After being released from my arm-based prison, I gulp down much needed air, only barely hearing the trembling voice of our mousy mage whisper something in panic; grasping her new prosthetic arm.

"Anaz... Anaz..."

"Zana? What's wrong." Asks Gabbie, who leans in to hear what was being said.

The usually quiet girl shouts in a panic; clearly, and loud enough for all present to hear.

"They... they took Anaz!"