A/N: Oh, I should probably mention this: any name that starts with an A is Azreal, and any name that starts with an R is Roisene. Lae can't keep names straight to save her life.

…-…

The bosses of Karazhan had been defeated a long time ago—by valiant heroes, no doubt—and in its place a great void had settled.

Each step seemed to echo through the whole castle, whispering back that there was someone just around the corner, something waiting at the top of the stairs. The wind whispered through invisible cracks in the mortar and windows, caressing cheeks like the breath of a secret. Many of the lights had sputtered out a long time ago, and the few that remained, in open defiance to the darkness creeping in, flickered with a desperate will to not be forgotten.

Mold spread across the wall in gentle spirals, different colors blooming softly against the dark gray of the walls. If Laerorith squinted, she could almost picture flowers there.

It was always nice how all that nature-y stuff liked to make things prettier.

Whoever had told her that the bastard she was looking for had come to hide out here had been wrong. No one had been here in a long time. Had they? Part of her wanted to leave, noting that her footprints in the crumbled dirt and dust were the only fresh ones, but if she went back now, it would be admitting that she couldn't be relied on after all. No, she would search the entire castle if she needed to. She'd find clues, something to guide her hand to justice.

They would see that she was good at what she did. She was worth keeping around, worth including in secret plans and important missions.

She shivered at her own thoughts and tried to get lost in her surroundings. Usually, such dreary thoughts left her quickly, even in Pandaria where emotions ruled everything, but it seemed that in the last few weeks they'd been piling up, growing stronger.

Once, this place had been grand and beautiful on its own. Now cobwebs outnumbered drapes and that impossible wind fluttered them like sheets of gauze. However, even they were covered in dust, their masters having been slain years ago.

The last time Laerorith had been here, it had been with Roilito and Azazi. With her guild leader and favorite healer in tow, this place had seemed so much more…alive. Granted, more of the candles had been around—that they'd lasted this long had to be some sort of magic—and even as they'd pilfered the rooms, there had been laughter to fill up that emptiness.

Well, she'd been laughing.

Hadn't she?

Laerorith reached up to touch her head and make sure she wasn't still bleeding. Somehow, this place was different, and it was as though its changes were sweeping backwards. Laerorith peered into a side chamber where she was fairly certain they'd been joking around.

However, instead of the memory she so cherished, she could see all three of them in that room, the candles glowing with an oddly green tinge to them. There she was, scaling the bookshelves to get something that looked promising—and shiny. Roinenne stood at the bottom of the shelf, pinching the bridge of what was left of her nose, a grimace in place as a few books crashed to the ground. Azrit sighed as he leaned against a chair, flipping through his spell book, bored, anticipating what would happen next.

As Laerorith fell, trinket in hand, Rotori simply turned away. Alizos muttered a healing spell before skirting around her, not even giving her trophy a glance as he followed their guild leader.

The images faded. Jerking back a step, Laerorith suddenly noticed just how dark the halls had gotten. She jerked her goggles from her hairline where they left her bangs poking up in random directions and back onto her face. The world was bathed in unnatural colors as the goggles analyzed everything.

She felt relieved as numbers and shorthand words filled her vision.

Somehow, despite all her bumps to the head—and slashes and what-have-you—she could always remember her skills. Blacksmithing, engineering, fishing. Some of it was muscle memory, but some of it…even she could admit that her memory was utterly atrocious. Yet somehow these simple things remained with her.

Well, simply complex, maybe.

As she made her way up the next corridor, past the place where a giant arcane guardian lay broken, its rust staining the carpet and old stone beneath it, her goggles began to fritz. Something caught in the gears on the side, and they clacked against one another, followed quickly by a threatening hiss that implied the stall had disrupted something inside.

Laerorith jerked her goggles off and nearly screamed as she came face to face with a pair of glowing yellow-green eyes. Even as she jerked her shield up in front of her and shoved it forward, she realized it was Roilila.

Her shield slam pass through the spectral image of her guild leader and carried her through it as well. As she staggered, her skin prickling and cold where it had touched the apparition—or whatever it was—she looked back and saw that another memory had begun to play.

There she was, on top of the guardian, trying to pull free a few items from its design—pieces that she thought might sell to some fop who wanted something sparkly in their living room. Aseri and Riila were standing to one side, clearly agitated by the need to stop again.

Even as Laerorith noted that the candles seemed quite noticeably greener than she remembered, the memory sputtered out, with Aso and Rototo leaving her to her scavenging, saying to each other that they would find something useful.

As the specters swept past her, a soft humming from in her pack caught her attention.

Laerorith perked up and dropped her goggles, oblivious to the way they crunched against the stone. Swinging her bags onto the ground, she opened the one who's leather still vibrated ever so faintly. As soon as she'd flipped up the top, green light washed over her.

~"~

Laerorith blinked as the green light dimmed in front of her. A single, small chunk of rock hovered in front of her, over her outstretched hand.

Around her, hundreds of other rocks floated in place, in a frozen spiral toward a sky that wasn't anything in her world. As weak as her magic senses were, she could feel it tumbling around her.

She was in the uppermost spire of Karazhan.

This was where she'd found Mr. Felpebble. With Roto and Asizi.

How had she gotten here?

Normally, not being able to remember was so typical that she just brushed it off, but this was different.

This was scary.

She'd never been good with magic, a disappointment to her father. He was a low ranking magister who acted as though he were second in command to Romulus himself. That one of his children could be so magic blind was a blight upon the family.

But here, when touching these little rocks, she'd been able to feel what she'd always missed. There was a power here. One that didn't require muscles and finesse. One that didn't mean she'd have to sacrifice herself to protect others as they hung back at a safe distance, casting their spells yards away or sneaking around behind something as it lashed out at her relentlessly.

Laerorith abruptly shivered.

She liked tanking. She'd always liked tanking. It was fun.

The crash of metal against metal, the adrenaline, the hazy red that she kept pushed back, always at the edge of her vision. Turning her pent up frustrations to forgotten incidents into something worthwhile, into strength.

She lived for the rush of the wind in her hair as she charged into combat, the way the air swirled around her as she lashed out and defended, as she taunted and dodged.

She might never conjure an ice bolt or mend a wound, but there was a magic of its own in what she did.

It was something far more precious than the spells her father was so disappointed that she couldn't cast.

I want a spinny rock.

She heard her own voice echo through the air, sharp and clear as though she'd just spoken herself.

Feeling as if the rocks in the air had suddenly flooded to her stomach, she turned slowly, not wanting to see what memory was about to present itself to her. She was certain that something was wrong with them, that her friends hadn't been nearly so callous, but she couldn't remember them as they had been.

Whenever she thought of Rotolo or Ases, it was different. They were frowning.

Just as they were in this image.

Roisene closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose again. Leave it alone, okay? It's useless.

But it's pretty, Laerorith's memory retorted, jerking Azreal over and climbing onto his shoulder so that she could reach one of them.

Azreal looked ready to toss her into the twisting nether. They won't even float once we take them out of this place. Leave it.

"Stop it…" Laerorith whispered, taking a step back. Something bumped against her head and she whirled around to see one of the rocks—the rock she'd taken—floating there, it's color a brilliant, glittering green.

It's light was harsh, and Laerorith scowled, drawing her blade. "They were right! I shouldn't have taken you anywhere!"

The glow pulsed, almost as though it were speaking.

However, rather than a voice coming from the stone itself, suddenly she could hear Azreal talking again.

I didn't bring you with me because it was a secret mission. You're not exactly good at being subtle.

I could have helped.

No, you couldn't have. Besides, it wasn't supposed to be a big deal. Roisene got it wrong.

"I could have helped," Laerorith whispered, whirling toward a spectral image of the troll. "I'm a tank. I should've been there to fight with you."

More like you would've brought the whole vault down on us. In the end, you're just a nuisance.

Laerorith sucked in a sharp breath. Azreal had never said that. She knew. He was never that harsh. Maybe he did get tired of her from time to time, but he was never mean.

But it fit so perfectly with her memories.

They were all so…vivid.

She blinked.

Her memories were never this clear.

Gritting her teeth, Laerorith gripped her sword and whipped back toward the glowing rock. A crack resounded through the room as her blade smashed into the side of the stone. For a moment, there was a hint of resistance, and she thought she would have to strike it again, but then it shattered into thousands of little pieces.

As the glittering dust fell through the air, it sparkled around her. Laerorith felt a wave of relief wash over her. The harsh looks, the cruel words, they were fading.

And then she heard the other rocks around her begin to hum.