"Yes. Yes I am, little one." S'nashi answered to Rhazii in a particularly calm and compassionate voice. Regardless of the actions of Ahnasha, nothing she had done was the fault of Rhazii. No matter what else happened, she would accept him just as any other member of the family. Once she turned her attention back to Ahnasha, however, her disappointment in her daughter started to show through in her expression. She had been overjoyed to see her alive, but the pain her actions had caused her family could not be forgotten. 

"M'ahnasha...when you died, it was like a part of me died with you. A part of all of us. In the month after, we nearly lost the shop because we could hardly find the will to work. We thought you had died because we gave in to your desire to explore the wilds around the city. It was our fault we lost you. I had failed as a mother and you had paid the price." S'nashi explained, pausing as she deliberated in her mind whether she truly wanted to admit what had happened next. "After it happened...I almost took my own life."

Upon those words, both Gwindir and Vasiq looked to her in surprise. Evidently, it was not something that had been known to either of them. With her head lowered in shame, S'nashi sobbed as she spoke. "I couldn't bear the thought of how I had failed you. If anything, I was the one who deserved to die instead of you. I was sitting on the bed, staring out the window up at the twin moons. I got as far as bringing the knife to my throat and...started to press down when Vasiq knocked at the door. I knew afterwards that I could not leave the family I still had, but..." S'nashi raised up her head to look at Ahnasha with her tear-clouded eyes. "I would rather spend every day worrying about you, my daughter, than to [i]know[/i] that I had killed you."

The revelation of what had happened, and the potential for what she could have caused, was utterly devastating to Ahnasha. She cried uncontrollably at the thought of her mother taking her own life because of what she had done. Ahnasha realized that it had only been by chance that her family was spared an even greater tragedy, and it had all been her fault.