Pain.
That's all you can register at first. Pain, and darkness...
What happened?
The airship crashed – the Prima Vista... there was something – an explosion...
And you were thrown out by the impact...
How did you survive it?
Did you survive it?
Maybe you died. Maybe the impact killed you.
Is this death? This darkness, this pain? Death?
Your memories are blurring, leaking together – a vague impression of panic, and indistinct colours, and...
...firedestructionterror...
...it was a bomb, you remember it now... the queen sent it... she was... angry...
Why? What was she angry about?
...something important...
"I wish to be kidnapped... right away."
Garnet, Princess Garnet, they had kidnapped her, taken the queen's daughter...
Why?
Why would the queen send a bomb, risking her daughter's life like that? Why would she do something like that?
...destructionpaindeath...
And you feel a flash of anger, anger that she would endanger the princess like that, anger at the fact that even her daughter wanted to flee from her.
And then...
The bomb exploded...
But the airship came through, didn't it? It escaped the blast... there was damage, terrible damage, but the Prima Vista survived...
...The knight? The knight was on board – did he live?
And you know it's terrible, that it's a terrible thing to think, but you almost hope that he didn't, that he died in the explosion...
And... then...
…fallingfallingpanicfallinglosingaltitudegoingtocrash...
And then the Prima Vista crashed...
…and you're thrown out, arms flailing, not knowing if you'll survive when you strike the ground...
Did she survive?
The thought comes unbidden, and you feel a sudden sick fear. What if the Princess died on impact? What then?
You open your eyes...
...and you're alive. Wracked with pain, lying semi-conscious in a cursed forest, but alive.
But it won't mean anything if she died. Because if she died...
No. Don't think about that now.
And you stand, slowly, and walk towards the broken airship.
And you wonder if anything will ever be the same again.