Sienna and The Heart Of Aislei

Chapter 29: Aislei's Heart

Sienna! A voice tugs at me but I am suddenly feeling everything again. And I have forgotten it.

It's dark but not entirely. In that darkness, small lights flicker on and off accompanied by an incessant beeping. Sweat blurs my eyes and I get the nauseating sensation that something is really wrong. I register a burning pain above my eyebrow. My stomach feels weird, and my heart is thumping erratically. I am on the ground and yet I am falling.

Panic turns me cold as I realize what's happening.

I struggle to my feet and scramble to a lever. It takes all my arm strength and bracing my feet on the wall to pull it back. The feeling is relieved. The faux dragon pulls back into the sky. I heard them when I was falling, people screaming and running as I got close to the ground.

I've been tossed around this metal can ever since the airship started rumbling. The mechanical dragon made it further than I thought it would.

After taking off, I had quickly realized everything wrong with this prototype. I knew from the start I was on borrowed time, but I had to get far away from Maru. And with no navigation and limited visual, I was literally flying blind. And it was definitely not a one-person job.

Then the pressure in the pipes suddenly peaked and a loose bolt shot out and hit me upside the head. I wondered if it was a bruise or a cut. The stinging was making me think cut. I was incredibly lucky to have woken up before crashing into the ground.

But now I was in trouble; everything was malfunctioning, my vision was in doubles and to top it off, I was stuck in this disadvantageous position whilst the steering was free to jolt about. I couldn't do anything about that though. The only thing I could focus on was keeping this lever held back so I would not crash into the unfortunate town I was evidently hovering over. The rotary pin that held the pilot steady must have fallen out or gave way.

There has to be a way out of this. Panic was spreading but I couldn't let it freeze me. The water reservoir was running low. And from the smell of it... the boiler was overheating.

Reverting the power to the thrusters will plunge me to my death if I let go of this lever. Maybe if I reposition the motor and the wings and simultaneously reverted the power, then I could get lucky and catch a wind current that will blow the ship away from civilians. If I could find something to hold this lever and if I could grow an extra set of arms...

Something huge hit the ship causing me to hit my head hard and lose conscience. A hurricane of flames rushing at me was the last thing I remembered.

Another blackout.

A wave of images and emotions flash around me revolving around the girl with flawless, ivory skin and iridescent eyes the same color as a spring leaf illuminated by the sun.

Glinn was wrong. There are angels in Alderias.

I had passed out again but I felt safe because she was there.

Her manifesting after I was interrogated in that medieval dungeon confirmed that she had to be a benevolent spirit. The way she looked at me, I haven't had someone to look like they cared for me in a long time. I let my guard down then I found out she was a princess. Those feelings of betrayal surged in me. Was her concern for me fake?

The anger cooled as the image shifted to her face scrunched up as she concentrated on breaking flower stems over her fingers. Her laughter filled up a void I had wanted to remain vacant. That hole seemed to be overflowing by the time her pleading eyes connected with mine right before she fell into the river, my name the last word she would ever say.

Dammit!

Sienna!

Sienna... Sienna!