"Your Highness? Prince Haven?" I snapped out of my reverie and looked at the Captain of the King's Guard. His cold eyes met my own, and the judgment floating within them made me resist my urge to flinch. "What happened?" He demanded answers with his posture far more than what could be conveyed in his deep voice. I would think even the most hardened criminal would shudder at his tone, and I was hardly hardened.

The cold air of an unfortunately familiar interrogation room bites into my skin, making me wish I had planned ahead for an inevitable meeting. I had known my world was tilting to this point for quite a while; I had simply been unwilling to face the entirety of the mess I had forced myself into until it was too late to plan ahead.

I raised my eyes to the ceiling and pondered the world as a whole as I shifted uncomfortably in a wooden chair that was most likely embedding splinters into my thin garments, avoiding his fierce gaze until I could no longer resist the compulsion to tell my story.

"Where should I start?"

"From the beginning, your Highness. If you please."