"Who's dead?" Riona asked again, slowly rising to her feet.
Puck, still dazed, instinctively reached out and helped her up. Florian's face remained streaked with tears, though they had stopped falling. He blinked several times, struggling to make sense of what he was seeing.
"You are… I mean, you were dead," Florian said, voice unsteady.
"Me?" Riona echoed, genuinely surprised—like the idea hadn't even occurred to her.
Her bewilderment only deepened Florian's confusion. He had seen her fall—watched helplessly as the ruins of his shattered mind space swallowed her whole. He'd tried to reach her. Tried and failed. Anyone in his place would've believed she was gone.
"You weren't moving," he said. "You fell, and I couldn't catch you. Then you just… vanished. So I thought…"
Riona let out a breath, somewhere between a sigh and a laugh. She reached up and touched Florian's cheek, holding his gaze. For a long moment, neither of them spoke.
"I'm sorry," she said at last.
