It's all come true, hasn't it? Everything she was ever afraid of. 

She is a guardian who could not protect the people she loved. 
She is a failure, weak and insufficient beneath it all.
She is a monster and a beast with a heart that beats out of tune.

The curse blazes about her as a dark flame, a physical fog, sucking the life out of the ground around her. She knows what this is, knows it like it's a mark on a ledger changing from an asset to a liability - what happens when a princess [i]falls[/i]. There's no coming back from this, she knows, and the only saving grace is that she has no dark and wicked powers that warrant her being thrown into a dungeon forever -

In the heart of that dark cloud a silver spark alights, pressing itself against eyes clenched shut. [i]You have been here before,[/i] it tells her.

It's different this time, though. The aching exhaustion crushes down on her, driving her nose into the ground, twisting it like cruel discipline. She failed. She left someone she loved behind. She's weak and fragile and useless and the task is impossible and no one would ever forgive her even if she -

[i]You have been here before and emerged stronger.[/i]

It's different! I can't -

[i]You [b]know[/b] that they will forgive you. They [b]already have[/b].[/i]

She is not used to having strength.

She is not used to being able to just pick herself up off the ground, leaving all that toxicity down there and her head so dazzlingly clear it feels like she might faint. It feels like the world is paper fragile and weights she thought were infinite can be shrugged off. She did not understand what it was to be strong until now - all those moments of vulnerability she'd shared with Kazelia and Alina had armoured those weak places within her. 

She knows what it is to fight through water in a weak and fragile shape.
She knows what it is to face her limitations, and realize that she cannot defeat the world alone.
She knows what it is to disappoint a friend, and faced the reality that those friendships are not so superficial that disappointments would break it.

She's traveled so far since she was here last.

Her eyes finally open, gold haloed in silver.

She barks at Princess Helya, so resolved there is no mistaking her intent. She needs a lift to that broken hole in the roof and she shall do the rest from there.