[Suzerain of Sheol]

Amélie did her best to keep the lance level as they came together; she was unused to this crosswise style of of mounted combat, and the weight of the sporting lance was awkward as it dipped and rose with Sombre's galloping.

Keeping her head tucked low, eyes fixed out through the top rim of her visor, she braced for the impact, leaning into the strike as she collided with the other knight.

The strike was true, square on the face of Mistral's shield an instant before the smaller woman's own lance impacted her own.

It was like trying to unhorse a stone wall.

The lance exploded in her hand, the sheer force of it twisting Amélie at the waist and wrenching her lower back over the cusp of her war saddle.

And instant later, Mistral's lance smashes into her shield arm, deflecting off the rounded boss and imparting its force to the domed face braced against her forearm. Even through her armor, the pain is incredible, the steel rim of the shield driven into the bone.

And then she is falling, driven bodily back off the horse, her right foot slipping free while the left remains tangled in its stirrup. Dragged by Sombre, Amélie struggles to retain conscious as blossoming pain devours her arm and back.

Black sparks pulse across her vision. Not even sure if she is even breathing, Amélie defies it all and forces herself to sit up, instincts honed in merciless battle flaring to force down weakness and shock. She drags her foot free and rolls to her knees, gasping.

Struggling at the clasp, she wrenches off her helmet with shuddering hands, spitting out a broken tooth with gobbets of blood. Dazed, a familiar rage pounds in her skull and she finds herself reaching for a sword that is not that there before her senses returns.

There is no fell foe about to end her life, no descending axe to parry and struggle at with mortal ferocity. There is only shame, and broken things.

Spitting again, she pulls up her right foot and rises with tentative effort. Her hip feels bruised at the least, along with her ribs, the left ankle likely dislocated, and the less said of her shield arm, the better.

Limping, she leans on Sombre and leaves the parade ground.