Chapter 105: THE AWAKENING (1)
The pain did not fade. It increased, and her vision blurred at the edges.
She tried to lift her head, to form words, but her tongue felt like lead. A sudden wave of dizziness crashed over her and her whole body fell forward and she barely supported herself on her trembling arms.
Her breath came in short, ragged gasps. The world around her was shifting, slipping in and out of focus. Sounds blurred together and the distant voices were back, and covered slightly by the sound of the rush of her own blood roaring in her ears.
Her arms quaked beneath her, the strength draining from her limbs as though the very life was being pulled from her veins. Her stomach twisted violently as nausea rose in her throat. A sharp pulse of pain stabbed through her skull, and her vision darkened further. Her fingers curled uselessly against the ground, her shoulders sagging as the last remnants of strength abandoned her.
Then—nothing.
The weight of her body gave in, and she collapsed. The world tilted, swallowed by an abyss of darkness.
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Arella woke up with a start. Her chest heaving. Her body trembled, drenched in sweat, her breath coming in ragged gasps. The pain was gone—but the weight of what she had seen, what she had felt, remained.
She blinked rapidly, disoriented, expecting to still be in the void, trapped in that relentless, suffocating darkness.
But she wasn’t.
She was lying on something soft. Silk sheets. A bed. Her head throbbed, but the sensation of fabric beneath her fingertips was unmistakable. The scent of incense and parchment filled the air, mingling with something faintly floral. A cool breeze drifted in through an open window, carrying with it the distant sound of a bustling city.