Consciousness creeps back slowly, like a hesitant tide easing onto a broken shore. My eyelids flutter open, heavy and reluctant, and the first thing I see is a soft, familiar glow. Faint light filters through a wooden ceiling overhead.
"Urrghhh… where am I?"
A weak groan escapes my lips. My head feels incredibly heavy, and I can barely think straight.
I blink, trying to push through the lingering fog clouding my mind.
I am lying in a bed.
The sheets feel cool and clean against my skin.
The faint scent of lavender and old oak drifts into my nose, stirring a memory buried deep within my exhausted mind.
This place…
This feeling…
It reminds me so much of Eris' room at the Gilded Horns.
…
Wait.
Another sluggish second ticks by as my brain finally processes my surroundings.
No way.
This is—
This is the Gilded Horns!
But how?
Was I not dead?
Had I not already failed?
Had I not fallen, swallowed by that endless zone of darkness and corruption?
