Darian's consciousness returned slowly, emerging from absolute nothingness.
Everything was in darkness. He couldn't feel the passage of time, nor his own form. The only thing he could feel, and with a terrifying intensity...
It was the cold.
Cold... very, very cold.
It was like being submerged in a frozen sea, at the bottom of an ocean where light would never reach.
Until, slowly, a very small warmth pulsed in his chest.
His senses began to return, but the cold was still dominant. He felt like a solid block of ice, and now someone had placed a living ember at his core.
That lasted for an indeterminate amount of time. Until... light began to fill his world again.
Darian opened his eyes.
In that instant, it was as if a bolt of lightning ran through his body. All of his memories flooded his mind at once.
But the cold was still so intense that he felt an absurd pain run through every muscle in his body.
