The thick, heavy steam inside the examination chamber had completely settled by the time the fallen sword master's eyelids violently fluttered open.
Heidy's mind was a chaotic, fragmented void. For several terrifying seconds, she had absolutely no cognitive understanding of where she was, what year it was, or what had just transpired within her flesh. Her brain throbbed with a rhythmic, agonizing pulse that felt as if her entire skull was on the absolute verge of detonating from an internal overload of sensory data.
Then, like a crashing tidal wave, the horrific psychological nightmare and the monstrous, bone-melting torment of the restructuring came roaring back into her consciousness.
Instinct took over. Her athletic body moved with a sudden, desperate speed, her bare legs swinging off the edge of the obsidian table as her right hand instantly flew toward her left hip, her fingers curling to grasp the familiar hilt of her silver longsword.
There was absolutely nothing there.
