After what felt like an eternity, the pain in Kael's head began to slowly recede. The voices, once thunderous and suffocating, started to fade, growing ever more distant, like echoes from another world.
He was sprawled across the cold, stone floor, a thin trail of saliva escaping from the corner of his mouth. His body lay limp, as if abandoned by consciousness itself, or worse, as if madness had claimed him completely. His crimson eyes were wide open, unblinking, staring up at the ceiling above with a deranged emptiness. There was no clarity in his gaze, only the remnants of a storm that had torn through his mind.
Then, without warning, his body convulsed violently. A tremor surged through his limbs, and he gasped for breath, snapping back to awareness.
"Did I… pass out?" he muttered, voice hoarse with disbelief.
He clutched his aching head, still throbbing with the remnants of that terrifying ordeal. Gritting his teeth, he let out a sharp breath.
