*Briella*

I blinked my eyes open, the weight of a deep sleep still pressing down on my eyelids. For a heartbeat, there was only the blank expanse of white above me, smooth and unbroken like the surface of a calm sea. I recognized it. It was the ceiling of the Celestial Valley healing center, so familiar yet strangely alien in that groggy moment.

"Where…" My voice was a hoarse whisper, barely audible in the silence of the room.

The soft rustle of fabric against ...