“I think you are now responding very well to treatment,” she said with a gentle smile. Her voice was calm, full of warmth, and yet it carried something that made me pay attention. She didn’t bother to answer the hundred questions rolling around in my head. She just stood there, looking at me like she already knew what I was thinking.

I blinked a few times, my eyes slowly adjusting to the candlelight. My body still felt strange, heavy, and a bit stiff. But something was different. I ...