LIGHT AND TRUTHThe first thing I noticed was the silence. It wasn't the heavy, suffocating silence of the tomb I had been living in for years. It was different. It felt light, like the air after a storm has finally passed.

I opened my eyes, expecting the familiar burn of the silver in my veins. I expected that cold, metallic itch that always told me I was more a machine than a man. But it was gone. My blood felt... warm. It felt like liquid life instead of liquid death.

I tried to sit up, but ...