EPILOGUE
Phoenix opened his eyes and stared blankly at a white ceiling. He drew a slow breath, tasting the chemical tang to the air; hearing the soft beeps of machines close by. His body felt strangely limp. Experimentally, he lifted a hand. Long-unused muscles protested. Gazing in wonder at his own strangely unfamiliar fingers, Phoenix took in the IV drip attached to his hand and finally understood.
He was back in his own body; in a hospital. That explained the noises and smells and the weird feeling that his body was, somehow, too small and too weak. It didn’t explain, however, what had happened. Had the whole trip back to 80AD just been some vivid dream? Had he just been feverish? Had he imagined the entire thing? It must have been some sort of hallucination. He must have
