Opening my eyes turned out to be the hardest thing I'd ever attempted in my entire life. My eyelids weighed like lead, stitched shut by an unnatural heaviness that wrapped around me like thick fog. The yanking — violent, relentless — was the only thing that managed to cut through that blanket of oblivion. It was like my brain was screaming orders at a body that had decided to go on strike.
*Open your eyes,* I repeated in my mind, over and over, with the desperation of someone trying to break the surface of water that's too deep. When I finally managed to lift my eyelids — slowly, a millimeter at a time — the light hit me like a sharp blade, stabbing straight into my pupils and sending waves of pain all the way to the back of my skull.
- Ah, you're awake. - Admoreth's voice slid through t
