Chapter 195

• The moment I stepped out of the council chamber, the cool hallway air hit me like a shockwave. I felt the weight of what had just transpired pressing down on my chest, and I was trying to steady my breathing, to force myself to walk with purpose, but then it hit, a sharp, piercing pain at the center of my skull, like someone had pressed a thousand tiny needles against my temples at once.
• The high-pitched ringing in my ears made the world tilt, the walls bending as if the stone itself were melting. I reached out instinctively, hands fumbling against the cold surface nearest to me, fingers pressing into the carved carvings of the wall for support. The pain was more than physical, it was as if something inside me, some corner of my mind I had long locked away, had been yanked open without warning.
• And then it came: the memories.