The white expanse dissolved around him, vanishing as quickly as it had come. Lassim's awareness snapped back to his body with an almost violent jolt. His chest heaved as he gasped for air, his robes, drenched from the rain that had assaulted him while his consciousness was torn away, was clinging to his skin.
On the outside, the relentless storm of the East Grove still roared around him, but compared to the suffocating intensity of the black and red lightning filled mental realm, it felt almost distant.
He blinked rapidly, his mind sluggish and disoriented. The gnarled roots of the storm leaf tree that had provided him shelter dug into his back as he leaned backwards, grounding him in reality. His halberd still rested across his lap, its surface faintly warm to the touch as if somehow still charged with the lingering mana of the encounter.
