Alaric's eyes fluttered open, and he was greeted by the familiar, softly illuminated room. The gentle hum of the room's ambient light and the faint rustling of fabric were the only sounds breaking the silence. It took him a moment to orient himself, to shake off the disorienting haze of the dreamscape. Six hundred days had passed in that otherworldly realm, but only three days had elapsed in the real world. It felt as if he had emerged from a long, dark tunnel into a blindingly bright and disorienting light.
He sat up slowly, his body feeling both heavy and charged with energy. The sensations of the dreamscape clung to him, leaving him with an unnerving sense of altered reality. As his surroundings came into focus, he saw his family gathered around him: Morgana, Maria, and Lucy. Their faces, filled with a mix of concern and relief, were etched into his memory, but they seemed to him as if he had not seen them in an age.
