#Chapter 187: The Return to Light

Amelia I woke to light, but not the sterile white glare of medical lamps or the flicker of fire on stone walls. This was something gentler and more alive. It was golden, almost amber, filtering through gauzy curtains that swayed with a breeze I couldn’t quite feel, and the silence that held the room wasn’t empty. It pressed in, thick and steady, like the kind that settles in your chest after a long cry when you know it’s finally over. For a long time, I didn’t move. My body was sunk into a bed too soft to be familiar, and the weight of the blankets pulled me downward, anchoring me somewhere between sleep and waking. I blinked up at a faded floral pattern on the ceiling, the edges of it blurring in and out of focus as I tried to trace the shapes and turn them into something that meant anything. I didn’t know where I was, but I didn’t feel afraid. There were dried flowers on the nightstand, lavender and thornless roses, carefully arranged in a chipped porcelain vase. They looked