SOREN
I fell through darkness that had weight, had texture, had presence beyond simple absence of light. It pressed against my skin like water, like oil, like something that wanted to seep into pores and corrupt from the inside out.
The falling stretched longer than it should have, longer than the hole's depth could account for, as though I had stepped not merely into earth but into somewhere else entirely, somewhere that existed adjacent to reality and followed different rules.
Then came the light.
Red-orange glow that started as distant pinpoint and expanded until it filled my vision, until everything was bathed in colors that belonged to forge fires and volcanic cores and places where mortals were not meant to witness.
Heat hit me like physical wall, like invisible barrier I slammed into at speed, and even with divine magic I felt the impact, felt my lungs seize as they tried to process air that was more fire than anything else.
