A gasp escaped Kael's lips as his vision swam back into focus. He found himself lying in a field of tall grass, the sun beating down on his face. He blinked, his eyes adjusting to the bright light, and looked around in confusion.
He wasn't in the chapel anymore. The dilapidated stone walls, the faint red glow of the symbol, they were all gone. Instead, he was surrounded by rolling hills and swaying trees, the air filled with the chirping of birds and the buzzing of insects.
Panic surged through him. Where was he? How did he get here? Had it all been a dream, a bizarre hallucination?
He tried to sit up, but a wave of dizziness washed over him, forcing him back down. His head throbbed with a dull ache, and his body felt heavy and sluggish.
As he lay there, struggling to clear his head, a faint memory flickered in his mind. The voice, the blinding light, the feeling of power coursing through him. It was so vivid, so real, that he couldn't dismiss it as mere imagination.
