He surfaced from the chamber's working the way a diver surfaces from depth, not abruptly but in stages, the awareness of the exterior Middle Domain returning to him before he had consciously decided to end the sitting.
He did not know how many cycles had passed.
The developed depth had settled. He could feel the settling the same way he had felelt the foundational depth settle weeks before, the Law of Slaughter present through the framework rather than at its center, the edges of developed depth more substantial than they had been when he crossed into the stage.
He opened his eyes, though they had not been closed in the conventional sense, the gesture more a shift in attention than a physical action.
