Waking up didn't feel like a miracle. Instead, it unfolded as a cruel parody of survival, a sick joke played at my expense.My first breath was a rough intake of damp soil and the copper stench of my own blood. I was face-down in the sludge of the ravine, my cheek pressed against a mossy root that felt like a cold, dead finger. For a long time, I just stayed there, waiting for the darkness to take me back. But the void was gone, replaced by a grey, weeping dawn filtering through the thick canopy of the North Ridge.I had crawled back from the edge of nothing, dragged into rebirth though I had never asked for such a privilege.As the fog in my brain cleared, the memory of the blade returned, sharp and vivid. I could still feel the silver sliding into my throat, turning my blood to liquid fire. But it wasn't the pain that stayed with me. It was the image of Ahri afterward.Before the guards had dragged my seizing body away, I had seen it all.Ahri didn't look away, nor did he show any r
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