Marik, - a familiar, so familiar voice broke into consciousness. - Quiet. Calm down, it's all right. Keep some water, my dear. Let's.

There was a taste of recycled water on the lips. Breathing became easier. The body seemed not mine, attempts to move ended in indistinct fluttering, but that's good. Having emerged from the blackness and having the opportunity to move, I would now have done things.

Thin arms grabbed me with unexpected tenacity and pulled me down, and then I found myself in a warm embrace. I breathed in, not believing. Alina. Its smell was firmly associated with raspberries and crossed out the taste of blood and death...