Darkness.

That was Seraphina's first cognizant awareness as she clawed her way back to consciousness. A cloying, suffocating blackness that seemed to press in on her from all sides, smothering her senses and leaving her adrift in a void of nothingness.

She tried to move, to orient herself, but her limbs felt leaden and unresponsive, as if weighted down by an immense, unseen force. Panic began to set in, her breaths coming in ragged, shallow gasps as the darkness seemed to constrict around her like a vice.

Then, a pinprick of light pierced the endless night, growing steadily brighter until Seraphina could make out the flickering outline of a torch...