บท 252: Chapter 252: Gram

Abnormal, this brightness beckoning me down the staircase into the real world. Upstairs felt surreal as I left it, as though the space above held time in its grasp and didn't want to let me go. I could feel them below, their power pulsing between them, the normal flow of emotion and, as I neared the middle of the stairs, the drone of their talk became words I could almost decipher with a little attention.

That made me waver, grasp the bannister, hold it tight with my left hand as I drew a breath that felt like the first in a long time. How had I missed the staleness of the air on the second floor? As if my lurking there, lost in the gray, tainted the very soul of the house. A wash of my power, cleansing and warm, evicted the lost sense of nothing I'd left behind. Magic swept open curtains and aired out the musk in my room, that space left to its own devices behind me.