An Elf's Tale, Part 49

Her head jerked upwards. 

A blinding incandescent white. 

She could see nothing, hear nothing, feel nothing… nothing but the scorching pain setting her skin ablaze in light. 

'Don't let go', she shouted to herself in her head, forcing her body to comply with the impossible demand. The earth had completely disappeared from under her feet, entombed within a blinding abyss of agony where even the very air itself seemed to have been siphoned away.

Her throat stung, but she did not remember screaming. Her eyes burned but she did not remember crying. On her lips, the taste of iron, coating it, dripping down. Her legs were falling. Death was night.

'Don't let go'

Then, she felt something, a blink, and suddenly she was returned to the courtyard, the burning, blazing, blistering pain ebbing away like rippling calming tides.