The moment the light struck the centre of her forehead, a cold sensation bloomed. It spread from her brow through her skull, then seeped into every vein, every fibre of her being.
Then, an unstoppable tide of memory that was not her own surged into her mind. It was not mere knowledge but a symphony of sensation, image, and truth that crashed into her consciousness, threatening to drown her. Reality itself was rewritten in its wake.
She shivered violently. This was not the fleeting chill of winter's breath, but a deep, root-born cold, seeping up from beneath the very earth and rising through the soles of her feet until it swallowed her whole.
The white trial ground was gone.
