Evaline:
My eyes flew open with a sharp inhale.
The world snapped back into focus - the wooden worktable beneath my palms, the faint green glow of the potion swirling inside the glass vial.
I was still in the lab.
Still alone.
Still working on the final concoction before dinner.
For a moment, I didn't understand what had startled me.
Then I felt it again.
Not around me.
Inside me.
I slowly pulled my hand away from the vial, cutting off the gentle stream of healing energy I had been channeling. The liquid inside settled and the glow dimmed to a soft shimmer.
My heart began to pound.
It hadn't felt wrong.
That was the unsettling part.
If anything, it had felt… natural.
Familiar.
But it hadn't been mine.
I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, steadying myself. I reached inward the way I always did when gathering my healing power - diving beneath skin and bone, beneath pulse and breath, into that warm, luminous well that had always been mine.
Except...
