She woke in a place she didn't recognize but her body knew. Muscle memory said substation even though her brain couldn't attach meaning to the word. The room smelled like nothing because smell was gone. Looked like shapes because faces were gone. Felt like nothing-texture because touch had been refined down to pressure and temperature and those were blunt instruments for understanding the world.
A voice spoke. Familiar rhythm. Important cadence. "You're awake."
"Who are you?" she asked.
"Kael," the voice said. "We've been over this six times since last night. You forget between conversations. Your short-term memory's... unstable. The Codebook took more than it said it would."
"Codebook?"
