Where he was… it was hell.  Dark and miserable, full of pain.  At times he felt as if he were floating, others that he was drowning in thick, inky syrup.  Movement of any kind was exhausting, breathing near impossible at times.  The struggle of it all seemed to be fading over time, however.  It wasn’t that anything was getting easier, but that even the sensation that he was fighting had begun to fade.  Whatever it was eating away at him, it was winning.  He had a mind to let it.<br/><br/>Riel couldn’t tell how long he was stuck in that muffled limbo.  It wasn’t until something bright broke its way through that he even gave it any thought.  He felt more than saw the light threading through him.  It was mesmerizing, magical, and had a familiar glow to it.  What followed was less than comforting.<br/><br/>Everything was on fire.  His body, his blood, right down to his very soul.  It was<i>blinding</i>, and it burned its way deep down inside until he thought he might turn to ash.  Unlike the thick blackness swallowing him up, there was no fighting against the flames, and even the dreaded spell seemed to be shocked.  It crumbled a little, flaked around the edges, giving Riel a foothold to some kind of consciousness.<br/><br/>The heat still permeated everything within, but on the outside it was cold and wet.  What should’ve been soothing and refreshing felt more like an ice bath.  He immediate hated it.  That little shock of temperature variation was enough to force his eyes open, now that he had the capability, but everything was clouded and dark, still.  Unseeing, he could feel a solid body holding him there, his own being gripping tight to the one source of warmth.<br/><br/>Logic dictated that he was at Anael’s, that he’d been ravaged with fever and the Anaisi was trying to calm it.  It didn’t<i>feel</i>like Anael, though.  It didn’t smell like him, either.  More than that, the cool bath he was in seemed vast.  It wasn’t that he could see it, but that he could sense something about it… or in it.  His defenses tried to slide up into place and block whatever it was, but a force had taken hold without much effort.<br/><br/>Riel made a noise of discomfort and tried to twist away from it, but it was inching its way up into him.  He thought it was going to suck him in, swallow him up, and that he’d drown in the cold.  And yet, panicked as he was, there was no fighting in his weakened state, and the force he’d felt surrounding him invaded his body.<br/><br/>It was calmer than he’d anticipated, and as soon as it found a center in him, he felt something else ignite.  It wasn’t a painful burn, like the first rush of fire had been, but rather a glow of warm embers and spice, yet cool and peaceful.<i>Powerful.</i>It left him relieved but panting, though he eased as it continued to fill him.  Riel had no idea what it was, but his body had come to recognize it as no threat.  Whatever arms held him, they helped chase away the chill that still surrounded him from the water, and so he sighed and rested his head on a strong shoulder, not quite surrendering, but able to take a rest from the constant fighting to cling to life.