The world was the freezing, rigid colors of gray and white, as if he was shut up inside an iron cage. Days and nights were indistinguishable. He could not sense time elapsing, only his still feebly-operating consciousness that interrogated him non-stop: Who am I? Where am I?

The gray world gradually brightened up. He raised a hand to feel at a section of rough stone patterning. The touch thus touched certain memories, and he remembered; this was the wall of Yan City.