I should have been — but the apothecary seemed just as surprised to see my on my feet again as I was. [ He rubs the base of his thumb along the glittering opal of Eridanus' jaw, his own eyes unfocused on the loving gaze before him. Instead, their stare is distant, locked on memories that dance just beyond sight. ] Fabius was a loathsome man even then, but he had brought lesser men back from worse injuries before me. If it were as simple as resuscitation...

[ He trails off, and when he speaks again, that half-completed thought has apparently gone forgotten. ]

I awoke to the heat of an inferno. [ It's good to tell such stories from time-to-time, he thinks; whatever effect the touch of death has had on him, this way, he won't forget them. ] He'd lost control of one of his experiments, and it had interrupted him before he could do whatever it is he intended for my corpse. And yet, I sat up as good as new, without even the lingering weakness that had plagued Lord-Commander Eidolon after his medical revival.

[ Granted, Eidolon had been decapitated. There was certainly a difference in the scale of their injuries. Nonetheless—

His eyes refocus, and suddenly, he is smiling again. ]

You might say that I, too, was reborn as a phoenix: birthed from the darkness in flames.