Evelyn awoke to find herself completely in darkness. Wherever she was, the complex mechanisms that served as her eyes could not pick up any light. This was, to say the least, a little unsettling. With her new form, she relied on her eyesight now more than ever, and having no other senses to give her the context of her surroundings, she felt very much in the dark.

But, she reminded herself, she could always rely on the precious light of Lathander that she silently hoped she still carried inside of her.

So she tried listening instead. Wherever she was, it sure was quiet! The whirring of all her little gears was deafening compared to everything else. It was a little distracting to be honest, the little bumps and clicks were still something she was getting used to, but served as a wonderful reminder of the importance of working together to serve a greater goal, just like all her technological components now had to do, and before she knew it she her thoughts had spiralled off. She focused, putting all her attention into listening for a sound, any ounce of noise to indicate that she was in fact somewhere. Her patient efforts proved worthwhile; she could almost make out distant noises that were not her own, muffled and imperceptible though they may be. It was enough for her, enough to calm the building worries.

Surely, she would be able to find a way out of this darkness.

She decided to sit up, however a loud thunk and rattling in her head alerted her to the fact that there was something rather close directly above her. Moving her arms around sparked further discoveries as they hit against the sides of what was quickly shaping up to be some sort of box.

She pushed against the box’s sides, and although slightly creaky, they refused to budge. Things were getting more and more claustrophobic, she really, really would’ve liked to be able to see. She thought of moving whatever was above her instead, but that would require adjusting her arms, which were currently resting at her sides. Without the flexibility of her old body, the task would be incredibly laborous in her limited space.

So she decided upon a different strategy, maybe by figuring out how she got here in the first place, she would be able to escape her inky surroundings. She paused, how in the world had she managed to get herself here? Memories of flying, of being rattled by arrows, of crashing to the ground in a courtyard from the past, crept in as though she had awoken from a peaceful slumber, but still provided no explanation for her current predicament. What in Lathander’s lovely name had happened?

She was running out of options, guess she had to go back to the previous plan. Persevering, she fought through her protesting joints as they were pushed to their extremes, maneuvering themselves to press against the top of this odd box.

She took a deep breath with her artificial lungs, and began to push, hydraulics in her joints straining, hoping that maybe, maybe, this would be enough to shed some light on her situation.

She could not smell the musty odour permeating the air around her.

She could not taste the earthen dampness that filled her mouth with each gasp.

She could not feel the splinters scratching into her hands as she struggled against the rough wood of the steadfast coffin lid.

Instead she kept pushing, not breaking a sweat, but hearing creaks and groans, this time emanating from her own limbs. After a long struggle, there was finally a shift. At last! A chance to see the light once more!

Then it began to rain.

Tiny granules of something came tumbling down, pelting and pinging against her metallic skin. The static darkness had transformed into flowing, livid shadows. It poured into her box and through the creases and gaps of her outer shell. She could hear groans resounding as this strange substance built up around her inner workings and gears, and felt shudders as her functions painfully began to grind to a halt. Her mind was racing, trying to process everything but it was happening too quickly, her confusion remained, she was still in the dark.

Panic was fluttering about her now, she could feel components failing, her fingers, her arms, her neck, it was all seizing up. And suddenly, her mind went dark too.

And there she was trapped, far from any light, for the next 50 years.