Several moments pass as he lies motionless. The array slows to a stop. Everything goes quiet, a few display screens silently flickering with images and code.

Azwel stirs with a low, breathy sound. He whispers something, but it's so slurred it's impossible to make out. He carries on with this mumbling whisper, a scarcely audible, breathless monotone, almost like a chant or mantra, until he subsides into silence for a moment.

Then he moves with some kind of coherency, turning his head to look at Vash with half-open but lucid eyes. He's terribly weak and yet perhaps his mind has returned. The light on the device on his head is dark.

At that moment there's a sharp little sound and the restraints snap open.