Darkness breathed around her.
Not empty darkness.
Living.
Watching.
Seraphine awoke slowly, her senses drowning in silence so deep it roared.
She lay on cold obsidian stone, the surface pulsing faintly beneath her skin, as though the earth itself possessed a heartbeat. Above her, an endless cavern stretched into nothingness, illuminated only by distant veins of silver light threading through black rock.
She inhaled.
The air tasted ancient.
Old magic.
Power.
Her body felt wrong.
Stronger.
Heavier.
As if something vast now slept beneath her flesh.
Seraphine pushed herself upright.
Pain did not follow.
There was no exhaustion.
No injury.
No weakness.
She lifted her hand.
Silver energy shimmered between her fingers, bending the air, distorting reality.
Her breath caught.
