Chapter 25 

~Valeria ~ Black mist whips violently through the air, dragged by an unseen wind. The realm is dark, hollow—nothing remains but a single throne. Empty. It’s the same throne I saw before, the one where the Raven Wolf King sat in my dream. Now it waits empty. “I seem to have made an impression on you if you came again.” His voice cuts through the mist, low and resonant, carrying a weight that feels older than time. The Raven Wolf King strolls around me, his presence commanding, the mist bending to his feet. His hair doesn’t stir with the wind, untouched. And in that moment, I realize—the wind isn’t real. Perhaps nothing here is. “Am I dead?” “Why would you be?” he asks. “Is that why you’ve come here in this form?” He circles me, eyes closed, yet it feels as though he can still see. “Here, where? Who are you?” He stops before me, eyes still shut. “You know who I am.” “I—I… yes, I do. But are you real?” “What is the definition of real to you?” he asks. I touch my chest and belly. “Physical