The world dissolved around me as I descended into Rin's mindscape, consciousness fragmenting into streams of memory and emotion that pulled me through seventeen years of carefully buried trauma. Luna's technique had worked perfectly, allowing my awareness to slip past the defensive barriers that surrounded Rin's psyche and into the deepest chambers where her true self remained hidden.
The first memory that surfaced came with crystalline clarity, as though I were experiencing it firsthand rather than observing from a distance.
September 9th, 2027.
The sterile corridors of the Ashbluff estate's medical wing echoed with the sound of a woman's cries, each scream cutting through the air like a blade drawn across glass. I found myself standing beside Valen Ashbluff—not the King I had just fought, but a younger version whose stoic expression couldn't quite mask the anxiety radiating from his every movement.
