Raya couldn't breathe.
Not properly.
Not like a human should.
Her chest rose and fell in short, broken gasps as she stared at the empty space where the Sovereign had vanished.
Gone.
But not gone.
His presence lingered like smoke in a closed room—thin, invisible, choking.
Eren finally found his voice.
"Raya…" he rasped, standing unsteadily.
She turned to him slowly.
His face was pale—too pale. His silver eyes wide and full of something she never expected to see from him.
Fear.
For her.
Of her.
"Don't look at me like that," she whispered.
Eren pressed a hand to his chest, trembling. "Raya… he touched you."
"I know."
"That mark—he awakened it."
"I know."
"You… spoke to him."
"Eren, stop."
He didn't.
He stepped closer, voice breaking.
"What did he say?"
Raya's throat tightened.
Her mind tried to reject the words, but they were carved into her bones.
"You were born from me."
Born.
From him.
A God.
A monster.
A ruler older than darkness.
Eren's breath hitched at her silence.
"Raya… tell me."
"He said…"
She swallowed hard.
"…that I wasn't marked. I was… made."
Eren staggered back as if she'd struck him.
"That's impossible," he whispered.
"No human—no creature—can be made by him."
"I didn't ask for this!"
"I know—but—Raya, this changes everything…"
Her pulse hammered painfully.
"I'm still me. I'm still human."
Eren looked at her as if he wished that were true.
"You're not," he whispered.
Raya stepped back, wounded.
"And you're scared of me now."
Eren closed the space between them instantly, hands gripping her shoulders.
"Not scared of YOU," he said, voice fierce.
"Scared of what he wants from you. Scared of losing you. Scared that he—"
He cut himself off.
"Eren…" she whispered.
"What am I?"
Eren bowed his head, forehead touching hers. His voice was soft, broken.
"You are the only thing the Sovereign has ever claimed personally."
Raya froze.
"That makes you," Eren whispered,
"the most valuable being in the shadow kingdoms."