Raya's chest burned. Her limbs felt both heavy and light. The Mark pulsed like molten silver.
"Eren… what's happening to me?" she gasped.
"You're becoming what he marked you to be," he said softly, voice trembling.
"You're… tethered to him now."
Raya's mind rebelled.
"No! I don't want this!"
Her mark surged violently. The silver threads snapped outward, slicing the shadows that dared approach, yet bending her energy inward in ways she couldn't control.
"You need to listen to me," Eren said urgently.
"Control it! Or it will control you!"
Raya tried—but her power was a living storm inside her. It wanted to escape, to reach him.
And then she heard it: a whisper, gentle but commanding, closer, little flame… closer…
Her chest tightened. She fell against Eren, sobbing.
"I… I can't… I can't stop it!"
Eren held her tight.
"You can. You must. Because if you don't, he will take you."
A shadow stretched from the forest, reaching toward her like a hand. Raya froze. The energy snapped toward the darkness—but instead of recoiling, the shadow absorbed some of it.
Eren's face went pale.
"He's touching you… through the Mark."
Raya trembled.
"Then… I'm already his?"
"Not yet," Eren whispered fiercely.
"But if you don't master it… he will claim everything inside you."
The Mark burned brighter than ever, the whispers now a storm of voices inside her mind.
And in the distance, unseen
but omnipresent: the Sovereign watched.