{"Shifter did not need reason, they needed loyalty and the instinct to protect."}
The light around Fenrith shifted again, this time flickering with a strange pulse like breath, like memory, before the haven pool shimmered, glowing from its depths.
"Look," Fenrith said, his voice now a solemn command.
We turned toward the water, and at first, there was only mist. Then it parted, and what it revealed stole the breath from my lungs. A woman… or what had once been one. Her long hair floated like black silk in a storm, her eyes glowing silver with madness and grief. Her voice, though silent through the vision, screamed as if it could tear the world apart. Her mouth opened in a furious cry, fangs glinting, shadows curling from her fingertips like smoke.
