Selena woke to darkness that was wrong—not the absence of light, not the natural darkness of night or enclosed spaces, but something fundamentally corrupted, something that pressed against consciousness with weight that darkness shouldn't possess. She opened her eyes, expecting the throne room's dim illumination, expecting the bonefire-light that characterized the Ruined Realm's ambient glow.
Instead, she saw nothing. Absolute blackness that swallowed vision, that made seeing impossible, that suggested either she'd gone blind during her unconsciousness or reality itself had stopped providing light for eyes to detect.
