Eren stared at the figure before him, his mind struggling to process what his eyes were seeing. The forest around them pulsed with unnatural life, shadows moving in ways that defied reason. His breath caught in his throat as he took an instinctive step backward, every instinct screaming danger.
"Who are you?" he demanded, his voice betraying more fear than he intended. His fingers reached reflexively for a weapon that wasn't there. "What is this place?"
The woman's lips curved into a smile that never reached her eyes. The crown of thorns upon her head seemed to writhe with a life of its own, casting strange patterns of shadow across her alabaster features.
"Don't pretend innocence, child of Moonlight," she replied, her voice resonating oddly in the heavy air, as if speaking through water. "We both know you've seen me before. In those... visions of yours."
