The night soon fell completely over the Astran duchy.
Julian was already back in his room. He had changed into a simpler set of clothes and now sat on the edge of the bed.
His eyes were closed and all of his attention had turned inward.
Inside the Kraven's sea of consciousness, the landscape was vast and unsettled.
Dark clouds of black flame filled almost the entire space, twisting and surging like a storm with no end. The fire seemed to have a life of its own, spreading through the inner world and pressing against its boundaries.
There was something deeply wrong about it... something that seemed to reach far beyond Kraven himself.
In front of that massive presence, almost lost against its scale, floated a faint golden cloud.
At first, Julian barely gave it a second glance. It seemed insignificant beside the vastness surrounding it. But the longer he looked, the more he realized how wrong that first impression had been.
