{Seraphina's POV, first person after she lost consciousness.}
The crushing darkness that had swallowed me did not fade into light, but rather into a cold, breathless vacuum where reality itself seemed to cease existing. I found myself suspended in a vast, featureless void, a boundless expanse of nothingness where the concepts of time and space held no meaning at all.
Instinctively, I tried to pull my limbs close to my chest, to test the boundaries of my body after the agonizing sensation of my body collapsing inward, but my muscles completely refused to obey. A complete paralysis locked me in place, binding me to the empty air in a way that was terrifyingly familiar, sending a cold spike of recognition through the numbness of my mind. I had known this exact weight before, this helpless suspension between existence and the afterlife, I came to this exact timeless void the time I talked to Lirael before her passing.
