"Tsk, tsk. Three years I haven't seen you, and look at the sorry state you're in. Where did that clever little spark go—the one that helped you escape my clutches?"
Realizing he was saved, Rey finally relaxed, slumping down with his back against the stone door.
The woman swayed her hips as she approached, exuding temptation with every step. She stopped in front of him, bent down, and used a single finger to hook his chin, tilting his face up to hers. Her tone was teasing, treating Rey like he was a shy, inexperienced schoolboy.
A faint, pleasant scent washed over him. Rey couldn't help but steal a glance at the pale skin revealed by her cloak before meeting her gaze. "Why are you here?" he asked.
This woman was none other than the evil spirit who had hunted him in the Valley of Wraiths—Raphael.
Or, to be more precise, the Queen of the Wraiths. Back then, she had used Rey to destroy her old rival and had devoured the Soul Orb that originally belonged to him. With her power massively amplified, she had ascended to become the Queen of the Valley.
She looked much more solid now than she had back then. The tattered black cloak she used to wear was now pristine and whole.
Perhaps her aesthetic had changed. Or maybe she just realized that wearing it like this was far more effective at unsettling men.
" Giggle. Why am I here? Didn't you bring me with you when you left the Valley?"
Raphael's laugh was flirtatious, practically dripping with allure. But after his brief moment of shock, Rey had regained his composure.
Men might naturally appreciate beauty, but not every man turns into a drooling idiot in front of a gorgeous woman. There are plenty who can control their urges, and Rey was certainly one of them.
Her comment—Didn't you bring me with you?—triggered a memory. When he was leaving the valley, inside that strange illusion, he had encountered a little ghost girl. She had looked so pitiful, so memorable.
"You were that little girl in the illusion?"
Rey asked, though he wasn't entirely sure. Terence had told him the illusions weren't real.
Then again, Terence's advice usually came with a lot of hidden traps.
Not that Terence did it on purpose. According to Raphael, the ghosts in the exit illusion were real. They were just so weak—so fragile that a single thought could obliterate them—that they appeared as mere phantoms.
As for the ghost he had agreed to take out of the valley... it must have attached itself to him. But usually, such weak spirits would dissipate shortly after leaving the valley's magical boundaries, leading wizards to believe they were just hallucinations.
Powerful evil spirits couldn't leave the valley. But a Wraith Queen? She was the exception.
The Valley of Wraiths hadn't seen a ruler in ages until Rey showed up, giving Raphael the chance she needed.
Having become the Queen, she naturally bypassed all the ancient curses and stole the "exit ticket" meant for a lesser ghost.
As a newly crowned Queen, no one dared to challenge her. So, Rey had been "lucky" enough to encounter only her—disguised as a harmless child.
Leaving the valley came with a price. Her power had been severely drained, which was the cost of crossing the boundary. That was why she had been living inside Rey's Soul Orb, slowly recovering until now.
When Rey had practiced Occlumency under Salazar Slytherin's guidance, he had seen a shadow within the dark power of his mind. That was her. And the black cloth that had saved him multiple times before? That was her cloak.
After hearing the Wraith Queen's explanation, Rey—who still looked like a dried-out corpse—managed a grotesque smile. "So, you're saying you've set up house inside my Soul Orb, is that it?"
Raphael looked at him with disdain. "For a Queen such as myself to take up residence in your Orb... you should consider it an honor."
Rey's smile widened, though given his skeletal face, it only made him look more terrifying.
She had basically admitted he was right. Plus, she had just saved his life. They were two grasshoppers tied to the same string; if Rey died, the Wraith Queen would be in a very tight spot.
"If that's the case, Your Majesty," Rey rasped, his throat dry as a desert, "don't you think you should pay a little rent?"
"Rent? Ha! For this dump? I should charge you for the discomfort."
Despite her sharp tongue, Raphael didn't stop moving. She placed her right hand on Rey's shriveled forehead and began chanting an incantation in a language he didn't understand.
Rey let her do it. He was already a broken pot; it couldn't get much worse. Besides, she had saved him—she wasn't going to let him die now, or her previous effort would be wasted.
Sure enough.
As the incantation ended, a loud boom echoed in Rey's mind, and his eyes went blank. In an instant, his consciousness was pulled forcefully into his own mindscape.
---
Inside Rey's Mindscape
Parched earth. Withered grass. A ruined city.
When Rey entered his mental world, he was stunned by the devastation.
What used to be vibrant and alive was now dead. Waves of heat radiated from the ground. The change was so drastic it felt like a nightmare.
In this drought-stricken world, even a gentle breeze kicked up clouds of dust that burned his lungs.
There wasn't a drop of water anywhere. Under the constant erosion of the wind and sand, the modern city he knew so well looked like it would collapse into dust at any moment.
The purple-black transparent barrier still existed, dividing the world in two.
On the city side, the light was fading and decayed. But on the other side, the darkness had grown thicker, heavier.
Through the barrier, Rey saw pure dark energy from the other side beginning to seep into the city.
It looked like mist clinging to the barrier.
But as it permeated through, it transformed into a gentle spring rain that nourished the dying world.
Life began to return.
The mindscape started to recover, and Rey suddenly snapped back to reality.
Raphael's hand was still on his forehead. She looked at him with a playful, assessing nod—like a shopper satisfied with the goods she'd just bought.
Shocked, Rey checked his body. Just as he suspected, he had miraculously recovered.
It was like a Restoration Charm on steroids. His skeletal frame had filled out, returning to its normal, healthy state. No wonder Raphael looked so pleased.
"To possess such pure dark power and not know how to use it... what a waste of a treasure," she said, withdrawing her hand and insulting him as usual.
Rey stood up and thanked her. She wasn't wrong. He knew far too little about dark magic.
"Was that Dark Arts?" he asked.
With a resident expert—an actual Wraith Queen—right there, he had to ask.
" Heh. Dark Arts."
Raphael glanced at him with a sneer, looking at him like he was an ignorant fool. It was embarrassing.
"I simply redirected the pure dark energy already inside you to replenish your body. You are the master of this power, yet you have no idea how to use it. You actually needed an outsider like me to help. You really are..."
She shook her head, speechless. She probably couldn't fathom how such a clumsy boy had ever escaped her in the first place.
"If I didn't need to stay in your Soul Orb a while longer, I would have killed you and absorbed every drop of that power myself."
Her expression was stern, her tone cutting. She wasn't joking.
Rey noticed beads of sweat on her forehead. It seemed that manipulating the dark power inside him hadn't been as easy as she made it look.
After all, she was just a tenant, not the owner. That was probably the limit of what she could do.
"Alright, the Queen needs her rest. Don't disturb me unless it's important."
Seeing Rey notice her fatigue, Raphael grew impatient.
As soon as the words left her mouth, she dissolved into mist and vanished. The last few syllables of her sentence echoed directly inside Rey's head.
---