VERA'S POV
Pain.
Not physical. Dimensional. My consciousness was being torn apart and reconstructed simultaneously, singular awareness fragmenting into states I'd never imagined existed while something—divine power, goddess blessing, the marking I'd spent twelve centuries eliminating—forced expansion beyond boundaries I'd believed were natural limitations rather than arbitrary restrictions.
"This is what marked wolves experience," I realized through agony that made breathing impossible. "This pressure. This expansion. This feeling of consciousness being stretched beyond sustainable capacity. This is what I call corruption."
