Knowing about her affinity meant nothing if she couldn't reach it herself—if she couldn't touch the invisible thread that Seraphina seemed to have grasped.
There wasn't anything she could do to feel it, to truly sense it, aside from continuing her arduous, exhausting struggle, without even having the smallest hint or assurance that her efforts would ever bear any fruit.
And during that long, frustrating time, something else had been happening too—something she couldn't understand, something she didn't know how to name.
Every time she absorbed the cores, every single time she pulled the mana into her body, she felt thirstier than before.
It didn't feel like ordinary thirst, but something deeper than that.
Her throat would grow dry and parched within moments, leaving an aching dryness that no amount of water seemed to fully soothe.
