The moment Fenrir Greyback saw the image in the mirror, rain fell upon him without warning.
It was the first time he had ever encountered such unnatural rain. It was colder than any rain he had experienced before, seeming to lie somewhere between ice crystals and slime, carrying a chill that seeped into his bones.
In the brief moment he stood stunned, the rain had already penetrated his fur. The cold was like countless red-hot needles stabbing into his skin all at once, and he shuddered instinctively.
The rain did not merely drive cold into his body; it also brought something he found impossible to describe.
First came the voices.
All kinds of voices appeared out of nowhere—not by his ears, but directly within his mind, echoing from the depths of his soul.
He clamped his paws over his ears and even wanted to pierce his own eardrums, but it did not help in the slightest. The voices only grew clearer, more frenzied, and more cacophonous.
[Even those pure of heart and devout in faith will turn into wolves beneath the bright full moon when the wolf's bane takes hold...]
[Mom... it hurts... I want to bite you... just once... okay?...]
[No... don't look at the moon... tie me up tight... please, tie me up tight...]
Along with the voices came countless images: bizarre fragments in black-and-white and color, pages covered in writing, and his own memories...
Everything was happening at once. Everything was twisting and flickering at once.
A violent pain erupted deep inside his skull. Fenrir Greyback clutched his head, his claws digging deeply into his scalp as blood streamed down through his fur.
It was utterly useless. His head hurt even more, but the pain did not come from his claws piercing his scalp. It came from