Chapter Next: "Mirrors That Bleed"
—The battle within is the first and final war—
The city didn't welcome them.
It reflected them.
Each street they passed morphed—turning into moments. The stones beneath their feet whispered old regrets. The walls flickered with memories they'd buried so deep, even their dreams feared touching them.
And ahead, waiting at the city's heart, stood the Reflections.
Twisted selves.
Failures given flesh.
They didn't speak. They didn't need to.
Because Kai knew what his was thinking.
Because Lina had once believed hers.
Because Eryon… had already become his—once.
---
The air turned heavy, like guilt.
Kai faced himself—the version that never turned back after that night. The one that had let vengeance consume him. The one that let Lina die.
It stepped forward, eyes dull, mouth crooked with hate.
"You could've saved her. But you hesitated."
Kai's throat tightened. His grip on the blade trembled. "I did. I hesitated because I was scared of losing myself."
The shadow-Kai sneered. "Then you lost everything."
Lina reached out, placing her fingers over his.
"Kai," she whispered, "you didn't lose me. I chose to stay. Just like I'm choosing now."
Kai exhaled. And for the first time, he lowered his blade—not to surrender.
But to forgive.
The reflection flickered. It stepped forward to strike—but the blow passed through Kai's chest like smoke… and vanished.
Choice unarmed the wound.
---
Lina turned.
Hers was already waiting—drenched in blood, eyes wide with the madness of perfection. The Lina who had tried to fix everything alone. The one who had broken because she refused to ask for help.
"You always fail," it hissed. "You always fall short. So you try harder, love harder, hurt quieter—until you vanish."
"I know," Lina said, her voice breaking. "I've carried that silence like a badge. But not anymore."
She stepped forward—not to destroy her reflection.
But to embrace it.
"You're still me," she whispered. "The part that thought she had to earn love by bleeding for it. But I'm done bleeding."
Light spread from her heart—warm, gentle.
The shadow-Lina closed her eyes…
And smiled. Just once. Before fading into a sigh of light.
---
Eryon stood apart.
His reflection didn't speak. It simply waited—quiet, resigned.
"You already won," Eryon said.
"No," the other replied. "I lost, and then pretended I hadn't."
They stared at each other for a long time. No weapons. No anger.
Just two halves of a long, tired life.
"Then let's stop pretending," Eryon said.
And when they stepped toward each other, they did not merge.
They simply walked side by side—one finally whole.
---
The city stopped shifting.
It breathed.
Above them, the sky opened—not into stars, but into stories.
And the voice returned:
"You have faced the first world. And it has accepted you."
In the center of the plaza, a tree began to grow—its leaves made of memory, its roots of possibility. On its bark shimmered a word in every language:
"Begin."
Lina stepped forward and looked to Kai and Eryon.
"Now," she said, her voice steady, "let's build a world no one needs to run from."
And in the silence that followed, a hundred new doors began to open.
---