Arthur's perspective
The air was thick with dust and cold memory. Arthur's landing had been cushioned by dirt and rotting fabric, but the sharp sting in his ribs reminded him he wasn't unscathed.
He rose slowly, brushing grime from his coat. The chains had stopped rattling. Silence returned like a breath held too long.
Then a voice—not spoken, but felt. Pressed against his skull like cold metal.
"You brought the weight of truth. Now feel how heavy it is."
He turned, eyes narrowing. Dim light filtered from cracks above, barely illuminating the chamber's walls—covered in hundreds of fingerprints. Each one smeared in what looked like ink.
Or blood.
He stepped carefully. Each footfall echoed like a heartbeat.
There, at the center, stood a mirror.
Not just reflective—alive. Its frame pulsed faintly with dark veins of metal that moved like liquid. Arthur saw himself in the glass—except, it wasn't quite him.
The reflection wore the same clothes.
Had the same scar on the chin.
But the eyes… they smiled.
"Do you think justice comes without sacrifice, Arthur?"
Arthur clenched his fists. The phantom weight around his wrists pulsed again—chains tightening, unseen but real.
"You failed Evelyn," the reflection whispered.
"No," Arthur breathed. "I spared her."
"You watched her drown in her own mind."
Crack.
The mirror fractured down the middle. And in the sliver between, something stepped forward.
Luke's perspective
Upstairs, Luke pounded on the floor where Arthur had fallen.
"Arthur! Damn it!"
Gideon was already moving, pulling an old lever hidden behind a bookshelf. A panel shifted in the wall, revealing stone stairs spiraling downward.
"We have to go—now," Gideon growled.
Luke paused. His mother's voice echoed in his head again.
"Don't follow it…"
But he couldn't leave Arthur. Not again.
They descended into the dark.
As the last of the light vanished behind them, Gideon muttered, "If the mirror's awake, we may already be too late."
Luke's heart thundered. Not just from fear—but from the growing suspicion that this had all been waiting for them.
For him.