When you walk through mirrors, you do not find your reflection—you meet the parts of yourself you buried.
The Fifth Shard pulses in Kael's chest, each beat of its power pulling him not forward—but inward.
He sees himself—older, crueler, wielding fire that does not burn but remembers.
He sees the skies of the world tear open over a city of stars and shadows: The Labyrinth of Breathing Stars—a place that exists only when remembered, where the past and future bleed into each other like spilled ink.
The Sixth Shard lies within it.
But to reach it, one must pass through the Mirrorgate—a relic lost to time, hidden in a cursed monastery called Vyr Ulren, once a sanctuary for Timebound monks who walked backward through memory.
Kael, Lia, and Ihlon depart from Syr-Kharad, crossing through the Threnic Wilds—where trees whisper your regrets back to you—toward Vyr Ulren.
They travel in silence, save for the murmurs of the shard, which hums ancient names Kael doesn't yet understand:
"Lunivar. Kethril. Valemarch. Nameless."
Vyr Ulren is not a place of worship anymore. It is a shell of shattered time.
The architecture flows backward—windows that open into the past, doors that close on futures that haven't happened, bells that ring to announce something you will regret in an hour.
At its center lies the Mirrorgate, a circular frame of silver and obsidian, its surface perfectly still.
Lia examines it. There are no runes, no mechanisms, only a riddle carved into the arch:
"He who enters brings all he could have been.She who returns is never who she was."
Ihlon begins to tremble. He recognizes the pattern.
"It's not just a gate. It's a test. It fractures time and weaves it into the Labyrinth."
To enter, one must surrender the idea of a linear self.
Kael touches the surface.
The mirror ripples.
And swallows them whole.
They awaken in a city that should not exist.
The Labyrinth of Breathing Stars floats in a sky without land, its buildings suspended on gravity-defying bridges, glowing with starlight and burning fog.
Here, every building is a version of a memory—of someone, somewhere. And sometimes, of you.
A child Kael runs past them, laughing.
A version of Lia sits atop a tower, alone, whispering regrets to herself.
Kael realizes: this place is built from alternate selves, formed from paths not taken.
And at the Labyrinth's heart lies the Chronahedron, a six-faced crystal engine where the Sixth Shard pulses.
But it is guarded.
By someone familiar.
A girl with violet-black flame and eyes like Kael's.
She calls herself Elasya.
And she calls him… Father.
She wears a shard in her heart and a crown of fractured time.
She claims to be from a branch of the future—a reality where Kael becomes the God-King of Ash, and burns the heavens to save what remains of the world from a divine extinction.
"You died saving the Nameless One. You shattered the Wheel. And I was born from your sacrifice."
She refuses to give him the Sixth Shard.
"Because you haven't earned it yet. The version of you I knew would kill for power. Would sacrifice anything. Anyone."
To prove his worth, Kael must walk the Unthreading—a path through the deepest layer of the Labyrinth where all forgotten versions of himself wait to challenge him.
If he survives, he may take the shard.
If he fails, he will be trapped in the mirror-world—forever.
Kael walks into the shadow-core of the Labyrinth.
There he faces:
A Kael who accepted the Godflame without restraint, now a tyrant of ash.
A Kael who never left Caldrithar, now a martyr with no voice.
A Kael who gave up the flame, now a quiet farmer with regretful eyes.
Each version tries to claim his mind.
But Kael learns—not to destroy them—but to accept them.
He embraces his flaws, his failures, his might, his mercy.
And in doing so, becomes something new.
A Kael who is whole.
Elasya watches him return.
She is crying, and smiling.
"You are not the father I knew.But you are the one this world needs."
She releases the shard into his hand.
The Sixth Shard, known as Virelith—the Memory That Is Yet To Come, pulses with futurefire. It grants glimpses into possible destinies, and Kael sees them all:
Himself wielding all seven shards, challenging the gods.
Lia dying to save Ihlon.
The Nameless One awakening… not as a god, but as a child.
Kael screams as time fractures—
Then steadies.
He breathes.
And the Sixth Shard fuses to his flame.