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Rin fell without falling.
It was as if she were being held—invisible and immeasurable. Her boots connected with cool, humming obsidian. There were no walls. No ceiling. No horizon. Just darkness. And mirrors.
Dozens of them.
All of them tall. All of them thin. All of them in a semicircle before her, waiting to speak, like silent judges.
Each of them shimmered. Each of them reflected… her.
But not exactly.
One version of her wore chains, kneeling before a masked court.
Another was laughing, drenched in rain, holding hands with someone just out of view.
One was dead. One was a queen. One—terrifyingly—was smiling with empty eyes.
"This place," said a voice behind her, quiet as a breath, "is where your soul leaves footprints."
Rin turned sharply.
A man stood there. No older than she was. White coat, barefoot, hair as dark as ink dripping through water. But his eyes—
They were violet fire.
"You're not a Watcher," she said.
"No," he replied. "I'm what the Watchers fear."
He stepped into the center, beside her.
"Call me… Aether."
Rin's brow furrowed. "You're part of me, aren't you?"
Aether smiled.
"No. I'm what was left over when you were rewritten. A version who should have been. The one who remembered everything."
Rin's throat tightened. "Then why are you here?"
He reached toward a mirror.
It came to life.
Kael stood within it—bloodied, breathless, standing between Reika and a collapsing realm of ice.
"He's walking into his own storm,"Aether said. "But that is not why I brought you."
Another mirror flared to life.
This one reflected Reika.
Young. Before the soulsteel blade. Sitting on a cliff beside Elias Faelan. Her head rested on his shoulder. She was laughing. He was sketching something in a notebook. It looked like a memory Rin never had—but felt in her chest.
They loved each other," Aether said quietly. "Silently. Passionately. The type that resonates when the world ends."
"They never spoke," Rin breathed.
"They didn't have to."
Aether pushed against another mirror.
And this time—it wasn't Reika. Or Kael. Or Elias.
It was her.
Tiny. Perhaps five or six years old. Seated beneath a tree, humming to herself. Alone. Forgotten. Singing a tune in a language she shouldn't have spoken.
"She wasn't selected, Rin," Aether said, voice subdued. "She was created."
"What do you mean?"
He looked at her.
And for an instant—his eyes were sorrowful.
"You're not just someone who holds the soul-thread. You are the anchor. The first and final gate. The beginning of the pattern. That's why the Watchers need you. That's why Kael keeps finding you—across timelines, across ruins."
Rin stepped back.
"No. I was....I was just an apothecary. I lived in a humble village. I read books. I—
"You were," Aether agreed. "Until the gods cut themselves open and bled fate into your skin."
Her knees buckled.
He caught her.
"I don't want to be this," she whispered.
"You already are."
She shook her head, trembling. "Then take it back. Be me. Let me go."
Aether touched her cheek.
"I can't. I'm only what was forgotten. But you—" he gestured around the mirrors—"you're every version that chose to survive. That loved. That burned."
A mirror behind them shattered.
Not shattered—just a thin crack, down the middle.
And through it, she saw something horrifying.
A throne. Distorted. Constructed of roots and memory.
And on it—her.
Older. Eyes like stars exploding.
Not smiling.
Watching.
"She's waiting," Aether said. "The one you'll become if you run from the truth."
Rin stood.
Even though her legs shook. Even though the mirrors throbbed with everything she was afraid of.
And said, softly:
"Then I'll face her."
Aether smiled.
And started to disappear.
"Then you're ready."
Rin reached for him. "Wait—"
"Kael needs you," he whispered, disappearing into sparks.
The mirrors collapsed in a blink.
And Rin was falling—
—
She landed hard.
Back in the garden of silver trees. Reika knelt beside her, wide-eyed.
"You were gone for a minute. Maybe more."
Rin gasped, chest heaving.
Kael was at her other side. His hand on her back. "You're alright?"
She looked between them.
And whispered:
"I remember now."
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