Chapter 17 – The Mirror That Writes Back
Kael staggered back from the mirror.
His reflection didn't mimic him.
It studied him—pen still hovering in the air, lips curled with amused knowingness.
Liora stepped closer. "Kael… what did you see?"
He couldn't speak. The weight of a thousand written decisions sat behind his eyes. But the reflection was gone now, replaced by a blank page etched in rippling glass.
A line appeared on it.
You are the last rewrite.
Bran read it aloud, and the moment he did, the floor trembled.
From above, the Indice itself groaned like a dying library. Words bled from the walls. And the mirror—it began writing.
Another sentence appeared, slowly:
One shall remain. One shall forget. One shall be rewritten.
The trio exchanged glances. Bran's shadow twitched erratically. Liora reached for her chain of time, her fingers white with tension.
"We need to leave," Bran said. "This place was never meant for us."
Kael's eyes stayed locked on the mirror. He touched the surface, and his hand sank through it—cold, electric, like dipping into thought.
A voice echoed through the Index Root.
Not a whisper. Not a shout.
A narration.
"The Author awakens when the fiction forgets itself."
The mirror shattered.
Not violently—delicately, like falling snow made of crystal slivers.
From its remains, a figure emerged.
Not quite Kael. But not not him.
Taller. Wiser. Ink trailing down his arms like veins. Eyes that had seen endings. Fingers stained with eras.
He smiled.
"You've come far, Kael."
Kael felt his thoughts spiral.
"Are you… me?"
"No. I'm what you become if you finish the story."
Behind them, the Indice began unraveling.
Sentences pulled from their spines, paragraphs detached from meaning, the very bones of language disassembling.
The Author—Kael's possible future—raised a hand.
"Choose," he said.
"To forget who you are…"
He pointed at Bran.
"To remain, and become part of the Index…"
He looked to Liora.
"…Or to be rewritten."
He looked at Kael.
"And take my place."
The silence between them was thunderous.
Bran took a step back. "I never existed, did I?"
Kael turned. "What are you talking about?"
"My shadow told me. I'm a footnote. A construct. A character you needed."
He smiled sadly. "And that's okay. I'd rather vanish knowing I helped."
Before anyone could stop him, Bran stepped into the dissolving Indice.
And disappeared.
Liora's chain unraveled, ticking backward.
Tears streaked her face. "Kael… if you become him… you won't be you anymore."
Kael looked back at the mirror's base—its cracked remnants spelling one final choice.
He took the Author's pen.
It burned.
But it felt right.
And as he lifted it, he whispered: "Then let me rewrite the ending."