The mirror shards on the floor pulsed faintly, like coals cooling after a firestorm. Elara stared at them, her breathing sharp in the silence. Each broken piece reflected a different version of her face—some younger, some older, some shadowed by blood.
"They weren't just memories," she murmured. "They were fragments of something she stole."
Kael crouched beside her, one hand resting on his sword's hilt. "She's still watching through them. Even broken, they're part of her."
Elara's fingers curled around a shard. It was warm—too warm. "Then let's end the game. No more pieces. No more hiding."
She stood and walked toward the heart of the circle. The runes beneath the floor began to glow again, red this time—like fire, not memory.
"Elara—" Kael started, but stopped when she raised a hand.
"I have to see what's next. Not just what she wants me to remember, but what she wants me to forget."
Kael's jaw tightened. "Then I'm coming with you."
She glanced at him. "You always do."
She stepped back into the ring, placing the shard in the exact center of the broken star on the floor. Blood still stained the lines between the veins of crystal, and as it touched the shard, the magic ignited.
Flames burst up from the stone in a perfect circle around her.
Kael jumped back, shielding his eyes.
"Elara!"
But she didn't scream. She didn't move.
Inside the ring, time bent.
She stood again in a memory—but this one didn't feel like hers. It was too raw, too wild.
The scene was unfamiliar: a high tower, cold and made of white stone, lit only by moonlight. Her sister—older now, cloaked in midnight and red—stood before a silver mirror, speaking to a presence that shimmered just beyond sight.
"I give you my heart," the sorceress whispered. "But in return, I want hers."
The mirror rippled. Smoke seeped from its edges.
"Take her voice. Take her name. Take the swan and clip her wings."
Elara's heart pounded.
This was the beginning of the curse.
The bargain that fractured their bloodline. The fire in the glass.
The flames around her roared higher. The mirror in the memory shattered—and suddenly, Elara wasn't in the tower anymore. She was back in the chamber, standing in the center of the ring, the mirror shard in her hand now glowing red-hot.
The magic surged through her. She screamed.
Kael broke through the flame, arms wrapped around her. His skin burned where it touched the fire, but he didn't let go.
"Elara, breathe!"
She gasped—and the fire collapsed inward, sinking into her chest like it had a home there.
When it was over, she slumped against him.
He held her close, heart racing. "What happened?"
"She made a deal," Elara whispered. "She gave up her heart… and asked for mine in return."
Kael's voice was tight. "She planned to take you from the beginning."
"I think she already has—pieces, anyway. Memories. Strength. My name."
He looked at her, eyes fierce. "But not your will. Not your heart."
Elara tried to laugh, but it came out as a cough. "That's what she wants next."
He helped her to her feet. Around them, the room had changed. The mirrors were gone. The runes were dead. The tree above the chamber had withered entirely, its silver leaves turned to ash that fell softly from above like cursed snow.
"Where do we go now?" he asked.
Elara looked down at the mirror shard still glowing faintly in her hand.
"There's one place where she can finish the ritual," she said. "The Forgotten Mire. It's where she first touched the shadow's power."
Kael frowned. "Isn't that cursed land?"
"Yes," Elara said. "And it's also where my real name is buried."
He touched her arm, gently. "Then we dig it up. Together."
For a long second, she didn't speak.
Then she nodded.
As they turned toward the stairway leading back to the surface, a crack sounded from beneath their feet. A small fissure opened in the stone where the magic had surged.
Kael crouched beside it.
Inside the crack was a symbol—burned into the stone, like a brand left behind.
A crown. A swan. And a serpent wrapped in fire.
He looked at Elara. "What does it mean?"
She met his gaze, her voice cold and clear.
"It means she's no longer working alone."
Kael stood slowly, eyes narrowing. "Then we make sure she ends up alone. In the dark. Where she belongs."
As they left the broken chamber, the air behind them whispered with fading magic—soft, like a lullaby turned sour.
The fire might be out.
But the war had only just begun.