The fight was brutal.
The red-cloaked assassin sent by the Empress moved like a shadow, blades spinning in deadly arcs. But Seraphina was no longer the girl who once feared shadows—she was now the darkness reborn, cloaked in silver fire.
Her divine beast roared, knocking the enemy off balance, while Vale and the knight captain flanked from the sides. The assassin landed hard on the ground, cracking stone beneath him. Seraphina stepped forward, hand glowing.
"Who sent you?" she asked, her voice calm but deadly.
The assassin coughed blood, laughing. "You think you're the savior? You're just a villainess with a prettier mask."
Seraphina didn't flinch. "And yet I'll still survive this story."
With a flick of her wrist, she ended it.
---
Deep within the Forest of Broken Souls
At the heart of the ruins stood a monolith—ancient, cracked, and pulsing with faint red-orange light. The Flame Mirror. Faint whispers surrounded it as if the souls of the fallen lingered still.
Seraphina stepped closer, and the world around her distorted.
Suddenly, she stood in a grand hall from another time—a memory.
She saw the original Empress, young and trembling, clutching the mirror. A priest stood before her, warning: "The mirror will reflect your truest self. Use it with caution."
Then came another scene—one never shown in the book.
The Empress, betrayed by her lover, surrounded by nobles who mocked her beauty and cursed her lineage. Her tears fell onto the mirror, corrupting it with her despair. That was the day she changed—from ruler to monster.
And Seraphina saw something else—herself.
A flash of a battlefield. Fire consuming the capital. A crown in her hand. A man dying in her arms.
Was this her fate?
---
She stumbled back, gasping, as the vision ended.
The mirror glowed, brighter than before. It hadn't just shown her the past—it had marked her.
The assassin placed a hand on her shoulder. "You saw something?"
"Yes," she whispered. "The Empress didn't fall… she was pushed."
The knight captain frowned. "Does that change your plans?"
Seraphina looked back at the mirror, its fire dancing like hope in her eyes.
"It changes everything. I won't repeat her mistake. I'll burn the lies—but I'll rebuild the truth."
---
Back at the Palace
The Empress stared at her own reflection. Her face—unchanged by time but hollow with rage.
"She's found the mirror," her spymaster whispered.
A twitch in her jaw. "Then let her come. The end is already written. She'll die in seven years. Just like I did."
---
End of Chapter 23