Chapter Thirteen
The Mirror Core
The stone bridge groaned under their feet as the three girls moved forward, its surface slick with condensation. Beneath them, the glowing lake rippled in unnatural patterns—like it wasn't made of water at all, but liquid memory.
"Do you feel that?" Kaia asked, frowning. "It's humming."
"It's... thinking," Amelia said.
Marah glanced back at the platform as it slowly receded into the mist. "I don't like turning my back on something that just tried to spit out your evil twin."
Amelia smirked slightly. "She wasn't that evil. Just annoying."
But even as she joked, her heart thudded against her ribs. The pendant at her neck pulsed in time with the bracelet—the two objects connected now, resonating with something deep ahead.
At the end of the bridge was a wide door, carved directly into the cavern wall. It didn't open with hinges—it shimmered and parted like mist when they stepped through.
And inside—
The Mirror Core.
It was a massive, circular chamber, domed and endless. The walls were made of mirrors—hundreds of them—layered over one another like scales. Some shimmered with images. Others were cracked. Some were completely black.
Amelia stepped in slowly, her breath catching.
Each mirror showed something different. A life. A moment. A fear.
In one, she saw herself smiling beside Elvira in a sunny meadow.
In another, Edward holding her baby self and whispering something tearful.
In one—her reflection was missing entirely.
Kaia moved beside her, staring. "These are souls. Or fragments of them."
Marah's eyes narrowed. "Then where's the lake?"
At the very center of the room was a raised circular platform surrounded by water, just like the chamber above. But instead of glowing blue—it shimmered with deep red. Sitting on a throne of bone-white stone was a figure.
Not quite human.
It looked like a woman—but her hair flowed like liquid, her dress stitched from mirror fragments, and her face was a blur. Shifting. Changing. Never still.
Her voice echoed without sound:
"Welcome, daughter of Elvira. Seer of the bloodline. You have come far."
Amelia took a step closer, jaw tight. "Are you the lake?"
"I am its core. Its memory. Its keeper."
"You've trapped my mother here," Amelia snapped.
"No," the Core said softly. "She gave herself willingly. But choices leave echoes. She changed the pattern. And now, you are the echo that can rewrite it... or break."
Amelia's pulse quickened. "What does that mean?"
The Core tilted its head. "It means if you want to free Elvira... you must choose a mirror. And live the truth inside it."
Kaia grabbed her arm. "Amelia, wait. What if it's a trap?"
Marah raised her staff. "It is a trap. But maybe... it's also the only way."
Amelia stepped forward.
The mirrors began to glow.
One shimmered with light—her as a child, reaching out to a woman in the water.
Another turned dark—her standing alone, her eyes glowing, surrounded by mist.
And a third—cracked, flickering, showed Elvira and Edward... smiling, together.
Amelia's breath hitched.
"I have to choose?" she asked.
The Core didn't reply.
The room went silent.
And all three mirrors began to call her name.
Amelia... Amelia... Amelia..."
Her name echoed not just in sound, but in sensation—like fingertips brushing her skin, like whispers under her eyelids. The mirrors pulsed, responding to her heartbeat.
Kaia stepped forward, her voice urgent. "Don't touch anything yet. This isn't a choice to rush."
Amelia stared at the three mirrors in front of her:
• The first: soft and warm, her child self reaching for a hand that looked like Elvira's, rising from gentle waves.
• The second: bleak and stormy, her future self alone in a mist-covered world, her eyes glowing unnaturally.
• The third: cracked and flickering, but powerful—her parents side by side, smiling, together.
"What happens if I pick the wrong one?" she asked aloud.
The Core answered in a whisper of wind:
"Then that is the story that becomes truth. For the lake remembers what you give it... not what you want."
Marah clenched her fists. "So if she chooses a broken path... it could make it real?"
"Yes," Kaia muttered. "The lake's power runs on belief. If Amelia lives the lie, the lie becomes reality."
Amelia stepped closer to the mirrors.
Then—something unexpected happened.
The fourth mirror shimmered into view.
Small. Hidden between the others. Almost invisible.
It didn't show a memory or a vision.
It showed nothing.
Just a flat, black surface that didn't reflect anything at all.
No Amelia.
No Elvira.
Not even the chamber.
Just void.
"What is that one?" Amelia whispered.
The Core's voice faltered.
"...that is not a mirror. It is a doorway."
Marah blinked. "Doorway to where?"
Kaia's expression darkened. "To what the lake doesn't want us to see."
The void pulsed once. Faintly.
And in that single pulse—Amelia saw something.
Her mother—not trapped, but fighting something. Screaming.
And Edward—tears on his face, standing on the shore.
Elvira's voice echoing, distorted:
"You must remember who I really am."
Amelia took a breath and turned to the Core. "I choose that one."
The Core's face twisted. For the first time, its voice cracked.
"That path is not meant for you."
Amelia narrowed her eyes. "Exactly."
She reached toward the black mirror—
Kaia yelled, "Amelia, wait!"
But it was too late.
Her fingers touched the void.
And the world exploded in silence.
⸻
Everything went black.
No light.
No sound.
Just a heartbeat. Hers.
Then, a faint glow.
A circle of blue light appeared beneath her feet. The dark space formed walls, shaped itself around her—
And then she was standing in a memory she'd never lived.
A place no mirror had ever shown.
Elvira.
In a black cloak.
Standing before the lake.
And saying: "I am not just a Seer... I am what the lake created to keep itself alive."
Amelia's breath caught in her throat.
Her mother wasn't just trapped.
She was part of the lake's origin.