The doors of the Mirrored Spire groaned open, not by touch—but recognition.
The Spire knew them. Or at least, it knew her.
Caela stood frozen at its threshold.
"It remembers me," she whispered. "From another loop. Another life."
The walls inside were not walls.
They were reflections. Endless corridors of memories, each mirror playing out moments not yet lived, or perhaps never meant to be.
Kade saw himself—older, dressed in crimson armor, standing atop a pile of ashes. His eyes were gone. His voice was void.
He blinked, and it was gone.
"This place shows possibilities," Caela said. "But it can trap you in them too."
Aurelle touched a mirrored panel. Her hand passed through.
She pulled back, shivering. "That wasn't my reflection. That was my sister. She's dead."
"It's testing us," Lira muttered. "Seeing what breaks first—our minds or our choices."
They walked.
The corridor shifted with each step, never staying the same shape.
A doorway led to a spiral staircase that descended upward.
Another led them back to the entrance—but they were still inside.
Eventually, they reached a chamber that didn't change.
A circular room with twelve thrones made of shadow and light. In the center: a pedestal, upon which floated a heart-shaped shard of obsidian, pulsing faintly.
Caela staggered.
"That's it," she whispered. "The Shard of Veyne."
"The what now?" Kade asked.
She turned to him slowly. "A piece of the original Veil. The boundary between realities. It's what my father used to try and reshape fate."
Kade frowned. "And it ended with him gone… and you hunted."
She nodded. "This shard… it's why they're after me."
"Then let's destroy it," Lira said. "End it here."
Caela shook her head. "No. If we destroy it, the timelines it holds collapse. That means... entire lives vanish."
"People?" Aurelle asked. "Like—actual people?"
"Everyone born in the fragments it holds. My mother. My past. Maybe… even versions of you."
Silence fell.
Then Kade stepped forward. "Then what do we do?"
Caela stared at the shard. "I merge with it."
"Are you insane?" Aurelle barked. "You just said it collapses realities!"
"Only if it rejects the host," Caela said, voice trembling. "But I'm… compatible. I always have been. The shard chose me once."
"Then why did you run from it?"
"Because I wasn't ready," she said, eyes misting. "Because last time I tried… I died."
Kade gently grabbed her hand. "Then don't do it alone."
She looked at him—eyes full of pain and fragments of hope.
Then—
The chamber darkened.
The thrones flared to life, one by one.
Voices emerged from each—layered, ancient, and echoing.
"She returns."
"The exiled Threadborn."
"And brings the Fractured Flame."
"Are they talking about me?" Kade asked warily.
"He is becoming."
"He is remembering."
"He must not touch the shard."
Kade flinched. "Not a fan club, then."
A shadow rose from the twelfth throne—taller than the rest. Clad in robes woven from still moments. Its face… was a blur.
Not hidden.
Undefined.
It stepped forward and spoke.
"You are not yet ready," it said to Caela. "Merge, and you may become nothing."
Caela stepped forward anyway. "I've lived in nothing. I've been erased, forgotten, hunted across the folds of time. If this is what it takes to anchor myself… so be it."
"You defy the cycle," it said.
"I am the cycle," she replied, voice trembling.
Then she touched the shard.
And screamed.
The Spire shook.
The mirrors shattered, each releasing a vision.
Kade saw a child version of himself being taken away by men in black coats.
Lira saw a world where she never defected.
Aurelle saw her dead sister… smiling at her.
Caela convulsed, energy spiraling around her like torn wings of light and shadow.
Kade reached for her.
But something grabbed him from within the mirror.
Another version of himself.
Burned. Scarred. Eyes like coals.
"You're not ready," it hissed.
But this time, Kade didn't hesitate.
He cut the thread binding it.
The version screamed and burst into glass.
Kade touched Caela's shoulder.
And for the first time—
—he heard the Veil speak back.
It didn't use words.
It used memories.
His mother's laugh. His first fall. The pain of being forgotten. The hope he saw in Caela's eyes.
And it all crystallized into a single choice:
Become a Threadwalker.
Or remain a shadow.
Kade chose.
Caela opened her eyes.
They were no longer gold.
They were mirror-black.