The runes on the chamber walls flickered. Not destabilizing. Not cracking.
Responding.
Isaac stepped back instinctively as the pressure in the room changed. It wasn't oppressive—it was precise, like the edge of a blade held to his soul.
Then came the light.
Not white. Not gold. Something deeper—radiant and warm on one side, yet cool and ancient on the other. A spiritual flame, woven from two worlds. It passed through the walls without burning them.
And from within that flame, a boy emerged.
Not much older than Isaac. Cloaked in white and black robes embroidered with sacred thread. Wings folded behind him: one feathered in light, one cloaked in shadow, and a third—smaller—shimmering with spectral fire.
His eyes were forest-blue. But there was something behind them. Something older than he should've known.
He stepped through the containment field without resistance. The runes simply let him pass.
Safa didn't interfere. She watched from the corner of the room, silent.
> "You're Isaac," the boy said.
Isaac nodded slowly. "And you're… Rizz."
They stood in silence. Not hostile. Not friendly. Just… still.
Isaac was the first to break it. "Why do you look like you've seen this coming?"
Rizz tilted his head. "Because I have. Or rather, my seal has."
He lifted his shirt slightly—just enough to reveal the faint, glowing sigils burned across his chest. The Soul Seal. Isaac's silver eye shimmered in response.
Both of them felt the pull again.
> "We're connected," Isaac said quietly. "But not like brothers."
> "No," Rizz replied. "Something older. Deeper. Maybe broken."
> "So, what are we? Opposites?"
Rizz walked closer. His presence wasn't aggressive—but it was dense, like standing before a divine storm.
> "I think we're two sides of one soul."
> "And what does that mean?" Isaac asked.
Rizz stared into Isaac's silver eye—the mirrored one. And in that reflection, for the briefest moment, he saw himself, standing in a void, both of them wielding light and shadow in unison… and then tearing apart.
> "It means," Rizz said, "that if we don't figure out why we exist, one of us will destroy the other."
Safa stepped forward now. "Or… you'll learn to merge. That's why I brought Rizz. Not to fight. To understand."
Isaac shook his head, pacing. "So that's it? I wake up, change the world by accident, and now I'm some mirror half of a divine prodigy?"
Rizz winced slightly. "I'm not a prodigy."
"Sure you're not," Isaac said, voice dry. "And I'm not a walking time-bomb."
They both laughed—just a little. It broke the tension.
Then the runes on the wall pulsed again, harder.
Safa's eyes narrowed. "Someone's watching. We don't have much time."
Rizz turned to Isaac. "I have a mission to finish. But I'll come back. You and I—this thing between us—it's not done."
Isaac nodded. "Good. I don't like unfinished stories."
> "Then get stronger," Rizz said. "Because next time… we might not meet as friends."
With a flare of golden and shadowy fire, Rizz vanished.
And Isaac stood alone in the chamber—heart racing, soul humming, the mirror in his eye flickering with unknown memories.
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