The Hollow Mirror stood silent beneath the blood moon.
Once, it had been a place of light—a palace of truth, built on the edge of the world where the Veil thinned. Now, the walls had shattered, the halls had warped, and every reflection whispered lies.
Kael approached alone.
He wore no armor.
No sword hung at his side.
Only the marks of the soulflame burned faintly across his chest, their light dim but steady. With every step, the memories stirred—Theren's laughter, Elira's resolve, the roar of the Deadbound, the silence of Runemar. All leading to her.
At the gate of the palace, the air rippled.
From the stillness stepped a girl.
Not the queen. Not a specter.
A child.
Barefoot, pale, with silver-threaded hair and hollow eyes.
"I'm to lead you," she said.
Kael hesitated. "Who are you?"
"I am what's left of the truth she buried."
The Mirrorwalk
The girl led him past broken pillars and shattered glass murals. As they walked, the walls flickered—reflecting not their images, but their fears.
Kael saw himself, but twisted: burning cities behind him, Elira crumbling into ash in his hands, the soulflame spiraling out of control.
He looked away.
The girl noticed.
"She doesn't want you brave. She wants you willing."
"To what?"
"To believe her."
They entered a vast chamber where the moonlight spilled through a broken ceiling, casting red veins across the floor.
In the center stood the Hollow Queen.
Waiting.
The Queen and the Broken Flame
She wore no crown. No armor. Just a dress made of ink and grief, trailing behind her like smoke. Her silver eyes met his—not with cruelty, but something older. Sadder.
"You came."
Kael nodded. "You wanted questions."
"I did."
He stepped closer, keeping his stance guarded.
"Why me?"
She tilted her head. "Because you were born unmade."
Kael frowned.
"You were never meant to be whole," she continued. "Your soul was fractured from birth. A vessel cracked but unbroken. The perfect container for the soulflame's chaos."
He took a slow breath. "You mean I'm a weapon."
"No," she said. "You're a wound."
The Secret of the Crown
The Hollow Queen gestured.
The broken mirror behind her shimmered—its shards lifting into the air, forming a spinning wheel of light and smoke.
"In the beginning, there was Balance. Flame and Void. Life and Memory."
Images spun through the shards—kings forging the Crown, the rise of the Twelve, the Sundering, the soulbrand.
"But the Crown feared loss. So they tried to seal the Void, not understand it. They cut the balance in half."
She looked at him with a sad smile.
"I was the guardian of that balance. I warned them. They didn't listen."
"And they turned on you."
"No," she whispered. "I turned on myself."
The First Betrayal
Kael's breath caught as the mirror reformed into a vision of the woman she once was—bright-eyed, flame-haired, draped in the golden robes of the First Flame.
"I loved them," she said softly. "But love cannot save a world that chooses fear."
She reached for one final shard—and embedded it into Kael's palm.
A memory not his own surged through him:
Flames rising. Runes burning. The Twelve standing in a circle, voices raised in song and fury.
And her—falling to her knees.
"Let the Hollow take me. Better one bear the grief than the world burn."
Kael staggered.
"You chose the Hollow Flame."
"Yes," she said. "To stop it. But the Hollow doesn't bind—it devours."
A Question Returned
"You want to end the world," Kael said hoarsely.
"No," she replied. "I want to unmake the chains they built. I want to end the cycle."
He looked into her eyes.
"And what rises in its place?"
She was silent.
Kael stepped forward.
"You call yourself Queen. But I see a prisoner."
"And you?" she asked.
"I'm just a boy who wasn't given a choice."
Her voice was soft. "Then let me offer you one now."
The Bargain of Light
She extended her hand.
"Join me. Not in war—but in memory. Help me break the false balance. Help me remake what they shattered."
Kael looked at her hand.
It shimmered with silver fire and old pain.
He saw Theren's face. Malric's calm. Elira's defiance. The Runebinder's wisdom. The weight of a world on the brink.
And then—
He refused.
"No."
Her eyes widened.
"I will not be your unmaking. I will be the flame that remembers. I will fight you—not because I hate you… but because I love what you forgot."
She stepped back as if struck.
"The others will fall."
"Then I'll help them rise again."
The Mirror Shatters
The Hollow Queen raised her hand—and the mirror burst.
Kael was flung backward, crashing through the air. He rolled across broken glass and rose, blood on his cheek, fire in his chest.
Her voice boomed, no longer soft.
"Then the war begins in full."
Lightning split the sky. The palace groaned as old protections shattered.
Kael ran.
The Ride from Ruin
The silver-eyed child met him at the edge of the gate.
"I warned you," she said.
"Then help me."
She nodded—and opened a tear in the air, a portal rimmed in ghostlight.
Kael dove through.
The Return
He tumbled out into camp, bruised and scorched, just as dawn broke across the horizon.
Elira rushed to him.
"What happened?"
He pressed the shard—the Queen's memory—into her palm.
"She's not just our enemy. She's… the first us."
Malric stepped forward, solemn. "Then she knows every path we might take."
Kael met his gaze. "Then we take one she never would."
He turned toward the rising sun.
"We find the others. All Twelve."
Elira nodded.
"And then?" she asked.
Kael's voice was calm.
"Then we take back the flame."