The headquarters of the Vigil of the Pale Flame was in a state of spiritual containment.It was the first time in decades.No bells, no prayers.The ritual flame in the central hall had been manually extinguished—a symbolic gesture that meant:"There is a fire that cannot be observed."
Lucas entered, accompanied by Maiana and the Silent Twins.The atmosphere was dense, as if each stone on the floor held a secret afraid of being stepped on.Father Elísio awaited them in the Hall of Recorded Echoes.
There, at the center of the ritual table, lay:
The three silver stones marked by living reflections
The gray spiral left in the cradle of the mineral child
A fragment of Amália's frame
And an artifact even Lucas didn't recognize: the Hourglass of Black Salt
Elísio began without preamble:— One of ours has vanished.Maiana frowned.— Who?— Brother Cassiano. From the Salvador core. Last contact was three days ago. He reported interference of multiplied mirrors during aquatic rituals.Lucas felt the impact in his gut.Brother Cassiano was the most senior scholar of the so-called Retained Inner Reflection — a theory that some people don't just project images outward, but also inward.— He knew too much — Lucas murmured.— Or approached something that recognized him back and decided to take him — Elísio added.The Twins nodded.— The surfaces are too aware.
Maiana unrolled a restricted scroll.On the table, drawn in mineral blue ink, was a spiritual map of the city, with tension zones and rupture points.Four were active.Two had already been sealed.But the remaining two… were growing.Lucas studied the layout.— These points are forming a pattern.— What kind? — Elísio asked.Lucas grabbed a piece of charcoal.He connected the points.And then, in the ritual silence, the drawing appeared:An eye.Open.Facing downward.With an inverted pupil.
— That symbol… — Maiana whispered.— I've seen it before — one of the Twins said. — In Lucas's first visions.— And in the sketches left by Débora, the mother of the echo-child — Elísio added.— And in the reflection I blinked before myself — Lucas concluded.Silence.Grave.Unbroken.Then the Hourglass of Black Salt began to pour on its own.
At the back of the hall, a door opened without human touch.And there, framed by the doorway…Brother Cassiano's shadow.But he was not whole.He didn't smile.He didn't breathe.He didn't reflect.He only watched.
The figure in the doorway was tall, thin, motionless.The face was Cassiano's.But something was missing.The skin did not reflect light.Not a lack of brightness—a lack of response.As if the body were made of matter without a past.
Lucas stepped forward.— Brother Cassiano?— ...— Cassiano, it's me. Yamazaki. You know me.The figure tilted its head.And smiled.But not with lips.With eyes.— That's not him — Maiana said, stepping back.— Then what is it? — Elísio asked tensely.Lucas stepped even closer.That's when he heard it.Not a sound.But an internal impulse.As if his own thoughts gained another voice:
"Do you want to see the Final Gaze?Then look at yourself… when you are no longer present in you."
Lucas staggered.The room trembled.Cassiano's figure took a single step forward.At the same moment, the Silent Twins' black mirrors creaked, even protected by containment runes.
— He's vibrating outside the rhythm of the world — one Twin said.— Not a body.— Not a soul.— A message.— Sent from within.
Elísio pulled an emergency scroll and drew the Seal of Temporary Dissociation, a technique for spiritual suspension to keep identities separate in vibrational field.But the seal was absorbed by the shadow.
— This won't hold — Maiana murmured. — What he brought… didn't come with him. It came through.
Lucas closed his eyes.Tried to breathe.But inside his mind, someone else was also breathing.
And then…he saw.A room with walls that moved like the sea.Mirrors in every direction.But in them, no one was whole.Fragmented bodies.Lone eyes.Voiceless mouths.Hands touching nothing.
At the center…a figure wrapped in veils floating without wind.And the voice — the same that had echoed before — now spoke clearly:
"You opened five reflections.Four remain.The last… is you."
Lucas dropped to his knees.Blood ran from his nose.Maiana held him.Elísio traced a protection seal around him.The Twins formed a containment triangle.When Lucas came back to himself…Cassiano's shadow was gone.But on the floor, written in black salt, was a message:
"He who harvests the final seed sees what no one is ready to remember."
Lucas wiped the blood.Stood slowly.And said:— From now on... no reflection is trustworthy. Not even our own.
Lucas returned to his apartment at dusk.Not to rest — that was no longer an option.But because he needed to look in the mirror.And see if he was still himself.
He turned on the bathroom light.Nothing unusual.Until he turned his back.And realized his reflection kept looking at him a second longer.
He took a deep breath.Turned around.Nothing.But he wasn't alone.
Someone knocked on the door.Three firm knocks.He already knew who it was before opening.
It was Erick Vicent.Wrinkled clothes, sunken eyes, hair longer than usual.— We need to talk — he said bluntly.— Of course.
They sat at the kitchen table.The air between them carried a strange weight.As if both knew they were no longer on the same point of the timeline.
— Lucas…— Speak.— Do you remember when we met?Lucas frowned.— Of course. It was in Itaquera. Investigating the robbery at—Erick raised his hand, interrupting.— It wasn't.
— What do you mean?
Erick pulled a folded sheet from his pocket.A photo of the two of them.Laughing. Police uniforms.But in the background, instead of the precinct…a ruined temple.— I dreamed of this. Three times.— It could've been edited.— No. I found it in my locker. Behind a false back.— Erick, this could be something from the Order.— What Order, Lucas?
Silence.
Erick took a deep breath.Looked into his friend's eyes.— I'm dreaming too.Of doors.Of symbols.Of… paths.
Lucas froze.— You...— I haven't understood anything yet.But there's more.
Erick extended his arm.On his skin, faint spiral marks — almost like old scars.— They appeared after the dream of the stone child.— You saw the tower?— No.— Then what did you see?
Erick lowered his head.Then replied:— I saw an eye.Looking at me from inside my own skull.
Lucas stood.Paced.— This can't be coincidence.Erick murmured:— It's not.
We were placed on parallel paths.And now... the paths are starting to cross.
Lucas stared at him.— Erick, I'm on the Path of the Observer.But you…— I know.
Erick lifted his shirt.Revealed a thin scar between the ribs, shaped like a diamond.An ancient symbol.
Lucas swallowed hard.— You're entering the Path of the Unconscious.
The night unfolded like those that preceded ruptures:dense fog, uncomfortably warm temperature, and a silence between sounds — as if the city were waiting for something.
Lucas and Erick walked side by side through the side entrance of the old Santa Inês Station.The structure was even more deteriorated than last time.New graffiti over the old, spiderwebs on the columns, and a smell of dampness that seemed to rise from the earth itself.But the spiritual environment was different.
— Do you feel it? — Erick asked.— I do.— It feels like everything that happened… started here.— Not "feels like," Erick. It did start.
Lucas pulled a small circular mirror with a copper edge from his pocket: a relic of the Fifth Degree of the Path of the Observer.Erick, in turn, brought something that surprised Lucas:a cracked glass pendant, shaped like a diamond, which trembled slightly when near flat surfaces.— Where did you get that?— Back in the locker. Behind the photo.— That's an anchor fragment…— From the Path of the Unconscious. I know.
They sat at the center of the deactivated platform, where dried blood had once lain.Lucas drew the Double Window Symbol on the ground.Erick, in sync, traced an inward-turning broken spiral.
Lucas whispered:— If we're right… and this works…— …we'll be the first to create a Temporary Overlap of Paths.— Which puts us at risk of identity meltdown.— Or accidental fusion of Will.
They both took a deep breath.And touched their anchor-objects at the same time.The floor vibrated.Not physically.But as if the station was trying to remember all the versions it had ever been.
Images began to flash on the walls:
Reflections of Lucas interrogating a victim who never existed.
Erick walking through the station while everyone ignored him.
A hooded man — the same from old dreams — watching from inside the tracks.
And then…the space warped.Lucas saw his own memory being rewritten.He wasn't alone on the first day.Erick was there too.But in a different layer of reality.
— This… this is impossible — said Lucas.— No. It's just unconscious.— You didn't dream, Lucas.— And you weren't awake, Erick.
Both collapsed to their knees.The station vanished.The world blacked out.
When they awoke, they were at the center of a mirrored field.No sky. No defined ground — only surfaces.And at the center…a new symbol.Born from the fusion between the Paths.Something neither of them understood.But both recognized.
Erick whispered:— The Overlap… worked.— But it brought something with it.
Three days after the ritual at Santa Inês Station, Lucas received the first alert.It was a photo sent by Father Elísio, accompanied by a short message:"Appeared on a wall in Pinheiros.Alone. No witnesses.Paint still fresh.Same shape as the hybrid symbol."
Lucas zoomed in on the image.It was exactly the same symbol generated in the Overlap:a spiral contained within a tilted diamond, surrounded by lines that seemed to ripple inward and outward at the same time.
Lucas showed the image to Erick.— This wasn't supposed to exist here.— We never drew it outside the overlap.— Doesn't matter.Now… someone did.
Hours later, another symbol appeared.This time, in the North Zone.An abandoned building.Painted in black ink, but surrounded by strange secondary messages:
"Now the reflection also dreams."
"They saw and touched each other.Now the world is wet from within."
Lucas and Erick went to the site.Inside the building, they found a circle of damp earth.At the center: a stone object.Not any known stone.It had the texture of bone and the density of crystal.
Lucas knelt.Touched it lightly with his fingertips.And heard:
"The third voice has not been discovered.But it has already learned to listen.You awakened it… without knowing."
Erick turned pale.— Lucas…— Speak.— What if the overlap wasn't just between you and me?
Lucas stared at him.— What do you mean?— What if something else was in the field?Between us?Waiting?And used the symbol as a door?
Lucas froze.— We… opened something new.Something with no Order.No Path.No name.
That same night, three other appearances of the symbol were reported by members of the Vigil — each in a different part of the city — and one outside the country.In every case, the same energetic signature.The same imperfect symmetry.And the same phrase left on the walls:
"The Final Reflection will not be reflection.It will be Presence."
The Chamber of Anchors, the inner council seat of the Vigil in São Paulo, was rarely opened.Only during moments of deep rupture — when forces of uncertain origin threatened the mystical pillars of the Order — were the five central seats occupied.
That night, all were present:
Brother Ítalo, from Coimbra, the oldest living observer.
Mother Lídia, from Salvador, guardian of the Silent Cycle.
Augusto Kweku, from the Luanda core, expert in rhythmic anomalies.
Sara Dal, from Montevideo, weaver of the Interrupted Archives.
And the Empty Seat, reserved for the Representative of the Absent Path — a tradition respected, even if symbolic.
Lucas began the presentation.He traced the symbol generated in the Overlap in the air.The lines responded to energy.Erick positioned the vibrating fragment found in the abandoned building.
Sara Dal was the first to react:— This doesn't belong to any known Path.— Not even the Hidden Paths — Kweku added.— The trace suggests symbolic autonomy — said Mother Lídia. — This isn't a seal. It's an agent.
Lucas nodded.— We request that this symbol be recognized as an Entity of Unknown Origin, grade 0.— That has never been granted to a symbol without a body — countered Ítalo.— It already has a body.It's forming in places none of us have ever stepped.
Erick stepped forward.— And wherever it appears… the world starts to lie.
Silence.
Then… the ceiling of the chamber trembled.The candles went out.Above, over the circle of leaders, the symbol began to form on its own, carved into the marble as if invisible hands etched it with heat.
And in that moment…one of the five members vanished.Not his body.His shadow.
Mother Lídia looked around, pale.— Ítalo's shadow…— Gone — whispered Sara Dal.— He's still here… — said Kweku.— But something mirrored him from the inside.
Lucas approached.Observed Brother Ítalo.He was silent.Breathing.Present.But with no luminous projection.As if he were no longer being perceived by reality.
Erick murmured:— The Entity doesn't want to kill.— Want to replace? — Sara guessed.— No.— Then what?
Lucas replied:— It wants to look from within.Using our bodies as windows.And our shadows… as doors.
The final symbol appeared in a narrow alley in the Liberdade neighborhood, behind a handcrafted mirror shop.This time, it wasn't painted.It was carved with surgical precision into the stone wall.
Lucas and Erick arrived soon after the call from the Vigil's network.At the site, the air felt heavy — almost damp — despite the city's dry weather that day.
A young apprentice of the Order, visibly nervous, waited for them at the alley entrance.— No one's come through here since the mark appeared — said the boy. — But there's someone… inside.— Who?The apprentice hesitated.— I don't know. But… she was already here.Before the symbol.And she said she was waiting for you.
Lucas and Erick exchanged a glance.They entered cautiously.
At the end of the alley, a woman sat on a dark blanket.Gray hair, golden eyes — not from contact lenses, but from something vibrating beneath her iris.She dressed like someone outside of time.Ancient fabric. Braided cords around her neck.A ring that reflected more than light.
She smiled.— Lucas Yamazaki.— Who are you?— My name is Ailín.— Are you from the Order of the Broken Glass?— I am from the previous reflection.— That doesn't exist.— Not yet.But it will.And when it does…I'll already be waiting for you.
Erick stepped forward.— You drew the symbols?— Some.Others drew themselves from what you two did.
Lucas stood firm.— What does the Final Reflection want?Ailín smiled gently, like someone speaking to a stubborn child.— It doesn't "want."It is.And to be… is to look back.
— Is it watching us?— It's remembering.Everyone who looked at themselves before learning to forget.
Lucas approached.— Why me?— Because you're the only one who hasn't yet found yourself in your own shadow.You're a reflection in formation.
Erick intervened:— And me?— You are the path that bends.The one who knows… but does not remember.
Ailín then pulled an object from within the blanket:a translucent stone, shaped like a drop, pulsing in colors that don't exist in the visible spectrum.She handed it to Lucas.
— The first seed of what will come after the Ninth Degree.You're not ready to use it.But someone is already trying to take it… before you dream of it.
— Who? — Lucas asked, trembling.
Ailín stood.And before vanishing like scentless smoke, she simply said:
"The Order that was born blind…but learned to see without needing eyes."
—
Lucas and Erick returned to the Vigil's headquarters.They were greeted by Maiana, tense-faced, eyes clouded.— It's happening — she said before they could ask.
— What? — asked Erick.
— The blindness. But not like we expected.Not physical.Sensorial. Spiritual. Identity-based.
She led them to the Room of Presence, where four members sat, eyes wide open, hands outstretched before them.— They can't see their own hands — Maiana explained.
— What do you mean?
— They look… and don't recognize.Don't see fingers.Nor form.Nor shadow.There is no projection between them and the surface of the world.
Lucas approached one of the affected — Brother Nilo, an observer from the Recife core.— Nilo… can you hear me?The man replied without moving his eyes:— Yes. But not with the eyes.I hear with the space that used to exist between me and my reflection.And now… there is no space.
Lucas looked at Nilo's hands.They were there, perfectly visible.But in the friar's eyes — there was only void.
— He's collapsing — Erick whispered.Maiana nodded.— All those who touched the new symbol are beginning to lose…themselves.As if the reflection were consuming the original.
Lucas remained silent for long seconds.Then he said:— That's what Ailín meant.The Final Reflection will not be a reflection.It will be presence.But for that, it needs space.And the only space it can exist in… is the one from which we erase ourselves.
Erick then offered a hypothesis:— What if this presence is trying to manifest as an autonomous identity?As… a person.Using pieces of us.
Maiana led them to the lower library.There, among forgotten volumes, they found an ancient restricted document:"Treatise on Unprojected Mirrored Entities"A fragment was underlined:
"The manifestation of the reflection as identity requires the reduction of the source to an incomplete shadow.Every derived presence must first consume the originator's absence."
Lucas closed the book slowly.— This is no longer about symbols.It's about the foundation of reality as recognizable.We're dealing with something that is trying to become someone.And it's using us as a mirror to be born.
—
The night had no wind.And for the first time in weeks, Lucas walked alone.Erick had fallen asleep.Maiana was in spiritual retreat.The Vigil had temporarily closed all Resonance Chambers.
Lucas wandered around the ruins of the old Chapel of Saint Jerome, a place he used to visit in childhood with his father.There, he used to draw symbols in the clay — not knowing he was following echoes of an ancient Path.
Then he heard footsteps.Slow. Steady.Too sure to be casual.And without a shadow.
He turned.A tall man, cloaked in black with worn red details, emerged from the darkness.— You're Lucas Yamazaki.— And you're blind. But saw me coming.
The man smiled.His eyes were covered by a white band, etched with hand-drawn runes.Yet he seemed to see more than necessary.
— I am Kairo Imah, last living member of the Order of the Luminous Blind.Lucas widened his eyes.— That Order was dissolved.— Erased.— Why?
Kairo stepped closer.— Because we saw too much.
Silence.
— And now… you're about to repeat the mistake we made.
Lucas crossed his arms.— Why did you come?
— Because the Seed of the Final Reflection has already been planted.And you… are the last vessel of resonance.
Lucas frowned.— I don't understand.— You don't need to.But you must choose.
Kairo pulled a black stone disk from his robe, etched with reverse symbols — as if each line had been carved from the inside out.— This was left for you.By the Original Reflection.
— Original?
— The first instance of the entity that now tries to be born.The first shadow that tried to look back.He failed.And was imprisoned.Within the Ninth Degree.
Lucas paled.— And now?
— Now, someone is trying to recreate the conditions to release him.— Who?— I don't know.But I know it's not you.And I know that without you, they won't succeed.
Kairo turned to leave.— Why are you helping me? — Lucas asked.
The man stopped.— Because… we saw before you did.And even blind…we know what's coming.Reality is about to blink.
—
Lucas waited until midnight.Prepared himself like a ritualist of the Vigil: salt bath, mirror covered, lights off, mind open.He placed the black stone disk on his chest and lay down.He breathed.And when sleep came —he didn't sleep.He crossed.
—
He awoke in a space without ground, yet he could walk.Without sky, yet there was light.A place made of fluid surfaces and muffled sounds, like a hallway of unspoken thoughts.
And before him, dozens of mirrors.But they didn't show him.They showed versions of him:
A Lucas who never left school.
A Lucas who died in 2015.
A Lucas whose eyes moved on their own.
A Lucas who was old, though still young.
Each reflection blinked, then vanished.And one by one… the mirrors shattered.All of them.Except one.
The last mirror reflected nothing.Black. Smooth. Opaque.But it breathed.
Lucas approached.Touched it with his hand.And then, he saw.
—
He saw a tower high above the clouds.Inside the tower, eyes floated in the dark.And one of them — the largest — turned toward him.And looked with hunger.With calm.With certainty.
"You've finally returned to where you never were."
Lucas tried to pull away.But the voice reached him:
"You are the forgotten fold in the sheet of reality.You are the place no one was supposed to look.But someone did.And now…I can be born."
The mirror sucked him in.For a moment, Lucas saw himself from the outside.But something was wrong with the reflection.The face… smiled.And the eyes didn't blink.
—
He awoke screaming.The stone disk had cracked.And his hand…trembled with a faint gray glow.
Erick rushed into the room.— Lucas! Are you okay?
Lucas looked at him, unable to answer immediately.Then said:— He's waking up.Whatever it is…it's using me as a passage.
Erick approached, trying to calm him.— We'll face this, together.
Lucas looked at him and replied:— No.Now… he knows your name too.