"A dream is just a truth we're not brave enough to face while awake."
---
They stepped deeper into the Mirror Temple.
Behind them, the door vanished.
Ahead, a thousand reflections marched with them—each one slightly wrong.
In one, Selene wore a crown of antlers.
In another, she kissed Kai while Nyra bled behind them.
In a third, she was alone. Always alone.
> "These aren't memories," Riven murmured. "They're possibilities."
> "Traps," Kai growled. "Each one wants to pull us in."
---
As they moved, the mirrors whispered:
SELENE THE GODSLAYER.
NYRA THE FORSAKEN.
KAI THE CURSED.
RIVEN THE TRAITOR.
Their steps slowed.
Kai's hand went to his blade. "They know our names."
"They know more than that," Riven said grimly.
Selene felt it in her bones: the god Velex wasn't just dreaming—
> He was watching.
---
Suddenly, the hall split.
Four paths. Four reflections.
Each labeled with a name.
> Selene. Kai. Nyra. Riven.
Before anyone could protest, the floor shattered.
And they fell—
---
Selene landed in a dream.
A real one.
She was human.
No fangs. No fire. Just a girl in a simple dress, smiling as Kai picked flowers beside her.
Peace.
Quiet.
Love.
For a second, her heart ached.
Then Kai turned to her—his face melting like wax.
"You're nothing without your scars," he rasped.
"You're only strong because they hurt you."
She backed away.
The world twisted.
The dream cracked.
---
Suddenly, she was standing before a mirror version of herself.
But not exactly her.
This Selene had golden eyes like suns. Her body glowed with power.
"I'm who you were meant to become," the dream-Selene said. "If you weren't so afraid."
"I'm not afraid."
"Then kill me."
They charged.
Steel clashed.
Claws tore.
Selene screamed as the other version bit into her shoulder, fire exploding through her veins.
But she didn't yield.
With a howl, she slammed the Fang of the End through her mirror-self's chest.
The dream shattered.
And Selene stood alone again.
---
Kai's trial was blood.
He stood over a battlefield. Countless corpses. All with Selene's face.
He dropped to his knees.
"I would never…"
A voice growled behind him.
> "But you did."
He turned—and saw his brother.
The one he left to die.
"You abandoned me," the ghost snarled. "And you'll abandon her too."
Kai screamed—
And the battlefield lit in flame.
Selene stood at the center, her eyes accusing.
Kai couldn't breathe.
He saw himself at the age of 12. Killing for the first time. Laughing.
He saw his mother crying. His father slapping him.
"I'm not that boy anymore," he whispered.
A blade appeared in his hand.
His brother charged.
Kai didn't flinch.
He stabbed through the guilt.
And it disappeared.
---
Nyra's trial was fire.
Literal fire.
She was back in her village. Flames danced around her.
Her mother lay dying in her arms, whispering:
> "You were born of ash. You'll return to ash."
Suddenly, the village vanished.
She stood in a throne room.
Her mother alive. Regal. Radiant.
"Daughter of the Flame-Blooded Court," the queen said. "Come home."
"I'm not royalty," Nyra whispered.
"You are fire incarnate."
"No," she snarled. "I'm me."
The queen's smile twisted.
Then she drew a sword.
Nyra did too.
They clashed like volcanoes.
And when Nyra finally struck her down, the room exploded in molten light.
When she emerged, her hair glowed with new embers.
And her eyes burned.
"I remember," she whispered. "I remember who I am."
---
Riven faced her sister.
In a forest of mirrors.
They circled.
"I never stopped loving you," Riven said softly.
"You stopped protecting me," her sister replied, eyes sharp as obsidian.
"I was scared."
"You were weak."
The priestess lifted her hand.
Mirror-shards lifted into the air.
Blades made of memory.
Riven bled as they sliced into her.
One showed her kneeling to Torvax.
One showed her smiling as her mate burned.
One showed her walking away from her sister's scream.
> "You deserve to die in every world," her sister whispered.
Riven fell.
Then she rose.
"I don't deserve forgiveness. But I'll earn it."
She tackled her sister.
And they crashed through the dream.
---
Back in the central chamber, the four awoke.
Shaking.
Bloodied.
But changed.
Stronger.
> "You passed," a voice said.
It echoed from every wall.
A god's voice.
And then he arrived.
---
Velex, the Dreamer of Endings.
A god made of swirling light and darkness. His face was always changing—child, woman, beast, flame.
He hovered above them.
"You are loud for mortals," he murmured. "But pain is a lovely noise."
Selene stepped forward, trembling.
"You've poisoned our dreams."
"No," Velex said. "I gave them meaning."
Kai snarled. "Why? What do you want?"
Velex laughed.
"I was the first to dream of gods dying. I dreamed Torvax's fall before he was even born. I dream you, Selene."
"What do you see?" she asked.
"Everything."
> "You kill me. But only after killing one of them."
He pointed at her friends.
"One of your pack must die. By your hand. Only then will I give you the truth."
---
Silence.
Nyra stepped forward. "Then you'll never win."
"I already have," Velex whispered.
And he struck.
---
A thousand blades of light shot from the god.
Kai leapt forward, shielding Selene.
Riven screamed, summoning her broken magic.
Nyra unleashed a firestorm.
Selene rose with the Fang of the End.
They fought like a pack of gods.
But Velex didn't bleed.
He laughed.
He grew.
Selene tried to stab him—but the blade bounced off.
"You must feed it a sacrifice."
Selene looked at her friends.
And then…
Riven stepped forward.
Quiet.
Resolved.
"Use me."
"No," Selene breathed.
"Yes," Riven said. "This was always my debt."
She grabbed Selene's hands.
And drove the Fang into her own heart.
The blade screamed.
Selene screamed.
Kai roared.
Velex howled.
And the Fang of the End awoke.
---
It turned black with godblood.
Selene turned to Velex.
And lunged.
The god smiled.
"I dreamed this."
"And I lived it," she whispered—
—and stabbed him through the chest.
---
Light.
Darkness.
Silence.
Then—
> "I see now," Selene whispered.
> "He wasn't the last."