Night in Valecrest didn't fall.
It descended, like silk — slow, shimmering, suffocating. The city glowed beneath it, every window spilling golden light, every street lined with flowers that pulsed faintly with mana. From afar, it looked like heaven.
Up close, it reeked of control.
Rowan and the others stuck to the alleys. The glamour thickened with every step — sounds warped, colors blurred, faces flickered. Once, they passed a man sweeping the same patch of marble again and again, eyes empty, smile painted wide.
Cass whispered, "Okay, I'm officially creeped out. Dude's been cleaning the same spot for five minutes."
"He's not cleaning," Lynx murmured. "He's maintaining the illusion."
Mira's voice was a low hum. "Selara's domain magic rewrites perception. The people here see what she wants them to. If you stare too long, it'll start rewriting you too."
Cass shuddered. "Yeah, hard pass."
They moved quietly, hugging the shadows as they neared the palace gates. The streets shimmered with mirrored tiles that reflected not what was above — but what Selara wanted them to see. Her face appeared faintly in the reflections — smooth, smiling, haloed in gold.
Rowan stopped, staring down at one of the mirrors. "She's watching through these."
Mira nodded grimly. "She always is."
Rowan drew his revolver, and with one clean shot, shattered the reflection. For a moment, the glamour rippled — the marble cracked, revealing charred stone underneath before the illusion healed itself.
"Let's move," he said.
---
They reached the palace walls just before midnight.
The air there was colder — sterile, wrong. Selara's magic pulsed like a heartbeat through the ground, and every thrum made the Loki Crystal inside Rowan stir.
"You feel that?" Mira whispered.
Rowan's jaw tightened. "Yeah. It's feeding off the same kind of mana as my crystal. She's tapping divine essence — the same source my father studied."
Cass blinked. "Wait, so she's basically running her city on… god juice?"
"Crude," Lynx said, "but accurate."
They found a side entrance near the servant halls, guarded by two masked sentinels. Their armor gleamed, but their eyes were blank — no glow, no life. Puppets, controlled by the glamour.
Rowan raised a hand, fingers twitching. The crystal flared faintly under his skin — blue veins lighting up his wrist.
In one motion, he snapped his fingers, and both guards crumpled like marionettes with their strings cut.
Cass blinked. "You uh… learning new tricks?"
"Not learning," Rowan said quietly. "Remembering."
---
Inside, the palace was a maze of mirrors and whispers. Every hallway was lined with portraits — all of the same woman, Lady Selara, in different poses: smiling, praying, weeping, ruling. Her presence filled the air like perfume — too sweet, too heavy.
Cass muttered, "She really loves herself, huh?"
Mira's tone was razor-sharp. "Narcissism's part of her magic. The glamour amplifies her ego — and in return, it feeds her mana. Every worshipful thought in this city makes her stronger."
"So she's literally powered by people thinking she's hot?" Cass asked.
Rowan gave a tiny smirk. "Guess we found your opposite."
Cass made a wounded noise. "Hey!"
Lynx stifled a laugh. "Focus, idiots."
---
They crept through an atrium lit by floating crystals. The air shimmered faintly — and then, from the center of the room, a voice purred:
> "You should not have come here, little ghosts."
The illusion melted.
Statues around them cracked open, revealing Selara's sentinels — half-human, half-gilded husks with veins of gold glowing under their skin.
Mira's dagger flashed. "Rowan, now!"
He raised his hand, and the Loki Crystal flared — blue fire bursting from his palm. The mana rippled out in a wave, tearing through the illusion. The sentinels screamed — the sound distorted, echoing in multiple pitches at once — before disintegrating into ash.
But the effort cost him. He stumbled, clutching his side. Sparks of wild mana hissed off his skin.
Mira was there in a second, grabbing his arm. "You can't keep doing that. You're tearing yourself apart."
Rowan's voice was rough. "If I stop, we all die. Pick your poison."
Cass loaded his gun, eyes darting around. "Can we argue later? 'Cause I'm getting the feeling we've got company."
---
The corridor ahead shimmered — and from it stepped her.
Lady Selara.
She looked nothing like the portraits — or maybe everything like them at once. Her form flickered between faces — old, young, divine, monstrous. Her gown rippled like molten gold, and her eyes burned with pale light.
"Rowan Vale," she said sweetly, her voice echoing from everywhere. "The prodigal weapon. I wondered when you'd crawl to my doorstep."
Rowan straightened, even though his knees ached from mana strain. "You knew I'd come."
"Of course," she purred. "The crystal calls to its kin. And you, my dear, are kin to power itself."
Mira drew her blade, stepping forward. "You enslaved your people. You turned them into illusions. Why?"
Selara's smile didn't falter. "Because illusions don't betray. They don't scream when you break them. They obey."
Rowan's voice dropped cold. "You sound just like them."
"'Them?'" she asked, feigning innocence.
"The other nobles," he said. "The ones who wear gold and call it righteousness."
Selara's laughter was soft, beautiful, venomous. "We wear gold because it reflects the divine. And you — poor boy — you are a shard of that divinity trapped in mortal skin. You don't hate us. You envy us."
The Loki Crystal flared, reacting violently. Rowan's eyes flashed blue-white. "Try me."
---
The world exploded in light.
Rowan's shot ripped through her illusion — but her body blurred like smoke, reforming behind him. Her fingers brushed his shoulder, leaving a trail of molten gold.
"Careful, darling," she whispered. "Your father once thought he could control divine mana too. Look where it left him."
That froze him. Just long enough for her to slam a wave of glamour through the hall — mirrors shattering, reality bending.
Mira tackled Rowan to the ground as Cass opened fire, each bullet splitting into three midair thanks to the distortion. Lynx leapt into the fray, tails blazing, striking at Selara's illusions faster than the eye could track.
But every time they shattered one image, two more appeared.
"She's everywhere!" Cass yelled.
Mira gritted her teeth. "No — she's centered. Every glamour's linked to a core. Find the source!"
Rowan forced his mana to stabilize, ignoring the pain burning through his veins. His eyes flicked across the mirrored walls — then he saw it. The one reflection that didn't move in sync.
"There!"
He fired. The bullet hit the mirror dead center — and the illusion collapsed like glass in a storm.
The palace shifted, melting from gold to gray stone. The air turned cold and real again. And Selara stumbled back, bleeding golden ichor.
She hissed. "You—"
Rowan didn't let her finish. His next shot hit her straight in the chest — divine mana cracking through the glamour like lightning through a storm cloud.
Selara fell, crumpling at the base of her throne. Her illusions withered around her, leaving silence in their wake.
---
The group stood among the ruins of what used to be paradise.
No more music. No laughter. Just echoes and ashes.
Cass exhaled shakily. "Well… that's another one down."
Mira sheathed her blade, glancing at Rowan. "You okay?"
He didn't answer at first. His gaze lingered on Selara's body — the faint glint of gold dust rising from it, drifting into the air like dying embers.
"She said my father tried to control divine mana," he murmured. "But… what if she wasn't lying?"
Mira hesitated. "Rowan—"
He looked up, eyes burning faintly with that unstable blue light. "What if that's what broke him? What if I'm walking the same path?"
Lynx's voice was calm but firm. "Then make sure you walk it farther."
Rowan took a slow breath, holstered his revolver, and turned toward the shattered gates.
"Let's move," he said quietly. "There's more of them out there."
Cass sighed, wiping soot off his face. "Man, I miss the days when our biggest problem was running outta bullets."
Mira smiled faintly, falling into step beside Rowan. "You mean last week?"
He smirked. "Feels like a lifetime ago."
---
Outside, Valecrest began to fade. Without Selara's magic, the golden glamour cracked and peeled away, revealing a city of gray stone, wilted gardens, and hollow-eyed survivors.
The illusion had died.
But for the first time in years — the people could finally see the truth.