The descent began in silence.
Stone steps spiraled downward beneath the ancient sakura tree, carved from roots turned to crystal and veins of forgotten gold. The air grew colder, shimmering faintly with drifting motes of light — like stars trapped underground.
Each step echoed like a heartbeat.
The spiritwalker held a lantern of pale flame, its light glinting on the mirrored walls. Faces flickered within — not theirs, but the visages of those who had once worshipped here. Eyes of devotion, fear, and sorrow, all gazing upon the same vanished goddess.
> "This was once the Temple of the Blooming Dawn," Sakura murmured beside them.
"It stood long before I was born of it. Every spirit who came here offered part of their soul to the tree above — believing it would grant them eternal spring."
She ran her hand along the stone, her expression unreadable. "Perhaps it did. But eternity always comes at a cost."
The spiritwalker watched her — her faint glow, her fragile grace, the weight in her eyes that even divine light could not erase. "Did you ever believe in eternity?"
Her smile was faint. "I believed in renewal. I believed that even after death, blossoms would return." She paused. "I did not know they could return corrupted."
---
They reached a vast chamber — the Heart of the Temple.
A lake spread before them, still and mirror-smooth. At its center grew a massive sakura root — petrified, rising from the water like a tree turned to stone. Petals of light floated above it, glowing softly.
Around the walls, statues of the old gods stood broken, their faces eroded by time.
And at the far end, half-buried in stone and vines, a great mirror of obsidian reflected nothing at all.
Sakura's breath caught. "That's it," she whispered. "The Root's Memory. My last sealed truth."
The spiritwalker stepped forward, feeling the air grow heavy — not with magic, but with memory. The mirror pulsed faintly with crimson light, and the petals began to fall faster, drawn toward it as though devoured by a slow, invisible wind.
> "What do we do?"
> "You can't help me," she said softly. "Not this time. The mirror shows not the past… but the moment the divine first broke."
> "Then I'll see it too."
Her eyes widened. "If you do, you risk being pulled into it. The curse remembers everything. It will make you live what I endured."
He smiled faintly. "Then maybe you won't face it alone."
For a moment, the sorrow in her gaze melted into something warmer — dangerous, human.
She looked away before it could consume her.
"Very well," she whispered. "Together, then."
---
They stepped before the mirror.
The water rippled outward from their feet. The air thickened — warm now, fragrant with forgotten blossoms. Then the mirror flared to life.
Light engulfed them.
They were standing again in the world before the fall — but now the temple was whole. Priests sang hymns to the goddess of blossoms. Sakura no Hime stood upon a dais, her staff blooming with radiant flowers.
And beside her — a council of gods, their forms vast and distant.
> "The mortal realm grows restless," said one, their voice like thunder.
"They have begun to worship the flame instead of the bloom. The cycle breaks."
> "Then we guide them back," she said. "With love. With patience."
> "Love?" another god spat. "Love is weakness. The world needs fear."
The gods turned on her, their power darkening the sky.
> "You have grown too close to them, Sakura. Too human. Your devotion defies divine order."
The spiritwalker felt the air twist — a storm of divine wrath. And in the midst of it, he saw himself again — the mortal she had loved, kneeling before her.
> "Run," she whispered to him.
"Not without you."
> "If you stay, they'll erase you from the cycle."
> "Then let them."
The light turned red. The gods' fury fell upon them both — and the world burned.
Sakura screamed, her power shattering as she fell — blossoms turning to ash.
The mortal reached for her, their fingers almost touching—
Then everything shattered.
---
The spiritwalker gasped, falling to his knees before the mirror. Sakura stood above him, trembling, her eyes glowing with violet fire.
> "Now you see," she whispered. "I was not cursed by mortals, nor by sorrow — but by the gods themselves. They tore my divinity from me, sealed it within this mirror, and cast me down as punishment for loving you."
She looked at him — her expression breaking. "And you… you have carried fragments of that soul through every rebirth, drawn back to me, again and again."
He rose, slowly, his hand reaching toward her. "Then end it. Release the curse."
She shook her head. "If I break the seal, both halves of me will reunite — the pure and the fallen. I will become what I once was… and forget everything mortal. Including you."
Silence fell between them.
He took her hand gently. "Then don't do it alone. Let me share it. Let me remember for you."
Her eyes glistened. "You would burn with me?"
He smiled faintly. "I already did."
The mirror pulsed. Cracks of light raced across its surface, splitting the darkness. The ground trembled, and the lake's surface erupted in a halo of petals and flame.
Sakura's aura blazed crimson and gold, her torn kimono swirling like storm clouds of light. Her sorrow became beauty again — terrible, radiant, divine.
> "Then together," she whispered. "One last time."
She pressed her forehead against his — and the mirror exploded in a storm of white petals and fire.
The temple roared with light as roots split stone, blossoms bloomed through the cracks, and divine voices screamed in fury from the void.
When the radiance finally faded, only silence remained.
At the temple's center, beneath a sky of falling petals, two figures stood hand in hand — one mortal, one reborn goddess, their forms haloed in the light of dawn.
> "The curse is broken," she whispered, tears of light on her cheeks.
"But the cycle has yet to choose… whether it ends or begins anew."
She looked at him with love and sorrow entwined.
> "Tell me, spiritwalker — if you could live this all again, knowing how it ends… would you still love me?"
He smiled, weary but unflinching.
> "Every spring," he said, "until the last blossom falls." 🌸