Salviana gasped. The mirror no longer showed the room—it showed somewhere else. Dark woods stretching beneath a blood-red sky.
What is this place?
A castle crumbling at the edges of a cliff. And in the far distance… shadows moving, whispering, as if the glass itself carried voices from another realm.
"Do you see that?" she whispered.
"Yes," Alaric breathed, his jaw tightening. His hand gripped her shoulder protectively. "Don't lean too far in, Salviana. These mirrors… they can take more than just a glimpse if you're not careful."
Her lips parted as her gaze darted deeper. The image shifted again—this time a familiar place flickered across the waterlike surface. Salviana gasped.
The mirror no longer held their room—it opened. Dark woods unfurled beneath a blood-red sky, the trees like rib bones clawing at a dying sun. Far off, a cliff bit into the horizon, and on its edge a black castle hunched, crumbling, as if some giant hand had worried its corners for centuries.
