Chapter 19
The Sanctuary of Veiled Flame rose from the mountains like a wound torn into stone—a cathedral carved into ancient volcanic rock, long thought lost to ash and myth. It had once been a temple for sealing forbidden magic, a place where names were bound to fate and souls were offered to keep the gates closed.
Now, it was a wedding venue.
Eliendara arrived in silence.
No entourage. No fanfare. Just her and Kael—dressed in shades of shadow, blades hidden beneath formalwear. Their carriage stopped before the obsidian gates, where masked servants bowed low and whispered her arrival to the wind.
Everyone inside wore a mask.
Ceremonial.
Gold. Silver. Bone. Ash.
Even the bride.
But she didn't need to see the face to know who it was meant to be.
The gown was white silk—ripped in places, dyed faintly red at the hem. The design was hers. The one she had died in. The veil shimmered with the same cursed lace that had wrapped around her throat the day she was led to the altar in her first life.
The bride walked like her.
Spoke like her.
And when she stood at the altar beside Thorne Drestin, she smiled like her.
Eliendara stood in the crowd, fists clenched beneath her gloves.
"She moves like you," Kael murmured under his breath. "Perfectly."
"It's not mimicry," Eliendara whispered. "It's possession."
She stepped forward, out of the masked crowd.
All heads turned toward her.
Thorne's smile didn't falter. If anything, it widened.
He lifted his goblet in greeting. "And here she is—my most honored guest. You're just in time."
The crowd parted.
The masked bride turned to face her.
And Eliendara stopped.
Because the face beneath the veil wasn't just hers.
It was hers.
Her reflection.
The mirror-self she had seen in her nightmares, in the pool of blood, in the depths of the sealed crypt. But this time, it was no illusion.
The woman wore her skin.
Her voice.
Her memories.
"Don't you recognize me?" the bride asked sweetly, voice melodic, perfectly pitched.
"I'm the part of you you left behind."
The crowd of guests began to sway, masks glowing faintly.
Not guests.
Shades.
Constructs.
Bound souls.
Thorne stepped forward, placing his hand on the bride's shoulder.
"She is everything you discarded," he said. "She remembers what you forgot. And I've nurtured her, shaped her, made her whole."
Eliendara's voice cut like a blade. "You've stolen me."
"No," the bride said softly. "I am you. The better you. The one who didn't die."
Then she raised her hand—and the entire temple ignited with ancient runes.
Chains of light burst from the pillars.
A binding circle formed beneath Eliendara's feet.
The spell wasn't meant to kill.
It was meant to switch.
To overwrite.
Kael shouted her name—but the circle sealed around her like glass, trapping her between the layers of reality.
The bride stepped down from the altar.
"Let's trade places," she whispered.
"Let me be the one who lives this time."
🔮 Next Chapter Preview – Chapter 20: Mirror War
Two Eliendaras. One soul.
As the binding spell begins, their memories, voices, and lives crash together in a war of identity.
But only one can remain in the real world.
And the other… will be locked in the mirror forever.