The mirror didn't shatter.
It split.
A long, deliberate line down the center, like a wound across time. On one side, Yena saw her reflection....wide-eyed, startled. On the other… a woman. Older, regal, eyes lined in kohl and grief. Her expression unreadable. Her lips moved silently, but no sound emerged.
Yena took a shaky step back. "Okay. So either I'm hallucinating, or this palace is very committed to interactive history."
The air behind her shimmered. Then: a whisper, light as silk.
"You opened the door. Now walk through it."
She spun, heart hammering, but saw no one.
The Phoenix Consort's old chamber was lit only by moonlight and the dim ember of the urn's ashes. Yena inched toward the writing desk, drawn to an old lacquered box. She flipped it open....no lock, no traps. Inside, nestled in black velvet, was a hairpin shaped like a curled phoenix.
It was warm.
And humming.
Before she could stop herself, she picked it up. A strange pulse rippled through her arm and suddenly, she was not in the Forbidden Wing. She stood in the same chamber but a different time.
Servants bustled past, heads bowed. Lanterns glowed with fresh flame. And in the mirror, the woman she had seen… was real.
"You're early," the woman said, pouring tea without turning. "I expected you after the fire."
Yena opened her mouth. Nothing came out. She wasn't sure she even had a body anymore.
"You're not her," the woman said. "Not yet. But the blood remembers."
Just then, the doors slammed open.
A man in imperial robes stormed in, face pale with fury. "You performed the Rite without the Court's consent."
"I performed it to survive," the Consort snapped.
"It bound you to her," he hissed. "To a girl not yet born."
The scene blurred. The voices vanished.
And Yena blinked, finding herself flat on the cold stone floor of the present.
The phoenix hairpin lay beside her, now cool and dull.
Back in the royal library, Crown Prince Joon flipped through old records like a man possessed.
"You're looking for something specific," his advisor murmured.
Joon didn't look up. "A mention of twin flames. Phoenix bloodlines. Anything that connects past rites to now."
His advisor lowered his voice. "There are rumors she may be... descended."
"Rumors aren't enough." He shoved another scroll aside. "If they find out before I do, she's a pawn. Or worse."
A pause.
"And if she is the girl from the prophecy?"
Joon stopped, eyes cold. "Then I'll burn the prophecy."
Back in the Forbidden Wing, Yena stood at the shattered mirror, heart pounding.
She tucked the hairpin into her sleeve and whispered to her reflection:
"I'm not you… but I'm listening now."
The mirror gave no answer. But deep within the cracks, the moonlight shimmered… and smiled.
Yena didn't remember walking out of the Forbidden Wing, but suddenly she was in the courtyard, surrounded by dew-slick silence. The moon was higher now, casting silver on everything, even the sweat on her brow. Her fingers wouldn't stop trembling, and she was fairly sure her knees had filed for resignation.
She looked down at the phoenix hairpin now nestled safely in her sash.
"First, the shadows talked," she muttered to herself. "Now I'm time-traveling through accessories. What's next? A fortune-telling teacup?"
"Talking to yourself is the first sign of being cursed," someone said dryly behind her.
She screamed. Loudly.
Prince Joon stepped out from behind a flowering tree, arms folded, expression unreadable. "You're late."
"I wasn't aware I was expected," she huffed, composing herself with what little dignity remained.
"I had a feeling you'd be drawn there." His gaze dropped to her sash. "And it seems the Forbidden Wing gave you a gift."
Yena hesitated, then held it out. "You want it?"
"No," he said, shaking his head. "It chose you. Besides, phoenix relics don't respond to just anyone."
There was something different in his voice....a softness wrapped around steel.
"You know something," she accused.
"I know a lot of things," he said, starting to walk. "Like the fact that that hairpin once belonged to Consort Hae, the last woman to attempt the Rite of Severing… and survive."
Yena stared after him. "You didn't mention that before."
He paused. "Would you have gone if I did?"
"…Probably not."
"Exactly."
She groaned and jogged to catch up. "So what now? I'm cursed, you're cursed, your palace is haunted, and apparently I'm some reincarnated fire-bird princess from a ghost's fever dream."
He glanced at her, amused. "You're surprisingly calm about all this."
"I'm in the numb-rambling stage of fear. Give it time."
They reached the old observatory....long unused and barely maintained. Joon unlocked it with a hidden key tucked into his sash.
Inside, rows of dusty scrolls, star maps, and astrological relics stretched into the gloom. Yena looked around, mouth slightly open. "It's like someone hoarded secrets and forgot to dust them."
Joon opened a compartment behind a shelf, revealing a hidden panel with ancient writing.
"In fire, she shall awaken. In shadow, she shall burn."
Yena stared at the phrase. "Well, that sounds friendly."
"It's part of the Second Prophecy," he explained. "Not the public one. This one was hidden...only passed down through the direct heir."
"And you believe it's about me?"
"I believe you're the first person in generations who hasn't been destroyed by the curse....and now you're wearing a phoenix relic like it's part of your uniform."
Yena opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Her head spun.
Joon stepped closer, his voice low. "The palace thought it buried the truth. But it didn't. It just waited for someone mad enough to dig it up."
"And what happens if we do find the truth?" she whispered.
His expression turned dark. "Then either the curse breaks… or the throne burns."