Chapter 6: The Mirror of Fear
The Spirit Realm had grown quieter, but not gentler.
The glowing trees stood like sentinels, their light dimming with every step the three took. The star-rivers above had slowed, trickling as if time itself was hesitant. The air pressed down on their chests, heavy, suffocating.
Elior walked ahead, blade drawn, though his hands trembled. Kael's staff tapped against the roots as he scanned the shadows, jaw tight. Liora stayed close to Elior, her eyes sharp, one hand ready to pull him back if the ground shifted again.
No one spoke. After the serpent, silence weighed heavier than words.
Then they found it.
At the center of a clearing stood a massive mirror, taller than any tree, framed in black stone. Its surface shimmered like still water, reflecting not the forest around it but them—their tired eyes, their bleeding scrapes, the weariness carved into their faces.
Liora's hand tightened around Elior's. "I don't like this."
Kael grunted. "After a stone giant and a shadow snake, what's left? A haunted looking glass? How bad can it be?"
The mirror answered him.
Its surface rippled, and the reflection of Kael stepped forward. The copy grinned wickedly, staff raised. "Bad enough."
The false Kael leapt from the glass. In a heartbeat, more followed—Elior's reflection, Liora's reflection—shadows twisted into flesh. Each carried their weapons, each wore sneers like masks.
The clearing erupted into chaos.
Kael swung his staff, blocking the copy's strike, but the shadow moved like him, anticipated every blow. Liora's double circled her, eyes glittering with malice, whispering cruel taunts Elior couldn't hear. And Elior himself—he was face-to-face with his own reflection, blade clashing against blade, every strike answered perfectly.
Sweat poured down Elior's forehead as steel sparked. His double's voice mocked him with every clash.
"You are nothing." Clang!
"You have no past." Clash!
"Even your friends would leave you behind."
"No!" Elior shouted, shoving forward with all his strength. But the double caught his blade and twisted, throwing him to the ground.
Kael cried out—his shadow-double landed a blow to his ribs, sending him crashing into a tree. Liora staggered, her cheek cut by her copy's blade.
It was too much. Too fast. The three were being undone by themselves.
"Elior!" Liora's voice cut through the din, desperate. "Don't let it win!"
But Elior couldn't rise. His double loomed over him, blade raised high. And behind it, the mirror shimmered, pulling at him like a tide.
"No—" he gasped, but the ground beneath him gave way. His body was dragged forward, sucked into the mirror.
"Elior!" Kael's scream echoed, but then everything went black.
---
Inside the Mirror
When Elior opened his eyes, the world was gone. No trees. No stars. Only endless darkness, and in the center—himself.
But not a reflection. A truer self.
This Elior was younger, smaller, dressed in ragged clothes, his eyes hollow. The boy stared at him with accusation.
"You don't deserve them," the boy said. "Kael and Liora. They'll leave you. Everyone leaves you."
Elior shook his head. "No. They stayed. They—"
"They pity you," the boy hissed. "An orphan. Weak. Helpless. You've always been alone."
The darkness shifted, forming scenes: Kael turning his back, Liora fading into mist, his uncle's cold silence, his parents walking away into shadows.
"No," Elior whispered, tears stinging his eyes. "That's not true…"
The boy's voice grew louder, sharper. "You're nothing but a forgotten name. You don't matter. Not to anyone."
Elior fell to his knees, clutching his chest. The words clawed inside, echoing every fear he had carried since childhood. His friends were probably already dead outside. His uncle never loved him. His parents had abandoned him.
He was nothing.
The darkness swelled, ready to swallow him whole.
---
Outside the Mirror
Kael's staff cracked against his double's head, shattering it into mist, but another rose to take its place. He stumbled, blood running down his side.
"Liora—he's gone!" Kael shouted, parrying desperately. "The mirror took him!"
Liora's face twisted with fury and terror. "Then we'll bring him back!"
She slashed at her double, sparks flying, tears streaming down her face. "Hold on, Elior. Don't you dare give up."
The mirror pulsed with light, shadows writhing within.
---
Inside
Elior curled in the darkness, the boy's voice breaking him piece by piece.
And then… he heard something else.
"Idiot. You're not nothing." Kael's voice.
"You matter to me." Liora's voice.
They were faint, but real—threads of light weaving through the void.
Elior lifted his head, eyes wet. The boy sneered. "They'll leave."
"No," Elior whispered. He forced himself to his feet, trembling but standing. "No… They won't. Because they already had the chance—and they stayed. Every time."
The boy's eyes widened as cracks split across his body.
"They see me," Elior said, louder now. His voice grew with every word, carrying every ounce of pain and love he had buried. "They chose me. And I choose them. I am not nothing."
Light erupted from his chest, blinding, tearing through the darkness. The boy screamed, shattering into dust.
The void collapsed.
---
Outside
The mirror shattered with a deafening crack, glass exploding into the air. Elior collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath, his blade glowing faintly in his hand.
Kael dropped to his knees beside him, gripping his shoulder. "You almost had me digging your grave, you stubborn fool."
Liora knelt on the other side, pulling him into her arms, her face buried in his neck. "Don't ever scare me like that again. I thought I'd lost you."
Elior's arms trembled as he held her close, his voice hoarse but steady. "I thought I'd lost myself… but you brought me back."
The last shards of the mirror faded into starlight, the clearing finally still. The three sat together in the silence, battered but alive.
Above them, the rivers of stars surged once more, brighter than ever. The Realm had tested Elior's strength, his courage, his heart—and he had passed, not by fighting alone, but by believing he was worth the love he had been given.
But Elior knew. The hardest truth was still ahead.