In his journey, Kael entered a city where every citizen wore a mask. The streets were silent; each spoke only with their eyes, but even the eyes seemed borrowed.
He asked a passerby: "Why do you wear a mask?"The stranger replied: "I have worn it so long I no longer know what lies beneath."
He asked another, and another, and each gave the same answer. Kael walked the whole city and never found a single face.
At the center he found a temple where stood a mirror, blank and polished. The people gathered before it daily, bowing low.
Kael approached and looked upon the mirror. Instead of his own reflection, he saw only darkness. Then the mirror whispered:
"The mask is mercy. Without it, you would see the void where you expect a face. Is that not kinder?"
Kael tore the mask from his own face, though he trembled. In the mirror he saw his features dissolve into light, faceless yet radiant. The crowd fell silent, for his courage revealed their forgetting.
Thus Kael learned the Eighth Mystery: that identity is both mask and mercy, and only by facing the void within can one shine without.