The torches burned lower that night.
Their light was pale and uncertain, shadows rippling along the marble floor like restless ghosts. Lyra sat where Elias had faded, her body still tense from everything that had happened. The air in the Hall felt different now, heavier but also strangely clean, as if something inside her had finally exhaled after being trapped for too long.
Kaelen stood at the far end of the chamber. He hadn't spoken in a long while. He watched her with those steady eyes that seemed to hold entire centuries of silence.
When he finally moved, the faint sound of his boots against the marble echoed like a heartbeat.
"Do you understand what you did?" he asked quietly.
Lyra's voice was faint. "I spoke the truth."
"Not just that," Kaelen said. "You changed the balance of a soul."
She frowned. "Elias?"
"Yes. You freed him. Not through mercy, not through pity, but through truth. That is the essence of judgment. To look into the heart of what was, and see what still can be."
Lyra lowered her gaze to her trembling hands. "It didn't feel like freedom. It felt like breaking something that was already cracked."
Kaelen came closer, his steps unhurried. "All souls must break before they are made whole. You are no exception."
She looked up sharply. "You speak like you've never broken."
He paused beside her. For a moment, his expression softened, almost human. "There are cracks in even the oldest stone."
⸻
Lyra rose slowly, her breath uneven. "You said I freed him. But what about me? Why do I still feel like I'm drowning?"
Kaelen studied her in silence. Then he lifted his hand slightly, and the air around them changed.
The marble shimmered. The walls darkened. The ceiling, once endless, rippled like water.
Lyra gasped as the world reformed around them — not the Hall anymore, but a reflection of it, half-lit and filled with shapes that weren't quite human. Thousands of faint figures drifted in the distance, translucent as smoke.
"The souls waiting for judgment," Kaelen said. "Those who cannot pass until their truth is spoken."
Lyra turned slowly, eyes wide. The air was thick with whispers, soft voices murmuring words she couldn't understand.
"They all look lost," she said.
"They are," Kaelen replied. "That is why we exist."
Lyra's chest tightened. "Then help them. You have the power."
Kaelen's gaze met hers. "So do you."
⸻
She stared at him. "What do you mean?"
Kaelen extended his hand. "Touch the nearest one."
Lyra hesitated, but the quiet weight of his command left no room for refusal. She stepped toward the nearest figure — a woman, pale and flickering, eyes downcast.
When Lyra's fingers brushed the woman's shoulder, a surge of sound filled her mind. Screaming, laughter, rain, the echo of a lullaby. Flashes of a life that wasn't hers.
She gasped and stumbled back. "What was that?"
"The echo of who she was," Kaelen said. "Every soul leaves behind a resonance. Judgment is not guessing their sins. It is feeling the truth they no longer can."
Lyra's skin prickled. "It felt like drowning."
Kaelen tilted his head slightly. "That is because you reached too deep. The first lesson — a Judge must feel, but not fall."
⸻
He lifted his hand again, and the vision faded. The Hall returned, empty once more, save for the two of them.
Lyra's heartbeat still raced. "So this is what you do? Every day?"
Kaelen nodded once. "For longer than you can imagine."
"Why you?" she asked softly. "Why were you chosen?"
Kaelen's gaze drifted toward the dark ceiling. "Because I once failed."
She blinked. "Failed?"
He looked back at her. "A Judge who shows mercy where there should be truth becomes a liar. I learned that lesson once, and the price has never left me."
Lyra stepped closer. "What did you do?"
His eyes darkened. "Enough to understand what you will become if you are not careful."
⸻
The chill in his tone made her shiver.
"Then teach me," she said. "If I'm supposed to be what you are, I need to know how."
Kaelen's expression shifted, unreadable. "You would take that burden willingly?"
Lyra hesitated only a moment. "If it means I can save them."
His gaze softened, though just slightly. "Saving them is not your duty. Guiding them is."
"What's the difference?"
"One gives you hope," he said. "The other gives you purpose."
The weight of those words hung in the air.
Kaelen turned away and began to walk toward the great door at the back of the Hall. Lyra followed, her footsteps echoing after his.
⸻
They passed through the archway and entered a corridor she had never seen before. The walls were lined with faint carvings — not words, but faces, thousands of them, each expression different. Some peaceful, some twisted in agony.
Lyra slowed to look. "Who are they?"
"Judges who came before you," Kaelen said.
She reached out to touch one of the carved faces, the stone cold beneath her fingers. "They look like they're alive."
"They are. In memory, at least. Every decision they made left a mark. Every soul they judged added to this wall."
Lyra's eyes widened. "Will I be here too?"
Kaelen glanced back at her. "If you endure long enough."
⸻
At the end of the corridor, a single door waited. It was smaller than the grand entrance to the Hall, but its surface gleamed like obsidian.
Kaelen placed his hand upon it, and it opened soundlessly.
Inside was a smaller chamber, circular, with a pool of dark water in the centre. The water reflected no light, yet it shimmered faintly as though something within it breathed.
Lyra stood at the edge, staring down. "What is this place?"
"The Mirror of Souls," Kaelen said. "Where a Judge learns the truth of their own heart before they dare to weigh another's."
Lyra swallowed hard. "You mean I have to go in?"
He nodded once. "No one may pass judgment on others until they have faced themselves."
Her throat tightened. "And what happens if I don't like what I see?"
Kaelen's voice was low. "Then you will have to decide whether to destroy it, or to live with it."
⸻
She took a slow breath and stepped closer. The surface of the water rippled faintly. Her reflection stared back — pale, frightened, uncertain.
"I don't know if I can do this," she said quietly.
Kaelen stood behind her, his reflection towering over hers. "That is what every Judge says before they begin. And most never say anything again."
Lyra turned her head to look at him. "What do you mean?"
"The water does not lie. It will show you every truth you have denied. Some do not survive seeing it."
Her pulse quickened. "And you think I will?"
Kaelen's gaze met hers in the reflection. "You already faced one truth and lived. Perhaps you will survive this one too."
She closed her eyes, drew a shaking breath, and stepped into the water.
⸻
It was cold, impossibly cold, as though she had plunged into darkness itself. The surface closed above her, sealing her inside a world without sound or light.
She could hear her own heartbeat, slow and thunderous. Then, through the blackness, came a whisper — her own voice.
"Why did you run?"
Lyra's breath caught. "Who's there?"
The voice grew louder. "You wanted him to follow. You wanted to be loved, even through pain. You killed him because you wanted to feel powerful."
"No," she gasped. "That's not true."
"You made him love you. You made him need you. You made him stay."
Her chest burned. The words cut deeper than any blade.
"Stop," she whispered. "Please stop."
⸻
The water began to glow faintly, and her reflection appeared before her — not calm, not kind, but wild-eyed, trembling, furious.
"You were never a victim," the reflection said. "You wanted control."
Lyra reached forward, but her hand passed through it.
"Liar," her reflection whispered. "You still crave it. Even here."
Lyra screamed, and the sound tore through the darkness. The reflection shattered like glass, and she felt herself falling.
Then, suddenly, there was air again.
She gasped, coughing, and found herself back in the chamber, the water rippling at her feet. Kaelen stood over her, his expression calm but his eyes faintly lit with something fierce.
⸻
"You survived," he said.
Lyra's voice shook. "I saw things I didn't want to see."
"Good," Kaelen said quietly. "That means they were true."
Her hands trembled. "How can you live with this? Knowing what's inside you?"
Kaelen's gaze turned distant. "By accepting that some truths are meant to stay unhealed."
Lyra stood, soaked and shaking, but something inside her had changed. The air around her seemed different, more alive.
Kaelen gave a slight nod. "You are ready to face the next soul."
Lyra swallowed hard, meeting his gaze. "And if I'm not?"
He stepped closer, his voice barely above a whisper. "Then you will learn."