"No," Lina said.
The False Kai tilted his head. His smile vanished. His face went completely blank. It was like looking at a blank piece of paper.
"My name is mine," Lina said. Her voice was stronger now. "I will not let the Quill rewrite me. And I will not let you take it."
"Then you will drown," he said. His voice had no emotion at all. He turned and walked away into the dark. His footsteps were perfectly even.
The iron door groaned again. A loud crack echoed in the hall. The thick metal was bending inward. The water was too heavy.
"We have to block it!" Lina yelled.
She looked around. The hallway was empty, but there was a heavy stone statue of the Founder at the end of the hall.
"Help me!" Lina cried.
Mira and Seren ran to the statue. It was very heavy. They pushed it together. Their shoes slipped on the wet floor. Lina pushed with all her might. Her marked arm burned with a hot, sharp pain.
They shoved the heavy stone statue against the iron door just as the top hinge broke. The door burst open. A wave of black water rushed out, but the heavy stone held it back. The water spilled around the edges, but the main flood was stopped.
Lina fell to her knees, gasping for air. Her hands were scraped and bleeding.
She looked down at the floor. The black water was pooling around their feet. It was freezing cold.
Then, Mira gasped.
Lina looked up. The False Kai was standing at the end of the hall, watching them. He had stopped to look back.
"Mira?" Lina asked. "What is it?"
Mira was pointing a shaking finger at the boy.
"His shoes," Mira whispered. Her voice was full of shock. "Look at his shoes."
Lina looked. The black lake water was swirling all around them. It was soaking Lina's pants. It was covering Mira's and Seren's feet.
But the False Kai was standing right in the middle of the puddle.
His shoes were perfectly dry. His socks were clean. The black water was bending away from him, refusing to touch him.
"He is not real," Mira said. Her eyes were wide. The memory gap in her head suddenly filled with a clear, sharp thought. "Mirrors cannot get wet. The water knows he is just a reflection."
The False Kai looked down at his dry shoes. For the first time, his perfect face showed a flicker of something else.
It looked like panic.
He took a step back. The water still did not touch him. He turned and ran into the dark.
To be Continued
© Kishtika., 2026
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Next Chapter Summary for Chapter 113: The group uses the False Kai's fear of water to track him down, but they find him in the old swimming pool, where the real Kai's darkest memory is waiting to trap them.