The Dream Came Like a Breath Pulled from the Stars
Zyren floated.
There was no ground beneath him, no sky above—only shifting silver mist and fragments of memory drifting like leaves on water. Time did not exist here. Nor gravity. Nor reason.
Just the echo of someone waiting.
The world pulsed.
And then he saw her.
Barefoot on nothing, standing at the edge of a mirror-lake that wasn't there. The girl with silver eyes.
They weren't cold or glassy—but deep, brimming with something achingly familiar.
She moved like a ripple through silence, stepping from shimmer into form. Her eyes glowed with starlight behind frost, her dark hair tumbling around a face that was calm, focused—and looking at him like he was a promise long-forgotten.
"Zyren," she whispered. Not a greeting. A memory.
He stepped forward, but the distance between them never changed. "How do you know me?"
"I don't," she said softly. "But I remember you."
Her words were laced with longing. Her form flickered, like a reflection viewed through water.
"I see you every time the Veil breathes," she said. "You are the anchor. I am the fracture."
Zyren moved again, and still they remained apart.
"You were there," she said. "When the veil opened. When she broke their chains."
"My mother?" he asked.
The girl nodded. "And when she did… part of you tore free. They made me from what they couldn't control in you. Your doubts. Your grief. Your fire."
A pause. Her voice cracked. "I was never meant to survive."
His chest tightened as emotions welled up—empathy, confusion, a pang of guilt he didn't understand.
"You're not supposed to be alone," he said.
"I was." Her silver eyes shimmered. "But I don't want to be anymore."
"I've seen you," he said. "Since the Feast. Before that. In dreams."
"They weren't dreams," she murmured. "They were doors."
The world shimmered.
Around them, mirrors rose from the mist, each reflecting a different version of Zyren's life—one where he ran, one where he fought, one where he died.
"They've started watching," she warned. "And soon... they'll start choosing."
"Choosing what?" he asked.
"Who gets to stay real."
Suddenly, the reflections all turned toward him. Every mirrored Zyren, each twisted in expression.
And behind the girl—
Kael.
He stepped from shadow, hands slick with Veillight.
"Dreams," he said. "Such delicate things to poison."
The Veil shattered.
---
Zyren Awoke Screaming
The dormitory glowed faintly with pre-dawn light. Sweat clung to his skin, and the moonstone pendant on his chest blazed with unnatural warmth.
Lysia was already beside him, wand drawn. "What happened?"
He swung his legs off the bed. "She spoke to me. The silver-eyed girl. She remembers me like I'm part of her."
Lysia's brow furrowed. "She called you what?"
"A memory that refused to die."
Before she could ask more, a loud, discordant bell echoed through the Academy walls.
Emergency summons.
Outside, the corridor buzzed with chaos. Students crowded in confusion while Wardens barked orders and cast protective sigils across every corridor. Magical wards thrummed like barely-held breath.
Mira burst from the shadows, face pale, braid swinging behind her like a whip. "Mirror corridor's breaking. Reflections are wrong—some students saw themselves walking away."
Alaric stormed into view behind her, gear half-strapped, sword already drawn. "It's Kael."
Zyren threw on his coat. "We're going."
---
By the time they arrived, the air shimmered with distortion. Wardens had already cordoned the hall, but the glass lining the walls pulsed like a heartbeat.
Selene was already there, waiting by the arched threshold. "He left a message."
"Kael?" Zyren asked.
They stepped past the guards. The mirror corridor—the Hall of Echoes—looked like a reflection caught mid-collapse. Dozens of mirrors lined the walls, each trembling, cracked. The central mirror—used for advanced illusion classes—was webbed with silver cracks.
A single sentence was scrawled in rune-fire across the stone:
"If you will not come to the Wildlights, the Wildlights will come to you."
Leona stood nearby, clutching a map scroll. "Reflections aren't syncing. People who passed by… they saw themselves facing away."
Alaric cursed. "Echoes."
"He's replicating a Veil anchor.", Leona whispered.
Then Kael appeared—calm, composed, unhurried.
He stood at the far end of the corridor, shadows flickering behind him like loyal hounds. He wore a long, storm-colored coat streaked with binding glyphs.
"You shouldn't have severed the link," Kael said, voice amplified by the mirror walls. "Now it seeks its other half."
Zyren took a step forward. "She doesn't belong to you."
Kael smiled, sharp and humorless. "Oh, but she doesn't belong to you either, Anchor."
He raised his hand—and dozens of mirrors shattered all at once.
Not reflections—replications.
Copies warped just slightly wrong. Some bore Zyren's features. Others mirrored students they didn't recognize. All had silver eyes. All smiled too much.
One laughed in Mira's voice—warped, flickering with static.
Lysia cast a deflection rune. Alaric raised a blade, shielding Mira as her blades danced in tandem. Corwin, late as ever, arrived hurling a chair at one Echo.
Alaric and Mira fought back-to-back, blades gleaming as they moved in tandem. Mira ducked under an Echo's strike while Alaric blasted it with a flame arc.
"This is like dancing," Mira called over her shoulder.
"I'd prefer a partner with fewer teeth," Alaric replied, slicing an Echo apart.
Corwin crashed into view, hurling a chair. "This escalated fast. Love the new uniforms."
Zyren charged forward. The moonstone blazed against his chest.
One Echo snarled and mimicked his voice:
"You were always the weaker half."
Zyren flinched—then thrust the pendant forward. It emitted a pulse of silver energy, freezing the Echo in mid-motion before it fractured into shards.
Selene cast a long-range sigil to collapse a wall of glass. "He's trying to sever your tether—make her the anchor."
More Echoes surged.
One lunged at Lysia, a warped version of her younger self, eyes pleading and face hollow.
"Don't leave me behind again," it whimpered.
She hesitated—then slashed it down with a gust of glyph-wrought wind. Her hands trembled.
A reflection of Zyren appeared, grinning.
"The Veil doesn't forget."
Zyren raised the moonstone again.
It glowed—brilliant, blue. The Echoes paused.
Then—his own reflection spoke:
"You are the wound. We are the scar."
Zyren staggered back.
Then the silver-eyed girl's voice echoed faintly—through the mirrors, through his mind.
"Don't let him take me."
Zyren slammed the moonstone to the ground.
A shockwave of light roared outward, bursting like memory. The mirrors cracked—shattered. The Echoes disintegrated into stardust.
Kael recoiled, his cloak flaring. "You're not ready."
Then he vanished into the collapsing light.
---
Infirmary light flickered as a healer rewrapped Mira's arm.
"It's not broken," she muttered. "Just offended."
Alaric sat beside her, carefully cleaning a blade. "You're not fine. You let your Echo nick you. You almost got duplicated."
"I was trying to look cool," she muttered.
He leaned over and pressed a kiss to her temple. "Mission accomplished."
Lysia watched them from across the room.
She didn't say anything.
But when Zyren walked in, she immediately stood and followed him into the hall.
---
Dormitory Hall – Outside the Rooftop Stairs
"You're not okay," she said as soon as the door shut behind them.
Zyren looked away. "I'm not supposed to be."
"She said she's made from you."
"She is."
"Then what does that make you?"
"I don't know."
"You've been holding pieces of yourself back. From all of us."
Zyren turned to face her. "Because every time I look in the mirror, I wonder which one of me is going to look back."
She didn't speak.
But her hand brushed his, fleeting and light.
"I'm here, Zyren," she said. "Even if you're broken into a hundred shards."
---
The stars were sharp. Too bright. The air too still.
Zyren sat at the edge of the roof, legs dangling over frost-glazed tiles. Lysia settled beside him, wrapping her cloak tighter.
The pendant pulsed gently.
"I saw her," he whispered. "She doesn't want to stay hidden anymore."
Lysia sat beside him, quiet. "What if bringing her out means losing yourself?"
He looked at her. "Then maybe I was never whole to begin with."
Lysia didn't respond right away.
Finally, she said, "Alaric and Mira looked happy today."
"Yeah."
"And I'm... tired of watching people fall in love without being part of it."
Zyren turned. "Lys—"
She stood, walking away. "Let me know when you figure out which reflection is you."
Zyren looked back at the stars. Above them, a faint shimmer of mirrors passed across the sky—almost invisible.
A whisper echoed in his mind.
"Choose, anchor. Or the Veil will choose for you."
---
**End of Chapter Twenty**