**Chapter 9: The Mirrorborn and the First Shadow**
---
Seren hadn't slept for two days.
The mark on her palm itched. Her dreams—when she could call them that—were flooded with glimpses of cities burning, thrones crumbling, and a voice whispering her name from inside her own mind.
And the mirror.
It had broken without warning.
No—worse. It had opened.
The thing she saw inside it hadn't just looked like her. It **was** her, shaped from the same bones, the same face, the same eyes. But twisted, as if it had grown in a place where light had never existed.
And then, it **stepped out**.
---
The creature lunged without a sound. Seren stumbled backward, her hand instinctively raised.
> \[Skill Activated: Causal Echo]
> *Trigger Identified: Fatal Sequence Variant — Dodge Left*
She obeyed the mental command without question.
The creature's claw sliced where her neck had been a second before.
Seren rolled across the floor, heart racing. The skill whispered again.
> *Strike with glass — temporary disjunction*
She grabbed a shard of the broken mirror and thrust it toward the thing's chest. It didn't bleed—it unraveled, the way a lie falls apart once you know the truth.
The creature collapsed into smoke and was gone.
But her room was marked now. The mirror was gone. And something **else** had been watching.
---
Later that night, Aether visited again.
He arrived through shadow—not knocking, not walking, but simply stepping through a sliver in the world.
"You killed your reflection," he said, voice neutral.
"I defended myself," Seren snapped. "What was that thing?"
"A Mirrorborn. A fragment of you that belongs to a different possibility," he said. "The world is trying to stabilize itself. You... complicate that."
"Because I touched the relic?"
"No. Because you survived when you shouldn't have."
---
They walked together under the starlight. Aether led her to a balcony overlooking the valley beyond the Seminary. In the distance, the capital city of Kaelmire glittered like frost. Spires rose, banners fluttered, and distant bells chimed the midnight hour.
But Seren's eyes were drawn elsewhere—to the black mountain range far beyond the kingdom's borders.
"What is that place?" she asked.
Aether's voice turned cold.
"The Ruined Thrones. Where the old kings vanished, and the gods fell silent."
"They used to rule?"
He nodded. "Once. Until they tried to shape the world in their image. Now their thrones are empty. Their empires dust."
He turned to her, gaze intense.
"But soon, something must rise again."
Seren frowned. "You mean the Seminary?"
Aether shook his head. "No. I mean a new order. A nation built not by nobles or divine blood—but by those who remember what the world **was meant to be**."
She took a step back.
"You're building a kingdom," she said slowly.
"No," he replied, a shadow of a smile forming. "I'm building a **myth**. And I want you to be its first witness."
---
That night, Seren sat alone with her thoughts.
The creature. The relic. The Hollow Star. And now, this idea of building something new in a world full of broken legacies.
It terrified her.
But deep inside… it thrilled her too.
---
Far to the west, across the ruined borders, a withered king sat atop a throne of bone.
He opened his blind eyes.
And smiled.
> "The Hymn has begun once more…"
---
To be countinue...