Anchor 7N7.M – The Reflective Labyrinth
There was a corridor in the fabric of time — not built, but grown — like a vine of possibilities twining itself around a fracture.
At its center stood the Mirror of Then.
Not a device. Not a spell.
A living reflection — forged from ancient chronoquartz and infused with lost emotions. It didn't show you who you were.
> It showed you who time thought you were.
---
The ChronoKnots arrived just outside the labyrinth that surrounded the Mirror. Each wall shimmered with memories — not their own, but possible versions of them.
Aren stepped close to one panel.
He saw himself: older, greyer, a father — smiling in a life where he'd never joined Kael's mission.
"That's not real," he muttered.
But Myra corrected him. "No… it's real somewhere. That's what makes this place so dangerous."
---
They entered.
Each twist in the maze showed a new path not taken:
Kael, king of a time-empire built on conquest.
Myra, ruling a ruined Anchor as a heartless chronowitch.
Ghost Ronin, alone — always alone — drowning in the silence of infinite regrets.
Aren, happy… but unaware of everything they'd saved.
---
As they neared the center, the Mirror awoke.
It began whispering, voice split a thousand ways:
> "𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦? 𝘓𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶..."
The team began fracturing.
Each faced illusions of a better life.
Kael knelt before the version of himself who never lost anyone. His younger brother was alive. His city untouched. The war? Never happened.
Ghost Ronin stood silently before a mirror that showed his wife — the one he'd buried a thousand years ago — smiling at him, alive, waiting.
Aren stared into a future where he was free of every fight.
Myra stood frozen in front of a mirror where Kael never left her behind in Anchor Delta.
---
Then Myra did the unthinkable.
She punched her mirror.
It cracked.
Not from force — but from clarity.
> "We are not who time wishes we were," she snapped. "We're who we choose to be."
The Mirror screamed. Its voice twisted into a thousand shattered truths.
Ghost Ronin turned away.
Aren blinked out a tear.
Kael looked one last time at the perfect version of his family… and let it go.
They stepped forward.
And the Mirror shattered — not from violence, but from rejection.
---
A silver shard fell into Kael's hand.
> The Mirror's final gift: A Memory Seed — a sliver of truth that could overwrite a lie anywhere in the timeline.
Dangerous. But powerful.
---
Anchor 7N7.M – Deconstructed
Entity: The Mirror of Then – Destroyed
ChronoKnots' Resistance to Manipulated Nostalgia – Confirmed
---
Back at the Sanctuary…
Aren stored the Memory Seed in a chrono-safe.
Myra watched Kael carefully. "You okay?"
Kael smiled faintly. "I just realized something."
"What?"
He looked at them — at her. At all of them.
> "The future hurts. But I'd still rather bleed with you than live a lie alone."
Ghost Ronin chuckled. "That's the most romantic thing you've said in 19 chapters."