Mira
The ritual pulled like tides against bone. Mira stood at the center, the journal open, glyph bleeding light. Her hands were marked now- not with ink, but with memory.
"This isn't just Caela's bond. It's a mirror of every Vale now," Lucien said. His voice cracked- not in fear, but remembrance.
One mirror shattered.
Not loudly. Just enough to bleed.
Inside the shards, Mira saw Lucanis- not in the present, but as a boy, watching his mother kneel before a hidden mirror, her glyph burning white. Lucien's jaw tightened.
"She buried her vow. Not erased. She hid it so the Hollow wouldn't see."
Suddenly, Mira understood. The fourth phase wasn't Caela's legacy. It was every vow that had been buried. Including Elowen's. Including Lucien's mother's. And maybe....Mira's own.
The root
