The descent into the heart of the Temple of Mirrors felt like stepping into the hollowed-out ribcage of a god. Every surface walls, pillars, even the stairwell spiraling downward, was carved from reflective stone that shimmered faintly with its own inner light. But the reflections inside it were wrong. They lagged half a second behind, or moved when Kael did not, or watched Eirena with too many eyes.
No one spoke. The silence was not emptiness; it was pressure. A hush so thick it clung to the skin like damp breath.
And ahead of them, glowing between the folds of shadow, pulsed the Mirror Chamber.
Eirena paused at the threshold. Her heartbeat thundered inside her sternum, not with fear, though that certainly simmered beneath her skin but with recognition. As though something ancient and
