The door opened with a sound like glass breathing.
Aiden stepped in.
The Mirror Room was silent. Circular. No torches, no magic runes. Just a silver floor and a massive mirror at the far wall — tall as the sky, wide as a battlefield.
Torian stood at the threshold behind him.
> "No one enters this place until the Threads choose them.
You didn't knock, Aiden… but the door still opened."
Aiden nodded. "I need to know what I am."
And then… he faced it.
---
✦ The Reflection That Wasn't
The mirror didn't reflect him.
It reflected something else — a boy the same height, same face… but his eyes were void-black, and starlight leaked from the scars across his chest.
This other Aiden raised his hand slowly, mimicking him… and then spoke without moving his lips:
> "You're late."
---
✦ The Fragment of Truth
The mirror rippled — and pulled Aiden into itself.
Suddenly he stood in a black field filled with countless threads, some glowing, others broken, and many fraying at the edges.
In the center stood the mirror-version of himself.
"I'm what was left behind," the figure said. "A memory of what you could become. Or avoid."
"Why do I exist?" Aiden asked. "Why was I brought here?"
The mirror-self stepped forward.
> "You weren't brought here.
You were created — to replace something the world lost.
A star that fell too early. A prophecy cut before it could bloom."
Aiden's pulse quickened. "What am I?"
The reflection touched his chest — and Aiden saw it.
---
✦ The Memory of the First Rewoven
A throne of stars. A child alone.
A rebellion among Seers who tried to undo fate itself.
A boy they created as a last hope — a soul stitched from shattered timelines and forbidden threads.
Not born… but woven.
And that child looked like Aiden.
---
✦ The Warning
Back in the mirror realm, the reflection whispered:
> "You were never meant to follow anyone else's story.
You are the beginning of your own —
and the end of theirs."
Aiden stepped back, trembling.
"I didn't ask for this."
"No," the reflection agreed. "But you're the only one who can survive it."
Then the figure shattered into threads of light and shadow, swirling around Aiden, entering his skin — like a forgotten part of himself reawakening.
---
✦ The Room Grows Cold
He was back in the Mirror Room.
Torian looked shaken. "The mirror... it bent. That's never happened before."
Aiden didn't answer.
He just turned to the wall… where a new mark had appeared beside the mirror:
A star split into three.
The Rewoven Star.
---