The morning air above the divine training grounds shimmered with mana-static. Floating platforms rotated in lazy arcs, glittering with embedded runes. Crystal towers hummed softly with the frequency of arcane flow. Birds made of light wheeled overhead, and somewhere in the distance, a harp was being played by no one.
Nyra stood on one of the lower platforms, sweat beading her brow as she tried to sketch an aerial glyph mid-air while balancing on a singular pillar. Concentration locked. Breathe slowly—precision etched in every gesture.
And then—BOOM.
A fireball the size of a small cottage exploded three platforms away. A second later, a gust of wind launched a laughing Kaeli into the air, twirling with her staff like a deranged gymnast.
"You call that a wind spike?!" Mira yelled from below, flames dancing around her fists like miniature solar flares. "I thought the Divine Maid School taught actual offence!"
"You'd know all about maids, wouldn't you?" Kaeli cackled mid-spin. "Should I start calling you Miss Mop now?"
Nyra's eye twitched. Her glyph fizzled mid-cast and detonated into harmless sparkles. "I swear to the moons, if you two ruin one more spell—"
A calm, venomously sweet voice cut through the chaos.
"Enough."
It wasn't loud. It didn't need to be.
Seraphine floated down from her crystalline perch, her expression carved from divine frost. Her wings shimmered with golden light, yet her glare could probably curdle milk across continents.
Kaeli froze mid-air.
Mira's flames fizzled with a pop.
"I tolerate many things," Seraphine said, folding her arms, "misfires, magical ego, and even flammable dramatics. But interrupting the Architect's synchronisation sequence? That crosses the glitter line."
Nyra muttered under her breath, "Thank you."
Mira, head bowed, whispered, "Sorry."
Kaeli floated back down, brushing imaginary dust off her robes. "We were just—"
"Being insufferable." Seraphine raised a hand. "Fortunately, I anticipated this."
She clapped twice. The sound echoed like thunder through the divine arena.
Two radiant portals swirled open behind her—one bathed in cherry blossom pink and glittering with butterflies, the other draped in ivy, silver mist, and ancient song.
Out of the first stepped a man built like a myth. Towering, muscular, yet draped in flowing pastel silks and a crop top that read "Slay the Day" in glittering runes. His hair was coiffed to perfection. His eyes sparkled like forbidden sapphires. And he was fanning himself with a golden lace fan shaped like a heart.
"Vaelgard the Flameforged," Seraphine introduced. "Warrior. Artisan. Catwalk menace."
Vaelgard took a flamboyant bow. "And fashionista of fates, darling. Who dares disturb this realm's aesthetic harmony?"
Mira, wide-eyed: "I love him already."
From the second portal floated a vision of serene grace. A woman seemingly made of living wood and moonlight, her presence both calming and distant. Vines wove around her limbs, and blossoms bloomed with every step she took. She curtsied mid-air like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"Ellesmere," Seraphine said with a rare softness. "Dryad of the Verdant Glade. Queen of silence and structure."
Kaeli blinked. "...She's perfect."
Ellesmere smiled faintly. "I teach not with words, but with rhythm. Are you ready to listen, little songbird?"
Kaeli nodded, entranced.
Seraphine folded her arms. "You two want to cause divine-grade disturbances? Good. You'll now be trained under their supervision—intensely."
Mira grinned, her eyes sparkling with glee. "Wait… do I get to be a maid too?"
Nyra slapped her forehead.
Spark poked his head out of her satchel, deadpan. "Oh joy. They've multiplied."
A training bell tolled across the floating grounds, though no one had ever actually seen a bell. The arena shimmered, rearranging itself into two new zones: one a riot of glitter trails and flaming hoops, the other a tranquil glade of floating lily pads, melodic winds, and pulsing green Essentia.
Seraphine floated past Nyra, tea in hand, smug smile in place. "Let them sweat. It builds character and humility. You, Architect, have actual lessons to return to after this… theatre."
Nyra took a sip of her cooling tea and muttered, "I'll enjoy this while I can."
Mira stood in the middle of what looked like a divine runway on fire. Vaelgard clapped dramatically, a gust of glitter exploding around them. "Combat is an art, darling. Power without pose is simply uncultured violence."
Mira blinked. "But I am violent!"
"Exactly! And we're going to turn you into performance."
He strutted toward her in heels that shimmered with every step, wielding a battle fan forged from what looked suspiciously like enchanted peacock feathers.
"First rule of Vaelgard Combat School: Your enemy is not the monster—it's bad posture and tragic fashion choices. Fix your stance."
Mira grunted and shifted.
"Too stiff. You're not trying to stab the wind, you're seducing it."
She rolled her eyes. "I'm gonna stab you instead."
Vaelgard gasped, scandalised, "Is that a threat, or are we flirting now?"
Mira burst into laughter and promptly tripped over her flaming heel strike.
"See?" Vaelgard tutted. "Unbalanced. You fight like a soup spoon. We need fork energy."
Meanwhile, Kaeli was surrounded by floating vines shaped like musical notes, pulsing with rhythm. Ellesmere hovered just above a silver blossom, fingers moving in the air like a silent harpist.
"The world sings to you, child," Ellesmere whispered. "Magic is a melody. Feel it. Let it move through you."
Kaeli tried mimicking her gesture, but the vines snapped at her fingers.
"Ow! Okay! What part of that was supposed to be soothing?!"
Ellesmere blinked slowly. "Discipline. Nature is beautiful but unforgiving."
Kaeli squinted. "You mean like Mira during cold season?"
The vines swayed harder, the rhythm increasing.
Kaeli tried again—this time following the pattern with her feet, stepping on runes that lit in time with her movements.
"Good," Ellesmere said gently. "Now blend. Dance with the magic, don't fight it."
Kaeli's magic began weaving itself into glowing threads between her hands. Notes appeared midair—glyphs sung into existence.
She smiled. For the first time, it felt effortless.
Until she missed one beat, tripped over her foot, and plunged into a floating pond.
Splash.
Ellesmere, completely unbothered: "And now we begin again."
From a higher platform, Nyra watched both her sisters—one soaked, the other covered in glitter and mild third-degree sass burns—and let out a long, relaxed sigh.
"They're in good hands," she murmured.
Spark, perched on her shoulder, nodded. "Finally. They're annoying someone else now."
Then Spark added, "Although... Vaelgard is basically Mira with fashion sense and fewer rage issues, and Ellesmere is Kaeli if you replaced caffeine with moonlight. You sure this isn't just some divine parenting scam?"
Nyra smirked. "Either way, it's working."
The training arena had stilled under Lunareth's twin moons. Their pale glow bathed the sky in shades of lavender and silver. Floating platforms rested in place. The magic that had been so loud during the day now whispered like a tired lullaby.
Nyra sat at the edge of a high cliff, legs dangling into the nothing below. The island's magic gave off a soft pulse under her fingers. Her Architect mark glowed faintly, a slow pulse like a wounded heart still beating.
She exhaled, watching the Essentia wisp from her breath like fog.
Footsteps padded up behind her.
"Couldn't sleep either?" Kaeli asked, flopping down next to her. She smelled faintly of moss and stardust.
Mira dropped beside them on Nyra's other side, still in her sparkly half-burnt combat boots. "Sleep? With Vaelgard watching me like he's judging my aura's outfit? Not a chance."
They sat in silence for a while. Just the sound of magic winds and distant rune-chimes.
Then Nyra said, quietly, "Kairos hasn't spoken since the Obelisk."
Kaeli turned toward her, eyes gentle.
Mira tilted her head. "That's the weird AI thing inside you, right?"
Nyra nodded. "He's always been there—like a second breath. And now… nothing. It's like flying with one wing. Like I'm not even me anymore."
Kaeli hummed softly and began to sing—just a fragment of an old Felyari lullaby, their mother's favourite. It wrapped around them like a spell woven in sound.
Mira tried to hold it together. She made it halfway through a joke: "Maybe Kairos is just tired of your glitter addiction. Sentient or not, even machines need therapy—"
And then she choked on a laugh-tear combo and buried her face in her arms.
Nyra stared at the stars. "Do you think I'm breaking?"
Kaeli leaned into her shoulder. "No. I think you're evolving. Breaking is what glass does. You're more like crystal. You refract."
Mira wiped her eyes with her sleeve. "You're the weirdest and coolest out of all of us. Of course, you're going through... a whole thing. But we're right here. You don't carry this alone."
From behind a nearby tree, Spark muttered, "Ugh. You emotional jellybeans. I'm going to vomit glitter."
Kaeli threw a pebble in his general direction.
Spark dodged it with a snort. "Still love you idiots though. Don't tell anyone. I have a reputation to uphold."
The three of them reached out simultaneously and bumped fists—Nyra's hand between theirs.
Kaeli whispered, "Triplets of terror."
Mira grinned. "Stormclouds forever."
Nyra smiled softly. "And whatever comes next… we rewrite it together."
The moons shifted overhead. The wind carried laughter, tears, and silent promises into the glowing night.
The next morning arrived without ceremony—just a ripple in the training arena's horizon. When Nyra opened her eyes, the sky had turned an uncanny shade of ink, and the air hummed like a string pulled too tight.
Seraphine appeared before her, serene as ever, wings shimmering faintly with stardust motes. "It is time."
Behind her, Mira and Kaeli stirred, still half asleep on a floating petal-shaped bench.
Mira groaned. "Can we not have an ominous vibe this early? My trauma needs coffee."
Seraphine waved a hand. A portal of radiant glass shimmered open behind her, its surface rippling like water yet fractured like a mirror.
Nyra stared into it—and her reflection stared back, only... not.
The other Nyra smiled.
It wasn't kind.
She stepped through.
The world bent around her like a forgotten dream—skies torn between stars and stormclouds, terrain stitched from memories. The village of the Felyari flickered beside fragments of her old world. Neon code ran across tree trunks. The air smelled of jasmine and scorched metal.
Ahead stood her.
Nyra's mirror self.
Same face. Same voice. But eyes sharp like broken glass, the Architect's mark blazing with unchecked power.
"Cute outfit," the Mirror sneered. "Still hiding behind tea cups and metaphors?"
Nyra squared her stance. "You're not real."
"Oh, honey, I'm the most real. I'm what you buried. What Kairos couldn't fix. What you won't face."
She flicked her hand, and the landscape warped—flashbacks crashing in:
A glimpse of Eira, crying at a glowing terminal.
A bloody Kairos core, pulsing.
Tharen was shouting through the smoke.
Mira limped in her arms.
Nyra gasped, staggering.
"Stop—"
The Mirror raised a brow. "What's the plan, Architect? Rewrite the code of the gods? Rebuild the world because you broke it once? Please. You're a child with cosmic crayons."
They fought.
Magic crashed in glyph and pulse—Nyra's runes clashing against code lines that snaked like venom. Essentia danced and screamed.
But it wasn't about spells.
It was about doubt.
Every strike the Mirror landed hit truths:"You hate that your sisters are stronger in ways you're not.""You're terrified Kairos left because you failed him.""You act composed, but you want to burn everything and start over."
Nyra dropped to one knee.
Blood on her lip. Runes flickering.
Then—
She stood.
Wiped her mouth.
And smiled.
"You're right."
The Mirror blinked.
Nyra took a breath. "I do doubt. I do fear. I do feel lost. But I'm still here. And I'm still building. Even if the blueprint is cracked."
The Architect's mark flared.
Glyphs lifted from her hands like constellations being reborn.
The Mirror shattered—piece by piece—until only a reflection remained.
This time, it smiled back.
Spark sat perched atop Mira's shoulder, eyes glowing as the portal flickered.
"She's facing herself. Bet's on?"
Mira chewed a nail. "She's not gonna lose."
Kaeli folded her arms. "She's already winning."
Seraphine sipped tea. "Let's see what she brings back."