The mirror shattered.
But no sound followed. Only a silence so deep it crushed the breath from Kael's lungs. The Spiral had no voice left—not even to scream.
Kael stepped into the shards.
Each piece of broken reflection burned his skin, not with heat, but with memory. Names slithered into his ears. Faces he had never seen, but had somehow ruined. Futures he'd never lived, but mourned. He stumbled forward until there was no path, only light.
And then, there was ground.
The Cradle was not what he had imagined.
It was a field of stars, and each star was a city, crumbling. The sky was ink, the air tasted of iron and ink and sorrow. At the center stood a tower, taller than worlds, made of ribs and roots, spiraling into the heavens. Its pulse echoed through Kael's bones.
The others emerged behind him: Nyra, Mora, Caldris, Velenn, Lys, and the remnants of the Silent Rebellion. Each bore wounds not from battle, but from choice.
"This is where it ends," Lys whispered.
"No," Kael said, stepping forward. "This is where it began."
At the foot of the tower stood a throne. Empty.
Behind it, a figure watched.
The Architect.
He was not a god, not a man. He was a wound in the shape of memory. His body was half-silver, half-void. His voice was not heard, but remembered, even before he spoke.
"Kael."
Kael dropped to his knees.
Not in reverence.
In agony.
The memories poured in—visions of what the world had been before the Spiral. A realm unbound by fate, where names had power and choice was sacred. The Architect had tried to preserve that by creating the Spiral—but it had corrupted itself.
"Why me?" Kael asked, trembling. "Why was I cursed?"
"Because you would resist," the Architect answered. "You were the only one who would defy both the Maw and the Crown. You were not chosen. You were created."
Kael clenched his fists. "Then I was never free."
"You are now."
Behind Kael, the tower began to shift. The Spiral was ending.
Nyra sang—her voice threading the fabric of reality, slowing its unraveling. The others formed a circle, channeling the last of their strength.
Kael rose.
"I won't preserve what you built. I'll remake it."
The Architect smiled.
And the Spiral screamed again.