To enter the Enchanted Mirror Realm, one must unsee the world.
At the edge of the Rift, Echo guided them through a canyon of broken reflections...shards of time and memory floating like leaves in still water. With each step, the world grew less certain. Footsteps echoed before they were taken. Words hung in the air moments before they were spoken.
Then they saw it: the Veil of Glassenreach, a wall of translucent energy stretching into the sky, shimmering like a still pond beneath moonlight.
"The mirror isn't a doorway," Echo whispered. "It's a test."
Liora's strings hummed with unease. "What kind of test?"
Echo met Crystal's eyes. "One of self."
And without waiting, she stepped through.
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The moment Crystal passed the Veil, she was no longer herself.
She stood in a world made of silver light and endless sky. Floating mirrors rotated around her, each showing a different version of herself:
...Crystal as a child, humming lullabies in a ruined courtyard.
...Crystal wearing the crown of Kronic Kingdom, smiling sadly.
...Crystal in battle, blood on her hands, voice trembling with rage.
...Crystal standing beside Nocturne, eyes shadowed, violin in hand.
Each image sang a different melody. Each one called to her.
"Don't chase them," Echo's voice echoed across the realm. "If you believe in all of them, you'll become none."
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Liora appeared beside her, distorted and flickering. "This place fractures identity," she said. "You must hold to your song."
Crystal focused. The First Seal pulsed in her chest, a guiding chord. She reached for it...and in that instant, the world reacted.
A storm of mirrors descended, forming a spiral around them. At its center: a crystal dais. And on it…
The Second Seal.
It shimmered with prismatic resonance, spinning in rhythm to a song unheard.
But they were not alone.
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The mirror beside the Seal cracked.
And from it stepped a man...tall, elegant, dressed in shadow-stitched silks. His face was half-covered by a conductor's mask. His violin was carved of bone and stringed with memory.
Nocturne.
He didn't speak. Instead, he raised the bow and dragged it across the strings.
The sound was perfectly silent.
But its effects were immediate. The mirrors around them trembled. Echo fell to her knees, clutching her ears. Liora's threads sparked, reacting violently to the discord.
Crystal gritted her teeth, her voice rising against the silence.
She sang.
The Seal began to resonate.
Nocturne watched her...not with rage, but with mourning.
"You refuse still," he whispered into her mind. "But the song you protect… it will betray you."
The silence surged. Liora blocked it with her threads, Echo shattered three mirrors with a scream of refracted chords, and Crystal reached out...
Her hand touched the Seal.
Light.
Explosion.
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When she opened her eyes, the Mirror Realm was fading. The Seal had fused with the first, now glowing twice as bright in her chest.
Nocturne was gone.
But his violin remained...stabbed into the center of the mirror dais.
Left there… like a promise.
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Echo helped her stand.
"You saw the others," she said. "Did you see her? The Crystal that follows Nocturne?"
Crystal nodded. "She wasn't me. But she could be."
Liora's voice was steady. "Then we keep moving. The Third Seal lies deep in the Fallen Kingdom. If Nocturne gets there first…"
"We sing," Crystal finished. "Louder than ever."
And as they walked, a soft note echoed from the violin they left behind.
A prelude to war.
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Next Chapter: "The Path of Ruins"