In the ancient realm of Vaeloria, where the sun rose twice and shadows whispered secrets lived a girl named Lira. She was a mirror born one of the rare few born during a moonless eclipse when the Veil between realms thinned. Mirrorborns were feared and revered, said to carry pieces of the Other world in their blood.
Lira had always known she was different. Her silver eyes reflected things no one else could see phantoms dancing in candlelight forgotten doorways trembling on old walls whispers curling in the corners of silence. Her mother warned her to keep her gift hidden but secrets are like seeds. They grow.
One morning as frost kissed the stone path outside her village Lira followed a voice only she could hear a voice that sang like wind through crystal. It led her to the edge of the Sable wood a forest forbidden to all. Trees there bent unnaturally their bark gleaming like obsidian, and the air hummed with old magic.
She hesitated at the edge. "Go back," her mother’s voice echoed in her memory. "The forest feeds on the mirrorborn."
But the voice pulled her deeper.
Inside the forest light bent strangely. Colours shifted like oil on water. The path beneath her feet seemed to shape itself around her steps. And then she saw it a mirror.
It stood free tall as a man and framed in roots, vines and glimmering stones. Its surface rippled like water in moonlight. But what chilled her was not its presence it was what she saw within.
Her reflection was smiling.
And Lira was not.
The mirrored girl stepped forward pressing her hands against the glass. “Finally” she whispered. “You’ve come.”
Lira stumbled back. “Who what are you?”
“I’m you” the reflection said. “The part they locked away. The part you were told to fear.”
The mirror pulsed. Runes flared across its surface.
“I don’t want this” Lira said backing away.
“But you do” the mirror version said. “You followed me.”
The forest trembled. Leaves twisted into sharp edged sigils. Lira turned to run but the path had vanished. The trees had closed in.
“Don’t be afraid” said the mirror Lira. “You were born of both worlds. You must return balance.”
“Balance?” she asked, her voice cracking.
The mirrored figure stepped out of the glass like water spilling forward becoming solid real. But she was not just Lira. She bore antlers like carved moonstone her skin shimmered like liquid night and her hair floated in the air like drifting smoke.
“You are the key” she said. “To mend the breach between realms.”
Lira shook her head. “Why me?”
“Because the Veil cracks and the realms bleed into each other. You see what others deny. You feel the truth humming beneath the world.”
“I’m just a girl” Lira whispered.
The creature tilted her head. “Then become more.”
From the shadows came others mirrorborn like her, marked by strange symbols and glowing eyes. They gathered silently, their presence calm but ancient. They bowed to her.
The forest opened like a curtain parting.
At its heart stood a shimmering rift pale blue and silver, crackling softly like a sleeping storm. The air around it warped, cold and hot at once. From the rift, something stirred.
A face emerged.
Not human.
Not whole.
A creature of broken time and splintered memories. It screamed without sound.
“The Rift father” the mirror-Lira said. “He is the wound in the Veil. He feeds on imbalance on forgotten promises. He was once a guardian now corrupted by centuries of silence.”
Lira trembled. “What do I do?”
“You choose. Bind him or become him. Heal or shatter.”
The Rift father reached for her.
Lira stepped forward, hands glowing with the light of her bloodline. The mirrorborn sang behind her, their voices weaving a net of sound and magic.
She raised her hand, and in it bloomed a shard of the original Veil gifted to the first mirrorborn centuries ago. It pulsed with ancient power, memory, and choice.
She spoke not a word but remembered.
The cradle songs of the stars. The laughter of the first dawn. The sorrow of the broken earth.
The Rift father paused.
For the first time, he blinked.
And cried.
Lira pressed the shard to his chest.
The rift sealed with a sound like exhaled wind.
Light burst from the forest, silencing everything.
When she opened her eyes, she stood in the village square. The Sable wood was gone transformed into a glade of silver-leaved trees. The sky held only one sun again steady and golden.
But Lira’s reflection still moved on its own.
They smiled at each other.
And this time, both meant it.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO9fbn0VftN
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