The shattered mirrors continue to fall.
Fragments of glass slide across the tower floor like frozen rain, catching the golden light and scattering it in every direction. I cannot move. I cannot even breathe properly.
Because she is standing right in front of me.
She looks exactly like me.
Same face. Same height. Same dark hair clinging slightly to her cheeks as if she had just walked out of a storm.
But everything else is different.
Her eyes glow like molten gold.
Not warm gold like the pearl.
Burning gold.
Ancient.
Patient.
Dangerous.
She tilts her head slightly, studying me with unsettling curiosity.
"So this is what I became," she murmurs.
Her voice is mine, yet layered with something deeper—like echoes traveling through a long tunnel.
I force my voice to work.
"Who… are you?"
She smiles slowly.
"I was about to ask you the same thing."
The man beside me steps forward slightly, placing himself between us.
"You shouldn't have awakened yet," he says calmly.
Her golden gaze shifts to him.
"Oh?" she says softly. "And whose fault is that?"
The air in the tower suddenly grows heavier, as if gravity itself is pressing down on us.
My fingers instinctively clutch the pearl necklace.
It pulses with heat.
She notices immediately.
Her eyes narrow.
"You still have it."
I swallow.
"Yes."
For a moment something flickers across her face—something between nostalgia and irritation.
"That necklace," she says slowly, "was never meant for you."
My heart skips.
"What do you mean?"
Before she answers, the man speaks.
"It was meant to seal her."
The words land like thunder.
I look at him in disbelief.
"You told me EG created the pearl to guide me."
"I didn't lie," he replies quietly.
Then he gestures toward the woman.
"She is EG."
The world tilts.
I stare at her.
Then at the necklace.
Then back at her again.
"You're… me?" I whisper.
She chuckles softly.
"Not quite."
She takes a step forward. The glass beneath her feet melts into dark reflections, as if the tower floor itself is turning into a mirror.
"I am the version of you who remembers everything," she explains.
"Every promise."
"Every mistake."
"Every drop of blood spilled in the rain."
My head begins to ache violently.
Fragments push against the edges of my mind.
Rain.
A broken mirror.
A dragon symbol burning into glass.
And a voice—my voice—whispering a vow I cannot quite hear.
I press my hands against my temples.
"Stop… please…"
The man grabs my shoulder.
"Don't let her pull the memories all at once."
"Why?" she asks calmly.
Her golden eyes remain fixed on me.
"She deserves to remember who she really is."
"You made a choice," the man says sharply.
"You sealed yourself."
She shrugs.
"Yes. And now the seal is breaking."
She nods toward the pearl.
"That little trinket was supposed to keep me buried."
I stare at the necklace in horror.
"You mean… this thing is a prison?"
She smiles again.
"For me."
A sudden pulse of heat spreads through the pearl, stronger than before.
My chest tightens.
The necklace feels heavier.
Alive.
"I don't understand," I say desperately.
"Why would I seal myself?"
The golden-eyed version of me studies my face for a long moment.
Then she says quietly:
"Because you couldn't live with what we did."
The tower lights flicker violently.
A low rumble shakes the walls.
Outside, rain begins to fall again—loud and relentless against the glass.
But this rain is different.
Black.
The man stiffens.
"That's not possible," he mutters.
She laughs.
"Oh, it's very possible."
She turns toward the tower windows where the dark rain runs down the glass like ink.
"You opened the gate earlier than expected."
I look at her in confusion.
"What gate?"
Instead of answering, she points toward the shattered mirrors.
The broken fragments begin to tremble.
Slowly.
Then faster.
Until they start lifting from the floor.
Floating.
Hundreds of pieces of glass rise into the air around us.
Each one shows a different reflection.
Different worlds.
Different versions of me.
In some, I am standing in the rain.
In others, I am kneeling beside a broken mirror.
In one—
I am standing beside her.
Golden eyes.
Cold smile.
Blood on my hands.
My stomach twists violently.
"What is this place?" I whisper.
She spreads her arms slightly.
"Welcome back," she says.
"To the Mirror System."
The man curses under his breath.
"This is happening too fast."
"Of course it is," she replies.
Then she looks directly at me.
"And it's only the beginning."
A loud crack splits the tower ceiling.
The floating mirror fragments suddenly turn toward me.
All at once.
Reflecting the same image.
Me.
But not the frightened version standing here.
The golden-eyed version.
The one who never forgot.
She whispers one final sentence before the storm erupts.
"Now tell me…"
"Which one of us is the real shadow?"