The Mirror's lie
The clone's name was Elias
He sat cross-legged in the nursery, his pallid skin glowing faintly in the golden light of the chamber's central machine. His eyes—*my eyes*—locked onto mine, but they weren't hollow like the others. They burned with a sharp, calculating intensity.
"You're not real," I said, my voice echoing off the glass cylinders.
Elias smirked, a gesture so eerily familiar it made my stomach twist. "Define 'real.' I have your memories. Your face. Your *blood*." He tapped the wire embedded in his wrist. "The Veiled Hand grew me from your family's Aetherium archives. A backup, in case you died young. Lucky you, huh?"
Lira hovered near the entrance, her dagger drawn. "He's a puppet. The Sleeper's using him to get inside your head."
"Am I?" Elias tilted his head. "Or am I the only one telling the truth?" He nodded to Kaelis's journals stacked at Lira's feet. "Did she show you what they found? The part about the vessel?"
Lira's grip tightened on her dagger. "Shut up."
"They have to kill you, Jace," Elias said, his voice softening. "Before the Sleeper wakes. That's the deal, right, *Teacher*?"
Kaelis stood in the shadows, their golden eyes unreadable.
---
**The Journals' Secret**
Lira had dragged me to the nursery at dawn, the journals clutched to her chest like a shield.
"Read this," she'd said, thrusting a page at me.
The script was spidery, ancient, but the words were clear:
*"The Catalyst is a bridge. To awaken the Sleeper is to cross it. To destroy the bridge is to save the world. The vessel must die."*
"Kaelis knew," she said. "They've known from the start. That's why they're training you—to make you strong enough to die on their terms."
I'd laughed, a hollow sound. "You think I'm just going to believe some scribbles in a book?"
"Believe *me*," Elias called from his cylinder.
He'd been awake for hours, whispering through the glass.
---
**The Training Ground**
Kaelis insisted we resume lessons, even as the Sanctum shuddered with unseen tremors.
"Focus," they ordered, their golden arm gesturing to the automaton before me. "Channel the Aetherium into its core. Cleanly. Precisely."
The gauntlet hummed, but my focus was shattered. Elias's voice lingered in my skull, taunting.
*They'll kill you. They have to.*
The Aetherium flared, lashing out in a jagged bolt. The automaton exploded, shrapnel embedding in the walls.
"Pathetic," Kaelis spat. "You're letting fear control you."
"Fear?" I whirled on them. "Or the truth? You've been training me to die!"
Their mechanical hand seized my throat, golden light scorching my skin. "I am training you to *choose*. To be more than your bloodline. But perhaps I overestimated you."
Lira's dagger pricked Kaelis's back. "Let him go."
They released me, their gaze icy. "The Sleeper's whispers grow louder. It knows you're fractured. Weak."
Elias's laughter echoed down the tunnel.
---
**The Brother's Bargain**
I found him that night at the black lake, skipping stones across its obsidian surface. His movements mirrored mine, but smoother, calculated.
"They never told you about me, did they?" he said, not looking up.
"You're not my brother."
"No. I'm better." He tossed a stone. It vanished without a ripple. "I don't have the gauntlet's voice in my head. No nightmares. No *guilt*."
The water reflected his face—my face—but unmarred by scars or shadows.
"What do you want?"
"To help." He smiled. "The Sleeper's prison is weakening. When it breaks, the Veiled Hand's golden child—" He nodded toward Kaelis's chamber. "—will slit your throat. But I can teach you to survive."
I stepped closer. "Why?"
"Because if you die, I die." His smile faded. "We're connected, Jace. Two sides of the same coin. And I'd rather be the one left standing."
The gauntlet pulsed, its light mingling with the water's reflection. For a moment, I saw it—a thread of violet energy linking my wrist to Elias's.
He pressed a hand to the lake. "The answers are down there. In the Sleeper's prison. But you'll need me to find them."
---
**Lira's Choice**
She cornered me in the heart chamber, Kaelis's journals in hand.
"We need to leave. Now."
"And go where?" I snapped. "The Church wants me dead. Thaladir wants the gauntlet. The jungle's crawling with clones of my *face*—"
"Then cut it off!" She grabbed the gauntlet, her mechanical eye blazing. "Let Kaelis die with their secrets. Let the Sleeper rot. We'll disappear."
The gauntlet's claws twitched, violet light licking her fingers. She didn't let go.
"You don't trust me," I said.
"I don't trust *this*." She released me, stepping back. "But I'm starting to think you don't want to."
Elias's voice slithered from the shadows. "She's right, you know. You like the power. The way it *burns*."
Lira's dagger was at his throat in seconds. "Next word, and I paint the walls with you."
He smiled, unflinching. "You'll need me soon. Both of you."
---
**The Dive**
The lake was colder than death.
Elias's words had festered in my mind, a poison I couldn't purge. At midnight, I returned to the shore, the gauntlet's light my only guide.
*The answers are down there.*
I stepped into the water.
The blackness swallowed me whole.
The gauntlet's glow pierced the depths, revealing ruins below—a sunken city of crystalline spires, their structures fractured and overgrown with bioluminescent weeds. At its center stood a vault, its surface etched with the same symbols as my bracelet.
And chained to the vault's door was a body.
*My body.*
Older, face gaunt and scarred, but undeniably mine. Its chest cavity housed a pulsing Aetherium core, tendrils of violet light snaking into the vault's cracks.
*"Jace…"*
The voice was mine, but warped, guttural.
*"Free me… free us…"*
The gauntlet erupted in agony, its claws digging into my bones. I screamed, bubbles bursting from my lips as the vision tore through me—
*Elyra Veyren, my ancestor, chained to the same vault. Kaelis, weeping as they drove a golden blade into her heart.*
*"I'm sorry," they whispered. "I'm so sorry."*
I surged upward, breaking the surface with a gasp.
Elias stood on the shore, smiling.
"Now you see."