Chapter Thirty-One – The Garden of Mirrors

The footsteps echoed softly over the marble steps, each one measured, deliberate, as Liam and Rajan followed the woman into a chamber that seemed untouched by time.

The walls shimmered faintly. Mirrors, hundreds of them, none reflecting what they should.

One showed Liam as a child with a sword of fire. Another showed Kael, bleeding beneath a violet sky.

"Where are we?" Rajan murmured, eyes wide.

"The Garden of Mirrors," the woman replied. "Where riddles bloom and truths wither."

Inscribed on the wall in spiraling silver letters:

"That which sees but never speaks, Is hunted though it never hides. Born of eye yet not of flesh, It guides the ones who walk in lies."

"A riddle," Liam said, tracing the letters.

"More than that," the woman said. "It's the key to your next step. Solve it, or be lost in reflection."

Liam whispered the lines aloud again. His mind turned over the words—seeing without speaking… hunted… not flesh…

"A mirror," he said.

The chamber groaned. One mirror shattered. Behind it, a spiral staircase revealed itself, descending into what looked like starlight trapped in stone.

As they walked down, the air grew warm. Carvings lined the wall—Kael's battles, Kael's loves, Kael's laughter.

"It's beautiful," Rajan said. "Like someone painted a history with fire."

"And sorrow," Liam added. "Always sorrow."

At the bottom of the stairs, a pool shimmered with images—Kael sitting beside a young woman with eyes like the sea. A soft wind carried a whisper:

"The past lives here, in fragments and riddles. To know him, you must become him."

Liam stepped forward, the pool glowing beneath his feet.

His reflection wasn't his. It was Kael's.

To be continued...