The Mirrorborn
The fracture above the Obsidian Basin bled light again.
But this time, the light was neither red nor violet.
It was silver—pale, sharp, unnatural.
Lyle felt it like a spike behind his eyes, a pressure that didn't just press against thought but mirrored it.
Juno placed a hand on his shoulder, steadying him. "That's not Codex magic."
"No," Lyle said softly. "It's not magic at all."
---
> [Codex Alert: Unrecognized Thread Signature Detected]
Source: External plane
Designation: Mirror Glyph (Unclassified)
Threat Level: UNKNOWN – Proceed with extreme caution.
The light condensed above the fractured sky, threading itself into a spiral—then unwinding again like a reversed storm.
And through it—
A figure descended.
They floated downward, no wings, no spells, just gravity that obeyed someone else's rules.
Dressed in robes of black-and-silver scale, their face obscured by a reflective mask. As they landed, their feet didn't quite touch the earth—they hovered an inch above it, disrupting dust but leaving no footprint.
Lyle reached for the Codex—
But the figure raised a hand.
And the Codex froze.
Mid-flip.
Hovering, caught in a time bubble Lyle hadn't seen cast.
Even the ring Quinn gave him pulsed in discomfort, reacting like a caged animal.
Juno stepped forward, blade drawn.
"Who the hell are you?"
The mask tilted toward her, as though amused.
Then the voice came.
Smooth. Genderless. Multilayered.
> "A better question, Silent Blade, would be—what did you just invite through the Gate?"
---
Lyle's jaw tightened. "If you know who she is, then you know who I am."
The mask turned to him.
"You are the codex-thief. The system-walker. The hybrid that should not exist."
The air around them grew cold—not freezing, but still. Too still.
Even the dust seemed suspended in place.
Juno whispered, "This feels like before the First Rift War."
"Worse," Lyle said. "This one didn't come through a gate. It came through a mirror."
The figure held up a shard of polished obsidian.
Lyle's own reflection stared back—
Except it wasn't his.
The face in the shard was Lyle's.
But older.
Crueler.
Scarred.
Eyes completely silver.
And on his hand?
A Codex ring of shattered design.
---
> [Codex Warning: Dimensional Thread Breach Detected]
Entity shares 81% biological similarity to Host.
Designation: Mirrorborn Echo.
Stability: Unknown.
Intent: Predatory.
"You're me," Lyle breathed.
The figure tilted its head.
"No," it said. "I'm what you will become if you keep pretending the Codex makes you special."
With a flick of its hand, Lyle's Codex snapped shut and fell to the ground like dead weight.
The glyphs in the air scattered.
The fracture above them quieted.
---
Juno charged.
No words. No hesitation.
But the moment her blade struck the Mirrorborn, it passed through them.
And her body froze mid-motion—like time stopped only for her.
Lyle screamed and lunged, pulling power from the Ring—
The Mirrorborn caught it mid-spell, ripped it apart, and returned it as a shockwave that knocked Lyle twenty feet back.
The ground cracked where he landed.
Pain seared up his spine.
His breath left his lungs.
And the Mirrorborn walked slowly toward him.
---
"You carry the Architect's legacy," it said. "You bear Quinn's favor. You wear systems like toys."
Its hand hovered above Lyle's heart.
"But you haven't earned any of them."
It reached closer.
Lyle reached for the forbidden thread in his chest—the Heir's Memory.
> [Thread Ignition Authorized]
Stability: Uncertain
Consequence: Unknown.
The Mirrorborn hesitated.
Its head tilted again.
"You dare?"
Lyle activated the thread.
The world fractured.
---
Not physically.
But within him.
A million failed versions of himself screamed awake—Lyle the coward, Lyle the killer, Lyle the abandoned, Lyle the weapon.
The Heir's voice echoed through them all:
> "This is what you become if you fail. Now show me you won't."
Lyle's eyes snapped open, flooded with light.
And he punched the Mirrorborn in the chest.
---
It wasn't just a punch.
The glyphs behind it were Heir-style: inverted, recursive, self-amplifying.
The Codex lit up in his shadow like it recognized his defiance and finally approved.
The blow struck the Mirrorborn hard enough to make the ground crater.
Its body buckled.
Its feet touched the earth for the first time.
And it staggered.
Not defeated.
But surprised.
For the first time, it had been touched.
---
Juno unfroze.
She blinked, sword reappearing in her grip mid-spin.
Lyle shouted, "Hit it now!"
Together, they struck—Juno's blade through its mask, Lyle's glyphs threading into its core.
The Mirrorborn let out a sharp cry.
And vanished in a flash of shattered reflections.
Only the obsidian shard remained, humming on the ground.
---
Lyle limped over and picked it up.
Inside the shard now?
Not a version of himself.
But a door.
One shaped like the academy's entrance.
But older.
Worn.
Different.
---
> [Codex Update: Threadline Unlocked]
Location: Before the First Academy.
Purpose: Unknown.
Optional Quest Available: Trace the Origin of the Mirrorborn.
Reward: System Expansion or Thread Recombination.
Juno leaned against him, still breathing hard.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"No," he said. "But I'm alive."
He looked down at the shard.
"And now we know I'm not the only one rewriting the Codex."