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Silence blanketed the temple grounds like a heavy quilt—deceptive in its stillness. But Ayame felt it. That eerie pulse, faint like a heartbeat behind glass. The same unease that had woken her in the middle of the night.
She sat upright on her bedroll, eyes scanning the shadowy edges of the sanctuary chamber.
Something was wrong.
Across the room, Kael stirred. His brow furrowed in sleep, fingers twitching slightly like he was chasing something in a dream. Ayame tiptoed over, brushed the hair from his forehead, and whispered, "Kael… wake up."
His eyes fluttered open, clouded for just a second—until recognition returned.
"You felt it too," he murmured, voice husky.
Ayame nodded. "It's not over. Whatever we unleashed… it's crawling back."
---
### **The Threadkeeper's Warning**
They roused Rin next—who greeted the news with her usual brand of sarcasm.
"So, we're back to nightmare roots and haunted reflections? Wonderful. I missed therapy for this."
Still, she dressed quickly and joined them as they followed the pulsing energy back toward the inner sanctum. The halls were quiet, eerily so. The usual hum of enchanted torches had dimmed. The runes on the walls flickered like dying stars.
At the center, standing before a pool of stilled starlight, was an old woman wrapped in shimmering cloaks of thread—white, silver, gold. Her eyes were closed, her face serene.
"The Threadkeeper," Ayame whispered.
The woman turned. "Children of the Loom. You've done what many feared—and yet, perhaps, what was necessary."
Kael bowed slightly. "We didn't mean to wake what sleeps."
The Threadkeeper's eyes opened—pure silver, glowing. "Intent matters little to the weave of fate. What's done is now stitched into the pattern. But you must act before the fray spreads."
Rin crossed her arms. "We're open to suggestions that don't involve dying."
The old woman smiled faintly. "Then listen."
---
### **The Other Ayame**
Far below, beneath the cracked remnants of the Mirror Plane, the other Ayame stirred.
She stood in a reflection of the temple—only twisted. The walls bent slightly inward. Light fell in unnatural patterns. Everything shimmered with a soft wrongness.
This Ayame was not born—she was *assembled*. Constructed from regrets, fear, doubt, and every flicker of darkness real Ayame had ever suppressed.
She stared into a broken piece of mirror glass, eyes unblinking.
"They forget me," she murmured, her voice hollow. "They left me behind."
A voice replied from the shadows—Remnant's voice.
"No, they buried you. But we will unearth your truth."
Behind her, reflections of other figures shimmered—mirror-versions of Kael, Rin, and even the Custodian.
The Other Ayame smiled, cracked and cold. "Then let us unmake their bond."
---
### **A Tether Reforged**
Above, Kael and Ayame sat at the edge of the starlight pool.
The Threadkeeper held a single glowing thread between her fingers.
"This is your bond," she explained. "But it has frayed—split between dimensions."
Kael touched the thread. It flickered, resisting his warmth.
Ayame hesitated.
"What if… the part of me we left behind doesn't want to be healed?" she whispered.
The Threadkeeper replied softly, "Then you must find her. Not to destroy. But to understand."
Rin groaned from the side. "Are we sure therapy *wouldn't* be faster?"
Kael stood. "No more running. We'll descend into the Mirror Depths."
Ayame nodded. "Together."
---
### **Descent Into Echo**
The portal shimmered open—an oval of silver glass rippling like water.
One by one, they stepped through.
And the moment their feet touched the ground on the other side, the world tilted.
Gravity felt off. The sky above shimmered like liquid chrome. Trees grew upside down. Shadows moved before their owners did.
"Welcome," a voice whispered.
They spun—blades ready, senses alert.
But no one stood there.
Only footprints… forming in real time on the ground ahead.
They followed them.
---
### **The Path of Doubt**
The journey through the Mirror Depths wasn't linear. Time felt… slippery. Sometimes Kael blinked and saw younger versions of themselves. Other times, he'd feel flashes of guilt that didn't belong to him—but were so vivid, he staggered.
At one point, they passed through a corridor of memory-echoes.
Kael saw himself arguing with his mother.
Rin glimpsed herself alone, crying behind a closed door.
Ayame froze as she watched a vision of herself… letting go of Kael's hand at the train station that final high school morning.
"Don't," Kael whispered, gripping her hand.
She looked at him. "I almost didn't chase after you."
"But you did," he said. "And you're here now."
---
### **Face to Face**
At the end of the corridor stood a mirror—but this one wasn't broken. It shimmered with light and shadow.
Ayame stepped forward.
And her reflection stepped out.
Not a copy. Not a twisted echo.
Her.
The Other Ayame.
Cold-eyed. Confident. Dangerous.
"You came," she said flatly. "Did you come to erase me?"
Ayame shook her head. "No. I came to bring you home."
The Other Ayame's eyes narrowed. "There is no home. Only what you abandoned."
Behind her, Remnant appeared, slow clapping.
"How poetic. Reunion with your darker half. Pity it's going to end with screaming."
Kael and Rin readied their weapons.
But Ayame stepped forward again.
"No. This time… it ends with choice."
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