Ren stood motionless, staring at the open eye embedded into the wall. All the while, the eye remained unblinking. Its golden iris drifted slightly every few seconds, adjusting its focus on Ren as the only subject of interest.
The sigils still hovered above the floor, all displaying the same thing over and over, in varying sizes and symbols.
She lied.
Ren tried to adjust to what he was seeing, but none of it made sense. This place wasn't giving him a moment to breathe. First, the library that burned out of nothing. Then the ghosts that had chased him through the empty streets. And now this eye, obsessively fixated on him, as if it was staring straight through him and exposing everything he had ever been, layer by layer.
Suddenly, a crackling sound echoed across the high chamber ceiling. As it did, the thick black wires Ren had seen earlier when he entered the place started to move from where they stood, pulled in and out by something unseen. It was as if a strange mechanism had awakened and begun to follow a very specific pattern. Its motion sent signals to other unseen components deep within the structure. The pagoda itself seemed to be adjusting to it.
Then, the voice of a man echoed through the chamber. It sounded distorted, like a sound that seemed both mechanical and alive at the same time, if such a thing was even possible.
"So… you've come back to me."
The phrase echoed through the room like thunder, after which silence settled in heavy. Not a sound, not even the faintest vibration to break the tension, came for a while.
Then, as if wishing to make it more straightforward, it spoke again.
"Kagami."
Ren turned slowly toward her.
She didn't move from where she stood, but in her mind, entire wars were taking place, shaping and destroying reason in a matter of seconds. Reassembling memory like it was nothing. Her expression revealed none of it, though. So, once more, Ren was left as a mere outsider.
Finally, she decided it was time.
"Reiji-dono," she said in acknowledgment. And with that, the door was now fully open to unleash the chaos within. "It's been too long."
Another crackle answered from the ceiling, as if responding without words.
Kagami stepped forward, circling the chamber like a predator hunting something invisible, tracking danger that needed to be kept at bay.
"Is this your new protegee?" the voice echoed again.
And the slight sense of mockery instantly triggered Ren.
"Who are you?" he asked, tired of letting the tension drag on.
An awkward and distorted laugh echoed through the ceiling afterwards. Ren wasn't even sure if he had perceived it correctly as a laugh, but he went with that idea anyway.
"So she hasn't told you," the voice continued.
Ren glanced towards Kagami, unsure of the meaning in those words.
"Even after all this time, she remains the same traitorous witch she's always been."
Ren's jaw tightened, and this time he was annoyed. It was the tone that unnerved him. Whatever this voice was, it was treating him like they were on equal terms in this conversation he had zero context for. It was like a game where he was the only one starting with nothing, while everyone else seemed to be in on some little secret.
"Tell me, pact-bearer... what does it feel like to be lied to from the start? You think you're her equal? You barely know what she is."
"What the hell do you even mean?" Ren went, clenching his fists in frustration.
"If you want answers, pact-bearer... real answers... come and find me at the top."
The eye remained open, still fixated on Ren.
"Or are you too afraid to find out the depth of her lies?"
Then the voice cut out abruptly before Ren could even give any reply at all. Behind him, the sigils around the chamber dimmed, and with them, the eye closed as well, with the sound of stone slowly being dragged on stone.
The ring he had taken from the statue earlier suddenly began to glow and vibrate slightly in his palm, catching his immediate attention. Its violet swirls of smoke thickened around it, emitting even more particles than before. They seemed to be drifting slowly towards a narrow pathway up front. One that had been hidden until earlier. A few seconds later, it vibrated again, sending a new wave of particles, as if insisting on the path it wanted them to take.
Ren stepped toward the shadowed pathway, raising the ring to light the way. Its glow cast a faint violet ray ahead, which helped reveal some of the wooden walls and the floor beneath. It seemed like a regular hallway.
Kagami moved forward towards that new path, but then Ren hesitated.
"Before we go up there," he went, "is there anything I should know?"
Kagami stopped in her tracks but didn't turn around to face him.
"You will know everything before we reach the top."
Then she walked again.
Ren followed for a couple of paces, but then something made him pause again. He looked at her, seeing not the cat or the witch, but Kagami as he had come to know her through bits and pieces of truth and lies.
"Kagami..." he called.
She glanced over her shoulder.
"I need you on my side this time."
"I have always been on your side, Ren," she said gently, "since the day I chose you in that tunnel."
She then turned again, and together they walked into the new pathway the ring had revealed, toward the upper floors, and toward whatever truth was waiting for them at the top.