Chapter 35 – Wounds Born, Wounds Created
Lumina's steps pierced the soft mist—no ground, no shadow.
Only a silent white expanse, as if the world had forgotten how to breathe.
She stopped.
Before her stood a cracked mirror.
It did not reflect her form—only fractures and faint red lines, like dried blood.
In her mind, Ilior appeared.
Not as a voice, but as a whisper that slid in.
"Why did you let me in?"
Lumina did not answer right away.
She closed her eyes, then opened the wound she had long kept.
---
In memory:
A baby within a seal—small, voiceless, and pure.
Around her, sorcerers prayed.
Their lips moved in unison, eyes shut, hearts locked tighter than any spell.
The baby did not cry.
Because she was given no space to feel such a thing.
Her body was wrapped in three layers of magic: median blood, ancient spirit, and the human thread of fate deemed unclean.
And when she first opened her eyes…
what she saw was not her mother's face, but the circle of a seal upon the ceiling.
---
"Ilior," Lumina whispered.
"I let you in because I need your power."
"My power?" Ilior laughed, recalling how Lumina's ancestors had treated him.
"Because I am tired of being a predetermined human."
She sat before the mirror.
"Everyone who touched me… sealed me. Every name I called… rejected me. Mother, father, teacher, council, median—everyone saw me as a wound to be closed."
"And you want to be that wound?"
Lumina gazed at the mirror that did not reflect.
"No. I want to be the hand that reopens their wounds. One by one."
---
In the outer world, ancient spells began to loosen.
Forbidden books trembled on their shelves.
Spirits once sealed by the Hellseer council began to echo again, calling a name they had not finished cursing.
"L… Lumina…"
One of the Median temple guards burned his own protective talisman, his hands trembling for no reason.
A new sigil appeared in the night sky—the symbol of a curse.
---
Back to Lumina.
Ilior moved within her, trying to find the limits.
But there was no visible limit—only a felt one.
He could not merge.
He could not rule.
Because from the beginning, he was never made the master.
Only the shadow.
"You know I'm not just a spirit of vengeance. I am the oldest destruction ever imprisoned."
"I know," Lumina replied. "And that is why you are perfect to be kept."
"Kept?"
"Yes. I'll keep you the way they kept me. But I know how—and it won't hurt."
Ilior fell silent.
---
Elsewhere, Saelmir sent a message to the entire Council.
"Lumina is no longer median. Nor astral entity. She has opened space for the ancient spirit. But she is not out of control. She is aware."
Dorvas replied: "Then she's a threat."
Ysera added: "Or… she is the closure to all curses left unfinished."
Elhara was the last to speak: "Or she… is the beginning of a new curse."
No one replied after that.
---
Lumina stood before the mirror glowing from within.
But it showed no face—only one sentence:
"Why did you not choose forgiveness?"
She touched the glass surface.
"Forgiveness is for those who still believe there is a place to return to. I have no such place."
"Then what do you choose?"
"I choose my own way home."
Ilior grinned and knew his place—for now.
Because this time, he was not the lord of darkness.
He was a sword in its sheath.
"You know this will end in blood?"
"Yes—since the day I was born."
---
In Maxcen's dimension, he opened his eyes slowly.
Amari stood beside him.
"She let Ilior in," Maxcen said.
Amari held her breath. "She…"
"…understands that wounds created by humans cannot be healed by an embrace. Only by truth—even if its shape is sharp."
---
Beneath the ruins of the old temple, Enver rose—clothes torn, hands bloodied.
But his blue eyes burned with calm fury.
He held his last card, now slowly burning.
"Lumina… what you've let in will consume you if you falter."
But he knew—Lumina would not falter so easily.
She had only chosen a way never taught.
---
Within her, Ilior spoke again.
"If one day I go mad… will you be able to stop me?"
Lumina replied with one sentence:
"If I could stop my old self, I can surely stop you."
---
In the night sky, a crack appeared—not from the earth, but from the souls who had once spoken Lumina's name as a curse.
For the first time, they felt fear.
Not of power… but of someone who no longer wished to be a good human.