Location: Takshashila – Ruins Beneath the Library of Ashes
In the silent corridors beneath Takshashila, where ancient scrolls lay burned and untouched for millennia, something moved.
It had no shadow.
It cast no light.
It was a being made not of flesh, but of memory—fragmented, splintered, and stitched together from the pieces people cast away.
A reflection.
A distortion.
A twin.
> The Mirror-Twin had awakened.
---
Above – Arrival in Takshashila
The once-grand city had become a graveyard of wisdom.
Scrolls buried in dirt. Ash where there was once ink. Statues decapitated, yet still weeping stone tears.
Aarav, Aashi, and Nyra arrived at sunset. The Regalia of Perception, now hanging like a floating shard of crystal above Aashi's shoulder, pulsed with anticipation.
> "This place used to house every school of magic," Aashi murmured. "Time. Spirit. Stars. Even Echobinding."
Nyra scowled. "Now it just feels cursed."
Aarav stood still. His expression unreadable. Since the battle with Agarvan, he had changed. He had lost something more than memory—he had lost a part of himself.
> "The Wheel's silent again," he said. "It doesn't want to guide me this time."
> "Maybe because this fight isn't against time," Aashi whispered. "It's against you."
---
The Twin That Shouldn't Exist
Deep below, the Mirror-Twin approached the ruins of the once-sacred Mirror Pool—an ancient device used to confront one's truth. Shattered centuries ago, it was never repaired.
But now, with the Herald present, the shards reformed.
And in them, something stared back—Aarav.
But not the Aarav above.
> This Aarav had no Wheel. No warmth. No mercy.
> This Aarav had embraced Ashvra's path.
The Mirror-Twin smiled. It spoke with his voice, but a darker inflection.
> "Let's see if you still like what you are… when I show them who you could be."
---
Hall of Illusions – Entry into the Library of Ashes
The team descended through a spiral of ancient stairways, guided by the Regalia.
Whispers danced in the air.
Aashi shivered. "This whole place is infected with reflective magic."
Nyra nodded. "Feels like something's watching us through every surface."
Aarav finally spoke. "That's because it is."
As they entered the Hall of Illusions, mirrors lined both sides—none of them reflecting reality.
> One showed Nyra ruling an empire of assassins.
> Another showed Aashi with wings, crying blood over a battlefield.
Then came Aarav's reflection.
Except… the mirror didn't show him.
It showed his Mirror-Twin.
A perfect double.
And it blinked.
---
Confrontation
The mirror cracked. And from the shards, the Mirror-Twin stepped out.
He wore the same face. The same armor. But his eyes glowed with Ashvra's black fire.
> "Hello, Aarav," he said. "I've killed a thousand versions of you in reflections. I'm curious how this one ends."
> "You're a distortion," Aarav said. "Not real."
> "But I am possible," the Twin whispered. "And possibility is what Ashvra feeds on."
Without warning, the Mirror-Twin attacked.
---
A War of Reflections
The chamber erupted into chaos.
Aarav drew his blade—a temporal edge forged from fragments of the Wheel's past use.
The Mirror-Twin countered with illusions so potent they cut like steel.
Each time Aarav struck, he hit air.
Each time the Twin struck, Aarav bled.
Aashi tried to use the Regalia to break the spell, but the reflections shattered and reformed too fast.
Nyra moved like lightning, striking at angles the Twin didn't expect—but he fought as if he knew their every move.
> "He's not predicting us," Aashi realized. "He's mirroring us. Every possible future—he's already played it out."
> "Then let's show him one he didn't expect," Aarav growled.
---
Aarav vs. Himself
They clashed again—blades screaming against time, illusions breaking like glass.
The Mirror-Twin whispered poison as they fought:
> "You know your friends fear you."
> "You're becoming what Ashvra always was—a god without memory."
> "You'll end up alone. Just like me."
Each strike weakened Aarav not physically, but spiritually.
His Wheel flickered.
His confidence waned.
And the Mirror-Twin grew stronger.
> "You can't win by fighting me," the Twin said. "Because I am you. I'm the part you locked away. The anger. The hunger. The power."
And then, he stabbed Aarav through the chest.
---
The Fractured Wheel
The Wheel on Aarav's back split in half.
A scream echoed through time.
The Regalia of Perception shattered, overwhelmed by the chaotic possibilities now released.
Nyra ran to Aarav, catching him as he fell.
> "No, no, no—don't you dare die on me—!"
But Aarav didn't move.
The Mirror-Twin raised his blade again.
And then…
Aashi stood between them.
---
The Scholar's Choice
Aashi's voice trembled. "You're a mirror. You need a surface."
> "What of it?" the Twin asked.
She held up her scroll. It shimmered with light.
> "I reject your reflection."
And then she burned the scroll.
A forbidden act.
The scroll contained the magic of Kalachakra's truth, and in destroying it, she disrupted the illusion fabric holding the Mirror-Twin's form.
> "You… fool…" he whispered.
> "I know," she said. "But I'd rather destroy every future than let this one win."
The chamber cracked.
The mirrors collapsed into dust.
The Mirror-Twin screamed as his body dissolved—no longer tethered to possibility.
---
Aftermath
Aarav gasped awake.
The wound in his chest glowed gold, then vanished.
> "You died," Nyra said, tears in her voice.
> "Maybe," Aarav replied. "Or maybe I just… remembered who I was."
The Wheel, though cracked, reformed slowly.
Aashi slumped, exhausted. "We lost the Regalia."
> "No," Aarav said. "We gained something better."
> "What's that?"
> "Clarity."
He stood and looked ahead.
Beyond the ruins, the stars had aligned for the first time in months. A rare constellation—the Crown of Rāma—lit the sky.
> "Ashvra is growing impatient," Aashi whispered. "The next Herald will not come quietly."
Aarav nodded. "Let them come."
---
Far Away – A New Threat
In the ancient cave-city of Elephanta, a statue of Shiva trembled.
From its third eye, a red tear fell.
Something slithered through time—a Herald with no name, only a number.
The Third Herald had awakened.
And this one didn't forget.
It remembered everything.