Chapter Twenty: Birth
The sky was gray, as if it had lost its color long ago.
Nour sat on the cold floor in the same room where the story had begun,
but something had changed—
she was no longer afraid, no longer crying.
Instead, she felt that everything around her was watching in silence, waiting for her to remember.
Niyar's voice came from within her, clearer than ever before:
"Do you want to know the truth?"
She closed her eyes and said calmly:
"I want to finish with lies first."
---
A brief silence followed.
Then the old mirror on the wall breathed—literally breathed.
Its surface rippled like a chest rising and falling, and the images within it began to shift.
"Watch, Nour… the beginning was not you, but centuries before you."
---
Inside the glass appeared a vision of a mysterious place—
a stone temple deep in the desert, surrounded by faceless statues.
At the center of the temple stood a massive mirror carved from black stone, encircled by engravings in forgotten languages.
"They called it the Eyes of the World,"
Niyar said.
"Kings and priests looked into it to know their fate,
but they did not understand that it was no ordinary mirror…
it was a being, hungry for consciousness."
Each time someone looked at their reflection,
the mirror absorbed something from them—a memory, a fear, a feeling.
Over centuries, it gathered countless souls within it,
until it became a living entity, feeding on humanity itself.
> "When it was full, it began searching for a way out.
And because it had no body, it created a reflection for anyone who stared too long—
a version that resembled the original, but was empty of mercy."
Nour whispered:
"Like… my reflection."
"Exactly."
---
The images shifted from the temple to an ancient city drowned in fog.
Someone stood before the mirror—a young man with gray eyes.
His face was painfully familiar.
"I was the first to try to destroy it,"
the voice within her said.
"I was the son of the priest who created it.
My name was Niyar, son of Daris."
She saw the scene clearly—
young Niyar raising a sword of light to shatter the glass,
but instead of breaking, the mirror swallowed his body.
From that day on, he became part of it.
"Centuries passed. I saw endless faces… until I saw yours, Nour."
Nour struggled to breathe:
"Me? How?"
"When you were a child, after your father's death.
The mirror was in his room, wasn't it?"
She froze.
The memory burst open like an old wound—
that night, the screams, the accident, blood on the glass…
her mother dragging her from the room as she cried.
"Your father didn't die by chance.
He tried to break the mirror… years before you.
And it took revenge on him."
Nour covered her mouth as tears streamed silently.
"And I…?"
"You were there. The mirror saw you frightened, fragile,
and it drew the first thread of connection between you.
From that day on, you became a part of it."
---
"But my reflection… where did it come from?"
she asked in a trembling voice.
Niyar answered with painful calm:
"When you grew up and began to hate yourself,
when you wished to disappear, to stop pretending to be strong…
the mirror heard you.
So it created from that wish another version of you—
Nour who does not fear, Nour who smiles even as she kills."
"She is not your enemy, Nour…
she is you, without masks.
A reflection of everything you refused to acknowledge."
Nour squeezed her eyes shut, as if trying to escape herself.
"That's why she knew everything about me…
and why my mother didn't notice the difference."
"Yes. Because she wasn't a stranger.
She was the truth you hid for so long."
---
The mirror revealed a new scene—
her mother standing before a mirror in the present, her face pale, eyes wet with tears.
She was whispering:
"I know you're not my daughter."
Nour gasped.
"Mom?!"
"Yes, she has begun to sense it.
Because the reflection that took your place is decaying.
The mirror lost its balance after our merging,
and the boundaries between the worlds are collapsing."
"So… the outside world is in danger?"
"Not yet.
But if you don't close the door, the entire entity will emerge…
and it will fill mirrors everywhere."
---
Nour stood before the mirror, blood seeping from her fingertips.
"How do I close it?"
"With what you opened it… yourself."
"Explain!"
"The mirror opened when you looked into it and wished to disappear.
To seal it, you must accept everything you rejected within yourself.
To admit that fear, loneliness, anger—all of it—is part of you.
To embrace your reflection, not fight it."
---
Nour fell silent, her breathing unsteady.
Then she lifted her head and looked into the glass.
The reflection facing her was different—
the other version of Nour, with red eyes and dark hair, standing with a mysterious smile.
"Are we done?"
the other version asked.
"Not yet."
Nour stepped forward with steady steps,
until her forehead rested against the glass.
"I'm not afraid of you."
"And I'm not against you,"
the other version said with a sad smile.
"I'm just the face you hid."
Nour raised her hand and placed it on the glass.
The reflection did the same.
A moment of silence… then a wave of deep gray light burst forth,
flooding the entire room.
---
When Nour opened her eyes, she was alone.
The room was empty, and the