Night had fallen over Alderwood City, painting the skyline in shades of obsidian and violet. Liora sat cross-legged on her bed, her notebook open on her lap, pages filled with sketches of distorted shapes and faces that lingered in her mind. Her heartbeat hadn't slowed since the alley incident.
A knock on the door startled her.
"Come in," she called, her voice wavering.
Aiden stepped inside, hands tucked into the pockets of his coat, eyes scanning the room as if assessing every potential threat. "We need to talk," he said simply.
Liora swallowed. "About what?"
"About you. About your gift," he replied. "You're seeing echoes of people who were… erased. And you have the rare ability to perceive them clearly. That's dangerous."
"I already know that," she whispered. "But… I can't control it. I don't even know how it works."
Aiden nodded, as if expecting the confession. "Control comes with understanding. And understanding comes from focus. You're going to need to train mentally, emotionally. If you're going to survive what's coming, you must learn to follow the echoes without letting them follow you."
He placed a small, dark mirror on the table. "Look into this. Concentrate on what you see in the spaces others ignore. The faintest shadows, the smallest flickers of memory. They're trying to communicate."
Liora stared, heart pounding. The reflection in the mirror seemed ordinary at first her own anxious eyes staring back but slowly, the surface rippled. A figure appeared, faint and flickering, reaching out as if calling for help.
She gasped. "I see it…"
"Good," Aiden said, his voice steady but soft. "Now, describe it. Every detail. Every emotion it radiates."
As she spoke, the figure solidified slightly, a fragment of the person it had once been. Liora realized the truth: these echoes weren't just images they were fragments of life, trapped between memory and oblivion.
Suddenly, her vision shifted. A flicker in the corner of the mirror a shadow of someone watching her. Cold. Intent. Calculating.
"They're always near," Aiden murmured, following her gaze. "The Veiled Circle doesn't forget anyone who notices. Once they know you see, they will come."
Liora's stomach dropped. "Then… I'm already a target?"
He met her eyes, a storm behind his calm exterior. "Yes. And soon, you'll have to choose: hide or fight."
The weight of the city pressed in through the windowpane, neon lights bleeding into the room. For the first time, Liora understood that her life had changed irrevocably. She wasn't just seeing echoes she was stepping into the shadows, walking paths that most would never survive.
And for better or worse, she wouldn't be alone.