The morning after the summons, Daelen found himself once again drawn to the Mirror Courtyard.
He didn't know why.
The courtyard was empty now, save for the sound of his footsteps against silverstone. The same tiles that had warped light yesterday seemed more still today. But the silence felt deceptive. False.
He crouched, staring at his reflection.
It stared back.
A beat.
Then it smiled.
Daelen flinched and stood sharply, his hand instinctively going to his blade. But the reflection only copied that motion a second too late, like a poorly delayed echo.
He was breathing hard. "I'm seeing things."
Except it wasn't just sight. It was that feeling again—the one that had started after the Crimson Trial. Like a dream trying to claw its way into waking life.
Like something beneath his skin was trying to remember.
---
That evening, he tried to meditate in the garden outside the Hall of Stillness. He failed.
Again.
Visions came in flickers—screens and sirens, blood on concrete, a woman crying over him, a name whispered like a curse: "Rai."
Not Daelen.
And then the System—
> [STATUS ERROR: IDENTITY OVERLAP DETECTED]
> [ADJUSTING PARAMETERS…]
—flashed across his sight before vanishing entirely.
He sat there, trembling.
"…What the hell am I?"
---