"Sometimes the monster you fear most... is the one wearing your own smile."
Aarav froze.
The Guardian—his own reflection, twisted and cruel—grinned with a mouth full of broken starlight.
Its eyes were hollow pools of silver, and its hands shimmered with shadowy chains, forged from his forgotten regrets.
This is not just a dream,This is a judgment.
The desert around them pulsed and breathed, the black sands hissing like a restless beast, eager for blood.
The Silent Shepherd stood silently by the spiral map, watching, judging, unmoving.
No help would come.This was Aarav's trial alone.
🌑 Mirror Battle
The False Aarav struck first.
Chains of regret shot out like snakes, aiming straight for his heart. Aarav dodged barely in time, feeling the cold sting of the chains brush his skin—each touch dragging old, half-forgotten memories to the surface.
His father's disappointed gaze the night Aarav ran away.
Rohini's warning he laughed off.
The moment he saw Selene in danger and hesitated.
Every strike was a punishment.
Every dodge tore open another wound inside him.
"You are nothing without her," the reflection hissed."You will lose her again. Just like before."
Aarav gritted his teeth.
"No," he whispered."Not this time."
🌒 The Weapon of Memory
The broken crystal pendant in his hand pulsed.Aarav felt warmth—Selene's warmth—spreading from it.
And in his mind, an image sparked:A sword made not of metal, but of pure memory—shining, fragile, devastating.
Aarav closed his eyes for one heartbeat.
When he opened them, the blade was in his hand, humming softly, carved from moments he refused to forget.
The first time he and Selene touched fingertips beneath the constellations.The laughter that made the stars dance.The promise he whispered when she was too afraid to hope.
"I will find you, no matter what sky you fall under."
With a cry, Aarav met his reflection's next attack head-on—Steel clashed with sorrow.
Memory burned through regret.
And for a moment—just a moment—the twisted Guardian faltered.
🌕 Shattering the Illusion
The mirror Aarav stumbled, cracks appearing across its form.Through those cracks, visions spilled out:
A colossal silver throne, empty and abandoned.
A chain made of the light of dying stars.
A circle of robed figures whispering in a language older than time.
A final crack—and the Guardian exploded into dust and fragments of broken constellations, blown away by the desert wind.
Aarav collapsed to his knees, gasping.
But before he could catch his breath—the Silent Shepherd spoke again.
"One memory reclaimed," it said."The journey deepens. But you are not alone here."
It pointed eastward—where, through the swirling sands, Aarav saw something moving toward him.
🌗 Arrival of the Starfallen
A caravan.
Carriages made of moonstone and black crystal, pulled by beasts with too many eyes and too few shadows.
Figures cloaked in mourning silk walked beside it.
And from the largest carriage, Aarav felt a presence—beautiful, vast, sorrowful.
Not Selene.
But someone who knew her.
The caravan was coming fast.
Too fast.
He could either run—or face whatever was inside.
And somehow, in his bones, he knew:This meeting would change everything.
The Shepherd vanished, the map erased by rising winds.
The red moons above flickered like dying candles.
And from the approaching caravan came a low, sweet melody, both beautiful and broken—the kind of song sung at weddings...or funerals.
Aarav stood frozen, sword of memory in hand, as the first of the cloaked figures lifted its veil—
—revealing a face he recognized instantly from his most precious memory of Selene.
But how could that be?That person should have been dead... long ago.
To be continued...