Elora's POV
We reminded the world what hope looked like—
So it grew, wild and strange, through shadow and strike.
But we forgot that in old places,
hope can rot in hidden spaces.
On the fourth morning, the sky shifted.
Not a storm. Not a spell. Not even the Vault's usual dramatic tantrums.
This was... quieter.
Wronger.
Kael was the first to notice. He stood at the edge of the hill, eyes narrowed at the horizon. "Something's off."
I joined him. "Define 'off.' Because that boulder just blinked at me, and I'm trying not to freak out."
"It's too quiet."
He was right. No wind. No birds. No vine-humming. Just a stillness so deep it hummed in my bones.
Then the sprout screamed.
Yes. The hope-seed-thing-we-sorta-maybe-magically-birthed opened its little green mouth and let out a shriek that didn't belong in any ecosystem.
Kael stumbled back. "Plants don't scream!"
"I—WHAT IS HAPPENING?"
The sprout burst open in a flash of purple light, and something stepped out.
Correction: someone.
A girl. About my age. Barefoot. Eyes glowing like amethysts. Hair floating like it was underwater, and a grin that didn't reach her eyes.
"Hi," she said. "Mom. Dad."
Kael gagged. "Mom?!"
"Nope. Noooope," I backed up. "We are too young. I don't even like children!"
The girl tilted her head. "But you made me."
She pointed at the empty patch of ground where the sprout used to be. "I was born from your choice. From the magic you left in the Vault. From your pain and your love and your fear."
Kael blinked. "So... you're like... a manifestation?"
"I'm your consequence," she said sweetly.
And then she glitched.
Like a broken reflection. One second she was standing still. The next she was ten feet closer, eyes wide and black.
"I'm here to decide," she whispered.
"Decide what?" I asked, throat dry.
She smiled wider. "If you're worthy of what comes next."
Kael's POV
Nope. This was too weird. I had faced monsters, illusions, even Elora's flamingo therapy squad but this?
This was Vault-level creepy.
She—it—wasn't human. Not really. Every time she blinked, reality twitched around her. The hill twisted. The air pulsed. The sky flickered between night and day.
"I don't trust her," I muttered.
Elora gave me a dry look. "Oh, really? You don't trust the psychotic magic plant child who called us Mom and Dad and then threatened divine judgment? Shocker."
"Don't sass me. I'm in survival mode."
The girl turned slowly toward us. "You have until sunset. Then I choose."
"Choose what?" I asked.
She didn't answer. Just vanished in a whirl of petals and shadows.
We stood in silence.
Elora broke it first. "Kael. What if she is us?"
"What?"
"Like... all our worst pieces mixed with the Vault's magic. A living manifestation of our choices."
I shook my head. "No. That's impossible."
"She has your eyes."
"She doesn't!"
"She literally does, Kael."
I hated that she was right.
Worse, I hated the part of me that looked at that girl and didn't just see a threat.
I saw a future.
One I wasn't sure we could outrun.
Kael looked shaken. Which was weird, because usually I was the emotional mess and he was the broody one with impeccable aim and poor life choices.
But now? His jaw was clenched like he'd just been told the moon owed him money.
"She has your eyes," I repeated.
He crossed his arms. "She also has the temperament of a cursed doll."
Okay, fair.
Still, I couldn't shake the feeling curling in my gut like a cold worm. This… consequence girl—she wasn't just Vault-made chaos.
She knew things. Our magic. Our fears. My dream from the night before, the one I didn't even tell Kael about, where I stood in a field of mirrors and all of them reflected her face.
"What if she's not here to hurt us?" I said quietly.
Kael gave me a look. "She screamed, Elora. And then glitched across space like a haunted GIF. I think the harm is implied."
"But she said she was born from what we left behind."
"Exactly. The Vault feeds on unfinished business. Regret. Pain."
"…And hope," I added.
He fell silent.
Hope. Yeah, we'd planted it, but we never stopped to wonder what it would become. Magic that deep doesn't just sprout flowers and butterflies, it roots itself into your soul.
"What do we do?" I asked, barely above a whisper.
Kael rubbed his temple. "We find her."
"Why?"
"Because the last time we ignored a magical problem-child in the Vault, a basilisk ended up with your lipstick and half my memories."
"…We don't talk about the basilisk."
"Then help me talk about this one before she decides our fate includes spontaneous combustion."
I sighed, turning toward the thick edge of the woods.
The Vault pulsed.
Trees moved—not swayed, moved—like they were rearranging themselves for something. Paths opened, then vanished. Birds flew backwards. A squirrel politely handed me a peanut and then dissolved into glitter.
"I hate this place," I muttered.
Kael drew his dagger. "Let's go."
Kael's POV
We followed the weirdness. You kind of have to, in the Vault. Chaos is like a breadcrumb trail in this place.
"Hey," Elora said after a few minutes of walking. "Do you think we actually created her?"
I didn't answer right away.
Because yeah. I did think that.
But saying it out loud felt like making it real. Like admitting that we were more powerful and more dangerous than we ever meant to be.
"Elora," I said slowly, "when we merged our magic back in Vault Six... do you remember what you were thinking?"
She blinked. "I was thinking I didn't want you to die."
My chest tightened.
"I was thinking," she continued, softer now, "that if we made it out… we'd have to face everything. The curse. The secrets. Us."
Us.
I swallowed hard. "And I was thinking… I couldn't lose you."
Silence.
Damn it. Why did this moment feel too real?
We stepped into a clearing.
And there she was.
The girl stood on top of a boulder like she was waiting for applause. Around her, the air was thick with pollen that glowed like moonlight.
"Welcome," she said, voice echoing from somewhere behind my eyeballs. "To your reckoning."
"Wow," Elora muttered. "Zero chill."
I raised my dagger. "Are you going to explain what you are?"
She twirled once, then snapped her fingers.
Visions exploded around us.
Our first battle together. That time Elora fell into the river and turned blue. Me crying alone in Vault Nine. Her screaming my name after I took a spell to the chest.
Memories. Our memories.
They spun around like fireflies. Then—one by one they were swallowed by the shadows gathering at her feet.
"I am what remains," she said, eyes now solid black. "And what you've refused to face."
"Are we fighting you?" I asked.
"Not yet," she grinned. "First, you must fight yourselves."
The shadows lunged.
Elora's POV
Kael disappeared first.
I spun around, but he was gone like blipped out of existence.
"No no no—KAEL!"
A mirror rose from the ground.
And in it?
Me.
A different me.
Hair darker. Eyes hollow. Magic coiled like smoke around her hands. She stepped out of the mirror like it was a puddle.
"Oh no," I whispered. "No no no, I don't do inner demons on Tuesdays."
Evil Elora smirked. "Then lucky for you—it's Wednesday."
She lunged.
I barely dodged, stumbling back as her fist grazed my cheek. It shouldn't have hurt, but it did like her magic was lined with guilt and wrapped in regret.
I scrambled to my feet, breathing hard. "Okay. Real talk. You look like me after three sleepless nights and a bottle of chaos wine."
"And you look like a lie dressed in sarcasm," she snapped, eyes glowing violet. "All charm, no truth. All jokes, no spine."
Ouch.
She came at me again. I parried with a flick of my fingers, sending a gust of wind between us. Her hair whipped around her face, but she didn't flinch.
"You're not just my reflection," I said. "You're… everything I hate about myself."
She smiled, a cold, pitying thing. "Wrong. I'm what you buried. The fear you won't say out loud. The choices you pretend weren't yours."
"I survived," I growled. "I did what I had to do."
"But you never looked back," she hissed.
Magic clashed—mine wild and stuttering, hers precise and razor-sharp. Every blow she landed wasn't just physical. It meant something. A memory. A failure. A secret. I saw them flicker in her eyes like shards of my own soul.
The time I let someone die because I couldn't decide fast enough.
The day I almost walked away from Kael.
The part of me that still doesn't believe I deserve hope.
I dropped to my knees, shaking.
"Why are you doing this?" I whispered.
She crouched in front of me, lifting my chin. "Because you cannot face the future if you keep lying about the past."
Behind her, the forest warped. The sky twisted into blood-orange spirals. Everything around us melted like ink in water—and then—
A scream.
Kael's.
I surged to my feet. "What did you do to him?"
But it wasn't Evil Elora who answered.
The other girl—the consequence, the child born of our magic floated down from above like she'd been watching this whole time.
She didn't look angry anymore.
She looked sad.
"Your test has begun," she said. "And time is running out."
The earth cracked open beneath my feet. I screamed as gravity gave up and the world turned inside out.
Everything went white.
Kael's POV
I was face-to-face with myself.
Not just a reflection—no. This version of me looked like he'd already lost everything. Eyes darker. Skin scarred. Blood on his shirt, some of it mine.
"Is this a joke?" I snapped.
He didn't answer.
He attacked.
Sword clashed with dagger. Sparks flew. I blocked, dodged, countered. Every movement familiar because I'd trained for this. But fighting yourself is like trying to outthink a mirror.
I knew his moves.
Which meant he knew mine.
He slammed me into a tree. "You think you're the hero?" he growled. "You're just a mistake that never got corrected."
"Pretty sure that's what my uncle said when I turned twelve," I grunted, ducking and kicking him back.
"You let her in," he said. "Elora. The Vault. The magic. You let it change you."
"Yeah," I said. "Because staying the same nearly killed me."
The world around us shimmered.
He paused.
And then smiled a small, pained smile.
"Then maybe you're ready."
A pulse of light burst from his chest.
I stumbled back—
And he vanished.
Just gone.
Silence stretched… until the girl's voice echoed from above:
"The Vault doesn't just test you with monsters.
It shows you the ones you've become."
I looked up—and saw Elora.
Falling.
Straight toward me. AHHHHHH!!!!!
Elora's POV
I crashed into Kael's arms like the world had just spat me out.
"Hi," I croaked.
"Hi," he said, winded. "Did you fight yourself too?"
"Yep. She was a delight."
We were still tangled on the forest floor, limbs awkward, breaths rapid.
The consequence girl hovered above us now, her expression unreadable. "You faced what was hidden. But that doesn't mean you're free."
"What do you want from us?" I asked, voice raw.
She tilted her head. "I want you to remember."
"Remember what?"
And then she whispered one word:
"Why."
Kael and I exchanged a look.
The forest around us rippled.
And then—
Every tree caught fire.
Not red flame. Blue. Cold. Silent.
The girl began to cry.
Her tears fell upward.
And the world shattered into pieces of light.
We screamed as the Vault consumed us together, again—and the only thing I could hold onto was him.