The cold wind from the doorway bit into their skin as Kaelen and Lyra stepped forward. The air was different here—thin, electric, charged with something unseen.
They entered a chamber unlike the others. No towers, no glyphs. Just an endless black floor, polished to a mirror sheen. Their reflections stared back at them, faintly distorted, their faces stretched just enough to unsettle the eye.
Lyra's hand went immediately to her blaster. "I hate this. Too quiet."
Kaelen knelt, touching the floor. It wasn't stone, or metal—it shifted, like liquid pretending to be solid. His reflection rippled beneath his fingers, but it didn't follow his movements. Instead, it moved on its own, lagging behind.
He drew back sharply. "These aren't reflections."
The voice came again, lower this time, almost whispering directly into their skulls:
"Truth is burden. Truth is strength. Show us what you hide."
The floor cracked open.
From the black mirror rose two figures—Kaelen's own reflection, and Lyra's. But they weren't perfect copies. Their eyes glowed faintly, and their expressions were twisted into something cruel.
Lyra stiffened. Her reflection smirked, tilting its head. "So this is what you've tied yourself to, huh? The obsessed scientist who'd burn a planet just to satisfy his curiosity."
Kaelen's double stepped forward, sneering with his own voice. "And you? A runaway soldier, pretending at loyalty while you hide the blood on your hands. How many lives have you abandoned, Lyra? How many will you betray when it suits you?"
Lyra's jaw tightened, her blaster trembling ever so slightly. "They're lies," she hissed.
But Kaelen felt his stomach twist. The reflection's words struck too close to truths he buried—truths about the corporations he'd once worked with, truths about his obsession with discovery at any cost.
The chamber pulsed. The doubles circled them, their voices overlapping.
"Show us. Admit it. Or break."
Kaelen's breath quickened. He couldn't tell if it was the chamber or his own guilt dragging the words from his chest. He whispered, "They… they're not wrong."
Lyra turned sharply, eyes flashing. "Don't you give them that. They're nothing but shadows."
Her double laughed, cruel and sharp. "Says the woman who abandoned her unit to die in the Outer Belt. You talk big about loyalty, Lyra, but you've always looked out for yourself first."
The color drained from her face. Her grip on the blaster faltered.
Kaelen reached for her arm. "Don't listen—"
But his own double stepped between them, eyes burning. "And you, Doctor, what about your family? You left them behind chasing this madness. You call it discovery, but it's just vanity. You'll sacrifice anyone for knowledge."
The words hit like a blade. Kaelen staggered back, trembling.
The reflections pressed closer, their voices weaving together into a suffocating chant:
"Confess. Or fall."
The floor beneath their feet shivered, cracks spiderwebbing outward. The void gaped below, threatening to swallow them whole.
Lyra's eyes met Kaelen's across the widening gap. For a moment, the soldier's mask cracked, raw vulnerability flashing through.
"Tell me they're lying," she whispered.
Kaelen's chest heaved. His mouth opened, but no words came.
And the chamber roared, as if feeding on their silence.
The floor gave way.
Kaelen and Lyra plummeted into the darkness, their reflections laughing as the void swallowed them whole.