They sat.
Five chairs.
Five plates.
Five glasses of water that reflected nothing.
The little girl set the bread down in the centre.
It was still warm.
Steam curled up like incense.
No one moved to eat.
Because none of them trusted the warmth.
Laura's hand hovered over a slice.
Her fingers were shaking.
Not from fear.
From memory.
She remembered being six.
Remembered a table exactly like this.
Remembered a mother who smelled like bread and rain.
Remembered the night the mirrors came and took her away.
Liora's eyes were fixed on the glass in front of her.
The water was perfectly still.
No reflection.
For the first time in her life, she couldn't see herself.
She started crying without sound.
Nysera's wolf was completely silent.
The beast sat at her feet like a dog waiting for permission.
Zero stared at the empty chair that should have been his if he had never opened the void.
His hands were clean.
He hated it.
Law looked at the little girl.
She was watching him with eyes that were his eyes.
But younger.
Innocent.
She smiled.
"It's okay," she said.
"You can eat."
Law's voice was raw.
"Who are you?"
The girl tilted her head.
"I'm the part you left behind," she said.
"When you closed the door."
She pointed at the bread.
"It's not poisoned."
Laura laughed.
It came out broken.
"How do we know?"
The girl picked up a piece and took a bite.
Chewed.
Swallowed.
"Nothing happens," she said.
"Except you remember what it feels like to be hungry for something other than survival."
Nysera reached out first.
Her hand didn't shake.
She tore off a piece and ate it.
Her wolf whined and lay down.
Zero followed.
Then Liora.
Then Laura.
Law was last.
He took the smallest piece.
The bread tasted like his mother's hands.
Like the day before the Mirror took everything.
Like the morning he had never been allowed to have.
He ate it.
And for the first time in his entire life,
he cried.
Not from pain.
From relief.
The little girl watched them eat.
When the bread was gone, she stood on her chair.
Reached across the table.
And took Law's hand.
Her fingers were warm.
Real.
"You kept your promise," she said.
"I don't remember making one," Law answered.
"You do now."
She squeezed once.
Then let go.
The table began to fade.
The chairs.
The plates.
The warmth.
The little girl stepped back.
She was smiling.
"It's time," she said.
Law stood.
The others stood with him.
They didn't ask where they were going.
They already knew.
The little girl waved.
One last time.
"Thank you," she said.
"For teaching me how to grow up."
Then she was gone.
The ordinary street was gone.
The table was gone.
Only the Five remained.
Standing in a field of white flowers that stretched to every horizon.
Under a sky that had no mirrors in it.
No eyes.
No watchers.
Just sky.
Blue.
Endless.
Perfect.
Laura looked at Law.
"You okay?"
Law wiped his face.
"Yeah," he said.
"I'm okay."
Zero lit a cigarette with hands that weren't shaking anymore.
Nysera's wolf rolled in the flowers like a puppy.
Liora took Laura's hand.
Not resonance.
Just hands.
Law looked at the horizon.
There was nothing there.
No city.
No crown.
No door.
Just forward.
He took one step.
The others followed.
Five heartbeats.
One path.
No graves.
Because the dead had finally learned how to rest.
And the living had finally learned how to live.
The white flowers sang as they walked.
A lullaby with no ending.
And the sky,
for the first time in ten thousand years,
forgot how to watch.