In a palace of black marble, Aelian Crow was speaking with a young woman in her twenties. Her eyes were a pale shade of red, and she wore leather gloves that hid her twisted fingertips.
Her name: Ofira Lamit — one of the vanished nobles, classified as a "Holder of a Distorted Second Seal."
Sitting down, she said:"Loen Mir… he pulls at the cracks in the system as if he was born to break it."
Aelian replied:"And that's why we will break him first. But we want him to trust us, to think we are his refuge when the storm comes."
"And the cost?""He will betray himself to reach us. And we will be waiting… behind the mirror."
⸻
The next day, Loen returned to his modest home.
There, a strange man awaited him, dressed simply, with a face ordinary enough to be unsettling.
"I was sent by Aelian Crow," the man said. "He said you need someone who understands you, not someone who protects you."
He handed Loen a piece of paper. On it was a crude drawing of a cracked heart, with the words:"The first betrayal is not against another… but against your own shadow."
⸻
That evening, Loen sat alone in the room he once considered a refuge. Everything felt different, even the echo of his breathing seemed alien.
The paper before him seemed to blink. A voice inside whispered:"Betrayal isn't a choice… it's your reflection when the mirror doesn't see you."
He closed his eyes. Fragmented memories surged: a guillotine, a screaming child, a broken body on cold stone, a masked man saying, "Don't forget who delivered you to us."
Opening his eyes, he realized he had never remembered this before.
⸻
Outside, Celine waited for him. Her blue eyes were troubled, her voice shaky:"Loen, some nobles want you to join them. They offered protection, money, sealed records."
"And you?" he asked."I make no offers, Loen… I just don't want to walk in your funeral."
⸻
Meanwhile, in Lamit's palace, Ofira walked slowly toward a gilded door behind which the "Second Seal" was kept — a record of all who had betrayed the sacred oath.
"To the servants: record his name. Even if he hasn't betrayed yet, he will soon.""By what authority, my lady?""As one who betrayed before him — and survived."
⸻
Three sleepless nights passed for Loen. It wasn't nightmares, but his body began showing strange symptoms: heat in his bones, ringing in his skull, and memories that weren't his resurfacing:
— His hand reaching out, handing something to a laughing man.— Doors closing on him from the inside.— Blood splattering over an inverted seal.
Then Wylem appeared:"When was the last time you were certain you hadn't betrayed anyone?"Loen answered: "I don't think I ever was, not even as a child."
"The Second Seal doesn't open through regret," Wylem said. "It opens through acceptance… that a betrayal has occurred, whether by your hand or not — you are responsible."
Instead of answering if he had opened it, Wylem revealed his palm: a half-burned mark, as if the Second Seal had tried to form and then retreated."I couldn't. I was too honest."
⸻
That night, Loen dreamed of himself before a mirror, but his reflection didn't mirror his movements. Sometimes it smiled on its own. Then it leaned closer and whispered:"I am the betrayal you are waiting to believe is not me."
Then the glass shattered.
⸻
Loen sat on the edge of an abandoned rooftop in the lower city, clothes dirty, his right eye still twitching since the last encounter with the Church's men. His body was still, but his mind raced.
Wylem's words echoed:"Well done, Loen Mir… it seems you are no longer just a suspicion."
Suddenly, Wylem appeared beside him, his features changed — exhaustion in his eyes, worry in his posture."I know that look in your eyes… it's not the look of a man who has won a battle, but of a man slowly losing himself."
He took out a small metallic object, inscribed with a scratched church symbol:"A friend gave me this… before the Church devoured him in the name of purity.""Time to teach you how to fight… not only with weapons, but with your soul."
⸻
Days later, beneath the ruins of an old temple, Loen began his first "psychic combat rituals."
The exercises were strange: controlled breathing, symbolic movements, meditations bordering on pain.Wylem was strict:"You have a seal… but you don't know how to wield it. Every seal has a psychological root… it needs a ritual to bond with you."
Sessions began in total darkness, revealing real memories: pain, the surgeon, the windowless room, the bleeding child, the void."Let yourself break, but do not bend," Wylem whispered.
Slowly, Loen's inner whispers became clearer, his body began responding.
⸻
Elsewhere, three nobles sat around a circular table:"Loen Mir… confirm he opened the seal?""More than that… he is learning to use it."
One spoke calmly:"When he reaches the second… we'll have no choice but to activate the 'Black Ladder.'"
⸻
Loen's perception changed. He could see the world with uncanny clarity; sounds slowed, glances revealed what lay beneath.A strange shadow appeared within him, moving in opposite directions, shrinking in light, stretching in darkness.
Wylem noticed:"You are not alone. The First Seal opened a door… this is a door to something ancient… something that possesses us."
⸻
On the seventh day, Loen heard a strange inner voice:"How long will you wait? Will you learn to survive… or to avenge?"
Wylem decided it was time. They would enter the Forbidden Psychic Forest, the only place to break the barrier between him and his Second Seal.
⸻
The forest was not merely trees. It was raw psychic residue, filled with unspoken voices, unrealized dreams, and guilt.
The first vision: a child standing as Loen had the day he was taken from the alley. But the child turned, bearing Loen's face — twisted smile, hollow eyes."Why did you leave me?""Who are you?""The part of you you sold… to stay alive."
⸻
The ritual began, imposed from within: Loen's first true test to open the Second Seal.
The forest wasn't still; each step reshaped the path behind him. Wylem said:"The forest will create a mirror… not of your appearance, but of what you run from. Don't look directly. Feel it… then resist."
Loen couldn't.
A mirror appeared — flesh, not glass, pulsating, shaking him to the core. He saw Celine inside, dressed in white:"You will betray me.""What?""You will… because you are more hurt than you admit.""I… I'm sorry," he whispered.She smiled: "That was your first lie."
⸻
The grand ritual began: the "Negation" of the Second Seal. It doesn't open through force, but through betrayal — the betrayal of oneself, the deepest oath in the heart.
Loen said, voice trembling:"I choose… to betray mercy."
The mirror burned, and the Second Seal opened.
⸻
Effects of the Second Seal:
Part of his consciousness separated from him.
He could see things as his conscience sees them, sometimes against his will.
Anyone looking into his eyes feels inner unease.
The seal left a branching, pulsating mark on his left hand.
⸻
At the ritual's end, a familiar face appeared: the real Celine."I knew you would open the seal this way.""You… are here?""I've been watching you since your first fall."She smiled sadly: "Anyone who opens the Second Seal… never remains entirely themselves."
Then she vanished, and night fell.
End of Chapter Twenty-One