"Mira—STOP!"
Lina grabbed Mira's wrist mid-reach.
Heat exploded between them.
Not gold.
Not black.
A third sensation—cold runic pressure—shot up Lina's arm like a needle sliding under her skin.
Mira's eyes stayed blank.
But her hand didn't stop pushing.
"Release the tether," Mira said again, voice flat—wrong—like the words were being read through her mouth.
Lina's heart slammed.
"I'm not releasing anything."
Mira's wrist brand pulsed, and pain flared across Lina's chest like someone had pressed a burning coin to the Ninth Tear.
The flame-tether to Kai—thin and precious—burned bright, pulling hard.
Lina gasped.
Kai.
He was feeling this.
On the other side of the mirror, Kai's soul-thread was being yanked every time Mira's mark activated.
Seren shouted, "Lina! The tether is being targeted—if it snaps, we lose him completely!"
Reyon jumped in front of them, hands out.
"Okay! New plan! Nobody touches anybody's chest! We're keeping all tethers inside their original packaging!"
Mira moved like a puppet with perfect balance, trying to slide around Lina's grip.
Lina tightened her hold but kept her flame low—controlled—because she could feel how fragile Mira was beneath the command.
"Mira," Lina whispered desperately, "I'm here. You're safe. Fight it."
A tear rolled down Mira's cheek again.
A flicker of Mira's real self.
Then her wrist brand flared white-black.
Mira's head snapped up.
And she whispered, very softly:
"Don't make me."
Then she slammed her palm toward Lina's chest.
Lina twisted away at the last second.
Mira's palm hit the air where Lina's heart had been—
And the Mirror Library reacted like it had tasted blood.
Mirrors screamed.
Cracks spread.
Runes surged under the floor like veins lighting up.
Reyon yelped. "OH GREAT. THE ROOM IS ENJOYING THIS."
Seren grabbed Reyon's sleeve, eyes blazing with Soul Echo panic.
"Stop talking—listen!"
Reyon blinked. "I don't like that tone."
Seren's pupils flared brighter.
"I can hear the command behind Mira's words."
Lina ducked as Mira lunged again—fast, precise.
Seren spoke through clenched teeth.
"It isn't the Council speaking."
Lina's heart stopped. "What?"
"It's not Veilbound either," Seren whispered, horrified. "It's— it's a layer. Something using both."
Mira's fingers grazed Lina's collarbone and Lina hissed, pain shooting through her chest.
The tether flared.
Kai's presence tugged—
faint, strained, like he was drowning and Lina was the last rope.
Lina stumbled back, breath ragged.
"Kai," she whispered. "Hold on. Please—hold on—"
Mira stepped forward again, expression empty but tears still falling like her body was fighting without permission.
"Release. The. Tether."
Lina's flame rose.
Reyon jumped between them again, forming a real illusion wall—solid glassy light.
"NOPE. Best friend hostage situation? Not on my watch."
Mira's hand hit the illusion wall.
And the wall shattered—because Mira's coercion mark didn't just control her.
It rewrote reality inside the Mirror Library.
The shards flew like knives.
Reyon barely threw up another illusion in time, taking a slice across his cheek.
He winced. "Okay. It hurts when your own magic becomes real. Noted."
Seren reached out, hands trembling.
"Mira… I'm going to try something."
Mira didn't even look at her.
Seren closed her eyes.
Her Soul Echoes expanded—not just sensing emotion, but structure.
She inhaled shakily.
Then whispered:
"Echo Chains."
The air snapped.
Invisible threads—like sound turned into binding—wrapped around Mira's wrists.
Mira froze mid-step, as if her joints suddenly remembered gravity.
Her eyes flickered.
Real Mira surged forward for one heartbeat.
"Seren—" Mira gasped, voice returning. "Don't— it punishes—"
The coercion mark exploded with light.
Mira screamed.
Seren screamed too—like the pain backlashed through the chains.
Lina lunged and caught Seren before she fell.
"Seren!"
Seren shook violently, eyes wide.
"It's anchored to her nervous system," Seren choked. "If I pull too hard, it will break her mind."
Reyon cursed softly. "So we can't fight Mira, we can't unmark Mira, and we can't let Mira touch Lina's chest. Easy."
Mira's scream faded.
Her eyes went blank again.
And then she smiled—wrong.
Not Mira's smile.
A smile like a blade.
The mirrors all whispered in one voice now:
"Little Flame."
Lina went cold.
That was the entity's tone.
But… thinner.
Less ancient.
More deliberate.
More human.
A voice with training.
Command.
Authority.
Seren's breath hitched.
"I know this voice," she whispered.
Lina's pulse spiked. "Who is it?"
Seren's eyes flicked toward the mirrors, trembling.
"It's… the Head Councilor's cadence."
Reyon swallowed hard. "Cadence? Seren, I don't care about poetry right now—"
Seren snapped, "His speech pattern. The way he phrases commands. The way he—"
Mira stepped forward again, guided by the voice.
And then, through Mira's mouth, the voice spoke clearly:
"Lina Veris. You have no right to hold the Oathbreaker Key."
Lina's stomach dropped.
Kai's curse really was a key.
And the Council knew.
Lina's flame hissed. "So you're controlling Mira."
Mira's mouth moved with a faint tilt of mockery.
"We are correcting an imbalance."
Seren whispered, "This isn't just coercion… it's a remote trigger."
Reyon backed up, eyes wide.
"Okay. So the principal of evil school is puppeteering your bestie to steal your boyfriend's soul tether. This is… aggressively unfair."
Lina's chest burned as the tether was yanked again.
She doubled over.
"KAI—" she gasped, feeling his pain echo through her ribs.
Mira reached out.
Lina staggered back, flame rising instinctively.
But she couldn't blast Mira.
Couldn't hurt her.
Mira's fingers skimmed the air—so close—
Lina made a decision.
A terrifying one.
She grabbed the flame-tether—felt it in her chest like a thread of heat—and instead of holding it like a ribbon…
She pulled it inward.
Down.
Deep.
Into herself.
Seren's eyes widened in horror.
"Lina—what are you doing?!"
Lina clenched her teeth.
"I'm making it impossible to steal."
Her flame surged—gold, fierce, steady.
The tether ignited like molten wire.
Lina screamed as she forced it deeper—
not into her heart—
into her bones.
Into the structure of her body.
So that to take it…
they would have to tear her apart.
The Mirror Library shrieked.
Mira lunged—too late.
A burst of gold flame erupted from Lina's ribs in thin, rune-lined lines—like a skeleton made of fire.
Lina collapsed to one knee, shaking, breath ragged, smoke rising from her skin.
Reyon stared, pale. "Lina… that's… that's metal. Literally."
Seren sobbed. "You just branded yourself."
Lina looked up, eyes blazing through tears.
"I'm not losing him."
Mira froze, hand still extended, as if the command inside her suddenly found nothing to grab.
The voice in the mirrors went silent.
Then it returned—angrier, colder.
"Then we will take the bones."
The mirrors all cracked at once.
And from the shattered glass, a shadow moved—
not a mimic—
not a mask—
but a Nightfall construct, born from their fear, crawling out of the Mirror Library itself.
It lifted its head.
And it spoke in Kai's voice:
"Lina… let me go."
To be Continued© Kishtika., 2025
All rights reserved.