The passage twisted downward like a vein cut into the earth. The air stank of wet stone and something older copper and rot. Victor stumbled, still pale from the pool.Ethan kept a steady hand on his back. “Breathe,” Ethan murmured. “You’re through the worst.”Victor’s laugh was a hollow rattle. “That was only the beginning. I saw it, Ethan. All of you. Dead because of me. And I believed it.”Julian walked ahead, torchlight painting his smirk in gold and shadow. “Maybe you should have believed it, cousin. The cradle doesn’t invent lies it magnifies them.”“Shut up, Julian.” Ethan’s voice was sharp, edged with restraint. Julian turned, walking backward with an easy grin. “Oh, don’t scold me, dear heir. You know I’m right. Our bloodline is rot wrapped in silk. And you?You’re about to inherit seventy percent of the world’s wealth and seventy percent of its hatred.” Miriam’s quiet voice slipped in like a knife. “And yet he clings to loyalty. So quaint.”Victor whispered, “Why are you all

Silence. The echoes of the clock’s toll still vibrated in their bones. Chains clattered to the mirrors, dissolved into smoke, and for one heartbeat the chamber was still.Then Victor collapsed to his knees, hands clawing at the air. “Ethan! Ethan, am I—am I still here? Do you see me?”Ethan gripped his shoulders. “I see you. You’re here.”Victor sobbed, shaking violently. “It didn’t take me, it didn’t.”Julian’s broken laughter spilled into the silence. He staggered to his feet, wrists raw, blood dripping down his arms. “Ah… so it spares the coward. How poetic.”Miriam’s gaze swept the circle. Her eyes sharpened. “Wait.” She counted them. One. Two. Three. Her smile curled, cold. “We are four no longer.”Ethan froze. His gut dropped. He turned, scanning the shattered mirrors, the infinite reflections.Julian chuckled darkly. “Oh, yes. One is gone.”Victor’s sobs caught in his throat. He looked around wildly. “Who? Who.”Miriam’s eyes locked on Ethan. His chest seized. He spun back. The

Julian’s eyes widened with manic delight. He staggered closer, blood smearing his jaw. “Perfection. Do you see, Ethan? The cradle has woven us together. My hunger, her cunning, your strength. A child more Hale than any of us.”Miriam’s gaze glittered, sharp and dangerous. “Not a child. A weapon.”The hybrid tilted its head. Its voice was layered, Ethan’s timbre, Miriam’s silk, Julian’s rasp. “Not child. Not weapon. Mirror. Key. I am what remains when your lies collapse.”It raised a hand. Time warped. The whispers froze mid-chant. Even Victor’s ragged breathing halted for a heartbeat.When sound returned, the hybrid stood inches from Ethan, blade in hand. Ethan jerked back, barely catching the strike. Steel screamed.The hybrid grinned. “Predictable. You fight like a man who still believes he has choices.” Ethan shoved it away, chest heaving. “You’re nothing but a trick. A shadow!”The hybrid’s grin widened. “If I am shadow, then why does your heart pound like prey?” It lunged again,

The chains burned like molten ice as they dragged Ethan downward. His scream was swallowed by the abyss, echoing back distorted, like a hundred voices mocking him. Then silence.He landed hard. Not on stone, not on glass, but on water. Black, endless water. It rippled out in rings, yet his body didn’t sink. He stood, trembling, sword still in hand, chains vanished.Above, the gears had closed, sealing away Miriam, Victor, Julian, and the hybrid. Only darkness remained.Ethan’s chest heaved. “Where… am I?”The water shifted. A ripple approached, deliberate, like footsteps. And then he heard it soft, familiar, slicing his heart open: “Ethan.” His head snapped up.She was there. Standing barefoot on the water, her dress clinging to her knees as though still soaked, hair trailing in damp strands. Her eyes were the same wide, alive, accusing. Anna.Ethan staggered forward, voice breaking. “No… no, this isn’t real.”Her smile was faint, trembling. “You let me drown.” He fell to his knees on

The glass around them flickered, and the void bent. Ethan saw flashes cities burning, oceans splitting, millions of lives bound by unseen chains. At the center of it all: the master key, glowing like a dying sun.The first figure’s voice thundered. “The key was never forged to grant power. It was forged to contain it. To seal something that must never wake.”Ethan froze. “No… they told us the key controls the world’s wealth, the bloodline, the cradle.”The being’s faceless head shook. “Lies crafted by those who feared the truth. The key is the last shackle binding what your family tried to bury.”Ethan’s throat tightened. “What… what is it binding?”The void quaked. The figures stilled. For the first time, their voices wavered. “The first Hale.” Ethan staggered. “That’s impossible. The records he’s long dead.”A third figure’s laughter shattered like glass. “Dead? No, child. He sleeps. Bound beneath the weight of every successor’s greed. Your bloodline does not inherit his empire. It