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CHAPTER 32 — THE MARK OF THE KING
Rick woke to the sound of rain.He was lying on a cot inside what used to be a subway control room — one of the few safe places left beneath Greyhaven. Dim emergency lights flickered across concrete walls lined with old monitors.For a second, he thought he was alone. Then he heard Lira’s voice.“Don’t move too fast,” she said quietly. She sat near the door, cross-legged, sharpening her dagger — but her eyes were fixed on him.Rick sat up slowly, wincing. His entire left arm ached. The veins glowed faintly gold beneath his skin, tracing up his neck like lightning frozen under flesh.He swallowed hard. “How long was I out?”“Two days,” Lira said. “You wouldn’t wake up. I thought…” She stopped, her expression tightening. “Never mind.”Rick looked at her. “Say it.”She sighed. “I thought maybe you wouldn’t come back. That he would.”He flexed his hand. The light in his veins brightened. “The First King.”Lira nodded. “Since that thing touched you, it’s like… the air changes when you brea
CHAPTER 31 — THE WHISPER BELOW
The city slept, but Greyhaven’s underground never did.Rick and Lira stood at the edge of a manhole that opened into a tunnel older than any of the maps. The air below carried a faint hum — not mechanical, not magical, but alive.Lira adjusted the small torch strapped to her wrist. “You sure this is smart?”Rick gave a half-smile. “You’re asking that now? After we fought a monster made of mirror dust?”She rolled her eyes, then climbed down first. “Fair point.”Rick followed, boots clanging softly on the rusted ladder. The deeper they went, the colder it got. The smell of damp stone filled the air, mixed with something metallic — almost like blood that had dried a century ago.They reached the bottom. The tunnel opened into a cavern lit by faint veins of glowing rock that pulsed every few seconds. Each pulse matched the rhythm in Rick’s arm — the same golden heartbeat that hadn’t stopped since the fight.Lira noticed. “Still pulsing?”He nodded, rubbing his arm. “It’s getting stronger
CHAPTER 30 — ECHOES IN THE DUST
Greyhaven no longer hummed with traffic.The city breathed differently now — slower, heavier, like it was relearning how to exist.Rick walked through the broken streets with Lira at his side. Morning light spilled across the glass-strewn pavement, catching on twisted steel and fragments of mirror still embedded in walls. Every reflection seemed to twitch when he passed, as if watching.“They’re still here,” Lira murmured.She meant the remnants — the shadows of the mirror world that hadn’t completely vanished when the Veil closed.Rick nodded. “Yeah. I can feel them.”He wasn’t exaggerating.Ever since the merge, something inside him pulsed in rhythm with the city — faint but constant. Sometimes it whispered. Sometimes it remembered things he didn’t.They turned a corner into what used to be the market square. Half the stalls were gone, replaced by strange spirals carved into the stone.Lira knelt, tracing one with her fingertip. “These symbols… they’re not from the mirror world. The
CHAPTER 29 — THE CHOICE
The world didn’t shatter all at once.It peeled.Like two pages glued together for too long, reality tore itself apart one heartbeat at a time.Rick fell to his knees as the streets of Greyhaven twisted upward, meeting the mirrored spires above. Cars floated like paper. Shadows bled into light. Screams came from both sides of the Veil, overlapping until it was impossible to tell which belonged to the living and which to the reflection.Lira crouched beside him, shouting through the chaos. “Rick! Focus! If you lose your center now—”“I know!” His voice cracked with strain. “I can feel him — he’s trying to pull me in!”Across the collapsing street, Mirror-Rick stood calm at the heart of the storm. Every gust of wind bent around him like he commanded the air itself.His eyes glowed with silver fire.“You can’t hold both worlds together,” Mirror-Rick called out. “Let go, and it will stop hurting.”Rick pushed to his feet, every muscle screaming. “Not if it means you win.”“This isn’t abou
CHAPTER 28 — THE THIRD NIGHT
The scream still echoed as Rick and Lira climbed back toward the surface.Every step felt heavier than the last. The air thickened, vibrating with that same heartbeat rhythm that now seemed synced to Rick’s own pulse.When they finally reached the upper streets, the world had changed again.Mirrortown was no longer silver and gray — it was alive.Buildings from Greyhaven now stood among the alien architecture of the reflection: coffee shops, bus stops, the cracked bell tower from the old Cathedral. Everything familiar looked slightly wrong, like someone had rebuilt it from a photograph and missed the finer details.The sky was burning gold, and one of the suns had vanished.Lira stepped out first, scanning the empty street. “This isn’t the same city we left.”“No,” Rick said quietly. “It’s ours. Or what’s left of it.”A breeze passed, carrying voices — faint, distant, familiar.Rick froze when he heard one.“Rick! Rick, come on!”He turned sharply. Down the street stood a woman — aubu
CHAPTER 27 — THE GUILT THAT WALKS
The silence after the Core’s pulse was suffocating.Rick’s heartbeat echoed in his ears like a drum — steady, unnatural, too loud. The air felt heavier, as if the entire cavern was waiting to exhale.Lira took a cautious step forward. “Rick… are you okay?”He nodded slowly, even though his mind screamed otherwise. “Yeah. I’m fine.”It was a lie. The moment he’d touched the Core, something had followed him back.The Archivist’s pale eyes reflected the dim light. “He feels it already,” he murmured. “The burden waking.”Rick looked up sharply. “What do you mean, burden?”“You carry guilt, Mercer,” the Archivist said calmly. “Enough to shape monsters.”Before Rick could respond, the cavern floor rippled. Shadows began to pour from the cracks — slow at first, then faster, twisting together into vaguely human shapes. Each one flickered with faint silver light, as if pieces of the Veil had bled into them.Lira drew her dagger. “Rick, we’ve got company.”Rick’s voice was barely a whisper. “No
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