The small pathway curved and twisted like the intestines of some huge beast; the walls still pulsed with a soft, sickly light. With every step that Emmie made, there was an answering rhythmic thrum of the shard in his palm to take him deeper inside. Mira and Amara trailed after him, their faces tight with tension.
"Does this place ever end?" Amara grumbled, running a hand along the strange, veined walls. "It's like the tower is alive."
"It might be," Mira said, her voice barely above a whisper. "It's connected to the Heart. If it's anything like a shard, it could be sentient."
Emmie glanced back at her. "Sentient, like… aware of us?"
Mira nodded. "Aware, and probably testing us."
As if in response, the passage suddenly opened up into a cavernous chamber. Mirrors lined the walls, their reflections gleaming off despite the dim light. The air here was colder, heavier with an ominous energy.
Amara frowned, stepping closer toward one of the mirrors. "Why do I feel like this is going to get worse?"
The shard glowing brighter in his hand, Emmie approached another mirror cautiously. As he did, his reflection shifted-not into his own face, but into that of the dark-eyed boy from the void.
"You again," Emmie muttered, his jaw tightening.
The boy in the mirror smirked, his figure leaning forward as if to step through the glass. "Miss me already? This is my favorite part, Emmie, the part where you face yourself."
In a twinkling of an eye, before Emmie could say anything, the surrounding mirrors began to ripple like water. Reflections of Mira and Amara stepped out from the glass, their eyes glowing with an unsettling crimson light.
"Great," Amara said, unsheathing her daggers. "Evil doppelgängers. Just what we needed."
Mira raised her staff, her face grim. "They're not just reflections. They're manifestations of the tower's power. Be careful—they'll know our strengths and weaknesses."
The mirror-Mira pounced first, her staff crackling with dark energy. Mira countered with a blast of light magic, the two forces colliding in a burst of sparks.
His reflection stepped out of the nearest mirror barely in time for Emmie to react, Shard's twin glowing dark in its hand.
"Let's see how you measure up," the reflection taunted, swinging the shard in a wide arc.
Emmie raised his own shard to block the attack, the two fragments colliding with a deafening clang. Energy crackled between them, sending shockwaves through the chamber.
You are nothing without them," this reflection sneered, its voice just dripping with malice. "You think you're a hero? Just a scared boy acting tough."
Emmie gritted his teeth, pushing back against the reflection's strength. "I don't need to be a hero. I just need to protect the people that mean something to me.
The faltering of the reflection made it quiver a moment, its smirk wavered. Taking immediate advantage of that fact, Emmie lunged forward with his shard ablaze anew.
Meanwhile, Amara was battling her reflection with a ferocity bordering on recklessness. "If I wanted to look at myself all day, I'd find a lake!" she yelled, slashing with precision at the doppelgänger.
But Mira was a different story altogether. Her mirror image counteracted with an irritating ease that seemed to anticipate her every move.
"Emmie!" Mira cried out, her tone imploring.
Upon hearing this, Emmie turned to see Mira's reflection gearing up to unleash a feared blast of dark magic. Without even processing it, he tossed the shard, its light racing across the room and into the doppelgänger.
The reflection shattered into shards of glass, dissolving into the air. Mira collapsed to her knees, breathing heavily.
"Thanks," she said, her voice shaky.
Emmie helped her to her feet, his eyes scanning the chamber for the remaining threats. Amara was finishing off her own reflection, delivering a final, decisive blow.
"Is that all you've got?" Amara taunted, her breath coming in short gasps.
The dark-eyed boy's voice was mocking, cold, and echoed through the chamber. "Impressive. But this was only the beginning."
The mirrors around them shattered, a deafening sound that rained down shards. But again, the chamber began morphing-twisting and folding its walls into an endless maze of corridors.
Amara groaned. "I hate this place.
Mira braced herself against her staff. "The tower is testing us. But it's also guiding us. The shard… it's drawing us closer to the Heart."
Emmie leaned and picked up the shard. It was light now, dim but steady. "Then we keep moving. Whatever's waiting for us."
He turned to Mira then, his expression softening. "Are you okay?"
She nodded, offering a small smile. "Thanks to you.
Amara rolled her eyes. "Save the sappy stuff for later. We've got a maze to conquer."
As they ventured deeper into the labyrinth, Emmie couldn't shake the boy's words from his mind. The tests were getting harder, and the stakes were growing higher.
But he was determined to see this through—to protect Mira and Amara, and to prove that he was more than the tower's trials.
The maze seemed endless, its twisting corridors pulling them deeper into the bowels of the tower. Each path was lined with faintly glowing runes, their light pulsing in a rhythm that felt like a heartbeat. The walls, though seemingly made of stone, shifted and whispered as though alive, their voices just out of reach.
Amara took the lead, her daggers drawn. "If this place doesn't kill us, I might just die from boredom," she grumbled. "All this walking and no fights? Suspicious."
"Careful what you wish for," Mira answered back warily, leaning on her staff, exhaustion filling her features, but determination again burning in her eyes.
Emmie walked silently behind them, the shard clutched in his hand. Its light was dimmer now, but it still pulsed steadily, like a compass guiding them forward. His mind was roiling with the words of the dark-eyed boy, the whispers of the labyrinth, and the weight of Mira's brief smile.
The air seemed to shift abruptly, a colder sensation filling it. The runes on the walls flared brighter, starting to twist. Their shapes contorted into something less orderly and leaner, chaotic.