The fall was different this time. No endless void, no suffocating blackness, just a rush of wind and a faint glow surrounding us as the world blurred into a streak of shadows and light. I clung to Damian's hand, my heart pounding as we plummeted deeper into the unknown.
And then, just as suddenly as it had begun, the fall stopped.
I landed on solid ground, the impact jarring but manageable. The air around me was cool, almost freezing, and I could see my breath in the dim light. I blinked, disoriented, as I tried to take in my surroundings.
We were standing in a vast chamber, its walls made of smooth, dark stone that glimmered faintly in the low light. The ceiling was impossibly high, disappearing into the shadows above, and the floor beneath our feet was cold and damp, like the surface of a frozen lake. But the most striking feature of the room was the object in the center: a massive, ancient mirror.
It stood nearly twice as tall as I was, its frame made of twisted, blackened metal that seemed to pulse with a faint, eerie glow. The surface of the mirror itself was smooth and polished, but the reflection it cast wasn't of the room around us. No, it showed something else, something darker.
I stared at it, my breath catching in my throat as I saw my reflection. But it wasn't me.
The woman in the mirror had my face, my features, but her eyes were hollow, dark pits, and her skin was pale, almost translucent. Her expression was twisted with something I couldn't quite place, something like hunger, or desperation. And behind her, shadowy figures loomed, their forms barely discernible in the darkness.
"What is this?" I whispered, taking a step back.
Damian stepped beside me, his gaze fixed on the mirror. "This is the Mirror of Souls," he said quietly. "It shows you the truth of who you are. The truth you try to hide."
I shook my head, my heart racing. "That's not me. That can't be me."
Damian's eyes flicked to mine, his expression unreadable. "The mirror doesn't lie, Lucia. It reflects what lies within."
I swallowed hard, turning away from the haunting reflection. "I don't understand. Why are you showing me this?"
"Because this is where your journey begins," Damian said softly. "Before you can embrace what you are, you must confront the truth. The darkness inside you—the part of you that has always been there, waiting."
I shook my head, my pulse pounding in my ears. "No, I'm not like this. I'm not,"
"You are," Damian interrupted, his voice firm but not unkind. "You've felt it, haven't you? The pull. The shadow that's followed you your entire life. This is what it looks like."
I stared at the mirror, my stomach churning. The woman in the reflection, the thing, stared back at me, her empty eyes filled with something I didn't want to acknowledge. And yet, deep down, I knew Damian was right. I had felt it. The darkness. The pull. The part of me that had always been different, always on the outside of the world I knew.
"But why?" I whispered, my voice trembling. "Why am I like this?"
Damian's expression softened, and for a moment, I saw something like understanding in his eyes. "Because you were born to walk between worlds. You've always had one foot in the light and one in the dark. That's why you're here."
I shook my head, tears stinging my eyes. "I didn't ask for this."
"No one ever does," Damian said softly. "But now that you're here, you have a choice. You can deny it, fight it… or you can embrace it."
Embrace it. The very thought made my blood run cold. Embrace the darkness? The part of me that I had spent my entire life trying to ignore, to hide? How could I do that?
"I can't," I whispered, my voice barely audible.
"You can," Damian said, stepping closer. "But you don't have to do it alone. I'm here with you."
I looked up at him, my heart pounding in my chest. His eyes, so dark and mysterious, held a strange kind of warmth, a promise of something more. Despite everything, the terror, the confusion, the darkness, I felt drawn to him, to his calm presence in the midst of the chaos.
"I don't know how," I admitted, my voice shaking.
Damian reached out, gently brushing a strand of hair from my face. "You don't have to know. You just have to trust me."
Trust. The word lingered in the air between us, heavy with meaning. Trust him? A creature of darkness, of shadows and secrets? And yet, a part of me already did. A part of me had trusted him from the moment he first appeared in the village, even when I didn't understand why.
I closed my eyes, taking a shaky breath. "What do I have to do?"
Damian's hand gently cupped my chin, lifting my face so that our eyes met. "Look into the mirror," he said softly. "Don't turn away. Face what you see. Accept it."
I hesitated, my heart pounding in my chest. The reflection in the mirror, the hollow-eyed woman, the shadowy figures looming behind her, it terrified me. But I had come this far. I had followed Damian into the unknown, into the darkness. There was no turning back now.
With a deep breath, I turned to face the mirror once more.
The reflection hadn't changed. The woman still stared back at me, her eyes dark and empty, her expression twisted with something I couldn't name. But this time, I didn't look away.
I stared at her, at me, letting the truth of what I was sink in. The darkness, the shadow that had always been there, lurking just beneath the surface. It was a part of me. It had always been a part of me.
And slowly, as I accepted that truth, the reflection began to change.
The hollow eyes filled with color, the pale skin warmed, and the shadows behind her, behind me, began to recede. The woman in the mirror was still me, but now, she was whole. Complete.
I gasped, the weight of the moment crashing over me. I had faced the darkness inside me, and I had survived.
Damian's hand on my shoulder brought me back to the present. "You did it," he said softly.
I turned to him, my heart still racing, but something had shifted inside me. I felt, different. Stronger. More sure of myself.
"What now?" I asked, my voice steadier than I expected.
"Now," Damian said, his eyes gleaming with approval, "we move forward. There's much more for you to see."