Morning arrived cold and silent.Mist curled around the trees like silver breath, soft but uneasy. Kael, Lira, and Seren walked through the forest path until the trees thinned and the ground turned smooth, like glass.
Before them lay what once was the Temple of Still Waters — now a ghostly ruin, half sunk beneath a shallow lake that reflected the gray sky perfectly.Every stone, every fallen arch shimmered as though the world itself were watching them.
Lira whispered, "It feels… alive."
Kael nodded. "It's listening."
Seren dipped her hand into the water. The ripples moved slow, too slow, as if time was tired here.
They crossed a broken bridge and entered the temple.Inside, walls of polished stone surrounded them — mirrors, hundreds of them, cracked yet shining. Each mirror reflected something slightly different.
Kael saw himself as he was, but also as he had been — younger, angrier, eyes full of unspent fire.In another reflection, he saw himself covered in black ash, with eyes like the Eye's.
Lira gasped. "Kael… these mirrors don't show the same thing."
Seren's voice was soft. "They show the truth you fear."
They walked deeper. The air grew heavy, filled with echoes. Their footsteps seemed to come from behind them, even when no one moved.
At the heart of the temple stood a great pool of still water, surrounded by statues of monks with calm faces. Their hands were pressed together in prayer — yet some of their stone eyes wept streaks of dark water.
Kael stared into the pool. His reflection rippled — and spoke.
"Why do you keep running, Kael?"
He froze. His reflection smiled sadly. "You say you seek peace. But peace frightens you more than war."
Kael stepped back. "You're not real."
The reflection tilted its head. "Then why do my words burn?"
Lira reached out to him. "Kael, don't look—"
But when she turned toward the water, she too saw something. Herself, standing beside Kael — but her reflection smiled with eyes that weren't hers.
"You can't save him," the reflection said softly. "He doesn't want to be saved."
Lira's chest tightened. "That's not true."
"Then why do you fear losing him more than losing yourself?"
Lira turned away, tears welling.
Seren drew her bow, looking into the water defiantly. "Show me what you will."
The pool darkened. Her reflection appeared — armored, proud, leading an army of fire.
"You call yourself a protector," the reflection said. "But what you want is glory."
Seren's voice trembled. "No…"
"You seek Kael's approval, not his cause."
She turned sharply, breathing hard. "Enough of this!"
But the pool only rippled, whispering, "Truth is not kind, but it's the only fire that never dies."
Kael took a step forward. "What are you?"
A voice answered — not from the mirrors, not from the water, but from everywhere.
"We are what was left behind when silence began to dream."
The light dimmed. The mirrors flickered, showing images of hundreds of faces — monks, warriors, children — all lost souls caught between memory and flame.
"The Eye once came here," the voice said. "It looked into the stillness, and the stillness looked back."
Kael's heart pounded. "You're part of it."
"We are its echo. The questions it left behind."
The ground shuddered. The reflections began to move on their own — Kael's copies stepping out of the mirrors, their eyes glowing faintly gold.
One of them spoke. "You think the fire chose you because you were strong. But maybe it chose you because you were broken enough to listen."
Kael clenched his fists. "I've had enough riddles."
The reflection smiled. "Then answer this one — what are you without the flame?"
Kael raised his voice. "Still me."
"Then prove it."
The reflection lunged, its hand blazing with fire. Kael met it head-on — not with flame, but with silence. He closed his eyes, breathed, and let the fire inside him rest.
The reflection's fire flickered, then dimmed.
"You're learning," it whispered, fading like smoke.
The others followed, vanishing one by one until only the still pool remained.
Lira touched his arm. "How did you stop them?"
Kael's voice was quiet. "I didn't fight them. I accepted them."
He looked into the water again. This time, his reflection smiled softly — no longer mocking, but calm.
"Sometimes," he said, "the hardest battle isn't against evil. It's against the noise inside your own heart."
The temple grew quiet again. The mirrors stopped shifting. A faint light appeared under the pool — a single, glowing crystal shaped like a tear.
Seren knelt beside it. "A memory stone," she murmured. "The monks must have left it behind."
Kael picked it up. The light inside pulsed gently, warm and pure. He felt its message, not in words, but in feeling:
To heal the world, you must first stop trying to win against it.
Kael whispered, "Then maybe… peace isn't silence. Maybe it's learning to listen to what hurts."
As they left the temple, dawn broke through the mist.The lake shimmered with sunlight, no longer a mirror of doubt but a reflection of calm.
Lira smiled faintly. "Do you think the Eye can reach here?"
Kael looked back once. "Not today."
"Even shadows need a surface to exist," he said softly. "And today, the water belongs to the light."
They walked on, their reflections trailing behind them — quiet, gentle, at peace for now.
But in the far distance, a dark cloud began to rise again.And somewhere beyond the hills, the Eye whispered through another dreamer.