Chapter 7
"No."
Adrian's voice cut through the Cathedral's oppressive silence with startling finality.
The Architect tilted his head, his features momentarily freezing on something vaguely amused. "No? You haven't even heard the full terms."
"I don't need to." Adrian stepped forward, positioning himself slightly in front of Lirith. "You're offering a false choice. Break our bond to access her memories, knowing that without the bond, she'll have no anchor against the curse. She'd either consume me immediately or fade trying to resist. Either way, we both lose."
The Architect's silver eyes gleamed with something like respect. "Clever mortal. Most don't see the trap so quickly." He circled them slowly, his form flickering between solid and translucent. "But you misunderstand. I don't offer false choices. I offer *hard* choices. There's a difference."
"Then clarify," Lirith demanded, finding her voice. "What exactly are you proposing?"
The Architect gestured, and the surrounding mirrors shifted, showing new reflections: Lirith, fully human, standing in a gray medieval town. A young woman with dark hair and haunted eyes, invisible to the crowds pushing past her.
"That was you," the Architect said softly. "Elena Ashford. Seamstress's daughter. Utterly unremarkable. Utterly alone. You spent twenty-three years being overlooked, ignored, treated as furniture by everyone you met. Your parents barely noticed you. Potential suitors looked through you. Even the baker forgot your name despite seeing you daily."
Lirith Elena felt tears she hadn't known she could still produce. The memories stirred, painful and familiar. "I remember," she whispered. "Not the details, but the feeling. Like being a ghost in my own life."
"You tried everything," the Architect continued, the mirrors showing fragments: Elena in different dresses, changing her hair, practicing conversation, desperately seeking any way to be seen. "Nothing worked. Because the problem wasn't you, it was something deeper. Something essential that made people's eyes slide away, their attention drifting. A curse of insignificance, though you didn't know it then."
Adrian's grip on her hand tightened. "Someone cursed her? Before the transformation?"
"Her grandmother, actually." The Architect's smile turned cruel. "A protective curse, meant to keep predators away. Make her invisible to danger. But magic doesn't discriminate; it makes her invisible to everyone. The old woman died before realizing what she'd done, and Elena suffered for it."
The mirrors showed Elena finding ancient texts, learning about Ebonveil, discovering the Heart's legend. Saw her standing at the veil, making her desperate choice.
"I wanted to matter," Lirith breathed, remembering fully now. "I wanted someone to desire me so badly they couldn't look away. I wanted to be the center of attention instead of the forgotten shadow. So I offered myself to the Heart."
"And it answered," the Architect finished. "Transformed your longing into nature itself. Now everyone desires you. Everyone sees you. But you can't let them close without consuming them. Ironic, isn't it? You got exactly what you wanted, just not in any way that could actually satisfy the original need."
Adrian pulled Lirith into his arms, feeling her trembling. "That's why the bond works. Why does it help? She's not invisible to me. I see her not just the supernatural beauty, but her. Elena. Lirith. Both."
"Precisely." The Architect nodded. "Your bond circumvents both curses, the original invisibility and the transformation. It lets her be seen without being consumed, lets her connect without destroying. That's why it must be the price."
"There has to be another way," Adrian insisted.
"There is." The Architect's form solidified into something almost paternal. "A harder way. You don't give up the bond, you risk it. I can send you both into the reflection pools, where you'll experience Elena's life firsthand. Every moment of loneliness, every crushing dismissal, every desperate attempt to matter. You'll feel what drove her to transformation."
"That doesn't sound so terrible," Lirith said.
"Because I haven't finished." The Architect's expression darkened. "To truly understand the transformation, you must experience the choice again. At the ritual's climax, you'll stand before the Heart as Elena stood. And you'll have to decide: embrace the transformation again, or reject it and remain cursed with invisibility."
"But she's already transformed," Adrian protested.
"In the reflection, causality is fluid. If she rejects transformation, she returns to this reality still cursed but remembering both paths. If she accepts, she reinforces the transformation making it permanent, unbreakable. No future ritual will ever weaken it."
Lirith felt ice in her veins. "You're saying I have to choose between staying invisible forever or locking myself into being a succubus eternally?"
"Not quite." The Architect held up a hand. "There's a third option. If you can find a different choice, one Elena never considered.you might transcend both curses. But that requires creativity, courage, and perfect synchronization with your bond." He looked at Adrian. "Which is where the risk comes in. If you're connected during the reflection experience, and she chooses transformation, your bond will amplify it. You'll become bound to her curse directly, feeding it with your essence constantly until you're drained."
"And if she chooses invisibility?"
"The bond will try to compensate for making you visible to her exclusively while she remains invisible to everyone else. Including, eventually, herself. She'll fade from existence while you're forced to watch, unable to help."
Adrian's face paled, but he didn't release Lirith. "What's the third option to do with the bond?"
"If she finds it? Strengthens it beyond anything I've seen in millennia. You'd become true partners, her curse transformed into something new, your mortality extended by the connection. Neither fully human nor fully Ebonveil, but something between." The Architect's smile returned. "But most fail. Most choose one curse or the other, and bonds break under the strain. That's why it's a risk, not a guarantee."
Lirith pulled back to look at Adrian's face. "This is insane. We should find another way"
"There is no other way," the Architect interrupted. "This is why I guard the mirrors. Truth requires confrontation. Understanding requires experience. You want to weaken your curse? You must first understand why you chose it."
Adrian cupped Lirith's face gently. "It's your choice. Always your choice. If you want to leave, we leave. If you want to try, I'm with you."
"You could die," she said desperately. "Or worse become bound to my hunger, consumed slowly while I watch helplessly."
"Or we could find that third option. Together." He smiled despite the fear she felt through their bond. "I'm betting on your creativity, Elena Ashford. You survived invisibility for twenty-three years and transformed yourself to escape it. That takes strength. Imagination. Courage. Use those things again, but this time with someone who actually sees you at your side."
Lirith Elena felt something crack in her chest. Not the curse, but something older. The belief that she had to face everything alone. That being seen was impossible without sacrificing everything.
But Adrian saw her. I really saw her. Not despite her curse or because of it, but through it to the person underneath.
"Let's do it," she said. "Let's find the third option."
The Architect clapped slowly. "Brave and foolish. My favorite combination." He gestured, and a pool of liquid mirrors materialized before them. "Step in together. Don't let go. And remember the reflection only ends when a choice is made. No matter how long it takes, no matter how painful it becomes, you're trapped until Elena decides."
Adrian and Lirith clasped hands tightly, their bond humming with mingled fear and determination.
"Ready?" he asked.
"No," she admitted. "But let's go anyway."
They stepped into the pool together.
Reality dissolved.
And Elena Ashford's lonely life swallowed them whole.