> "Memories are not stored in the brain."
"They're stored in the dream. The brain just forgets how to knock."
— The Archivist
---
When Kai opened his eyes, the sky was upside-down.
Not metaphorically.
Literally — clouds floated beneath him, while stars burned above the grass.
He stood on an island of inverted gravity, suspended in what looked like a sea of torn pages.
Each page… whispered.
Lira gasped beside him, clutching her head.
> "Where… is this?"
Kai's voice was hollow.
He already knew the answer.
> "We're inside someone else's dream. But it's… anchored."
Lira blinked. "What do you mean?"
> "It's not shifting like the Labyrinth normally does. It's locked in place. Like a… preserved event."
She walked forward, footsteps rippling across the floating pages.
Every page had a line.
Some were names.
Some were screams.
Some were just…
> "He never looked back."
"I let them drown."
"We lied about the door."
Kai knelt down beside one.
This one said:
> "Kai was the one who chose the city."
His blood froze.
Lira turned sharply. "What did you say?"
He didn't answer.
Because suddenly, the sky broke.
---
From above — or was it below? — a city began to form.
Stone by stone, brick by brick, memory by memory.
Children ran through alleyways made of chalk.
People moved in reverse — undoing their conversations, un-drinking water, un-laughing at jokes.
It was beautiful.
And wrong.
Kai whispered: "This… isn't just someone's dream."
> "This is a forgotten past."
---
Lira's breath caught. "How is that possible?"
> "Dreams feed off memories," Kai explained.
"But sometimes… if the memory is strong enough — and painful enough — it can manifest its own time loop."
She narrowed her eyes.
"So whose memory is this?"
---
> "Mine."
---
Both of them turned.
A child was sitting on a stairwell in the distance, watching them.
Barefoot.
Holding a broken wooden sword.
It was Kai.
But… not.
This version of him had red thread sewn into his sleeves. His eyes were dull. Empty.
As if someone had stitched together pieces of him just to make him look alive.
Lira stared. "That's you?"
Kai didn't respond.
He stepped forward.
And the boy stood too.
> "You came back," said the child.
> "But you're too late. She's already gone."
Kai clenched his fists. "Who?"
The boy pointed to the center of the city — where a massive tower of mirrors stood.
From the top of it… echoed a voice.
A girl's voice.
Familiar.
Soft.
---
> "Kai… you promised you'd save me."
"Why didn't you come back?"
"Why did you leave me in the fire?"
---
Lira looked at him.
"…Who is she?"
Kai was silent.
Lira grabbed his shoulder.
"Kai."
"…Her name was Naera."
---
🔥 Flashback Fragment (7 years ago):
A small city called Virden's Hollow.
Kai. A girl with wind-chime laughter.
Running through abandoned rooftops.
She had a Dreambind called Glassstep — she could walk on light.
They found the first collapsed dream-door together.
They opened it.
Together.
And it consumed the whole city.
---
Lira stared in horror.
"You opened the first Gate?!"
Kai nodded.
> "I thought… it was just a hidden level. A secret. We were stupid."
> "The Labyrinth didn't expand on its own."
> "We gave it the key."
---
The child version of Kai was now crying.
His tears fell upward, turning into glowing feathers that flew into the sky.
Lira whispered, "…he's stuck in that moment."
Kai looked up at the Mirror Tower.
The girl's voice echoed again.
> "I kept waiting, Kai."
"I kept reliving the fire."
"And then the Archivist offered me peace."
---
Lira took a step back.
> "No…"
> "You mean she's—"
Kai finished it:
> "Naera is one of the Founding Dreamers."
"The first to merge with the Labyrinth."
"And she's still inside it — stuck between memory and godhood."
---
Suddenly, the tower shattered.
A thousand mirrors fell.
Each reflected a different version of Kai.
Some with blood on their hands.
Some in chains.
Some smiling with dead eyes.
One version was kneeling before the Archivist, writing names in a book made of skin.
Lira screamed.
> "We need to get out of here—!"
But Kai didn't move.
He stepped into the falling mirror storm.
---
Each shard cut into him — but didn't draw blood.
Instead, they pulled memories.
His mother's final words.
A promise he broke.
A hand he let slip into the void.
Naera's voice, echoing:
> "You don't get to forget, Kai."
"You built this nightmare."
"Now live inside it."
---
Suddenly — from the tower's wreckage — emerged a figure wrapped in ribbons of light.
Her face cracked like porcelain.
But her eyes…
Still remembered him.
Naera.
Kai fell to his knees.
> "I'm sorry."
She tilted her head.
> "I know."
> "But that won't save you."
---
The sky screamed.
The dream shifted.
Everything turned to ink.
---
🕳️ Kai fell.
Deeper.
Into black.
But this time, not alone.
Lira fell beside him.
The last thing they heard was Naera's voice:
> "The Second Gate opens now."
> "And the cost is your reflection.