Two Kaels stand face to face in the mirrored chamber beneath the academy.
One is Kael Evenhart—now awakened as Vaeren, bearer of the Final Key, eyes still laced with silver light, soul trembling with the weight of his returned memories.
The other is his reflection—armor forged from shadows, eyes black as the void, a smirk carved from cruelty. A Kael who remembers everything too… but chose differently.
"You're not real," Kael says, stepping back. "You're a vision. A test from the Door."
The shadow-Kael tilts his head. "Then why am I breathing your air? Why can I feel your heartbeat like it's my own?" He places a hand on his chest. Thump-thump.
Naia stands behind Kael, wand trembling. "This isn't an illusion. I can feel him. He has aura. Mass. He's alive."
Kael doesn't break his gaze. "Then who are you?"
"I'm what you could've been," the shadow says. "What you will become if you open the wrong door. I didn't seal the Realmgate out of mercy. I sealed it out of fear. And when they begged me to lock it forever…"
He steps forward.
"…I left a second key. Just in case."
Kael's stomach tightens. "Where is it?"
The shadow taps his chest. "It's not a key. It's a choice. The moment you ask the wrong question, speak the wrong word… you become me."
A crack forms across the mirror behind him. Another crack—this time through reality itself—zigzags across the ceiling of the chamber.
Something is coming through.
Far above, in the Grand Hall of Aethermark, Master Oryn slams his hands against the council table.
"You're fools if you think you can control this," he says. "Vaeren's return isn't prophecy—it's penance. The Door will test him, yes, but worse... it will test us."
One of the Archmages narrows her eyes. "Then we kill the boy."
"Try," Oryn growls, "and the Door will open from the other side."
A silence descends. No one dares speak.
Because they all know what that means.
Back in the mirrored chamber, Naia raises her wand, stepping between Kael and the shadow.
"I don't care who you were or what you remember," she says. "This boy saved me. Not you."
The shadow Kael laughs—sharp, bitter, hollow. "You think he's saving you? He's unraveling the world, thread by thread."
Kael steps forward, fury burning beneath his skin. "Maybe I will. Maybe I have to. But I'll do it my way."
He draws a circle in the air—one of the old glyphs from his dreams—and slams his palm into it.
A shockwave of light rips through the chamber.
The mirrors shatter.
The shadow stumbles, screaming in rage as cracks form along his body. "Fool! You've accelerated the breach!"
"I don't care!" Kael yells. "You're not me. You never were."
The ground trembles.
The runes across Kael's skin burn bright gold as he reaches toward the last standing mirror.
The Door is there.
Behind it, something vast begins to breathe.
A voice, not Kael's, not the shadow's, but ancient and everywhere, whispers:
The first lock is broken.The Key has chosen.Let the voices return.
The mirror explodes.
The chamber collapses.
And Kael and Naia fall into the abyss—
Not into death…—but into Elsewhere.