The forest spat them out at a cliff’s edge. Below churned a river that shouldn’t exist.

  “Mercury?” Fayra crouched, poking the silvery current with a stick. The river hissed, reshaping into a perfect replica of her tail. “Neat party trick. Think it’ll do my taxes too?”

  Velene stiffened. “It’s Mirrorglass. The Dominion drilled us on this—Eidolon’s truth serum. Stare too long, and it…”

  “Eats your lies?” Ami murmured.

  The river rippled. Reflections bloomed.

  Fayra’s doubled—one version lounging on a throne of gold, the other bleeding out in a trench. Velene’s split into a Dominion general draped in medals and a hollow-eyed prisoner. Ami’s reflection stayed empty.

  “oh darling,” Anna purred. “it can’t see you. too many maybes. too much… us.”

  Fayra snorted. “Mine’s boring. Let’s raft this bling.”

  “Wait.” Velene’s voice cracked. Her spear wavered between the two reflections. “It’s a trap. The current changes you. My uncle crossed one. Came back… wrong.”

  “Wrong how?” Ami asked.

  “He forgot his name. Kept screaming about fires that never happened.”

  The river lapped at the cliff. Silver droplets hardened into steps.

  Fayra hopped onto the first. “Risk vs. reward, Vel. You in?”

  Velene didn’t move. Her reflection-general sneered.

  Ami’s boot hovered over the liquid metal. Her shadow pooled violet.

  “step, darling. let’s see what we drown.”

  The river swallowed her foot—and showed her a crown.

  The river hissed as Ami stepped deeper. Mercury coiled around her calves, hardening into a throne of liquid metal. Her reflection split: one version crowned in Dominion gold, the other draped in Eidolon’s starlit shadows. Both whispered at once: "Rule them. Ruin them."

  Fayra poked the river with her dagger. “Look alive, princess. Your puddle’s getting ideas.” Her reflection-mirror split: One Fayra stood atop a mountain of jewels, the other bleeding out in a gutter. Both screamed in unison.

  Velene froze mid-step, her spear trembling. The river peeled back her armor, revealing phantom scars from battles she’d never fought. “No,” she breathed. Her reflection wore a general’s insignia—but knelt before a burning Dominion flag.

  Anna’s laugh slithered into Ami’s ear: "dominion’s golden girl? more like daddy’s broken toy. look at her squirm."

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  Velene lunged—not at the river, but at Ami. “You did this!” Her gauntlet glowed with suppression runes. “Your chaos is twisting the visions!”

  The throne dissolved. Ami stumbled back, mercury dripping like accusations. “I’m not controlling it!”

  “Liar.” Velene’s eyes flickered gold-black-gold. “You want to be Eidolon. You’re no better than—”

  “Than who?” Anna purred. "her precious wildmathguy? the man mommy loved before she sold him out?"

  The river erupted.

  Fayra hissed as her brother’s ghost flickered in the mercury. “Vel! The river’s not showing futures—it’s digging up graves!” She plunged her dagger into the flow. The metal screamed, fracturing into a hundred shards of her childhood home in flames.

  Velene’s spear clattered. “Father… I didn’t know they’d kill you for questioning Amariel.” Her reflection-general raised a sword to her throat.

  Ami’s hands glowed violet. “Anna, stop this.”

  “make me, darling. or better yet—” The crown slammed onto Ami’s brow. Dominion runes seared her skin while Eidolon’s shadows whispered battle plans.

  Velene snarled, thrusting her spear at Ami’s chest. “Take. It. Off.”

  The river froze.

  Then the Mirrorglass shattered—not into droplets, but into jagged panes of collective memory: Amariel’s first meeting with Wildmathguy, Velene’s father begging for mercy, Fayra’s brother coughing blood in a plague-ridden den.

  The Living Archive had awakened.

  Velene stood over Ami, spear trembling. “This ends now.”

  Fayra flicked a shard of memory-glass. “Wrong. It’s just getting interesting.”

  The riverbed cracked, swallowing them into darkness.

  Anna’s voice echoed: "welcome home, darling. time to meet the family."

  Mercury bled upward.

  Ami hung suspended in a cathedral of liquid silver. The crown’s thorns bit deeper. "don’t fight it, darling. dominion. eidolon. both are cages. we’re the lockpick."

  Velene’s spear gleamed inches from her throat. “Take. It. Off.”

  The command frayed at the edges. Velene’s armor flickered—Dominion gold one moment, Eidolon’s prismatic decay the next. Her father’s execution played in a loop across her breastplate.

  Fayra floated nearby, clutching a shard that showed her brother alive. “Vel! The river’s not showing pasts—it’s selling futures! This one’s… fresh.”

  Anna snarled. "she’s lying. break her. break them all."

  The crown pulsed. Ami’s threads lashed out—gold for control, violet for chaos. They wrapped Velene’s spear, yanking it aside.

  “Stop!” Ami’s voice split into harmonies. One hers. One Anna’s. "The river’s using our fears as bait. Velene, your father’s death—it wasn’t a failure. It was a message."

  The memory-shard in Velene’s hand flared. Young Lieutenant Velene stood at attention as Amariel spoke: "Your father questioned orders. Honor his defiance by living it."

  Fayra barked a laugh. “Oh, this is rich. Dominion’s poster girl got a rebel streak? Explains the resting martyr vibe.”

  “Silence!” Velene’s spear trembled. The memory-shard melted into her palm. “You don’t know what I’ve—”

  “Sacrificed?” Ami’s threads glowed white-hot. "You think you’re the only one?"

  The river answered. Ami tore the crown free. “No. We decide our storms.”

  The river screamed.

  The Mirrorglass coalesced into a tunnel of faces—Wildmathguy teaching Amariel chaos equations, Velene’s father smuggling Eidolon refugees, Fayra’s brother igniting the plague-den to save her.

  Anna whispered: "the archive remembers what empires erase."

  Velene gripped Ami’s shoulder. “You… broke it.”

  “Temporarily.” Fayra pocketed a shard glowing with her brother’s smile. “Let’s not linger. This place reeks of bibliotherapy.”

  The trio fell into darkness. Velene’s armor shed its last gold fleck. Ami’s threads now bled violet.

  They landed in a cavern where walls pulsed with memories. A stalactite dripped onto Ami’s boot, hissing: “Amarantha…”

  Fayra grimaced. “Oh good. Sentient décor.”

  Anna laughed inside Ami’s skull. "home sweet prison, darling. let’s redecorate."