Chapter 4: A World Without Chains

The morning sun filtered through broken slats in the outpost ceiling, painting stripes of gold across the concrete floor. Aeryn sat cross-legged near the entrance, staring out into the misty jungle. Her hands trembled slightly as she held the mirror shard in her lap.

Lior approached quietly, careful not to disturb her thoughts. His arm was bandaged, the wound nearly healed thanks to the Mirror’s power, but the worry on his face remained.

“You didn’t sleep,” he said.

“I couldn’t,” Aeryn replied. “Kael was real. And he was different. Controlled, maybe… but still him.”

Lior sat beside her. “You said he was part of the Mirror World?”

“He welcomed me there. Guided me. And now the Queen’s using him as her puppet.” Her voice was tight with guilt. “What if I led him straight into her hands?”

Lior’s hand brushed against hers. “You didn’t do this. She did.”

Aeryn exhaled slowly. “We need to go back.”

“To the Mirror World?”

She nodded. “There’s more I need to learn—about Kael, about the Queen, about what connects them. I think the answers are there.”

“But how do you even get back? The shard brought you there before, but…”

She held up the mirror fragment. “It responds to intention. If I focus hard enough—”

Lior caught her wrist. “Wait. What if it doesn’t bring you back to the same place? Or the same time?”

“Then I take the risk,” she said. “Because staying here without answers is more dangerous.”

Lior hesitated, then let go.

“Then I’m going with you.”

Aeryn blinked. “You… can’t. I don’t know if it works on anyone but me.”

“We won’t know unless we try.”

She stared at him for a long moment.

“Alright. Hold on.”

He clasped her hand.

She closed her eyes and focused.

Take me back. To the place between freedom and memory. To the world where love still lives.

The shard pulsed, then glowed.

In an instant, the world vanished in light.

They landed softly—this time not on grass, but on white sand.

Waves crashed gently along the shore. The air smelled of sea salt and kalachuchi blossoms. Above them, birds circled under a lilac sky. Palm trees bent in the breeze.

Aeryn sat up, blinking.

They were on an island.

Lior groaned beside her. “Okay… I did not expect that.”

“You made it,” Aeryn said, stunned.

He looked around. “Is this… the Mirror World?”

She nodded. “One part of it.”

In the distance stood a coastal village—floating houses built on stilts, connected by hanging bridges and ropes. Lanterns swayed gently in the wind. Children played by the water while fishermen and women sorted through glowing silverfish that shimmered like glass.

But more than that—men and women were working together. Laughing. Equal. Whole.

“No cuffs,” Lior whispered. “No uniforms.”

Aeryn turned to him. “This is what the world was meant to be.”

A figure approached from the village, walking along the shoreline. It was Kael.

But this Kael was different.

His mismatched eyes had returned. His expression was warm. Free.

“Aeryn,” he greeted. “And… Lior.”

Aeryn stepped forward cautiously. “How are you… you again?”

Kael smiled. “This is my true self. Not the projection the Queen used to spy on you.”

“She controlled you.”

“She split me,” he said. “When Xrydia fell through the Mirror, her rage poisoned the fabric between worlds. I was caught in the fracture—one half loyal to her, the other trapped here.”

Lior crossed his arms. “And now you’re suddenly whole?”

“No,” Kael admitted. “But the first key you recovered weakened her control. It freed this version of me.”

Aeryn asked, “Why does she hate love so much?”

Kael’s smile faded. “Because she once loved… and lost everything. The man she loved—her betrothed—was killed during the Rebellion of Balance. She blamed the chaos of the Republic. She believed love had made her weak.”

“And she turned her grief into hatred,” Aeryn said.

Kael nodded. “But deep inside, that grief remains unhealed. You saw it in the chapel memory, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” Aeryn whispered. “She cried after she killed the lovers. She held the pendant like it meant something.”

“It did,” Kael said. “That pendant was hers once. A gift from the man she loved.”

Aeryn clenched her fists. “Then she knows I touched it. That I’ve seen her truth.”

“She’ll come harder now,” Kael warned. “With spies, soldiers… even Hollow Knights.”

“What are those?” Lior asked.

“Soulless enforcers. Created from the shattered reflections of those who tried to cross the Mirror. They have no memories. No hearts. Only commands.”

Aeryn felt her pulse quicken. “Then we need to find the second key. Fast.”

Kael pulled something from his belt—a parchment of woven light.

“This will guide you to it. But the path is not just physical. It’s spiritual.”

He handed it to her. On the parchment shimmered three symbols: Pag-ibig (love) now pulsing at the center.

“It lies at the place where love was silenced. Where names were erased. You must face your own fear there.”

Lior glanced at Aeryn. “What does that mean?”

Kael looked solemn. “Only she knows.”

Aeryn stood on a boat made of shell and bamboo, drifting away from the island.

Lior stood beside her, silent.

They sailed through glowing waters, deeper into the Mirror World. Time passed differently here—minutes stretched and collapsed like dreams. Hours became heartbeats.

Aeryn gripped the parchment. The symbol for Pag-ibig pulsed faintly.

“Kael said I had to face my fear,” she murmured.

Lior leaned closer. “What are you afraid of?”

Her voice cracked. “Losing you.”

He looked away, jaw tight. “You won’t.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do,” he said, then softer, “because I’ve already lost you once.”

She blinked.

“When you left for the Academy, I thought I’d never see you again,” he said. “I hated myself for letting you go. But now… I’d follow you through every mirror if it meant we could be free.”

Aeryn’s eyes glistened. She reached for his hand.

They stood like that, hands intertwined, as the boat approached a new land.

They arrived at the Mirror World’s Garden of Forgotten Names—a vast, ethereal valley where thousands of glowing names floated in the air like fireflies. Each one shimmered briefly before fading into mist.

“What is this place?” Lior asked in awe.

“This is where the names of the erased go,” Kael had told her. “Those stripped of identity by the Monarchy. Those whose love was cut from history.”

Aeryn walked slowly among the lights.

Each name whispered something—laughs, songs, confessions, memories.

She stopped when she saw one floating gently before her.

LIOR

Her breath caught. “Your name…”

Lior stepped beside her, stunned.

“My real name,” he said. “Not my Servitor ID. Not my number.”

She touched the light.

It burst into a warm flame and entered the shard.

Another Baybayin character burned into the glass: Pag-ibig.

The second key was hers.

But the moment it entered the shard, the sky turned black.

Wind howled. The lights of the valley dimmed.

The Hollow Knights had arrived.

Dozens of them—dark armored figures with no faces, no voices, only glowing red visors—descended from the sky.

Aeryn and Lior ran.

A blast of dark energy struck the ground behind them, sending dirt and light flying.

“We can’t outrun them!” Lior shouted.

“We don’t have to,” Aeryn said. She held up the shard.

Its light burst forth, blinding and pure.

The Hollow Knights recoiled, screeching.

One lunged forward—but Lior stepped between it and Aeryn.

He didn’t flinch.

The Knight raised its blade.

“No!” Aeryn cried.

But before the blade struck, Kael appeared—glowing with the full power of the Mirror.

With a flick of his hand, the Knight dissolved into dust.

Kael turned to them, breathing heavily.

“They’ll keep coming,” he said. “But the second key is yours.”

“We need to leave,” Aeryn said, shaken.

Kael opened a portal of light. “Go. Rest. Prepare.”

As they stepped through, Aeryn looked back at the Garden.

A single name remained glowing:

XRYDIA

It flickered—bright, then dim.

And Aeryn knew.

The Queen had not forgotten her name.

She had buried it.

End of Chapter 4

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