SMOKE AND MIRRORS

Valkhara

The Mirror Chamber was silent when I entered.

Not peaceful. Not calm.

The kind of silence that screamed.

No footsteps echoed. No wind stirred.

Only magic pulsed in the walls alive and waiting.

The door sealed behind me with a deep, final thud.

I didn’t flinch.

I wouldn’t give them that.

Glass surrounded me ceiling to floor. Every wall reflected the room, the door, the pedestal in the center.

But not me.

I had no reflection.

And that was the first warning.

The enchanted hourglass waited atop the pedestal. Tall, slender, its sand deep red like powdered blood. The moment I crossed the threshold fully, it flipped itself.

The Trial had begun.

Let your mind speak.

I took a breath.

The air was too still. Too thick.

I didn’t trust it.

Then it started.

The mirrors rippled not like water, but like skin and shifted.

Images flashed, then vanished.

A battlefield. Fire. Screams.

Me, drenched in blood, sword in hand.

Me, kneeling. Collared. Bound.

Me, begging someone I didn’t recognize not to leave me.

I didn’t blink. I didn’t stop.

And then—

“You let us die.”

I turned.

And the breath tore from my chest like it had been ripped with claws.

She was maybe eight.

Red curls. Pale skin. The same slope to her nose that mirrored my mother’s. Big, soft eyes. Eyes I hadn’t seen in over a decade.

My little sister.

Dead.

Murdered with our parents when they came for the Emberborn bloodline.

The slaughter they called a necessary purge.

She stood barefoot on glass, in the same green dress she’d been wearing that day. The same one stained with blood when they tore her from my arms.

I stumbled back, breath catching. “No…”

Her lip trembled. “They screamed for you.”

Tears burned instantly. My knees nearly buckled.

The mirrors shivered with power.

“They begged you to fight.”

“I tried,” I gasped. “I—I was just a kid—”

“You watched them die.”

“No.”

“You watched me die.”

I dropped to my knees. The weight of it hit like a hammer.

She stepped closer.

Small feet on glass. Blood pooling beneath her steps even though she wasn’t bleeding.

“You could’ve saved us.”

I clutched my stomach like the pain was physical. “I couldn’t. I couldn’t do anything.”

Her voice changed then.

It aged. Hardened.

Twisted by the chamber’s magic. But I was too far gone in the guilt and grief I didn't realize I still held on to that tight.

“You were weak.”

The words gutted me.

“You were always weak. All fire, no spine.”

I curled forward. Shaking. Tears spilled unchecked.

She crouched in front of me, staring into my soul.

“Now look at you. You let two vampires claim you. You let them own you.”

“I didn’t—”

“You did,” she said. “You call it strategy. But it’s surrender.”

Her hand reached up to touch my cheek.

“You don’t deserve to carry our blood.”

I let out a sob I didn’t recognize as mine. The kind of sound that only comes when something shatters inside you.

And then I heard it.

Valkhara.

Not her.

Not the mirror.

Azric.

Get up.

“I can’t.”

Yes. You can.

“I let them die.”

You were a child.

“I ran.”

You survived.

My fingers curled against the glass floor. Magic buzzed beneath my skin buried under grief and guilt, but still there.

You think you’re alone in this?

You’re not.

You have me.

The chamber tried to push back. The illusion of my sister leaned in and whispered:

“They’re only with you because of the bond.”

Azric’s voice growled through my head, louder this time.

That’s a lie.

I want you because you’re chaos incarnate.

Because you scare me. Because you make me feel things I haven’t felt in centuries.

I breathed shaky, broken.

You don’t need to be strong for me. But if you’re going to burn, then burn through this.

The illusion faltered.

My sister flickered face twisting with doubt.

The glass trembled beneath me.

I stood.

Not fast. Not like a warrior. But like a woman who had nothing left to lose.

My voice cracked. “I didn’t get to save them.”

The chamber rippled.

“But I’m still here.”

Flames sparked across my shoulders, down my arms, into my palms.

“And I will never let another person I love be taken from me again.”

My little sister’s image flickered.

“Not Sevrin.”

I trembled.

“Not Azric.”

Cracks formed in the mirror walls.

“Not myself.”

And then I screamed.

The fire burst from me in every direction—like it had been waiting for the moment I chose myself.

The Mirror Chamber shattered.

The illusion shattered.

Glass rained down like diamonds.

The hourglass exploded in a flash of blood and light.

And I collapsed.

When I woke, I was on the stone floor outside the chamber.

My arms trembled. My face was wet. My mouth tasted like ash and salt and blood.

The High Council stood above me in their cloaks, stone-faced. Watching.

Azric was already at my side, cradling me in his lap, brushing blood-matted hair from my eyes.

Sevrin’s fists were clenched. His body coiled. He looked one breath away from murdering the entire room.

“You made it out,” Azric said softly.

I blinked at him, barely able to speak.

The head councilor stepped forward.

“You survived,” he said flatly.

But his tone was… confused.

Not just confused. Uneasy.

Like what he saw had not gone according to plan.

“Barely,” I whispered.

He looked at Azric. “How did you reach her inside the Chamber? That should’ve been impossible.”

Azric smirked coldly. “Nothing about her is impossible.”

And as I lay there in his arms, shaking, bleeding, and still raw…

I realized something.

They didn’t just fear what I was becoming.

They feared that I wasn’t becoming anything at all.

I had always been this powerful.

I just hadn’t shown them yet.

I went to stand only to stumble. My legs gave out and I felt strong arms wrap around me picking me up bridal style and carrying me. I looked up expecting it to be Azric but to my surprise it was Sevrin. His Jaw clenched like he was hanging on by a thread. He was never gentle and he just eyed me. I wanted to read his thoughts to know why he was being so nice, but something with the look in his eye when me made eye contact told me it was best I didn't do that and to not push my luck.

By the time we made it back to our suite, news had spread that 3 of the competitors had died during today's trial and 1 had gone insane with the threshold of their conscious being snapped in half. I shivered at that that news as Azric and Sevrin eyed me like they were waiting for me to break or fall apart.

Azric was the first one to finally talk.. "do you want to talk about the shit that went on in there?"

"NOPE" I said popping it with a P. But I guess you have leverage on how to break me now if you need it huh, I said with a dark chuckle.

At that Azric and Sevrin both looked at me suspiciously. "Why the fuck would we want to do that, Valkharha?" it was Severin's turn to speak..

I just shrugged my shoulders and let the uncomfortable silence fall over us.