Io spoke again, softer this time..
“I have spent seven lives remembering the deaths of the people I love.”
Her voice was dangerously calm.
“Forgive me if some details have become blurred.”
Lexander lowered his gaze.
“I’m sorry.”
Io’s expression softened.
Lysandra looked between them.
Then slowly raised a hand.
“Can I ask something?”
Everyone turned toward her.
She lowered her hand.
“I don’t actually need permission.”
“Clearly.”
Lexander muttered.
Lysandra ignored him.
“You remember seven lives?”
Io nodded.
“And in every single one, you found him?”
“Yes.”
Lysandra frowned.
“Why?”
Io stared at her.
Lysandra continued.
“Not why did you love him.”
Lexander immediately looked offended.
“Thank you for clarifying.”
“Shut up.”
She turned back to Io.
“I mean why were the two of you always together?”
Io went still.
Lexander noticed.
“That’s a good question.”
Lysandra looked smug.
“Thank you.”
Io leaned back in her chair.
“I don’t know.”
Lysandra’s smugness disappeared.
“Oh.”
“I’ve wondered that for seven lifetimes.”
Io looked toward the window.
“No matter where I was born.”
“No matter who I became.”
“No matter how far I traveled.”
She looked at Lexander.
“I found him.”
Lexander shifted uncomfortably.
“And he always looked like me?”
Io smiled faintly.
“Not exactly.”
“What?”
“You’ve been much uglier.”
Lysandra burst into laughter.
Lexander stared at Io.
“That is incredibly rude.”
“You asked.”
“I did not.”
“You implied.”
“I was making conversation.”
“You drowned once.”
“I am beginning to understand why I apparently died so often.”
Io laughed.
For the first time that night, it sounded genuine.
Then—
Someone knocked on the door.
The laughter died.
Lisbeth stood.
“Who is it?”
“General Atreyu.”
Io’s expression changed.
“Enter.”
The General stepped inside.
He immediately noticed the unusual gathering.
“Am I interrupting?”
“Yes.”
Lexander answered.
“No.”
Io said at the same time.
Atreyu stared between them.
“Should I return?”
“No.”
Io stood.
“What happened?”
Atreyu walked toward her.
“There has been an incident.”
The room grew quiet.
“Where?”
“At the northern wall.”
Io’s hand went to her sword.
“An attack?”
“No.”
Atreyu’s expression was grim.
“That would have been preferable.”
Lexander stood.
“What happened?”
The General looked at him.
Then at Io.
“A body was found.”
Lysandra grabbed Lexander’s sleeve.
Lisbeth’s expression hardened.
“Whose?”
Atreyu hesitated.
That was never good.
Finally—
“One of our sentries.”
Io’s voice became cold.
“How?”
Atreyu’s eyes moved toward Lexander.
“Drowned.”
Silence.
Lexander stopped breathing.
“At the northern wall?”
Lysandra whispered.
Atreyu nodded.
“There is no river near the northern wall.”
“No lake.”
Io said.
“No.”
Atreyu continued.
“The man’s lungs were filled with seawater.”
Lexander felt the room tilt.
Io immediately grabbed his arm.
He looked at her.
Her face had gone pale.
“That’s impossible.”
Lisbeth whispered.
Atreyu shook his head.
“There is more.”
Io’s fingers tightened around Lexander’s arm.
“What?”
“The sentry was found holding something.”
Atreyu reached into his coat.
He removed a small object.
A silver pendant.
At its center was a symbol.
Seven circles.
Each connected to the next.
Lexander stared.
Io staggered backward.
“No.”
Atreyu looked at her.
“Do you recognize it?”
Io didn’t answer.
Lexander turned.
“Io.”
Her eyes remained fixed on the pendant.
“No.”
The word came again.
This time, quieter.
Almost terrified.
Lysandra looked toward the Queen.
“What is it?”
Io finally spoke.
“The symbol of the Cycle.”
Lexander frowned.
“What cycle?”
Io looked at him.
Her face had lost all color.
“The one that ended.”
The northern wall was silent.
Soldiers had been ordered away from the area.
Only Queen Io, General Atreyu, Lexander, and a handful of trusted guards remained.
Lysandra had insisted on coming.
Lisbeth had insisted she wasn’t coming.
The argument had lasted almost five minutes.
Lysandra won.
Lexander suspected that his sister would someday conquer the world simply because everyone around her eventually became too tired to argue.
The body lay beneath a white sheet.
Io stood several feet away.
She hadn’t moved since arriving.
Atreyu crouched beside the corpse.
“Nothing was disturbed.”
Lexander looked around.
The wall was dry.
The ground was dry.
There was no water anywhere.
He could see the distant lights of the city.
The mountains beyond them.
Nothing else.
“How did he get here?”
Lysandra whispered.
“No one knows.”
Atreyu answered.
Lexander stepped closer.
Io immediately caught his wrist.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“I need to see.”
“You don’t.”
“Why?”
Her expression tightened.
“Because I remember.”
Lexander went still.
“The third life?”
Io nodded.
“He looked like this.”
Lexander stared.
The body was turned toward them.
Slowly, Atreyu removed the sheet.
The sentry’s face was pale.
His eyes were open.
Frozen in terror.
Lexander looked down.
His chest tightened.
Something was written across the man’s armor.
Not in blood.
Not in paint.
The letters had been carved directly into the steel.
Io stepped forward.
She read them first.
Then stopped breathing.
Lexander leaned closer.
There were only three words.
SEVEN WAS ENOUGH.
Lysandra whispered.
“What does that mean?”
Io didn’t answer.
Lexander turned toward her.
“Io.”
The Queen looked at him.
And suddenly—
The world disappeared.
He stood in a field.
The sky was burning.
Men screamed around him.
Lexander held a sword.
But it wasn’t his sword.
His armor was broken.
Blood ran down his face.
Across from him stood a woman.
Io.
Younger.
Different.
Her hair was shorter.
She was crying.
“Run!”
Lexander didn’t know why he shouted.
He knew the word before he said it.
Run.
The woman shook her head.
“No!”
Something moved behind her.
A figure.
Covered in darkness.
Lexander raised his sword.
The world flashed white.
He was somewhere else.
A forest.
Snow covered the ground.
Io was kneeling beside him.
He was dying.
Again.
Her hands were covered in blood.
“No.”
She whispered.
“Please.”
Lexander couldn’t move.
His body was cold.
He tried to speak.
He couldn’t.
Io pressed her forehead against his.
“I found you.”
She was sobbing.
“I always find you.”
Darkness.
A city.
Stone buildings.
Fire.
Lexander ran through the streets.
He heard a child crying.
He turned.
A little girl stood beneath a collapsed doorway.
He knew her.
His daughter.
Io’s daughter.
Their daughter.
His heart shattered.
He ran toward her.
A shadow crossed the sky.
Then—
Nothing.
Lexander returned to the northern wall.
He collapsed.
Io caught him before he struck the ground.
“LEX!”
Lysandra rushed toward him.
Atreyu shouted something.
Lexander couldn’t hear.
He clutched Io’s arm.
His eyes were wide.
“I remember.”
Io froze.
The words came from him like a prayer.
“I remember.”
Her face broke.
Not into happiness.
Into terror.
“No.”
Lexander stared at her.
“The field.”
Io shook her head.
“Stop.”
“The forest.”
“Lexander.”
“The little girl.”
Io grabbed his face.
“STOP!”
He did.
Everything became silent.
They stared at one another.
Io’s hands trembled against his cheeks.
Lexander slowly whispered.
“She had my eyes.”
Io began crying.
He remembered.
Not everything.
Not enough.
But he remembered her.
A child he had never met.
A daughter who had never existed.
And somehow—
He missed her.
The grief hit him without warning.
Lexander gasped.
His legs gave out.
Io held him.
Lysandra stood frozen.
She had never seen her brother cry like this.
Not for their father.
Not after battles.
Not even after three weeks in the dungeon.
But now he wept for a child who had died centuries before he had been born.
Io held him as though she were afraid to let go.
Finally, General Atreyu spoke.
His voice was grim.
“Your Majesty.”
Io looked up.
Atreyu held the silver pendant.
“The Cycle may not have ended.”
Io wiped her face.
“No.”
She stood slowly.
Lexander remained on his knees.
Atreyu continued.
“If what happened here is connected to your memories—”
“It is.”
Io interrupted.
The General’s face hardened.
“Then we need answers.”
Io looked toward the mountains.
For several seconds, no one spoke.
Then she said something that caused even Atreyu to hesitate.
“We go to the First Grave.”
Lexander looked up.
“The what?”
Io stared into the darkness beyond the city.
“The place where I died for the first time.”
A cold wind swept across the wall.
Lysandra’s hand found her brother’s.
Lexander squeezed it.
He didn’t know what waited beneath those mountains.
He didn’t know why something had killed a man and left a message meant for him.
And he certainly didn’t know what kind of gods would force a woman to watch the same man die seven times.
But one thing had changed.
He had seen the memories.
He had felt them.
Io was telling the truth.
Somewhere beneath those mountains lay the beginning of a story that had lasted longer than either of them could remember.
And Lexander intended to find out why.
Far beneath the mountains, the black mirror had reformed.
The crack remained.
Inside it, the silhouette waited.
A second figure emerged from the darkness.
“You failed.”
The first voice answered.
“They are remembering.”
“They should not be capable of that.”
“They were never supposed to survive the seventh.”
Silence.
Then the second figure spoke.
“Perhaps they did not.”
The first turned.
“What?”
The darkness shifted.
A face appeared.
It was impossible to see clearly.
But its smile was unmistakable.
“Perhaps the ones who survived…”
The voice whispered.
“Are not the ones who entered the Cycle.”
The mirror cracked again.
Far away, beneath the sleeping city, Lexander suddenly opened his eyes.
And for the briefest moment—
His reflection smiled before he did.