Flamebound: Rise of the Cursed Prince

The night in Gezana was unnervingly silent.

Aaron stood alone in the upper corridor of the Pierce estate. Moonlight poured through stained-glass windows, fracturing into scattered rainbows across the cold stone floor. But the stillness wasn't peaceful—it felt watchful, as if something ancient held its breath, waiting.

At the corridor's end, a towering mirror loomed—framed in blackened silver, etched with deep Skyborn runes curling along its edges. He'd never noticed it before. But tonight, it called to him.

A soft voice whispered from nowhere.

> "You feel it, don't you?"

Aaron flinched, scanning the shadows. No one.

He turned back to the mirror. His reflection did not move.

Instead, it smiled.

His breath caught.

This was not him—not truly. The eyes glowed faintly, like distant dying stars. Where his heart should have been, a swirling ember pulsed, beating like a second flame inside his chest.

> "Who are you?" Aaron whispered, stepping closer.

> "I am the one you left behind," the mirror-version said.

"The fire you buried. The truth you refused to see."

The glass rippled, like a surface disturbed by a stone.

Suddenly, Aaron was pulled forward—not physically, but deep inside his mind.

Visions flashed:

A throne devoured by flames.

A child torn from the arms of a bloodied woman.

Frankfurt kneeling before a figure cloaked in ash-feathers.

The shattered sigil of the Skyborn, broken and bleeding light.

He gasped, staggering back.

The mirror was still again—reflecting only his own face.

But inside him, something had shifted.

Footsteps echoed behind him—slow, deliberate. Frankfurt appeared, his expression unreadable.

> "You found the glass," he said quietly.

Aaron nodded.

Frankfurt's gaze drifted between the mirror and Aaron.

> "There's no turning back now. The fire inside remembers. And soon, it will burn away everything false."

With that, Frankfurt turned and vanished down the hall, his cloak trailing like a shadow.

Aaron looked back at the mirror. His hand trembled.

But he did not step away.