After her encounter with Nymira, Alice woke up elsewhere in darkness.

  At first, her mind was foggy, her surroundings confusing. But as she slowly sat up, wincing slightly as her body ached, a faint sense of deja vu settled over her.

  She was used to waking up in unfamiliar places. But something about this time...felt different.

  She glanced around warily, her mind racing. She was in some kind of cave, an ancient one, judging from the crumbling stone walls and frozen floor. And though the chamber was quiet as a tomb, Alice could have sworn she heard...

  ...a voice?

  She frowned, trying to pinpoint the sound. It was faint, like someone whispering from a great distance.

  She stood up slowly, her feet touching cold stone.

  And as the fog in her mind began to lift...a strange silence settled over her. There was nothing here. No birds, birds, or even wind. Just...quiet.

  She shivered, not from the cold, but from the silence.

  Her voice sounded almost foreign when she whispered:

  "Hello?"

  No one answered.

  No one was there.

  It all felt strangely… familiar.

  She took a shaky breath, trying to steady her nerves. This place was odd.

  The quiet...it was almost too quiet. It reminded her of...something.

  Something she couldn't quite remember.

  She glanced around, searching for some clue—a light, an exit, anything. But she could see nothing but shadows.

  She took another step forward, her heart thumping in her chest.

  "Hello?" she called again, her voice echoing softly through the silent darkness. "Is...is anyone here?”

  Still no answer.

  She clenched her fists tightly, trying to hold back an inexplicable wave of fear.

  There was something wrong here, something she couldn't quite put into words.

  She took another step forward...and suddenly, her foot hit something cold and smooth.

  She glanced down.

  And froze.

  On the ground lay a cracked mirror, half-buried in dust.

  Alice hesitated, then slowly knelt down and picked it up.

  As she looked into the fractured glass...her breath caught in her throat.

  In the mirror's twisted reflection...her own face stared back.

  But there was something different about the reflection.

  Her deep blue eyes seemed...darker. Hard. Her usually soft features took on a sharper edge.

  She stared at her doppelganger for several moments, unable to look away...

  ...until a sudden creaking sound broke the silence behind her.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Alice froze.

  The sound came again, soft, slow... deliberate.

  Footsteps.

  She turned around slowly, her breath shallow as she gripped the broken mirror tighter in her hand, a figure coming into view from within the darkness.

  A slender silhouette slowly stepped forward. It was clad in some sort of cloak. But its features were lost in shadow.

  Alice took a step back, heart pounding.

  The figure paused, its body completely still.

  Then, a quiet voice came from beneath the hood. Soft...smooth...and somehow familiar.

  "You can see me.”

  Alice's heart raced even faster now, the voice sending chills down her spine. But she forced herself to stand her ground.

  "Y-yes," she managed to squeak out.

  The silhouette tilted its head slightly, as if studying her.

  "Interesting," the voice murmured. "Only those with a very low Sanity Index can see me at all.”

  Alice's heart was pounding now. Low Sanity Index? What was going on?

  "Who...who are you?" she asked, trying to keep her voice steady.

  The silhouette tilted its head even further, the hood deepening its shadow. "Who I am...well..." There was a slight pause. "...you may call me Shí’àn."

  Shí’àn. The word sent another shiver down Alice's spine.

  "Shí’àn," she repeated, her voice coming out barely above a whisper. "Like...the word for 'forgotten'?"

  A flicker of surprise crossed Shí'àn's face, so quick, Alice almost didn't notice. "Yes," Shí’àn said slowly. "Exactly like that.”

  "This place..." Alice whispered, her voice barely audible. "It's not real, is it? It’s... inside my mind."

  A beat of silence.

  Shí’àn stepped closer , slow, deliberate. The air thickened with every breath.

  “Not quite,” Shí’àn said softly. “This is the in-between. The hollow space where broken things go to remember... or to rot.”

  Alice clutched the cracked mirror tighter. Her reflection still stared back, but colder and sharper.

  “And you?” she asked, eyes flicking up to the shadowed face beneath the hood. “What are you? A memory? A hallucination?”

  Shí’àn didn’t answer right away. Instead, she projected her aura to show Alice a flashback of her interaction with Dorian.

  Guanqiu sat in the corner of her cell, eyes closed as the memories played out like a twisted film reel in her mind.

  She thought of her time as Shí’àn. The transformation. The breaking. Everything she had lost, and everything she had gained.

  But now...something felt different.

  Her hatred still burned hot...but now it was already mixing with something else. Regret? Remorse?

  No.

  She shook her head violently.

  Not that. Not weakness.

  She took a deep breath, steadying herself.

  "I can't go back," she whispered to herself. "Not after everything I've done."

  And yet...that voice echoed in her mind:

  "They erased me. As if I don’t belong anywhere, in my own country, in my own home."

  Guanqiu clenched her fists tightly.

  She wanted to hate.

  She needed to hate.

  But now...she wasn't so sure.

  And that scared her more than anything else.

  The memory ended just as quickly as it began.

  Alice was left in the silent shadows, the broken mirror clutched tightly in her hand.

  Shí’àn had fallen silent, watching her with that same unreadable expression.

  Alice took a deep, shaky breath, trying to steady her racing heart.

  Finally, she managed to find her voice again.

  "So..." she whispered, the words thick on her tongue. "What do you want with me?”

  Shí'àn seemed to consider this.

  "What do I want..." she echoed, her tone oddly...reflective.

  She took several slow, measured steps forward until she was right in front of Alice, so close, Alice could have reached out and touched her.

  But she didn't.

  She just stood there, studying Alice with those intense shadowed eyes.

  Finally, she spoke again.

  "I'm here..." she paused, choosing her next words carefully "...to ask a favor.”

  Alice's breath caught in her throat. A favor. From the strange, shadowy figure who appeared from nowhere.

  The thought of saying no immediately crossed her mind.

  But the strange familiarity of this place...of this person...made it hard to even think about refusing.

  Instead, she found herself saying, "What...kind of favor?”

  Shí'àn let out a small breath, almost like a sigh.

  "A very...unique favor," she said slowly, eyes still locked with Alice's.

  Alice felt a flicker of anxiety mix with her curiosity.

  "A unique favor, huh?" she repeated, trying to keep her voice steady.

  Shí'àn nodded, seemingly picking up on the anxiety in her voice.

  "Yes," she said quietly. "But first...can I ask you something?”

  Alice hesitated, then nodded.

  “Yeah,” she whispered. “Go ahead.”

  Shí’àn tilted her head slightly, shadows shifting like smoke across her face.

  “When was the last time you felt real?”

  The question hit Alice like a punch in the gut.

  "I...what?" she stammered, thrown off-guard.

  She fell quiet, her gaze dropping down to the broken mirror clutched in her hand. Her reflection stared back, darker, harder. Not quite her.

  "I..." she whispered, her voice barely audible to the other girl. "...I don't know.”

  Shí'àn tilted her head slightly, as if studying Alice's expression.

  "You don't know..." her voice was soft. Almost...gentle.

  Another silence fell. The air was so tense Alice could almost taste it.

  Finally, Shí'àn spoke again, her voice low.

  "I think..." she said slowly. "...I know why that is.”