The orb pulsed violently, cracking the air with a sound like shattering glass.

  "Who?" Elara hissed, clutching the satchel tighter. "Who's coming?"

  The voice inside whispered again, softer now, almost mournful:

  "The first truth… and the one who wears your face."

  Everyone froze.

  Alice blinked. "Wait… my face?"

  Before anyone could respond, the chocolate rain stopped midair, drops hanging frozen in space like suspended candy gems.

  Then a slow click, like a clock hand snapping forward.

  And from deep within the mirror-clocktower...the first chime rang out.

  One strike.

  Silence after that was absolute, not even breath dared to break it.

  Then Hikaru exhaled softly and set down their teacup on thin air, where it hovered like it belonged there all along.

  “It’s decided,” Hikaru said quietly. “Euphoria chose its first guest.”

  They turned slowly, and looked straight at Alice.

  Alice wasn't paying attention to their conversation, however, as she stared at everyone, wide-eyed. All she heard was unintelligible gibberish from them ever since they arrived in Euphoria moments ago. A cacophony of warped syllables assaulted her ears.

  Iritscen took a hesitant step toward her. "Alice? Hey, can you hear me?"

  He waved his hand in front of her face. No response.

  Jax and Rachel were both trying to get her attention, calling her name. Nothing.

  Elara closed the satchel with the orb tightly inside, jaw clenched. She looked ready to punch something.

  "What's wrong with her?" Iritscen asked, frustrated. "She's not even registering we're here.”

  Then, from the orb in Elara’s satchel, softly at first, the same voice hissed again:

  "She does not speak this world’s tongue… because she is not meant to hear it yet."

  Silence fell once more.

  Then Zofie scowled. “So what, Euphoria broke her brain?”

  Hikaru stepped forward slowly and knelt in front of Alice, who still stared ahead, unblinking, her eyes wide with silent panic.

  “No,” Hikaru said quietly. “Not broken.” They placed a hand gently over their own heart, then pointed at Alice. “Translated. This world speaks in truths… not words.”

  They looked up at the group.

  “She can’t understand us… because right now, Euphoria only lets her feel one thing: dread.”

  Another chime rang out from the tower.

  Bong

  Closer this time.

  Elara pulled out the crimson key, it was warm now, almost vibrating in her palm, and glared toward the mirror-clocktower.

  “We don’t have time for riddles,” she growled. "If that place wants Alice first... fine."

  "Elara…" Iritscen said quietly.

  Elara didn't turn.

  "We need a plan," he said, a bit more urgently. "You know Alice's truth is, "

  "I know what it is." Elara snapped. Iritscen flinched, and Elara closed her eyes, fighting to steady her voice.

  "You think I don't know that?" she asked quietly. "I do. But what choice do we have? We can't just leave her here.”

  "Then don’t," Hikaru said, standing back up. They reached into their coat and pulled out a small vial, its contents swirling like captured lightning.

  “This,” they said, handing it to Elara, “is a 'sanity-balm'. Not perfect... but it might let her understand one individual, one in whom her soul resonates with most, for just a little while.”

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Elara stared at the vial. “And if it fails?”

  Hikaru shrugged. “Then Euphoria takes her alone.”

  A heavy silence.

  Elara uncorked the vial with steady hands and gently tilted Alice’s chin up. She poured just a single drop onto Alice’s tongue.

  Alice gasped, eyes snapping wide open, as if waking from drowning.

  Then she looked at Elara.

  Recognition flared in her gaze, and fear, but this time, she heard it when Elara whispered:

  “It’s okay… I’m here.”

  One breath. Two.

  Then Alice mouthed back: "Don't let go."

  Elara nodded, eyes wet. "I won't."

  She pulled Alice to her feet, then took off towards the clocktower in a dead run.

  And so did everyone else.

  It was a sprint now, Alice's hand still locked tightly around Elara’s as they raced down the candy-colored street, all heading toward the looming mirror-clocktower.

  The doors to the clocktower were cracked open, just enough to see inside.

  Darkness pooled beyond, but not empty: thousands of shattered mirrors reflected flickering images, not of them, but of things to come.

  A flash, a girl with Alice’s face screaming. A hand reaching out from broken glass. A crown made of teeth.

  Then the crimson key in Elara’s hand burned.

  She didn’t hesitate. She shoved it into the crack between the doors and twisted.

  With a groan like bones breaking, the mirror-doors swung wide, and beyond stood a staircase spiraling upward… and downward… at the same time.

  Hikaru stepped forward first. “One truth,” they said softly, “starts at a choice.”

  They looked at Alice, then pointed up. “You go alone.”

  Alice turned to Elara, eyes wide again, pleading, but Elara just gripped her hands tighter and pressed her forehead to hers.

  “I’m right behind you,” she lied quietly. “Just take one step."

  Alice swallowed hard…

  And stepped forward into Euphoria's heart.

  The silence was absolute as the clocktower doors closed shut, leaving Alice trapped within and her friends left alone on the street.

  The rain had stopped by now, but the air was thick with chocolate-scented tension.

  Jax was the first to speak. "What do we do now?”

  Elara didn’t answer right away. She pressed her palm flat against the mirror-door, cold, pulsing faintly with Alice’s fading energy.

  “She’s moving,” she said, voice tight. “The orb… it’s reacting.”

  Liana tilted her head, eyes flashing as data scrolled behind them. “I’m detecting a resonance loop within the tower. Like… memories being played back in reverse.”

  Rachel crossed her arms. "So what, we just wait?"

  "No," Iritscen said suddenly, adjusting his goggles with a spark of blue Void energy crackling at his fingertips. "We prepare." He looked at the rest of them, one by one, then to Antiquus towering above.

  “If Euphoria forces Alice to face her truth,” he began slowly, “then we must be ready for when that truth fights back.”

  Zofie cracked her knuckles, frost creeping up her arms like vines.

  “Then let’s hope whatever came before Pride…” she muttered darkly,

  "...isn't already coming for us.”

  "No…" Iritscen breathed. "It's not just showing her truth."

  The others followed his gaze, up to the vision in the mirror.

  Alice stood frozen before her mirrored double, Pride, who wore her face like a stolen mask, eyes glowing with cold, knowing fire.

  Then Hikaru stepped forward, voice cutting through the dread like a blade:

  “She’s not alone in there.”

  Everyone turned.

  Hikaru reached into their coat again, not for tea this time, but pulled out a small shard of reflective glass. Not from Euphoria.

  From before.

  “I’ve been carrying this since we left,” they said quietly. “A splinter of my own reflection… because even I have truths I avoid.”

  They held it out toward Elara.

  “If Alice faces herself… then we must anchor her.” Their eyes swept over the group. “Each of us holds a piece of who she is, the friend, the fighter, the fool... even the one who runs.”

  One by one, they passed around fragments from themselves: Jax gave his tattered Anonymous mask; Liana offered a gear that glowed faintly with Technican light; Antiquus plucked a single feather that shimmered like stormclouds at dusk...

  When it reached Elara, she hesitated only briefly… then pressed her palm against one of her gemstone tears and let it fall into Zofie’s hand, a tear made not of water…

  But raw Void crystal.

  Zofie nodded once, and shaped them all together with frost and shadow until what hovered above their hands was no longer broken pieces…

  But a keyhole-shaped prism, pulsing gently in rhythm with Alice’s heartbeat deep inside the tower.

  “We can’t go in,” Elara said softly. “But we can reach her.”

  And as another chime rang,

  Bong

  The prism flared bright… connecting them all to where Alice now stood face-to-face with Pride…and began to whisper, not words, but memories across worlds:

  "You're not alone."

  "We remember you."

  "Come back."

  Inside, Alice twitched just once, as something behind those terrified eyes flickered like hope catching flame.

  The throne of screams cracked.

  Just a hairline fracture, spiderwebbing up from the base, but it moved, and for the first time, Pride flinched.

  Her smirk wavered. The too-many-teeth grin twitched unnaturally.

  "Lies," she hissed, voice echoing in multiple tones at once, like reflections speaking over one another. "She knows the truth. You all abandoned her. Every time."

  But Alice didn’t look away this time.

  Trembling, yes, but her fists slowly clenched at her sides as that prism-light pulsed through the throne room, threading through cracks in mirrors… humming beneath Pride’s feet…

  "No," Alice whispered, then louder: "No!"

  "You’re not me! You're just what I was afraid of becoming!"

  The prism flared again, a beam of combined memory-shards lancing down from above, piercing through mirror after mirror as it spiraled toward them both.

  Pride roared, not human anymore, and tried to shatter it with a swipe of jagged glass claws…

  But she was too late.

  Light flooded the chamber, and where two Alices stood, there was now only one...

  The tower doors burst open outward in a shower of glittering shards, and Alice stumbled out gasping, not screaming, not broken, but whole.

  For one breathless moment… silence returned to Euphoria’s street once more.

  Then Elara moved first, one step forward, and then full sprint until she crashed into Alice with enough force they both nearly toppled over.

  “You came back,” Elara said into her shoulder. “You actually came back.”

  Alice clung to her just as tight, albeit awkwardly. “I had help…”

  Above them, the highest mirror cracked completely down the middle…

  and somewhere deep inside Euphoria...a clock struck its final chime:

  Bong

  And something older than pride or pain whispered into empty air:

  "Next."

  Everyone turned their heads slowly, to see Charlotte staring blankly at her shattered pocket watch again, its hands now spinning faster than ever before, as a single tear slid down her cheek, and behind her eyes...

  ...A little girl began to scream.