The heavy iron doors groaned. The thick metal bar across the handles was bending.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
The reflections outside were throwing themselves against the iron. Dust fell from the stone ceiling. The doors would not hold for much longer.
Lina did not look at the doors. She only looked at Kai.
His chest was completely clear now. She could see his heart beating, but it was slowing down. The glass was creeping up his neck. His eyes were losing their color.
"Take my name," Lina whispered to the burning mark on her arm. "Rewrite him. Make him real again."
The 🖋️ symbol on her skin flared with a blinding, white-hot light. It felt like a hot piece of metal pressing into her flesh. Lina bit her lip to stop herself from screaming.
Thick, black lines crawled out of the mark. They looked like wet ink. The dark lines moved down her arm and spread across Kai's hard, glass chest.
The magic was heavy. It made the air hard to breathe. The room smelled like old paper and copper.
"Please," Lina begged. Tears ran down her face. "Take it. Take my name. Just give him back."
The black ink sank into Kai's glass skin.
Suddenly, Kai gasped. It was a loud, wet, human sound.
The clear glass on his chest began to melt. It turned pink and soft. The color rushed back into his cheeks. His neck became flesh again. He coughed, rolling onto his side, breathing in huge, desperate gulps of air.
He was warm. He was solid. He was human.
"Lina?" he choked out, reaching for her with real, shaking hands.
Lina smiled and pulled him into a hug. She buried her face in his shoulder. He felt so wonderfully warm.
But then, Lina felt a cold, empty hole open in her own chest.
She pulled back and looked at the shiny brass plate on the chapel door. The metal was clean and bright. She could see Kai's reflection in it. She could see Mira and Seren huddled in the corner.
But she could not see herself.
Lina raised her hand and touched her own face. She felt her nose, her cheeks, her lips. She was still here. But the brass plate showed nothing.
Then, a terrifying thought hit her. She tried to think of her full name.
Lina...
She knew her first name. But her last name was fuzzy. It felt like a word on the tip of her tongue that she could not quite reach. Was it Veris? Or was it something else? The harder she tried to remember, the more it slipped away.
The Quill had taken its payment. It was rewriting her. She was becoming a blank page.
"Lina, your arm," Kai whispered. He pointed at her skin.
The 🖋️ mark was gone. In its place was a blank, white scar.
Before Lina could speak, a loud, sharp crack echoed through the chapel.
The thick iron bar across the doors finally snapped in half. The heavy doors burst open, and the pale, wet army of reflections poured inside.
To be Continued
© Kishtika., 2026
All rights reserved.
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Next Chapter Summary for Chapter 128: The reflections flood the chapel, forcing the group into a desperate fight for survival, while Lina discovers that her new "blank" identity gives her a terrifying power against the mirror monsters.