Auger materialized in Renar's streets with a dispcement of air that shattered nearby windows. He didn't care about subtlety; he couldn't afford to.

  His Bond with Lea pulled him like a compass needle, guiding him through the awakening chaos of the capital. People were stumbling from their homes, confused about why they'd fallen asleep. Guards were organizing, trying to make sense of what had happened.

  He ignored all of it, moving at speeds that blurred his form. Rooftops became stepping stones. Distance became irrelevant.

  Within minutes, he reached Restap District.

  Lea y there, unconscious but breathing on the rooftop. Her body had returned to human proportions, but the changes were unmistakable.

  Her hair, once dark brown, now gleamed pure gold, catching sunlight like spun treasure. Her eyes, barely visible beneath closed lids, had transformed to match.

  But most striking were the bck scales visible at her colr, creeping up her neck like a permanent reminder of what she'd become.

  They didn't look diseased or corrupted. They looked... natural. As if she'd always been meant to have them.

  Auger knelt beside her, pressing two fingers to her throat. Pulse steady, breath was regur. But her spiritual signature—

  It was enormous. Dwarfing what it had been yesterday. Fourth Step, yes, but something more. Something that resonated with cosmic weight.

  She did it. She actually did it...

  Before he could examine her further, he heard the approach of organized footsteps. Many of them.

  IS7 agents swarmed onto the rooftop, weapons drawn, led by Dawn.

  The princess's expression was cold fury barely contained. Her eyes took in the scene, Auger kneeling beside Lea's transformed body, scorch marks across the rooftop, and in the street below, evidence of hastily abandoned ritual materials.

  "Count Maxwell," Dawn said, her voice carrying absolute authority. "Expin. Now."

  Auger stood smoothly, positioning himself between the IS7 agents and Lea. "The Wondertainment Troupe attacked. Here, specifically. They were attempting some kind of corruption-based ritual, from what I could sense when I arrived."

  He gestured to Lea, "My Companion fought them off alone. Whatever they did to her..."

  He let his voice carry genuine concern, "It changed her."

  One of the IS7 agents, a scarred man with a Detection Path, moved closer to examine the evidence in the street.

  "There are corruption sigils down there. Fresh. And...", he frowned, "Traces of multiple Pathstrider signatures, all fleeing in different directions."

  "The Troupe scattered when their ritual failed.", Auger continued, "Lea must have disrupted it somehow. The backsh had physical consequences."

  He gestured to her golden hair and scales.

  Another agent knelt by Lea, checking her vitals, "She's stable, unconscious, but not in danger. Though these changes..."

  She touched one of the bck scales carefully, "I've never seen anything like this."

  "Mystical backsh can have unpredictable effects.", Auger said smoothly, "Especially when countering corruption rituals of that magnitude."

  The lead IS7 agent, a woman with sharp eyes and a Revetion Pathstrider, studied Auger carefully, "You arrived remarkably quickly, Count Maxwell. Almost as if you knew something would happen here."

  "I've been tracking the Wondertainment Troupe since the Academic Showcase.", Auger replied, which was technically true, "When I sensed their ritual beginning, I came as fast as I could. Unfortunately, I was too te to prevent the confrontation entirely."

  The agent didn't look entirely convinced, but the evidence supported his story. Corruption sigils, multiple Pathstrider signatures fleeing. And Lea, clearly having fought something that left her transformed.

  "We'll need to take her for medical evaluation and questioning, once she wakes.", the agent decided.

  "Of course.", he agreed, "But I'd like to accompany her. As her... guardian of sorts."

  Dawn's expression hadn't changed. She was watching this exchange with cold calcution, clearly not buying his expnation but unable to contradict it in front of her agents.

  "Fine.", the lead agent said, "But you'll both answer more questions at headquarters."

  IS7 agents carefully lifted Lea onto a stretcher, handling her with the caution reserved for mystical unknowns. As they began transporting her down from the rooftop, Dawn remained behind.

  So did Auger.

  The moment the st agent disappeared down the stairs, Dawn rounded on him.

  "Where. Were. You."

  Auger met her gaze steadily, "Detained."

  "Detained.", Dawn repeated ftly, "During the most critical moment, when you'd promised to create a distraction, when Lea was—"

  She stopped herself, breathing hard, "You weren't there. And she..."

  Dawn gestured toward where Lea had been, "She did something. Something that transformed her into a twenty-meter Horror that put the entire capital to sleep."

  "I was trapped in the monochrome library...", Auger said quietly, "Lady Keter prevented me from intervening."

  Dawn's eyes widened, "She what?"

  "She said intervention would ruin Lea's ascension, but I doubt that's the only reason. That the Path of Divinity demands solitude.", his jaw tightened as he tried to recall something, yet was unable to, "I tried to break free. Fought with everything I had. She held me down like I was a child throwing a tantrum."

  "Lea's ascension...", she repeated slowly, realization clear in her eyes, "You mean—"

  Auger nodded, "Lea performed a ritual to reach the Fourth Step of the Path of Divinity."

  Dawn was silent for a long moment, processing, "To put the entire Restap District to sleep..."

  Auger confirmed, "A hundred thousand people. That was her ritual."

  "And the transformation?"

  "A consequence of touching divinity too directly, or she advances way too fast, way too recklessly. The Path of Divinity doesn't just grant power. It changes you, remakes you into something that can contain authority.", Auger looked toward where they'd taken Lea, "The golden hair, the scales, those are permanent. She'll carry marks of what she became for the rest of her life."

  Dawn's hands clenched into fists, "She asked you to keep the government and me distracted. You agreed. And then Lady Keter trapped you, leaving Lea completely alone during the most dangerous moment of her life."

  "Yes."

  "Why?", Dawn's voice cracked slightly, "Why would Lady Keter do that? If she wanted Lea to succeed—"

  "Because success on the Path of Divinity requires facing the transformation alone.", Auger said heavily, remembering something from long ago, "Any outside help taints the ascension. Makes it incomplete. Lady Keter was ensuring Lea got a true Fourth Step, not a compromised one."

  "By letting her nearly become a Horror."

  "By forcing her to face her own darkness without a safety net.", Auger's expression was grim, "It's not just about power, it's about confronting something that shouldn't be known."

  Dawn turned away, staring out over Restap District. "The people here don't remember anything. They don't know their sleep was stolen. That they were part of a ritual."

  "Better that way.", Auger said quietly, "If they knew a Shadow Guard had cursed them, even with harmless sleep, the political fallout would be catastrophic."

  "Is that why you lied to IS7? To protect her?"

  "I lied to protect everyone.", Auger moved to stand beside Dawn, "If the truth came out, Lea would be executed. You'd be implicated for trusting her, and the Path of Divinity would become a political weapon."

  Dawn closed her eyes, "So we cover it up, bme the Wondertainment Troupe. Pretend Lea was a victim, not the orchestrator."

  Auger said bluntly, "Yes."

  Another long silence.

  "Where does this leave us?", Dawn asked finally, "With Lea transformed, marked as something inhuman, with you admitting Lady Keter maniputed events, with war beginning at our borders. What happens now?"

  Auger was quiet for a moment, "Now we deal with the consequences. Lea reached the Fourth Step, but at a cost. She'll need time to adjust to her new nature. To learn control."

  "And the Wondertainment Troupe? They really did show up, didn't they? Your lie had truth in it."

  "They appeared near the end of her ritual. Tried to interfere.", Auger's expression darkened. "Something about Lea's transformation drew them like moths to fme, or it was just a coincidence, I don't know. But they were there."

  "Then your cover story works because it's partially true.", Dawn said bitterly, "How convenient."

  "Dawn—"

  "No." She turned to face him, and her expression was harder than he'd ever seen it. "I understand why you did this, I understand Lady Keter's logic. But Lea is my responsibility, my Shadow Guard, and you both maniputed events without telling me. Left her to face something that nearly destroyed her."

  "If I'd told you, you would have tried to stop her.", Auger pointed out.

  "Yes," Dawn said simply. "Because I care whether she lives or dies, not just whether she reaches the next Step. We'll be having a much longer conversation about Lady Keter and her maniputions."

  Auger watched her leave, then looked out over Restap District one st time.

  Somewhere in that peaceful neighborhood, a hundred thousand people were going about their day, never knowing they'd been part of something cosmic. Never knowing their Shadow Guard had sacrificed a piece of her humanity to touch divinity.

  And in a medical facility across the city, Lea Darkwill slept on... Whether she'd consider the change was worth the cost remained to be seen.

  Auger vanished in a blur of motion, heading for the medical facility himself. Behind him, the sun continued rising over Renar.

  =0=0=

  Lea opened her eyes to mirrors.

  Infinite mirrors, stretching in every direction. Floor, ceiling, walls - all reflective surfaces showing her image repeated endlessly, fractured into countless variations.

  She tried to speak.

  To call out. To ask where she was.

  No sound emerged.

  Her mouth moved, but silence answered.

  Panic rising, Lea tried to move. Her body responded, but wrong. Each step felt like walking through water. The mirrors around her shifted with her movement, creating disorienting cascades of reflection.

  Where am I? What is this pce?

  She reached out toward the nearest mirror, fingers trembling.

  The moment her skin touched the cool gss, everything changed. Her face vanished from the reflection. The mirror world dissolved.

  And suddenly she was looking through different eyes.

  She saw herself, her body, lying on a medical bed. Golden hair spread across a white pillow. Bck scales were visible at her colr, gleaming faintly. Her chest rising and falling with steady breaths.

  So peaceful.

  But whose eyes was she seeing through?

  Lea tried to turn the perspective, to look around, but she had no control. She was a passenger in someone else's vision, watching herself from the outside.

  A voice, muffled and distant, spoke near her sleeping form. She couldn't make out words, but recognized the cadence.

  Dawn's voice.

  Worried.

  Angry.

  I need to wake up. I need to tell them I'm—

  Lea pulled her hand away from the mirror instinctively.

  The perspective snapped back. The mirror world returned.

  She stumbled backward, gasping silently, staring at her reflection in the gss. Her face was there again, golden eyes wide with confusion and fear.

  What was that?

  Lea looked around at the infinite mirrors surrounding her. Each one showed her reflection, yes, but now she wondered—what if they showed more than that?

  What if each mirror were a window? A connection to someone else's perspective?

  Cautiously, she approached another mirror. Different angle, different surface quality.

  She touched it.

  Her face vanished again.

  This time, she saw herself from further away. A medical room. IS7 agents are standing guard outside the door. Auger leaned against the wall, arms crossed, expression grim.

  She was seeing through his eyes.

  Lea released the mirror quickly, returning to the fractured gss prison.

  This is... my mind? Is my consciousness trapped in some kind of space while my body recovers?

  She looked down at her hands. or what passed for hands here. They looked translucent, barely solid, as if she wasn't fully present even in this strange pce.

  Understanding dawned slowly.

  Her body was exhausted. Spiritually depleted from the ritual, physically transformed by touching divinity. It needed time to heal, to stabilize, to adjust to what she'd become.

  And while it did, her consciousness was... here. In this mirror realm. Unable to fully wake until her body was ready.

  How long?

  No answer came. Just the endless reflections staring back at her.

  Lea touched a third mirror.

  This one showed darkness. Just darkness, with the faint outline of her sleeping form barely visible. Someone watching from the shadows of the medical room?

  Not someone.

  Something.

  That familiar wrongness. That chalk-dust feeling.

  "Miss Mashhith".

  The void that had pulled her back from that faceless horror in the forest. The thing wearing Sincir's face.

  Why was it watching her?

  Lea pulled away, her silent breathing accelerating.

  She was trapped here temporarily. Until her body recovered from the transformation. Until she'd healed enough to recim full consciousness.

  I just have to wait. That's all...

  She stared at her reflection. And waiting.

  Time passed strangely in the mirror world. No way to measure it. Just the endless reflections and the occasional touch of gss that showed her glimpses of the outside.

  Dawn was visiting her bedside, speaking words Lea couldn't hear.

  Auger standing guard, his expression unreadable.

  Medical personnel checked her vitals, looking confused by readings that made no sense.

  And always, in the darkest mirror, that presence watching from shadows.

  Lea pulled her hand away from yet another mirror and sank to the floor, or what passed for floor in this pce.

  My body will heal. I'll wake up. This is temporary.

  She had to believe that. Because the alternative was too terrible to consider.

  So Lea sat among the infinite mirrors, watching her golden-haired reflection fracture into countless pieces, and waited for her body to remember how to wake up.