Juno Blaze had always burned brighter than the rest.
Fiery hair. Sharp wit. A laugh that cracked silence. She was the first to leap, the last to flinch. In duels, she never missed. In debates, she never lost. But in the mirror that remembered tomorrow, she saw nothing.
Not a flicker.
Not a shadow.
Not even herself.
The Silence
She didn't tell anyone.
Not at first.
She watched the stitched ones whisper their fragments, pulse with memory, tremble with echoes. She watched Lyra glow. Nova flicker. Zephyr unravel. Maris anchor.
And she felt nothing.
The Question
She cornered Professor Umbra after class.
"Why did the mirror ignore me?"
Umbra didn't blink. "It didn't ignore you. It couldn't read you."
Juno frowned. "Why?"
Umbra's voice was quiet. "Because you're not stitched."
The Spiral
Juno wandered the Spiral Track alone.
She touched every mirror.
None responded.
She whispered every fragment.
None echoed.
She stood in the Reflection Pool.
It stayed still.
She screamed.
The school didn't flinch.
The Theory
She found Lyra in the Mirror Garden.
"I'm not stitched," she said.
Lyra nodded. "We suspected."
Juno's voice cracked. "Then what am I?"
Nova appeared, glowing faintly. "You're the control."
Zephyr stepped from the shadows. "You're the constant."
Maris whispered, "You're the one the school built to stay unchanged."
The Truth
Juno returned to her dorm.
She tore through her records.
Her enrollment scroll was perfect.
Her mirror had never cracked.
Her book had never pulsed.
Her robe had no velvet.
She wasn't stitched.
She was sealed.
The Book Again
In Lyra's dorm, the book pulsed.
New ink appeared:
> "Not all students are stitched. Some are anchors. Some are locks. Some are keys. She is the lock."
Lyra whispered, "Then she's what the school uses to keep us contained."
Maris nodded. "And if she breaks…"
Nova smiled faintly. "The school opens."