Chapter Eleven: The Eye That Sees Everything
The air inside the deep hall was heavier than I expected. I had never felt air with weight before, but here… it was like a solid mass pressing on my chest, making it hard to breathe. A faint light seeped from the walls as if it were leaking from inside the stones themselves, not from any outside source.
The Original stood before me, watching me with eyes that held no glimmer—eyes that looked as though they had seen far too much.
I asked in a hoarse voice:
"Who is he? The one following me?"
But the Original didn't answer.
He just stared at me—an unmoving look, a mixture of fear, regret, and anger.
That look alone told an entire story… a story I hadn't heard yet, and one he was unable to tell.
He stepped closer—one step was enough to make the walls tremble slightly.
In a low voice, he said:
"In the city… there is an Eye."
I frowned.
"An eye? What eye?"
He lifted a trembling hand and pointed to the ceiling.
I looked up… and at first, I saw nothing.
But after a few seconds, something appeared.
A small circle—not a hole, not a light… but a black spot, as if it were watching.
A chill crawled behind the bones of my neck.
I whispered:
"It's watching us?"
The Original stepped back.
"It watches everyone who enters.
It follows every step.
It knows every soul."
I was about to ask another question when the ground suddenly shook beneath our feet.
Dust fell from the ceiling, and a thin crack split the floor between us.
The Original shouted:
"It noticed! You spoke too loudly!"
Before I could understand what he meant, the light vanished from the walls entirely…
and the hall sank into absolute darkness.
Not normal darkness…
Living darkness.
Darkness that moved.
A whisper rose from every direction:
"You are here… you… you…"
Voices overlapping—like thousands of hidden eyes staring at me from places I couldn't see.
I tried lifting the dagger, but it began pulsing on its own… matching my heartbeat.
The pulse aligned with mine… merged with it… until I felt the dagger itself was afraid.
The Original's voice came from somewhere far away:
"Don't move!"
But the darkness itself crept closer—not like footsteps, but like water flowing.
The shadows formed twisting lines across the floor and walls, gathering in front of me, shaping themselves into a huge black mass.
Then…
it opened an eye.
Not a human eye.
Not an animal's eye.
A massive, round, yellow eye glowing inside the darkness.
The Original whispered, voice breaking:
"This is… the Eye of the City."
It moved closer, its gaze piercing straight through my chest—as if searching inside me.
When it reached me completely, everything froze.
Then I heard a colossal voice… not a human voice, but the voice of the entire city speaking through a single eye:
"You… are incomplete."
My limbs trembled.
That word was like a blow to the head.
I stuttered:
"I know… half… incomplete…"
The voice replied:
"The other half… escaped."
I didn't understand.
The Original?
Lorasine?
Someone else?
I asked:
"Who escaped?"
The eye shifted suddenly, its form rippling, and then it said slowly:
"The one who followed you… is not here…"
What did that mean?
Did he leave the city?
Is he watching me out there?
Is he the same person the Original warned me about?
The Original shouted:
"Don't answer her! She wants to know how aware you are!"
But it was too late.
The darkness surged upward, swallowing me whole.
I felt myself falling—into a bottomless well.
The hall, the Original, everything vanished.
Then… images appeared.
Fast images.
Too fast to process, yet painfully clear:
A man standing behind me at the city gate.
The same man watching me from afar as I walked the alleys.
The same man touching the stones as if they obeyed him.
The same man smiling when the light fused with my dagger.
The same man standing before something enormous… a door… or a tomb.
Then I saw myself.
Me…
but not me now.
Me before.
Before entering.
Before splitting.
Before the light.
And with each image, the Eye repeated:
"The one who escaped…
returned for you."
Suddenly, everything broke.
The images vanished.
The darkness shattered.
The Eye dissolved.
I collapsed to the ground, gasping for air as if I had run for miles.
The Original ran to me, grabbed my shoulders, and asked anxiously:
"What did you see?"
I lifted my head slowly, my heartbeat pounding violently.
I said, barely able to speak:
"I saw… the person who's been following me."
He asked quickly:
"And who is he?"
I stared at him in silence…
then said the sentence that completely changed his expression:
"It's… me."
The Original froze.
He couldn't move.
Because the truth was far more dangerous than he thought.
The one watching me…
the one who created the curse…
the one who made the city respond…
the one who split my soul…
was a third version of me.
Not light.
Not shadow.
But something entirely different.
The Original closed his eyes and whispered, voice strangled:
"It's time… to face him.
The Third Half."
And then…
the walls began to tremble again.
But this time, not because the Eye was watching…
but because he had entered the city once more.