Nyx took a breath, looked around, and saw herself reflected in dozens of mirrors. In some she looked confident, in others terrified.
"Which one is real?" She muttered to herself.
"All of them." Someone whispered in her mind.
Nyx shook her head, trying to clear it. She choose a random path and started walking. Within minutes, she was lost. Every turn looked the same, every mirror showed the same reflection.
And then she saw Raziel, standing ahead. His clothes were torn, his face was bruised, and his body was covered in blood.
"Help me." He begged. "Please. They're killing me."
Nyx took a step toward him but then stopped.
This isn't real. Raziel is at the border. This is an illusion.
"You're not real." She said aloud.
Razeil smiled.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"How?" He walked closer. "How do you know I'm not the real Raziel, injured and brought here to motivate you? How do you know Sylthis didn't break their promise and attack me the moment you entered?"
Nyx couldn't think of an answer.
"You see?" He reached for her. "You can't trust anything. So why not help me? What's the harm?"
The harm was that running toward illusions would waste her time, would exhaust her mentally and physically, and she won't be able to complete her trial.
"No." Nyx said, stepping back. "Real or not, I can't help you right now. I have to complete the trial. That's what helps everyone, including you."
Razeil's smile widened, then he vanished like smoke.
First test passed?
She started walking again. She saw more images as she walked deep inside. She ignored them all, focusing on finding the palace in the center.
But as the time passed, the visions became more real and convincing.
She saw Raziel pacing at the border talking to Kira.
"She's not worth this." Kira said. "She's not worth the risks you're taking."
"I know." Raziel replied. "But I'm in too deep now. I can't abandon her without looking weak."
"So you're just using her? Letting her think you care when it's all strategy?"
"What else would it be? She's a human, a temporary problem. After the trials, I'll find a way to…"
Nyx turned away.
"It isn't real. It is made to hurt and break me." She told herself.
But what if it is?
She started walking faster. Finally, after what felt like days but might have been only twenty minutes, Nyx saw a palace.
It was built from the trees she'd never seen, and was glowing in the darkness. It was too beautiful to be real.
The entrance was carved with snakes. She stepped inside, and found herself in a dining hall. A table with food was waiting for her. Serpent nobles sat around it, watching her with sharp eyes, and at the head sat Sylthis, looking calm and relaxed.
"Ah, there you are. We've been waiting." Sylthis gestured to an empty seat. "Join us for dinner."
Nyx didn't move.
"I'm not hungry."
"Liar." Sylthis smiled. "You haven't eaten since dawn. It's past midnight now, probably. Time is tricky here. But regardless, your body needs strength. Sit and eat, we'll discuss your performance so far."
"Did I pass?"
"The first test? Yes. You successfully navigated the mirror labyrinth without losing your mind, very few make it to the palace on their first attempt. Congratulations." Sylthis poured wine into a goblet. "But that was the easy part. Now comes the real trial."
Nyx looked at the food spread on the table. Everything looked and smelled delicious but everything was probably poisoned.
"Choose wisely what you eat." Sylthis said. "Some dishes bring clarity, some confusion, some truth, and some beautiful lies. Choose wrong, and tomorrow's trial will become complicated."
"There's more after this?"
"Yes. We've barely begun." Sylthis gestured again to the empty seat. "But you can't complete them if you collapse from starvation."
She sat on the chair, reluctantly, and looked at each dish carefully. She selected bread that smelled plain, meat that had no discoloration, and water instead of wine.
She ate slowly, and carefully, waiting for the poison to hit. It did, but slowly.
The colors in her vision changed. The serpent nobles' faces melted and reformed. Sylthis's voice came from multiple directions simultaneously.
"Excellent choices." Sylthis said. You've selected the truth serum, the time distortion compound, and the memory enhancer."
Nyx's started talking before she had time to think.
"I'm scared. I don't know what's real anymore. I can't tell if I'm succeeding or failing. I can't trust anything I see, hear or feel."
Sylthis leaned forward.
"Tell me, what do you fear most?"
"Going mad, losing myself, becoming someone I don't recognize."
"And why does that scare you?"
"Because I've spent my whole life trying to be more than what I was born as, and if I lose my mind, everything I've worked on so far becomes meaningless."
"What about Raziel?" Sylthis asked. "What do you fear about him?"
"That he doesn't really want me. That he wants the proof that humans can be redeemed. That when I've served my purpose, he'll discard me like everyone else has."
"Has he said he loves you?"
"No."
"Then perhaps your fear is justified. Perhaps he's using you." Sylthis smiled. "But I'm being cruel. Let me offer you something honest instead."
They gestured, and one of the serpent nobles stood up. As Nyx watched, the noble's form changed, and he became her father.
"No. This is another illusion…" She muttered.
"Hello, daughter. It's been a long time." Her father sat in the empty seat beside her.
"You're not real. You're another trick…"
"I'm as real as anything else here." He smiled.
"This is your father. He's been in the Beastworld for fifteen years." Sylthis said.
Nyx stared at the man who looked like her father.
"If you're real, prove it. Tell me something only my father would know."
"You killed a man when you were sixteen in self-defense" He replied immediately. "You buried him in the woods, and never told anyone about it. You started hunting dangerous animals afterward to prove you weren't afraid. You became a poacher because if you were already a killer, what did a few more deaths matter?"
Nyx froze. Only two people knew that story; her and the man she'd killed.
"If you were there watching me, why didn't you stop it?"
"Because you needed to learn to kill to survive. I knew one day you'd end up here, just like me. And here, killers survive better than innocents. I've been here for fifteen years, waiting for you."
"Waiting for me? Why?"
"Because you're special, Nyx."
"What do you mean?"
"You're half-human." Her father said. "Your mother wasn't human. She was from the Beastworld. She was a wolf clan shifter who fell in love with a me, a human hunter.
She was exiled for it. She spent her whole life on earth, unable to shift, and slowly died from being away from her home."
No, no, no—
"You're a hybrid." Sylthis said. "The first in three hundred years. That's why Umbra wants you so desperately, that's why you've survived trials that should have killed you, that's why the shadow magic bonded to you so easily."