Chapter 59: I Just Wanted to See What It Felt Like...

Sometimes, the greatest mistakes are born from a sigh, and sometimes, that sigh wears a crown.

The blue tower drowsed softly in its high-altitude cocoon outside, the sky stretched like warm silk, a peaceful blue that only tired divinities know how to create. Inside, Saphira lay sprawled on a plush chaise longue, a blanket sewn with stars over her legs, and a book too dense open upside down on her stomach but her eyes weren't reading; they were dreaming.

Around her, pencils floated in disarray, still-active plush toys organized themselves into a pillow committee, and a small parchment golem paced back and forth, muttering poorly translated quotes and in this apparent chaos... an idea was born not a logical idea a Saphira idea: a fragile and unreasonable spark, yet strangely seductive she turned her head towards Élya, who was feeding a cosmic cat with an air far too calm for a bodyguard:"Say... what if I made a portal in a mirror? but like, a mirror not yet born? a mirror of the future?" Élya slowly raised her eyes her voice was simple, sharp slightly weary:"No. Silence...:I've already done it."

She had created it without warning a simple wave of her hand, a whisper, and the air began to shimmer a mirror, but not like other mirrors it wasn't an object it wasn't even a reflection it was a frozen intention, a still-blank page in the great book of time it vibrated with emotions that didn't yet exist it sang memories waiting their turn. Saphira reached out her fingers, fascinated her gaze held that unbearable light that children have before a too-bright forbidden thing: "It's just to take a peek..." And the world swallowed her.

The fall wasn't violent; it was soft, unsettling, like falling into a thought too big for one's head. Saphira found herself standing in a world that hadn't yet chosen its logic colors shifted according to her emotions, trees rooted themselves in the sky, and the ground gently complained about existing before her, on a platform made of broken clocks, a silhouette awaited her tall, calm, familiar... yet foreign she wore a black dress, sewn with fine runes, and bracelets made of past failures her gaze pierced Saphira without violence, but without appeal. —"You are me? I am you, later, when you have stopped running from your own depth." Saphira crossed her arms, her voice tinged with irony:"So I'm supposed to become this sinister and mysterious thing?"—"You're not supposed to you choose, at every moment but some choices weigh more than others."

In the Tower, a soft alarm sounded the walls contracted like a worried heart. Destiny leaped from his desk: "She touched a non-linear mirror it's no longer an error, it's dangerous poetry." Diva, sprawled on a railing, her eyes incandescent: "I'll stick a watch around her neck and lock her in an hourglass." The tower began to pivot on itself, the stairs inverted, time trying to repair itself In the mirror of the future, Saphira felt her heart beating too hard, too fast her future self approached she didn't wear a crown; she wore a duty:"You are not ready for this world, but you will get there." Saphira bit her lip she hated feeling her eyes sting."Say... do I have a cat, later?"—"Yes. he talks rudely and bites temporal visitors." A small laugh, a laugh that reconciles, then a hand rested on her forehead, and the world pushed her back.

—BOOM. 

Saphira tumbled back into the tower's living room, disheveled, disoriented, with a time puppet stuck to her arm:"Ow..." Circular room, golden glows they were all there. Kael, arms crossed Destiny, looking half-nervous Diva, an eyebrow raised Hope, offering her tea with a trembling spoon Élya, by her side, silent as a faithful promise. Diva spoke: "You opened an unborn mirror, you caused a twist in three narrative lines, and you came back with a hypothetical cat." Saphira, in a tiny voice: "She had a prettier dress than me..." Destiny burst out:"That's all you remember?!" Kael raised his hand. "Enough we know her she knew it was foolish, she did it anyway." —"At times, that's why she's the glimmer of hope, isn't it?" "Copying all the multiversal laws by hand with a quill that insults every mistake and eating meteorite soup... without spices." Saphira protested: "That's cruel, even for me." Élya, from atop a shelf: —"You say that every time."

That evening, Saphira lay in her bed she looked at the mirror suspended from the ceiling it was inert, silent, but she knew that behind it... somewhere... she was still waiting for herself, and that was enough for her.

End of Chapter 59 – "I Just Wanted to See What It Felt Like..."