Chapter 13:
DIVINVM
(Kael steps forward. Where the figure vanished, a faint trail of light lingers on the tiles. Not a path— a scar.)
Each step echoes as if the ground were hollow. As if beneath it there was no earth… only abyss.
Suddenly, a murmur.
But it is not external.
> “Kael…”
> “Kael… my child…”
Kael (in a whisper): — No… don’t do this…
(A figure slowly forms to his right. He does not look. He fears breaking it if he does.)
> — You were always special, did you know that?
> — But even the special ones… disappoint.
(The setting shifts subtly. Kael now walks among empty tables. A dining room. His childhood home.)
Only one table is occupied.
Himself, at 8 years old, drawing a god shaped like a star. At his side, his father.
Father (from memory): — There are no answers in the stars, son. Only cold.
(The memory changes. The father stands, seizes the drawing, tears it in half.)
> — Belief is for the weak.
(A chorus of voices surrounds him. Voices with no owner. Or no face.)
Kael covers his face, yet he does not move.
Kael (shouting): — Enough!!
(The cry does not echo. No one hears it. No one but the Codex… which beats.)
(The scene quiets. Now he is in a long hallway, built of broken columns. There is no floor, only black water.)
In the distance, a figure stands with its back to him.
It does not speak. But Kael feels it watching.
Kael (voice trembling): — Who are you?
(The figure does not answer. It only dissolves… and in its place, a mirror remains. A single mirror. Enormous. Clean.)
Kael approaches. He sees himself.
But not as he is now.
As he would be if he had never doubted.
> A white robe. A shining cross. A confident smile.
(He moves his hand to touch it… but the mirror shatters without warning.)
The voice of the Codex whispers from within:
> “That you… would not survive here.”
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