THE REALM WITHOUT A NAME

Part 23: Not Me.

"You remembered it," he had said.
Not dreamed, Remembered.

The words pulsed inside my chest like a second heartbeat.
I didn't want to speak.
Because the silence between us felt sacred now-thin glass that could crack if I breathed too loudly.

So I turned away.
Walked slowly back toward the bed.
But halfway there-I stopped.

The room had changed again. Just slightly.

A new mirror.

Oval, Hung low on the wall across from the bed.
Its frame made of what looked like woven black vines, shimmering faintly with red veins.

I stared at it.
My reflection didn't appear, not at first.

Instead-a girl.
Not me, not exactly. She had my hair.
My mouth, my eyes but older.
Not in years.
In depth.
Like she'd seen things I hadn't.
Yet.

He appeared behind me in the mirror.
But in the mirror-he wasn't the same.
He wasn't a boy of what looked like early twenties.

He wasn't even human.

A figure with black horns.
Eyes like dying stars.
And wings.
Long, vast, terrible wings that wrapped the girl in shadow like a cage.

I turned around...Fast but the room was empty. No mirror, no girl, no wings.
Only him.
Looking at me like he knew what I'd seen.

"Who was she?" I asked, my voice shaking.

"You know."

"No-no I don't-"

"Not yet," he said.
"But you will."

"Is that... your true form?" I asked, barely louder than a whisper.

He didn't answer.
Not with words But his eyes dimmed.
As if something inside him was... hiding again.

"Why won't you tell me?" I asked.
"Why do you always let me find it out the hard way?"

He stepped forward. One hand lifted-but not to touch me only to open the curtain.
To let the crimson sky bleed in across my face.

"Because you asked me once," he said, "never to lie to you."

"That's not the same as keeping secrets."

"It is, in this realm."
He looked tired then. In his soul.
If he even had one.

I stepped closer because I didn't want him to be alone in that moment.
And maybe...neither did I.

I didn't speak, just rested my forehead against his chest and He didn't move.
But his hand came up-To keep me steady.

"I'm scared,"
"Of what I saw."

"You should be." he looked down at me then.

"Why?"

"Because it wasn't a vision."

"Then what-"

"It was a memory," he said softly.
"Your memory."

I didn't pull away... I couldn't.
I pressed closer.
My forehead against him-now my cheek...Now my arms, sliding up his back, slowly, hesitantly-I wrapped them around him.

Firm...Like if I didn't hold on, I'd fall through this world and never find my way back.

He stood there as if weighing the moment in his hands.
And then-his chin lowered.
His breath brushed the top of my head.

"Why?" he asked.

"Why what?"

"Why are you holding me like this?"

"Because you won't talk," I said softly.
"So I will ask you like this instead."

A long pause.
"You're learning," he whispered.

He shifted, slowly.
One arm slid around my back.
The other... rose to the base of my neck.
Not touching, just hovering

Like his fingers remembered the first time I came here.
Small.
Afraid.
And angry.

"What do you want to know?" he asked.

I closed my eyes.
"Everything."

His silence this time was heavier.
Weighted with memory.
And something else.

Regret? No.
Remorse? Not quite.
It was...reluctant surrender.

"That girl you saw," he said finally.
"Was you."

My hands clutched his tunic tighter.
"From when?"

"Before."

"Before what?"

"Before this life."

I froze and He felt it.
His fingers lightly grazed my spine.
Just once.

"You were part of this realm before you were ever born in the other," he said.
"Part of me."

"What... does that mean?" I whispered.

He pulled back just enough to look at me.

His gaze was soft.
But the truth in his eyes?
It wasn't.

"It means you didn't wander here," he said.
"You returned."