As Salome gazed through the gate onto the other side, she could hardly believe her eyes.

  At the edge of the island, on the very brink of an abyss where one misstep would plunge one into a deep fall, a path had appeared. A broad road fashioned from golden light—nearly transparent and as delicate as the finest silk—stretched out into nothingness, right through the airy heights of Firmament. Before long, it merged into a gleaming staircase that wound upward in broad steps into the blue sky and then branched off into a multitude of paths, each almost identical to the first. A true network of trails, stairs, ramps, and scattered plazas spanned out in places reserved only for the wind.

  “Welcome to the Mirrorworld,” said Kiran. “Come on, step inside! What are you waiting for?” With confident strides, he crossed the shattered threshold of the door and awaited them on the other side.

  “Indescribable…” murmured Van, completely overwhelmed by the enchanting sight before him. Yet that did not stop him from striding through the gate with two quick steps.

  Salome was at a loss for words.

  It took her a while, before she too, with a pounding heart, stepped through the gate, which had only moments before been a mirror. Now she stood there, side by side with Van and Kiran, staring down at the cloud ocean that stretched just a hand’s breadth from her toes. Whatever this glasslike path might be, she could see right through it, and she doubted very much that it would carry her. Cold fingers dug into the pit of her stomach and crept slowly up her spine as she gazed into the abyss. The world swayed with every breath. Looking up, she realized that the ever-present wind had vanished the moment she'd crossed the threshold, as abruptly as if she'd imagined it all along. It was suddenly very quiet.

  “Those who wish to walk the paths of the Mirror World,” Kiran explained conversationally, “must be absolutely certain. It's easy to get lost here, and even easier to stray from the path. Don’t look down and trust your steps to find their way; then the paths will carry you safely.”

  He stared straight ahead with determination and stepped boldly out into the void.

  Salome screamed and reached for him, but instead of falling, he stepped confidently onto the path. Now he stood before them, suspended in midair with nothing but a golden shimmer beneath his feet, flashing them a cocky grin.

  “If only my father could see this…” murmured Van, still amazed. He cast a doubtful glance at the path ahead.

  “Come on, then!” cried Kiran. “Or are you scared? Surely a Navigator isn't afraid of heights?”

  Van coughed awkwardly and clutched the necklace with the tiny golden pendant, before he tuck it back into the collar of his shirt. “Yeah. You’re right of course,” he said. Then he pressed his lips together, drew a deep breath, and leapt with a wide bound onto the path. Salome let out a startled gasp. When his feet landed on the golden ground, she exhaled a relieved sigh.

  “Your turn,” said Kiran.

  “It’s not as difficult as it looks,” Van reassured her with a smile, reaching out his hand.

  Salome swallowed hard, glancing once more into the void. It was impossible to gauge how far away the swirling cloud mass lay beneath her. The longer she stared into the cloud ocean, the more consuming its pure white became, filling her vision until nothing remained but endless swirling infinity. The abyss seemed to call out to her, tugging at her mind with invisible hands, slowly drawing her downward. She forcefully tore her gaze away and closed her eyes. Trust, Kiran had said. Trust your steps to find their goal. Salome wasn't afraid of heights; quite the opposite, she loved climbing to high places to watch the world shrink beneath her feet. Yet this impossibly thin path, appearing out of nowhere, more like a dream than actual, solid ground… She shook her head to dispel the intrusive thoughts, and when she opened her eyes again, her doubts vanished. She had doubted Firmament and even Van's words about the existence of this beautiful world. Now she was here, and the time for doubts was past.

  With her heart racing, she raised her foot, shifted her weight—and took that decisive step into the void. She didn't look down, forcing herself to keep her eyes open. Then she felt the path beneath her, holding her securely.

  Relief nearly brought her to her knees. She took Van’s hand, allowing him to pull her forward.

  “Well done,” said Kiran. “Remember, as long as you believe the path will hold you, nothing can harm you. More or less.” He whispered the last words so quietly that Salome wasn’t sure she was meant to hear them. She decided to ignore them anyway. That single step had cost her every ounce of courage she possessed.

  “So, this is the Mirrorworld,” Van said, gazing around. “I've heard countless stories about it, but it looks different in every tale. Apparently, most of those stories were nothing but lies.”

  “Not necessarily,” said Kiran. “The form this world takes isn’t always the same. I think it depends on who opens the gate.”

  He pushed his hood back and adjusted the strap of his satchel.

  “Come,” he urged. “It's easy to get lost here, easier still to fall off the path. Just don’t look down.”

  Walking on what felt like a breath of nothingness through the sky was a strange, yet exhilarating feeling. Almost like strolling on the wind itself.

  “How can a world like this even exist?” Salome finally asked. “These paths… what are they? What are they made of?”

  “This world is very old,” Kiran remarked thoughtfully. “Whoever created it has long since faded into oblivion. Now, it's merely a convenient passage between the islands.”

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  “You must teach me how to open these mirror gates!” Van said eagerly. “I would love to explore the secrets of this world.”

  “Over my dead body,” Kiran replied grimly.

  “Oh, come on!” Van pleaded, flashing his most charming smile. “Who knows what ancient treasures are hidden here? Maybe I could uncover some lost knowledge from the missing age?”

  “No!” Kiran said firmly. “Never! Fools like you only find death in this place. Haven’t you learned anything from the palace ruin? Stay away from places you can't comprehend!”

  Van raised his hands placatingly. “Alright, calm down,” he said. “I’m just curious. It’s not every day you get such a chance—what, by the pillars, is that?”

  He suddenly pointed ahead. Far off on the horizon, an unusual glow shimmered, distinct from the sun's muted reflection. It shone brightly, nearly white, and Salome could make out tiny figures in the air beyond the pathways—birds. Countless birds. A flock was crossing the horizon.

  There must have been thousands, maybe many more. From this distance, they seemed crafted from pure light, their feathers radiant and ethereal. In the quiet that held the world spellbound like an eternal winter, Salome thought she heard their distant chatter—though it sounded more like gentle singing, the soft chirping and sweet trills of songbirds heralding dawn on a warm summer morning. At the same moment, she imagined the melancholy calls of migratory birds leaving their homes in late autumn, searching for warmer shores.

  Joy rose within her, intertwined with sorrow, happiness, longing, profound nostalgia... A smile crept onto her lips, yet tears welled in the corners of her eyes.

  “Those are the Sakrales,” Kiran said softly, his voice pulling her back from the enchanting melody to reality. “Beings of purity and light. It is said they are reflections of the souls of the departed.” He listened quietly before continuing, “They are the heart of this world, the eternal flame resisting the power of silence. Silence is strong here, but as long as the birds sing, the mirror paths remain safe to travel.”

  Suddenly, he clapped his hands, jolting Salome and Van from their reverie. “You shouldn’t lose yourself too deeply in their song. Their voices echo from unreachable distances, meant not for the living. The bittersweet melancholy of departure can plunge a heart into grief from which it may never recover. Let’s hurry and leave this place quickly.”

  Salome was surprised by how effortlessly she ignored the abyss below by now. Although aware of the depths at every step, her breathing remained steady, her heartbeat calm. In fact, she found pleasure walking amidst this towering emptiness. The distant song of the Sakrales washed wave-like through her mind, giving wings to her thoughts. She nearly laughed, imagining the people of Fundament gazing upward at the clouds, oblivious to the wonders hidden beyond their sky.

  “I assume you know the way?” Van asked cautiously after they'd wandered through the complex network of paths for a while.

  “Of course,” Kiran replied confidently.

  “Ah,” Van responded, clearly skeptical.

  Eventually, Salome lost track of whether minutes or hours had passed when they arrived at one of the large, circular plazas branching into more paths. Kiran paused here, examining their surroundings carefully. Then, nodding to himself, he stepped into the center and retrieved the peculiar shard of glass from his pocket. Kneeling briefly, he pressed it to the ground. Salome watched expectantly—but nothing happened, at least not until she blinked. Suddenly, a mirror gate stood before them.

  “What the—?” Van exclaimed, no less astonished than she was. “How the heck do you do that? By the pillars!”

  Kiran ignored him and approached the gate, which strangely contained no mirror, only a perfectly smooth, pitch-black surface absorbing all light. Salome wondered if someone standing on the other side at that very moment would see three reflections without their counterparts.

  Nevertheless, Kiran opened the black gate the same way he had the first one. As the shards fell clinking to the ground, an opening appeared, revealing an island utterly different from the one they had just left.

  A mighty wall of trees rose only a few steps away from her, their moss-covered trunks as thick as anything Salome had ever seen. They all stretched seemingly endlessly into the sky before branching out into mighty canopies.

  “I had no idea trees could grow so large,” Salome murmured in awe as she stepped through the mirror gate, craning her neck upward.

  “That's perfectly normal,” Van said, stepping out behind her. “Trees can reach this size when they're truly ancient. See now why those small, scrawny things in Fundament seemed so strange to me?”

  Despite the subtle roar of the wind rustling the dense canopy above, a peaceful stillness enveloped the forest. A mysterious gloom nestled between the trunks, obscuring its depths. The forest floor smelled of dry wood, moss, and cool summer air, rising from layers of fallen leaves and needles like invisible mist. Salome felt oddly at ease beneath the giants spreading their broad, leaf-covered branches protectively above her.

  She couldn't recall seeing an island with trees of this magnitude from the ruin-covered plains—had they simply appeared smaller from afar?

  When she finally tore her gaze from the immense trees, Salome noticed the sun already sinking towards the horizon, casting long shadows across the cloud ocean. In the east, the sky darkened, and the first stars began to shine. But how could that be? It had been only afternoon when they entered the Mirrorworld, and they’d traveled no more than an hour or two.

  “So, distance and time are different behind the mirrors,” Van observed, noticing the same thing.

  “Of course,” Kiran replied, readjusting his bag. “The world seen in a mirror is only a reflection, not reality itself. Sometimes this reflection seems distorted, but that's just the mirror we look through.”

  As if that explained everything, he adjusted the strap of his bag once more and began climbing the short, steep slope leading up to the forest's edge. He ignored Van's puzzled frown.

  Here, right at the island's border, nothing grew except low grass and a few scattered daisies, as if the forest itself feared the abyss.

  “Don’t you want to… close the gate?” Van asked hesitantly, glancing back at the tall arch through which the golden pathways still shimmered.

  “This gate is only open for those reflected in it at the moment of its opening,” Kiran explained without turning around. “For anyone else, it remains just a large mirror—at least, to anyone capable of seeing it.”

  When he reached the top of the slope, he paused, looking down at Van and Salome.

  “We’re almost to my master. If we hurry, we'll reach him shortly.”

  “Are you crazy?” Van suddenly exclaimed. “It’s almost dark! Wandering through the silence of the forest at night is far too dangerous!”

  Kiran wrinkled his nose disdainfully. “On any other island, you might have had a point. But naturally, you fail to see the truth even when it stares you in the face. Nothing will harm us here. Come on, follow me.” Without waiting for a reply, he turned and disappeared into the shadows between the colossal trees.

  “That insufferable…” Van grumbled, glaring up the slope.

  “What exactly could happen to us in the forest at night?” Salome asked cautiously. Back in Fundament, the popular belief was that evil spirits roamed the woods after dark, though she'd never encountered one – despite frequently looking for them. Yet, after everything that had happened in the palace ruin, she wasn't sure anymore she wanted to meet any spirits.

  “He of all people should know better!” Van said angrily.

  Salome gazed thoughtfully at the edge of the woods. “Maybe he’s right,” she said after a pause. “I think nothing will harm us here.”

  She began climbing the slope. Van watched her, mouth agape, before reluctantly following with a muttered, “Well, if you say so…”