Читать книгу Universe Aeternov. Book two. The Shadow that Remembers the Light - Группа авторов - Страница 12

“You’re not putting on someone else’s face.

You take off your clothes to see the world through the eyes of someone you’re afraid to understand.”

1. THE NEW CLASS IS THE HALL OF REFLECTIONS.

After being defeated by the Shadow of Fate, Alina stopped asking for strength.

She began to ask for understanding.

And the School responded.

The next morning, she was invited to the “Hall of Reflections” – a wallless space where the floor and ceiling were mirrors, and the air trembled with the echo of other people’s battles and lived lives.

There she was waiting for a new teacher.

He wasn’t standing. It shimmered – between the shapes.

Now he’s an old man with eyes full of ashes.

A moment later, a teenager with empty pockets and a heart overflowing with pain.

Then there was a warrior with a sword in his chest and a clean face without a drop of blood.

“My name is the Master of Faces,” he said. His voice sounded like crying, laughing, and praying at the same time. “I don’t teach you how to transform.” I teach you how to disappear into another person in order to come back… whole.

“And if I don’t want to come back?” Alina asked.

“Then you will find someone who has forgotten how to be himself, – the Master replied. “And maybe… you’ll be the mirror for him.”

2. THE FIRST RULE OF REINCARNATION.

“The art of transformation is not magic,” the Face Master began. You give up yourself for a while in order to feel someone else’s pain as your own.

He led her to the central mirror.

“There are no spells here,” he said. – There are no formulas. There are no genetic codes. There is only one question:

“Why do you want to become one?

“If the answer is “To win,” you stay near the surface.

If the answer is “To understand,” you enter from the inside.

“And if I’m afraid?” Alina whispered.

– So, you’re ready, – the Master smiled. – Fear is the door. Not a wall.

3. THE FIRST TEST: BECOME AN ENEMY.

The master touched the mirror, and the Shadow of Fate was reflected in it, the one that had recently defeated Alina.

– You lost to her because you saw her as a monster, – he said softly. – Become one today.

– But… how?” Alina swallowed.

“Just say, “I want to understand you,”” he replied. – And let yourself go.”

Alina took a deep breath, looked into the empty eyes of the reflection and said:

“I want to understand you.

The mirror shook and pulled her inside.

4. INSIDE THE SHADOW

The world has turned upside down.

Alina was no longer Alina.

She is the Shadow of Fate.

She felt:

• cold – not from the darkness, but from loneliness;

• hunger is not for food, but for the word: “You’re important”;

• the pain is not in the body, but in the memory: “My world was erased because it was considered weak”;

• Rage – not towards the universe, but towards oneself: “Why wasn’t I good enough to be saved”?

She saw her old world, the one that had disappeared.

A world where Andrey made a choice in favor of other lines.

A boy stands at the ruins of a house that once smelled of apple pie and laughter.

There’s a child’s drawing on the floor: “Daddy and me on the stars.”

The drawing is faded, which means no one has looked at it for a long time.

And at that moment, Alina realized that

the Shadow of Fate did not want to destroy her.

She wants to hear:

“You had a right to exist.”

Tears, black as ashes, flowed down Shadow’s cheeks.

And Alina cried with her.

5. RETURN.

She burst out of the mirror, trembling, crying, but already different.

“Did you… see her pain?” The Face Master asked.

– Yes, – Alina whispered. “She’s not the enemy. She’s me… if no one loved me.

“Then you passed the first test,” said the Master. “You haven’t defeated the Shadow. You found out her name.

“What’s her name?” Alina asked.

– Forgotten,” he replied.

6. THE SECOND TRIAL: TO BECOME SOMEONE YOU HATE.

In the next lesson, the Master showed a new reflection – Absolute Evil in the form of Knox.

“Now become one,” he said.

“But he’s destroying worlds!” Alina exclaimed.

“Do you really believe he’s doing this out of joy?” The Master asked softly. – no. He does this because he no longer believes in the possibility of healing.

Alina clenched her fists… and remembered her father’s words:

“Even a broken watch can show the correct time.”

She stepped into the mirror.

And she became a Knox soaked in Darkness.

She felt:

• The weight of the Iron Throne;

• shame for every erased fate;

• despair that even the tears have turned black;

and a tiny spark, the one that cries in the dark when everything is silent.

Alina wanted to shout, “I’m here! I remember you!”

But the darkness drowned out the voice.

And yet… the spark did not go out.

Because Knox still remembered the lullaby.

7. A LESSON IN EMPATHY

When Alina returned, she did not talk about techniques.

She only said:

“Now I know how to save him.”

– How?” the Face Master asked.

“Not with a sword, – she replied. “Not with magic. A lullaby. The one his mother sang to him. Because even in the darkest vessel, the memory of life remains.

The Master nodded.

“Then you’re ready for the final challenge,” he said.

“Like what?” Alina asked.

– To become yourself,” he replied. “And accept that you have a shadow in you, too.”

THE END OF THE CHAPTER.

Alina did not sleep that night.

She stood at the mirror in her room and looked at her reflection.

White hair. The eyes are galaxies. The face of a girl who is still learning to be a hero.

And behind her, her own shadow.

Not an enemy. Not a mistake.

A part of herself that fears that her existence is a pain to others.

Alina put her palm on the glass.

“I won’t reject you,” she whispered. “I’ll take your hand and we’ll walk towards the light together.”

The mirror seemed to smile.

Somewhere on Mekhanos-9, Knox raised his head.

Somewhere in the Black Abyss, the Shadow of Fate stopped trembling.

Somewhere in the Aeternian Chrono-Heart throbbed quietly, but more confidently.

And in this great empathy, fear has ceased to be an enemy —

it has become a door through which you can enter the light.