CHAPTER 98: WHERE ARE WE?

"Celeste?!"

My own voice echoed back at me, too loud in this endless white place.

I stared at the woman in front of me, my heart pounding so hard that it felt like it might shatter straight through my chest. She looked nothing like me. Nothing like the face I had been expecting to see.

Isn’t she supposed to look like me?

Isn’t she supposed to be my twin?

Then why—Why was she standing there in a face that wasn’t mine at all?

Nothing in her matched the girl I had seen in that bed. Nothing in her reflected the mirror I had been dreading to confront. And the more I looked at her, the more wrong everything felt, like a story unfolding in a way it was never supposed to.

My breath turned uneven as my thoughts tangled.

"What... what is happening right now?"

I didn’t know whether to move closer or run.

All I knew was that something I had believed in so completely, something that had given me comfort in one of the loneliest moments of my life... had just cracked open.

"Why?" Celeste asked softly. "Is there something wrong?"

I could see the panic flicker in her eyes the moment my expression changed, the instant she realized I wasn’t reacting the way she had expected. Her hands tensed at her sides, as though she were bracing for something she didn’t understand yet.

"You’re..." I swallowed, the word catching in my throat. "You look different."

She blinked once. Then again.

"Different?" she repeated quietly, as if unsure she had heard me right.

I nodded, my chest tightening. "You’re not... you don’t look like me."

Her blinking sped up, confusion unmistakable now. "Am I... supposed to?" she asked carefully.

I shook my head reflexively. "It’s not like that. It’s just..." I hesitated, then lifted a hand weakly. "I met you. I mean... outside. Your face... it was exactly like mine."

She stared at me in open disbelief.

"Really?" she whispered. "I—I don’t know how, but this..." Her hand lifted slightly, as if gesturing at herself. "This is how I’ve always looked. This is who I am."

We fell into silence, the maze breathing quietly around us.

Then the question I’d been holding onto slipped out.

"How did you end up here?" I asked softly. "I mean... I was locked up. I think. By someone." My voice faltered. "At least... I believed I was."

"Elyndra," Celeste said gently. "That’s her name."

I froze.

"She trapped both of us here," Celeste continued, her voice steady despite the heaviness in her eyes. "The moment she took our body."

"Our...?" My breath hitched. "Wait. You mean my body is—"

"Being used," she finished quietly. "By Elyndra."

The name settled cold in my chest.

"She’s a fairy," Celeste added. "At first, I didn’t even understand what was happening. One moment I was awake... the next, I was here. Alone. Wandering. Just this maze."

I pressed my fingers into my palm. "And how long?"

Celeste met my gaze and gave a small shake of her head. "I don’t know..." she murmured. "Time doesn’t move properly here. Days blur into each other, and sometimes it feels like years... sometimes like nothing at all."

She drew in a slow breath before continuing.

"All I remember clearly is that after my body collapsed again, Father became even more desperate. He searched everywhere for a cure. He went to every healer he could find... and when that failed, he went to the Oracles."

"Oracles?" I echoed quietly.

Celeste nodded.

"He thought they might know something," she murmured. "Anything. A future, a fate, a miracle." Her voice wavered. "The only thing I remember clearly is that he said... there would be another woman born on the same day as me. Someone who would return one day. Someone with the power to heal."

She stopped, her gaze dimming as she looked down at her hands.

"But then I started getting worse," she whispered. "Sicker than before. I think... that’s when Father made a deal with a fairy." Her fingers curled slightly. "After that... the next thing I knew, I was here. In this empty place."

My chest tightened.

"But how do you know my name?" I asked.

Celeste lifted her eyes to mine.

"I heard someone calling it," she said softly. "A few times already. Not here... but from far away. Like a voice passing through the maze and slipping between the walls."

I blinked. "You did? But... I didn’t hear anything."

A strange little smile touched her lips, not amused... just tired.

"Maybe because I’ve been here too long," she murmured. "So long that I’ve started noticing things other people wouldn’t. Even the way the air shifts... or when the silence feels different." She glanced around the maze. "When you’re alone long enough, you start to hear what this place doesn’t want you to hear."

The words sent a faint chill through me.

"And the voice?" I asked.

Celeste closed her eyes for a moment, as if trying to catch a dream before it slipped away.

"It wasn’t loud," she said quietly. "Not clear either. Just someone calling your name again and again... like he didn’t want to give up on you." Her lashes fluttered open. "At least someone out there knows you’re gone."

The words struck deeper than I expected.

For a second, I just stood there, unable to breathe properly.

Someone... was looking for me.

Someone hadn’t let go.

My fingers curled slowly at my sides.

"I don’t deserve that," I murmured without thinking.

Celeste frowned slightly. "Why would you say that?"

I shook my head, a hollow sort of laugh slipping out. "Because I always make things worse. I wasn’t supposed to be here. I wasn’t supposed to use my power. And now everything is broken because I didn’t listen."

She took a step closer, just near enough that I could feel warmth again.

"That’s not true," she said gently. "You’re here because you care. And people who care... always think they’re the ones who ruin everything." She smiled, soft and encouraging. "All you need to do right now is find your way back to them... and don’t let this place convince you that you belong here."

I swallowed hard.

"But what if I can’t?" I whispered. "What if I don’t know the way out?"

Celeste lifted her hand and gestured toward the drifting feathers.

"Then follow what’s already looking for you."

My eyes locked onto the soft silver glow drifting through the air.

"You don’t escape a place like this by fighting it," Celeste continued. "You leave by remembering who you are. By holding onto the world you came from."

But before I could take another step, the feathers suddenly wavered.

Their gentle movement shattered into chaos, as if an unseen force had grabbed hold of them. One by one, they were dragged backward through the air, scattering wildly like sparks being ripped into the dark.

"Wait—wait!" I shouted, breaking into a run.

I chased them instinctively, my feet pounding against the pale floor as the silver light was pulled farther and farther away from me. The path I had followed so carefully moments ago twisted beneath me, the maze warping around every step.

Behind me, I heard Celeste gasp.

When the last feather was torn from sight and vanished into nothing, I skidded to a halt, my breath coming fast and sharp.

Silence crashed down around me.

I turned slowly.

The maze had changed.

The walls that once breathed with light now felt heavier, closer, like they were folding in again. I met Celeste’s eyes, my chest tightening.

"Where... where are we really?" I whispered.