Zza staggered through the warped tunnel, her claws scraping along the hot tal, trying to steady herself even though the place kept changing shape around her. The forge breathed in weak pulses, each one rolling through the floor with a dull shudder that rattled her legs. She couldn’t tell if it was dying or waking up, and her stomach twisted at the idea that maybe it was doing both.
Buzz drifted beside her, drifting in that uneasy way he had ever since the Mind-Split. His shell flickered with faint gold trails like thin scratches across a dark surface. He kept trying to walk straight, but each step looked like it belonged to a different version of him. One step solid, next one pulled sideways by so mory that didn’t belong to him.
"I can feel it trying to write on ," he muttered, swiping the back of his claw across his mandible as if sothing clung there. "Like soone’s editing in real ti. It scratches through my thoughts then wanders off when it gets bored."
Zza didn’t respond. She couldn’t. Her throat felt tight enough to crack. She had seen the Mirror-Ghost only once, and once had been plenty. A shape built from her mind and Buzz’s, yet shaped wrong. A tall insect form with long, heavy limbs that swayed like loose chains, and a single gold marking across its face that pulsed when it stared at them. It moved like a mory pushed out of the brain too early, clumsy yet familiar, bright yet hollow. She had never seen anything like it.
She hated that she understood why it wanted them.
Buzz glanced at her, trying to keep his expression steady. "Don’t drift off on ."
"I’m here," she whispered, rubbing her claws together because they wouldn’t stop trembling. "Just trying to think."
"Thinking in this place is dangerous," he said, and the words felt too true.
The tunnel bent suddenly, tal groaning as if huge hands pressed it from behind. A sharp turn opened with a heavy clap, pushing hot air into their faces. Zza flinched and grabbed Buzz’s arm. His shell flickered again, this ti pulling in too many directions. He let out a rough breath.
"I swear," he muttered, "this place enjoys ssing with us."
They stepped through the turn, and the world widened into a cavern filled with suspended platforms and broken rails. The tal looked stretched, lted, then hamred again by sothing that didn’t understand tools. Thin streams of red light seeped from the cracks. It looked like the whole chamber was bleeding.
Zza tried to keep her voice steady. "We need to move along the raised side. That slope might hold."
Buzz nodded. "Yeah. Sure. As long as it doesn’t suddenly lt under us or try to rewrite our legs."
She shot him a look. "Please don’t joke right now."
"That was coping," he said, spreading his claws helplessly. "I’m trying."
They moved. Slow. Careful.
Until the air behind them bent.
Buzz jerked. "Zza—"
She didn’t turn at first. Her body refused. Her wings clamped tight against her back as sothing cold brushed her mind again, the sa way it had when the Mirror-Ghost first appeared. A thin, searching drift of thought that didn’t feel like another creature. It felt like a finger pressed through the skull.
She turned.
The Mirror-Ghost hovered a short distance away, tall and strange, its limbs bending slightly inward as if it were folding in on itself. Its head tilted, studying them with empty eyes that glowed faintly from within. The glow grew brighter, shifting through shapes — a half mory of Buzz laughing once, an image of Zza tying her threads, the voice of the Queen echoing faintly, mories snagged and shredded then played back with the wrong timing.
It stepped forward.
Zza’s legs locked.
Buzz’s claws tightened until his shell creaked. "Don’t stare at it too long," he whispered. "It pulls your mind apart."
The Ghost tilted its head again, almost curious.
Then it opened.
Not like a mouth. More like a tear. A thin line split down its face, revealing a soft gold haze swirling inside, the sa haze the forge used when it tried to rewrite them. The haze drifted forward, stretching toward Zza in thin strands.
Buzz shoved her aside. "Move!"
They stumbled across the slanted tal, sliding on hot streaks and broken plates. Buzz pulled Zza with him, his steps stumbling again as sothing inside him twisted. His fused mind kept jerking his limbs out of rhythm, trying to march him back toward the haze. He shook his head, struggling.
"Don’t let it tag you," he said, voice cracking. "Once it tags you, it sees everything."
Zza dragged him up the slope, claws slipping. "Keep going. Keep your mind straight."
Buzz let out a rough laugh that wasn’t funny at all. "Straight is a luxury right now."
The Ghost stepped closer.
The entire chamber groaned in response, as if the forge welcod it. tal plates along the walls shifted toward the creature, attracted like iron to a magnet. Heat swirled around its limbs. Its long fingers stretched downward, scraping softly along the floor even though it hadn’t touched anything yet.
Zza felt her pulse hamring in her skull, felt sweat and steam mixing along her shell. "We run. Now."
Buzz didn’t argue.
They bolted along the walkway, their claws skidding as the ground warped under them again. The slope straightened. Then it tilted the other way. Then it cracked. Huge panels shifted like sliding doors, trying to push them toward the Ghost.
Zza swore under her breath. "It doesn’t want us to leave."
"The forge loves unfinished work," Buzz muttered, panting hard. "We escaped once. That ans we’re still on its list."
A heavy clang echoed from behind them. Buzz shoved Zza forward. She didn’t want to look but did anyway.
The Mirror-Ghost had dropped to the platform they just crossed, its limbs bending backward as it landed. The impact sent cracks racing across the tal. Red steam floated up from the floor where it stood.
Then its voice slid out.
Not spoken.
Not heard.
A thought pressed into both their skulls at the sa ti.
**co back**
Zza gasped, clutching her head. "Stop. Stop that."
Buzz stumbled and hit the railing. The world spun sideways.
The Ghost stepped again.
The glow under its face flickered with colored threads — blue mories, green guilt, silver instincts, flashes of gold authority from the Queen — woven and unwoven in rapid pulses. The idea that all of that ca from their own minds made Zza want to tear out her own thoughts.
She pulled Buzz upright. "We can’t let it catch us."
"I know," he said, shaking his head like he wanted to fling soone else’s thoughts out of his skull. "But it keeps reaching into . It wants sothing in here."
They ran again.
The walkway cracked beneath their feet and tilted sharply, throwing them onto a lower platform. Zza rolled and scrambled up, pulling Buzz with her. The chamber scread with tal as the walls folded inward, closing off exits like an angry throat.
Then sothing snapped behind them.
A thin beam of gold whipped across the platform and hit Buzz square in the side of his shell. He scread — a sharp, raw sound — and nearly toppled. Zza grabbed him, but the strength in his legs faltered instantly.
The Ghost had tagged him.
Buzz’s body shivered in a sickening wave, like sothing inside him was rearranging its furniture without permission. His eyes flickered. His claws twitched as if pulled by strings.
"Stay with !" Zza yelled, shaking him. "Buzz. Look at ."
His voice ca out thick. "It’s in my head. Digging. It’s looking for... sothing. I don’t know what. It keeps replaying pieces and mixing them."
Zza pulled him behind a broken pillar that had fallen from above. "Fight it. Don’t let it take control."
"I’m trying," he snapped, but it sounded like a child drowning.
The Mirror-Ghost drifted closer, never rushing, like it already considered them caught. Its limbs hovered just above the floor as if the ground wasn’t solid to it. Its glow flickered softer now, patient.
Buzz clutched his head, gritting his teeth. "It’s trying to stitch to itself. Like I’m a spare part."
Zza could see it — faint threads of light reaching from the Ghost toward Buzz’s thoughts. Buzz pushed back, but the threads kept closing in around him, wrapping around things she couldn’t see.
Zza wrapped her silk across Buzz’s arm, anchoring him to her. "I’ll pull you back."
His voice trembled. "You already did that once."
"And I’ll do it again."
The Ghost stepped closer.
Buzz’s shell flickered hard, so violently the surface warped for a mont. His voice cracked. "It’s not just reading . It wants to replace ."
Zza squeezed him tighter, feeling her heart slam against her ribs. "Keep fighting."
"Trying," he whispered.
The Mirror-Ghost reached out one long arm.
The cavern answered with a surge of heat, tal pulling toward the creature like sothing inside the forge recognized a familiar command.
Zza braced herself.
Buzz’s eyes rolled as the Ghost pressed into his mind again.
Walls bent inward.
Heat climbed until it felt like they were standing inside a furnace.
Zza dragged Buzz along the ground, desperate, wings buzzing with broken rhythm. She could feel the thing pulling at him like a tide, tugging at his senses, his mories, his fears.
Buzz thrashed weakly. "Zza... if I lose myself you run, alright? You get out."
"That’s not happening."
"It might."
"That’s still not happening."
The Ghost reached the pillar.
Its hand passed through the tal like it was fabric.
Buzz scread again.
Zza pressed her body against his, holding him together in every way she could.
The forge groaned.
The Ghost leaned in, glow brightening.
Zza raised her claws, shaking, ready to defend him even if it killed her.
And the Ghost one step away from claiming him, the forge bending around its will, and the entire city trembling with whatever is coming next.
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