The Shattered Reflection: The Last Days of Belle

In a forgotten wing of Château Villeneuve, workers found a portrait of a woman painted on polished obsidian — eyes lifelike, lips parted in mid-sigh. It was dated 1788, signed simply: “Pour Belle.”

The legend goes that her lover — a noble cursed for his cruelty — discovered a way to trap his fading humanity: through alchemical mirrors forged from volcanic glass. When the curse lifted, he became mortal again. But the magic required a life in exchange.

The painting wasn’t a gift. It was a prison.

Belle’s journals, hidden behind the frame, describe how her reflection began to lag behind her movements — at first by seconds, then minutes, then hours. Eventually, she saw her reflection smile when she didn’t.

Her final entry reads:

“He has gone. But his eyes remain in the glass.”

When the castle burned during the Revolution, the portrait was found untouched in the ashes — the face now smiling faintly