The advisor blinked as if being woken from a dream. He rubbed his eyes, recalling the moments before his distraction.
Helie, Roan, and Aether also awoke from their stupor, instinctively raising their weapons.
"Keep an eye out!" Noble told her cohort.
"For what?" Roan watched the looming storm in the mirror with trepidation.
"You'll know it when you see it!" Child of Promise responded.
Now that the advisor was cognizant once more, she did not want to let him know her plan.
"Oh, and hold on tight!"
"To what?" Aether looked around at the empty room.
"Just be ready!" Helie planted her feet.
"Leave now." Omer's voice caught up in the wind. No, it was the wind itself.
The custodian used the power of the mirror to back up his command.
But Noble had no intention of budging.
"I cannot oblige. We have unfinished business here."
"What business can a Realm Walker have in my mistress's home?" Omer was incredulous.
"I have news of the war." Noble felt her cohort members' emotions spike.
"Did my mistress send you?" Omer tilted his chin. The wind lessened momentarily.
Noble tried and failed ot discern its source. She straightened her shoulders.
"I cannot have come from your mistress, do you know why?" Noble took a deep breath. "It is because your mistress is dead! Mirage is gone and will not return. She died in the war along with the real Omer."
Child of Promise felt the air around them shift. She held out her free hand to trace its movement.
Hearing her words, the custodian's clear eyes hardened. "That is impossible. My mistress is away. She will return!"
"Mirage is gone," Noble planted her foot firmly. "I have her cape. Would she not claim it if she were alive?"
"The cloak was among the trove that Lady Syrce visited. You are a thief, and my mistress will seek her revenge when the time is right." Omer shook his head.
Noble felt her fingers tingle.
Hidden away, the mirror was pulling essence from her. But Why? Noble's mind began to wander with possibilities, but she forced it to focus on the reflection before her.
"The time will never be right. She will never come. You can release yourself from the bond that holds you. Live your own life. Let Syrce go and recall the rest of the Others. Your Realm does not need to bleed into this one."
The custodian scowled. "I will protect my mistress's home until her safe return."
While Noble had hoped the words would talk sense into the advisor, she knew deep down they would have the opposite effect. The reflection had one directive: to keep the palace running even when Mirage was absent. Without that, he had no purpose.
The reflection of Omer would not so easily give up his singular goal after working so hard to achieve it.
The palace on the hillside became obscured by the clouds of the storm. They rolled forward like a tidal wave.
The threat in the man's clear eyes was apparent, but Noble did not flinch.
"She will not return. I saw her death myself in the ceiling of the palace. I think you might have seen it too. Deep down, you know Mirage will never come!"
Omer clenched his fists, raising his staff over his head as if to strike Noble down.
Child of Promise faced him on the other side of the glass, her expression grim.
Her second sight spread out as far along the surface as she could make it.
'Wait for it…wait for it.'
"Lady Bel!" Aether warned as lightning filled the clouds in the mirror sky.
The storm was almost upon them.
Ignoring the younger Master, Noble shook her head. She kept her tone even as the words slowly fell from her lips.
"Mirage is dead."
Holding the staff to the sky, Omer let out a soulful wail. "No!"
He brought down the cane and struck the ground at the same time the clouds struck against the glass.
The other members of the cohort readied themselves for a breach, but the clouds bounced uselessly off the mirrored surface. That is, they bounced off everywhere except for…
"There!" Roan saw it at the same time as Noble. Clouds flooded out from a singular point. There was the crack! It had healed somewhat from when Syrce had caused it, but the glass was still marred from when she took the image.
'So that's how you were hiding it!'
A smile came to Noble's face.
She squinted against the cold air as it blasted her in the face.
'I am ready when you are!' Syrce braced herself behind the floating Master.
Ready...Noble flexed her fingers around the mirror's handle. She hadn't noticed the power surging through it before. It made sense; it had brought an entire population into existence. The looking glass was made by a daemon, or at least used by one.
That was a curious thing…
'I wonder.' Noble unconsciously lifted the mirror to her face. Had Mirage held it just so when it was hers?
Images of Mirage's life flashed across the gilded glass. The divine creature had truly lived every life imaginable. This was useful information for the people of the waking world.
Fort, Rainy, and the boys would certainly want to see this treasure. Why should she let go of it just now, Noble wondered. It was a waste, wasn't it?
They had only scratched the surface of one enchantment. Mirage was immensely creative. Surely it had other uses. The professor's professional curiosity was piqued like it never had been before. Her mind spun as she thought of all the possibilities.
Wait, she still had the spatial box, didn't she? The one that the government gave her?
If she put it in the box, then she could get it home with her. Surely they could find another way to clear the Nightmare. With the relic, only her imagination was the limit! Think of the good they could do.
In the right hands, she could only guess at all the wonders the mirror could...
'BEL!' Syrce broke through Noble's creative thoughts. 'What are you waiting for?!'
'The mirror!' Noble had almost succumbed to the relic's influence. It was very powerful indeed. Even now, she was having trouble extricating her real thoughts from the desires that the mirror had influenced.
It was no wonder Syrce had been swayed! How had she managed to resist it at all?! Noble shoved the relic away from her face with a gasp.
Spotting the looking glass, the custodian pressed his hand against the glass.
"That does not belong to you!" Omer motioned to the Saint. "Return it at once!"
The floating Master nodded. "With pleasure!"
Instead of giving the mirror back to Syrce as the advisor had intended, Noble thrust the mirror into the crack in the Great Mirror—right in the center of the Reflection's chest. With her levitation, she pushed it through the crevice and into the Mirror Realm.
Omer's mouth opened, an unsung song dying on his lips.
Instead, he reeled back, clutching the relic as it protruded from his chest. He pulled it out, and the tangible relic took on a strange, two-dimensional quality.
The looking glass crumbled in the custodian's hand. The relic dissipated, returning the image to its source.
[You have received an Aspect Legacy...]