Eternity’s Mirror Preview

Colors swirled in front of Elior as he slowly became aware of the fact that he was sleeping, dreaming. He gently floated down to a blanket of plush grass beside Nyx and Opal. Around them were bushes filled with flowers of every single color. Above them, the swirling pigments condensed into galaxies of multicolored stars so bright that nighttime was nearly as bright as twilight.

Elior turned his head to get a better sense of the place. Stone paths diverged across the grass through arches that led to nowhere.“ This is a strange dream.”

“You can say that again,” said Nyx.

Opal looked at them. “Are we all dreaming together? As in we’re all asleep and dreaming the same thing right now?”

Elior turned to face his friends. “Looks that way.”

“Ok, well, that’s freaky. I’m going to try to wake up.” Opal pinched herself. Nothing happened. She huffed and pinched up her face, clearly frustrated. She pinched herself again with noticeably more pressure and effort, but she remained where she was.

Nyx laughed, exposing the points of his teeth. “Having a little trouble there, Opal?”

The dwarfess let her arms drop in exasperation. “I can’t wake up.”

Elior and Nyx pinched themselves, too. Still, nothing happened. All three of them remained exactly as they were, standing together in the garden with all the stars above. 

Opal looked up at the sky. “There has to be a way out of here.”

“Did you notice the stone paths?” asked Elior.

“There are three of them,” said Nyx.

“This might have something to do with the water from Eternity’s Well, since we are all here together. Maybe we should split up and try to figure out what’s going on.”

Opal cocked her head to one side. “That’s actually a really good idea, Elior.”

“What? Like you’re surprised about that? I’ll take the path down the middle.”

Nyx cracked his knuckles. “I’ll take the one on the left.”

Opal pushed her hair back behind her ears. “Which leaves me the one on the right. Ok, let’s go.”

Each of them started walking down the stone paths they had chosen. Elior’s feet clumped against the rock as he walked.

When he came to the arch, he paused. The air under the arch hummed with an electric current. He stuck his hand through the arch and every hair on his body stood on end. Lightning flickered on the edge of his vision, but there was no pain. The sensation was like one of his favorite childhood treats, popping candy, but over his entire hand.

Elior withdrew his hand, and the feeling stopped. He examined his hand, checking for signs of damage or burning, but he could find none. His hand was clear, pristine, and just the same as it had been when he put it through the arch.

Satisfied that walking through the arch was safe, Elior took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and stepped through.

The tingling sensation intensified as his body passed through. It was as if he was television static itself for a moment. Then it all stopped. He was fine again.

Elior opened his eyes. He was no longer in the garden. Instead, he was in a long stone corridor flanked with fountains set into the masonry that no longer flowed. He could smell must and mold in the damp place that must have been undisturbed for millennia. 

The dankness of the place did not comfort Elior, so he turned around to go back, but the archway had vanished.

“I suppose there’s only one way forward, then.”

Elior began to walk down the corridor. The smell of mildew intensified as he walked, but only for so long. After about fifteen minutes of walking down the corridor, an orange light bloomed ahead. Flaming sconces lined the walls in this part of the stone hallway.

He followed the lights to the end of the tunnel, where a double door of tarnished silver stood. He pressed his palm to the right side of the door, and it creaked inward slightly with a metallic sigh. Encouraged, Elior put his whole weight on the door. With some effort, the door swung open.

His eyes were drawn inward by intricate carvings in the stone wall. The chamber behind the door was enormous. He walked inside. To the sides, two larger entrances flanked the small one that he had walked through. Every step he took echoed off the surrounding surfaces, and the remains of dead plants rustled under foot.

Craning his head up, Elior found that he was at the end of the room. There, sparkling even in the relative darkness of this forgotten chamber, was a mirror. The frame was made of golden versions of all the races of Lux Terra, and even some that Elior had only heard of in stories. Dragons, mermaids, humans, fae, elves, and dwarves formed the top half. The ones that Elior had thought of as myth, like centaurs, venti, dryads, goblins, golems, and a couple he didn’t recognize, made up the bottom of the frame. The mirror reflected the room like he’d expected, but it was a smoky and imperfect likeness.

It was at that moment that the world around Elior began to fade to black.

❖

As Opal passed under the arch at the end of the path she had chosen, she had the sensation of cool water flowing over her body. On the other side, she found herself at the bottom of a wide, spiraling staircase at the base of what appeared to be a tower built of shiny black stones. It resembled the obsidian that was found in the mines of Nanony, but it was different somehow. Light came from everywhere and nowhere at once, but it wasn’t bright or blinding.

Alongside the outside wall of the tower was a mural and glyphs. To her surprise, Opal found that she could understand them.

She read the inscription above the first picture, which depicted dragons circling a mountain. “In the days before the war began, dragons often gave their gifts of magic to the other races in the form of spells and potions.”

Opal walked up the stairs a bit until she came upon another picture and inscription. “Unfortunately, some dragons used their magic to play tricks on various types of people. These were the first seeds of darkness that sprouted in the dragon’s race.” She traced her fingers along the bottom of the painting. Two dragons were flanking a girl and turning her green. Opal scrunched up her nose at the thought of having two giant reptiles suddenly come upon her to play pranks.

She continued up the stairs. The next painting was of a great many dragons gathered around what appeared to be an orb of light, an orb of water, and a large angelic being. “It was then that Aelon ordered the dragons to create a potion that would undo any of their spells so that any who fell to the tricks of the first evil dragons could find relief.”

The rest of the mural depicted the various ingredients that the dragons who had heeded the order had collected. The details of the flowers and herbs were incredible. There were moments that Opal forgot she was looking at paintings and could almost smell the vegetal scents of the various plants in the murals. Every brush stroke betrayed an intimate knowledge of the subjects.

Then, without warning, the paintings stopped. Opal continued up the stairs to the top of the tower. The room at the top was not large, but it was comfortable and warm. Surrounding the edges of the tower were dried specimens of all the plants that had been shown in the mural. In the center was a large pewter cauldron brimming with a sweet smelling golden liquid that glowed and sparkled as it boiled on top of a fire. 

Around the fire pit over which the cauldron was perched was a silver inlaid inscription. “This is the potion which can reverse any spell for those who drink it.”

Opal fixed her attention on the walls again, and there was a stack of bottles on their sides. She thought of the spell that Steelwort had used to forge her signature. In an instant, she was over at the bottles, grabbing for them to fill one up.

But that was when the dream faded.

❖

Nyx’s body was pressed into the floor as if he’d shot straight up in a sky scraper’s elevator, which is only something he had a vague idea about since being sequestered to land. He turned around to see if the arch was still there, but instead of seeing an arch, he found himself peering over the edge of a cliff so high that puffy clouds rolled like a foamy sea below.

Nyx’s knees vibrated as if a colony of bees had set up new hives in them. He backed away from the edge slowly. He turned around and examined the rest of his surroundings more thoroughly. Ahead of him was a path leading up to a castle built of shiny black stone.

Not wanting to fall off the cliff, Nyx decided that it was better to approach the castle. 

He walked down the path until he stood in front of the massive building. Towers and turrets soared above his head. Golden vines were painted along the walls of the castle. He walked into the gate. The courtyard was paved with white marble. Great swirling patterns danced along the surface of the marble inlaid with gold and gems. 

When he had gone through the gate and was on the other side of the castle wall, the gate closed behind him.

The castle was not a ruin, which surprised Nyx. The only old castle he had ever seen was the one that Minerva had been using as her base of operations. That castle was old, ruinous, and from an era that had long since passed. He’d seen the dwarven castle too, of course, but it was so much more modern and opulent. This castle was in pristine condition, as if the last stone had just been laid and the last stroke of paint had been brushed only that morning. However, for being so well-preserved, it was oddly empty.

Nyx wandered around inside the castle. He peaked in the various rooms, the kitchens, and the corridors, and not once did a single sound or sign of another person appear to him.

After several hours of wandering around the castle, Nyx found himself in the throne room. At least, he assumed it was the throne room. It was in the central part of the castle and had large windows to let in a lot of natural light, but there was no throne. What was there was rather odd. 

Spiraling around the room was a stair case that led up to a trap door in the roof. Of course, Nyx had to check it out for himself. He ascended from his place at the base of the room and up through the door in the roof. He hadn’t known what he was going to find, but what waited for him shocked him.

There, sleeping on the roof of the castle, was a great black dragon. 

The beast was at least two-hundred feet long. He took up more than half the roof all by himself. Fire sputtered from the beast’s nostrils haphazardly. Had Nyx been any closer, he might have started to cook. The scales of the main body were black and shiny. On his paws, the black faded to a velvety texture because of how small they were. Running along his back were spikes at least three feet long and ended in blue and purple points.

Something in the distance made a noise. It was likely the sound of a deer snapping a twig in the woods, but it was enough to wake the dragon. His golden, flaming eyes split open. He rolled back on his haunches, roared, and leapt into the sky to find whatever had just announced its candidacy for his next meal.

On the other side of where the dragon had been laying was a woman chained to the raised edge of the roof who was asleep. Beside her, also chained, was someone who Nyx assumed to be Elior from a distance. His heart leapt into his chest and he ran to his friend.

But before Nyx could make it halfway, he fell as his vision faded and the dream ended.