Rain Harlow
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(Vol 5) Chapter 27: Old Vibes, Old Restrictions
🕑 Added 2024-05-22 15:23:33 +0000 UTCThe voice shooting through Sammy’s realm like a lightning bolt barely paused. “Tell me you exist — Please. I have no other option… I’m almost caught, I’m… lost… so lost…” She almost broke into hysterics but seemed to steel herself with deliberate discipline. “There’s no time. Death, then. So be it. I deserve nothing less.”
Sammy was stunned as she felt, for the first time in a long time, that definitive familiarity of One of Hers reaching out. Goosebumps broke over her skin.
She reached out for the mirror she’d heard the plea from — strangely, it was harder than usual to find. The prayer had no mind attached and actually was directed to the Goddess of Light. But by resonance, sensitivity, and likely by [Fate], her mirror still honed in on it.
The whole thing made her worried and a bit suspicious, but there was no way she could ignore such an intense vibe. Her intuition drowned that out with the certainty that it was critical she responded.
The mirror was face up on a surface she couldn’t see. She activated [Mirror Control] and levitated it immediately, spinning it around to see better.
It appeared to be a dingy, poorly lit, small inner room. The mirror — a basic, high-quality hand mirror — had been on a chair, and there were two more sitting on a wooden table, along with what appeared to be something she could only describe as an open disguise kit — makeup, glue, bits of different hair, small prosthetics.
No one appeared to be there.
Fuck! Where is she?!
On the periphery of the room, she could hear echoes of stomping around, objects shifting, shouting, arguing, and protests. A single door to the room suddenly had its handle tried, but it was soundly locked. A gruff man’s voice called, “Locked room here! That bitch better give us the key right fucking now or we’re kicking it down!”
They’re still looking for her!
Sammy spun the mirror around, assuming she was hiding. The woman’s last words made a panic rise up in her throat. She tried to reach out mentally, but there was simply no target.
She activated [Mirror Communication: Illuminate the Other Side] to essentially shine a flashlight around. When it passed over the floorboards, she thought she heard something, perhaps in intake of breath.
A basement!
Not wanting to alarm the woman more, she didn’t shine the light down any further, but floated the mirror closer and peered at the floorboards. The excellent construction had a tiny, tiny gap, likely just enough for someone to see light from the other side, if they were in relative darkness.
‘One hiding in the dark crying out for the light.’ Sammy dismissed the somewhat foreign thought instantly, having precious little time.
Meanwhile, there was quite an argument outside the door. A woman crying and insistent in a high-pitched, terrified tone. A man snarling at her. “No key — You can’t find the fucking key?! Are you fucking kidding me?! Do you have any idea who you’re dealing with, bitch?”
There was the clear slapping sound of someone being backhanded to the floor, and panicked sobbing in response.
Grimacing, Sammy next activated [Befuddle the Other Side] so she could control illusions through the mirror — primarily to direct sound and prevent it from resonating. She whispered through the crack in the floor, amplifying it slightly in that direction only, “Hey. I’m here to help! I’ve answered your prayer, supplicant.”
A cut-off gasp could be heard, then a frantic whisper, “Wh-h-how? Is it-? Could it really…?” There was a somehow bitter cough of air, and she muttered to herself, “Probably a trick. Or a hallucination. Just a girl’s voice? Idiot…not now.”
“What?! It’s not a trick! You prayed for me and here I am! Look, there’s no time. Do you have a mirror?”
“No.” It was stated flatly, and in the subtle way one would if questioning their sanity. “Go away.”
Shit, does she not know about the [Mirrors] part? That would sound insane… Fuck my life! I need line-of-sight.
The sobbing outside the door continued, and then there was a sudden crack as the door was apparently kicked. It was quite heavy, however, and resisted. There was a pained curse.
I guess the Sages themselves aren’t here or it would be burned down to ash.
“She’s got a knife!” This was shouted nearly synonymous with the feral scream of a woman from behind the door, and the sounds of struggle and combat could soon be heard.
Briefly, she checked for mirrors, but there were none with an angle on the altercation. Sammy tried to just count her blessings. It was buying time, and if that woman was willing to give her life for some defiance, all she could do was try to make it count. It was likely she was hiding her target in the first place.
“You have to trust me,” Sammy continued quickly to the hiding woman. “What other choice do you have? Listen, I need you to make a hole, make a line of sight, or open the door, or whatever the hell, but I can save you if you just have this bit of faith. If you trust me.”
After a brief pause, the woman replied evenly, “If I did that, the spell to incinerate myself — and avoid the far worse consequences of capture — would fizzle. I’m literally holding it right before the final syllable, sitting in a circle. I can’t do anything else but cast it or cancel it first. A figment of my imagination would cost me… me. And the denial of a little bit, at least, to them.”
Ah… this is quite a fucking standoff, then. I have to convince her, damn it. I have to.
Sammy took a deep, deep breath, and with Azure and a great deal of her realm largely looking on with bated breath, she invoked and channeled the full weight of [Goddess], [Light], [Fate], and [Ascendant]. [Diplomacy] as well, to get to her see reason.
With that, she spoke down through the mirror. “I am the Goddess you seek — the one whose eyes lie in the mirror, the one who brings the bright dawn, and the one who slings the lasso of Fate around what mortals I desire. You are tied to me — you are one of my own — and I will save you if you would simply listen. So I charge you: come into the light!”
She made light flare as bright as she could in a small cone.
All the while as she spoke, the altercation outside the door raged. All too quickly, it resolved, a burst of violence ending in a fit of curses. Momentarily, the door was hit again, and this time it cracked as if from a stronger force assailing it. It wouldn’t hold for long.
There was a brief, silent pause as the woman below the floorboards said nothing. Then there was a scurrying movement, and the floor underneath the chair vibrated slightly.
Another firm kick at the door broke it… as a thick, booted foot and a shin came through it entirely. A hail of curses resounded as the man dug his leg back out of the hole he made. Almost instinctively, Sammy utilized her illusions to make the mirror disappear to anyone from the direction of the door, effectively throwing up a poor man’s invisibility as she had many times before.
A hand came through to fumble around for the lock, but… it didn’t help. Soon there was shouting calling for more kicking ‘in the right place this time’.
A trapdoor raised from under the nearby chair, craning upward as a woman pushed it with some effort. Sammy dimmed the light to not blind her as she moved the mirror over to get a good look at her, face-to-face.
She was a 20-something blonde beauty, with eyes like an absolute mirror to Sammy’s own, blue, clear, and uniquely of crystalline depths. Hers were nonetheless somehow colder and darker, and her face contained the severity of a brutal life, making the blue rather frigid. They looked out and had no pity for anything, even staring into a mirror. They were eyes that had seen far, far too much.
The woman’s mouth slightly parted to exhale in relief, as she stared into Sammy’s eyes with a note of wonder. “The eyes in the mirror don’t lie after all. You are She. And more. I see it. I see…” She trailed off, mouth hanging open as she stared. Her eyes gleamed slightly wet.
The Fortuneteller bubbled up so intensely full of excitement that Sammy barely held onto to herself, and almost spoke out loud. ‘Quake, World of Decay! Tremble. Your obsolescence comes, for the prodigal daughter is returned. My stars align, my daughters take your fates in hand. The Engine of Progress speeds on rails to trample you into mash, ah haha haha!’
Alright, alright, she’s cracking the softball over the fence — whatever. Yeesh. ‘My’ instead of ‘Our’? Hmm.
As interesting as it was, there was no time to ponder it. The door finally took another kick, cracking inward severely as it was hit in the now perfect spot to shatter past the lock.
“There’s no time, supplicant,” Sammy declared firmly. “I’m going to pull you through the mirror. Don’t resist.”
The blonde woman’s brows furrowed and her eyes narrowed, but she nodded and blurted, “I trust you.” Then she made a face. “Wait, why do I trust you? It’s nonsensical. You’re in a floating mirror and-”
“Uh, we’ll get to that — but later, young lady!” As the door got busted in, Sammy used [Mirror Maze] on the blonde woman, absorbing her bodily, instantly, through the mirror into another realm as her ‘victim’ waived her resistance. The trapdoor slammed shut, and the chair almost tipped over as it came down. Sammy moved the mirror in the way to steady it, narrowly preventing its fall.
Men spilled into the room, eyes casting around sharply. Soldiers, most of them — perhaps militia.
Sammy stuck her ‘new acquisition’ into something like an inn room, hastily filled out, and without doors.
The young woman spun around in alarm, eyes wide. “What the hell?! This is exactly the sort of thing the Mirror Demon could do! You trapped me!”
As a Voice From Above, Sammy replied, “Look, I’m not that, and I don’t have time to explain. This is from a deific Domain. And I’m not torturing you. Remember you said you’d trust me? Don’t resist when it comes up.”
As they were speaking, in the room with the physical, floating mirror, Sammy slowly inched it away. She tried to keep everyone ‘frontal’ to the mirror’s plane, per the necessity of the ability. But it was going to be a problem, because they were all fanning out, and there were a bunch of them. She glanced at the table, and the other mirrors, considering things.
I could ‘play dead’ with the mirror, but fuck, I want it out of here yesterday. If it breaks, she’s stuck here as her ‘spawn’ location out.
The woman in the Mirror Maze barked a bitter, hysterical laugh. “That’s asking a shitton of a lot, isn’t it?! I’ll be at your mercy, then, won’t I?”
“Yes.”
“At someone’s mercy is the last place I ever want to be again! I want dominion over my own fate!”
“I’m sorry. I understand. I will do my best to ensure you don’t have to face such terror again. You do have a choice, here. I’m just asking you to suffer the indignity one more time, for true freedom that I can provide. Please. I need to focus on getting this mirror away, now.”
The woman was quiet to this, shaking her head, at a loss and struggling with that necessity of trust. She fell to her knees and dropped her head, eyes closing, fists clenched.
Meanwhile, Sammy was slowly angling upward, hoping to get all illusions out of their line of sight.
It’s working, it’s working, it’s working…
Where the mirror had originally been, one scowling man was drawn to it, looking around the chair suspiciously. He was dressed differently than the others, with a black, brimmed hat, with a long, matching coat. He was brandishing a short saber.
Sammy noticed he was bleeding from a cut on his hand, hastily wrapped. He had quite the sourpuss face. She figured he was almost certainly the owner of the voice from earlier.
At least she got a lick on him. Fucker.
Suddenly, his eyes darted right at her ‘spot’ in the air and he narrowed his eyes.
Shit!
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Comments
Rain Harlow
😁
Tejing
I *thought* it was her!
