As soon as the sound of his knuckles stopped vibrating on the glass, the mirror's surface reacted as if it were liquid mercury.
Concentric waves expanded from the center, distorting the room's reflection until a pale and beautiful face emerged from the depths of the glass.
It was Airam and her blue eyes looked at Lief with genuine reproach.
"Well, well... look who decided to show up," she said with a tone loaded with sarcasm and resentment. "I was starting to think you had forgotten I exist in this damned glass until you need something."
Without bothering to defend himself, Lief simply took a step to the side, moving out of Airam's line of sight to reveal what he had brought with him.
"Consider it an apology gift."
"..."
Airam's expression of annoyance vanished instantly.
Her eyes widened immeasurably as they focused on the face of the girl on the floor.
This woman didn't just look like Maria... she was a perfect copy!
"...!"
Absolute panic distorted Airam's features and the waves in the mirror agitated violently, and her image vanished all at once.
"It seems your 'gift' has caused more of a heart attack than joy," commented Lillith with gloating observing the empty mirror.
Lief didn't answer and simply waited, knowing exactly what was going through her mind.
Not even five seconds passed when Airam's face appeared again on the mirror's surface and this time much closer to the glass, as if she wanted to pass through it.
Her breathing was agitated and her eyes reflected total emotional chaos.
"M-Maria... I just went to see her... she is sleeping safely," she shot out with a trembling voice, fixing her gaze on the corpse at Lief's feet. "Who the hell is she? A-And why does she have my face...? Why is she identical to us!?"
The anguish was obvious to everyone.
For a divided soul living like a parasite in a mirror, seeing a physical body identical to hers was a vision that challenged her sanity and awakened instincts she thought she didn't have.
"Where do you think I got her from? It's a work souvenir," Lief replied with an insulting calm.
Dragging his desk chair, he turned it around and straddled it, resting his arms on the backrest and his chin on them while he looked at her.
"An unlucky demon named Iblis was using this body and it turns out the original vessel, this girl, is genetically identical to you.
A cosmic rarity, I suppose."
"A demon...?" repeated Airam, trying to process the information, but unable to stop looking at the intact skin of the girl on the floor.
"Yes. I purified it and took out the trash, but the body remained intact," Lief explained, shrugging. "It seemed like a waste to leave such a good vessel lying around, so I brought it."
And while he spoke a sly smile curved his lips.
"You're always complaining about your situation, aren't you? Fighting for control, switching places with Maria, living halfway... It's a miserable situation."
He pointed at the body with a nod.
"This vessel is empty, clean, and ready to be used."
"..."
The echo of his last words settled in the office, leaving a silence charged with meaning.
Even Lillith couldn't help a flash of astonishment crossing her eyes.
She knew Lief's strength and his morality... but she hadn't anticipated this level of consideration.
He had deliberately preserved a perfect vessel, snatching it from the claws of a demon and carrying it all the way back, just to hand it over to a... simple ghost.
But for Airam, the impact was cataclysmic.
Lief's words resonated in her mind like a bell, breaking the barriers she had built to protect herself from her own misery.
A body... of her own?
The idea was so immense that she struggled to breathe.
It meant the end of her sentence in the sterile reality of the mirror... It meant that she no longer had to live like a parasite, stealing minutes of Maria's life, feeling guilty every time she took control just to remember what it felt like to have skin...
She could be a real person...
She could feel the heat of the sun, taste food, feel the wind messing up her hair and, most importantly, have a life that wasn't borrowed.
He knew it... this damned arrogant man had always known exactly what her deepest desire was…
A wave of emotion, a violent mix of gratitude and accumulated pain, hit her.
She felt a burning in her eyes she had never felt, and the image in the mirror began to distort, not because of a glitch, but because of the intensity of her own crying.
A solitary tear slid down her cheek, leaving a wet trail on the surface.
?
"...Are you crying?" asked Lief, raising an eyebrow with genuine surprise.
"Of course not!" Airam refuted immediately.
She tried to wipe her face with the back of her hand, but her voice broke into a choked sob that betrayed her lie. "I-It's... that it's very windy here. It's s-sand! I got sand in my eyes... that's all!"
The excuse was so pathetic that Lillith rolled her eyes at her stubbornness.
Upon seeing her struggle to maintain her dignity, Lief let out a low laugh and decided not to press her anymore.
"Whatever you say, liar."
Without wasting more time, he extended his hand toward the corpse and under his control, Briar's body rose, beginning to head toward the mirror.
The movement was slow and deliberate, giving her time to prepare herself.
And in the instant the skin touched the glass surface, the mirror rippled like a pool of mercury upon being disturbed.
The surface became liquid and began to engulf the body slowly, allowing the matter to cross the border between the physical and the spectral world to find its new owner.
When the last trace of the body was swallowed, the mirror stopped rippling and in the depth of that gray dimension, Airam materialized next to the body.
Extending a trembling hand toward the girl's face, fascinated and terrified at the same time.
Her fingers grazed the air millimeters from the cold skin, but she stopped at the last second and retracted her hand against her chest.
"...Thank you."
Still seated, Lief leaned slightly forward.
"What are you saying? The insulation of this glass is terrible, I can hardly hear you."
Airam shot him a withering look but the hostility didn't last even a second.
Taking a deep breath, she struggled to stabilize the whirlwind of emotions.
"I said I'm going to need time. I need... to adapt to this.."
"No problem. Take the time you need, there's no rush," replied Lief. "And for your peace of mind: I cleaned that thing from the inside out. I erased any trace of Iblis down to the subatomic level."
"That body is more sterile than an operating room before surgery."
Lief gave a half-smile and pointed to the body inside the mirror.
"Think of it as if I were handing you the keys to a new car. At first, the engine will feel strange. Take your time to adjust the mirrors, test the brakes, and familiarize yourself with the accelerator before going out on the highway. And if you notice any weird noise, you know where to find me."
The stupid analogy managed to make the dramatic intensity suffocating Airam dissolve, replaced by a sensation of normality.
Finally, the expression of anguish on her face gave way to a resigned, but genuinely warm smile.
"Understood..."
Locking her eyes on Lief one last time, her figure and the body lying at her feet began to fade away.
________
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