DISCLAIMER: The author's imagination and passion are the only sources of inspiration for this novel, which is a work of dedication. Parallels between these pages and the past or present may be apparent to some readers, but they are completely coincidental. You are free to interpret this art anyway you see fit, and it is meant for your enjoyment.
The dining hall of the Hylde manor was no longer the place of warmth and laughter it had been under Samantha's influence. The original Reinn had ordered the soft tapestries replaced with heavy, blood-red velvet. The air was thick with the suffocating scent of lilies—a flower Samantha had found beautiful, but which the original soul used to mask the smell of stagnant magic.
The lady wearing their lover's face sat opposite Giywon and Dyierrean. For everyone else, this was a meal of reconciliation. It appeared to them as a tactical infiltration.
Reinn observed, "You've been so distant lately, boys," in a piercing, melodious purr. Her gold silk robe was so rigid that it resembled armor. The first part of the Silver Key, a diamond pendant, was worn around her neck. Giywon recognized the faint, rhythmic glow it pulsed with as the "Editor's" script's heartbeat.
"We've been busy, Reinn," Giywon said, forcing his voice into a tone of smooth, royal boredom. "Managing the fallout of your... recent changes to the Academy takes time."
Reinn reached for a glass of wine and laughed. "Oh, that dusty old shed? I've already signed the order to turn it into a private menagerie for rare beasts. I think a few tigers would be much more entertaining than a group of commoners learning to read."
Dyierrean gripped his silver fork more tightly till the metal started to bend. His dark hair shaded his eyes, and he didn't look up. "Is that so? And the students? Where do you plan to put them?"
"Who cares?" she snapped, her eyes flashing crimson for a split second. "They are side characters, Dyierrean. They don't matter. Only we matter. The Dragon, the Wolf, and the Queen."
Samantha stood across the table in the Mirror World. In a feverish daze, she was observing the scene. The "fading" was becoming worse; she could no longer remember her college roommate's name, and her recollection of a "smartphone" was reduced to a hazy picture of a black brick.
Her love for the two men, however, continued to be a torment.
"Giywon, she's distracted!" Samantha yelled, though her voice was only a ripple in the wine in Giywon's glass. "The pendant! Just grab the pendant!"
Giywon noticed the ripple. He glanced at Dyierrean, then at the drink. They had a strategy.
Giywon said, "Reinn," and got up to approach her. He flashed his most radiant Crown Prince smile, the one he used to win over foreign dignitaries. "I must apologize. I've been too focused on the empire. I forgot that today is the anniversary of the first time we... met in the gardens."
Reinn's eyes sprang wide, and her arrogance flared at once. "Is it? I thought you'd forgotten."
Giywon's fingers hovered close to her neck as he bent down. "How could I forget? You were wearing a dress that looked like a sunset. It was... unforgettable."
His fingers touched the silver chain as he drew closer. Dyierrean, on the opposite side of the room, rose to his feet, a sudden, strong surge of violet magic.
"Enough of this!" Dyierrean yelled, portraying the envious lover. The candles flickered, and the plates rattled as he slammed his hand down on the table. "I won't sit here and watch you woo her in front of me, Giywon! She belongs to the Mydril House as much as the Crown!"
The diversion was a wonderful fit. Reinn's face twisted into a look of pleased malice as she turned to confront Dyierrean; she liked nothing more than two strong men fighting over her.
"Oh, Dyierrean! Jealousy is such a becoming look on a wolf," she said.
Giywon's fingers moved with the deftness of a thief during that half-second of diverted focus. Instead of tearing the chain, he melted the link behind her neck with a tiny, hot magical pulse. As soon as the pendant dropped into his hand, a flawless glass duplicate he had concealed in his sleeve took its place.
His heart pounding against his ribs, he slipped the actual diamond into his pocket.
Giywon stepped back and bowed respectfully. "Perhaps you're right, Dyierrean," he said. "Maybe we should continue this discussion when tempers have cooled."
Reinn's fingers touched the glass replica as she reached up. She sensed the chill, but the Editor's magic was so conceited that it failed to warn her. "Yes, go. Both of you. You're ruining my appetite with all this... emotion."
Giywon and Dyierrean did not notice the shadow in the ceiling corner as they rushed out of the room.
The Editor's Sentinel, a cloud of black, inky smoke, was observing them. The air in the hallway thickened, yet it did not stop it. A deviation was detected by the script.
Samantha experienced a sharp, painful shock inside the Mirror World. The silver had been shocked by the theft of the key. Her body flickered wildly as she dropped to her knees.
"Giywon... "Dyierrean," she muttered. She examined her hands. Now they were nearly translucent. "I... I can't remember the word for... The blooming thing... R ... Ro... Rose?"
The world's language was slipping from her.
Giywon took the pendant out of his pocket and went outside. It was shining a red that was angry and fierce.
Giywon gasped and turned to face the mansion. "We have the first half," he said. "But she's going to notice soon. The glass won't hold the glow for long."
Dyierrean remarked, "Then we go to the Imperial Vault now," with a predatory gleam in his eyes. "We don't wait for the eclipse. If we wait, we lose her."
"But the Sage said—"
"The Sage is a man of books!" Dyierrean growled, grabbing Giywon's shoulder. "I am a man who hears her screaming every time I close my eyes! We go to the Vault, Giywon. Now."
Unaware that the Original Reinn had just picked up her wine glass, saw her reflection in the silver, and discovered the diamond in the mirror wasn't blazing, they dashed for their horses.
Every window in the dining hall was broken by a scream of pure, unmitigated rage that reverberated from the manor.
"GUARDS! BRING ME THEIR HEADS!"