Reflection: The Stranger in the Mirror

by Rachel R. Smith

  "I am hardly a prophet, Tao." Nerissa frowned, pushing the image of the disappearing dark-haired man out of her mind.

  "Indeed, you are not. There are very few true ones in the world. I simply think you are remarkably perceptive and you have been since you were a child. Many of the things you told me as a girl make me believe these books are absolutely accurate." Tao poured the steaming water into two ceramic cups then opened the can containing the tea leaves. She carefully measured the mixture of tea leaves and rose petals before pouring them into the cups as well. Placing the pot and cups onto a tray, she carried them out to the small table on the balcony where they both settled into their usual spots.

  "What could the omen mean?" Nerissa asked, watching as tiny brown tendrils spiraled down from the leaves to the depths of her cup.

  "I've been looking into that, but I haven't found any similar instances. In all of the documented cases, the crystals shattering were of the same type, so it was possible to get an idea of what sort of change was coming. Now is different though. It is completely unprecedented as far as I can tell. All types of crystals are breaking, and the frequency seems to be increasing daily." She looked worried as she absently stirred her tea.

  "Perhaps it is something good coming," Nerissa suggested, trying to lighten the mood despite her growing unease.

  "There is no use worrying about the future anyway. It's not like we can change it, right?"

  Nerissa nodded vaguely. She sipped the steaming liquid, closed her eyes, and willed the warmth to clear her mind.

  "Speaking of change, I have a new invention!" Excitement lit up Tao's eyes as she stood. She was always excited to debut a new invention.

  Nerissa smiled over the rim of her cup. "Well, let's see it!"

  "Seeing it isn't the important part—this one is all about hearing!" The muffled words trailed back to Nerissa's ears as Tao dug through a pile of notes. Peering through the open doorway, all Nerissa could see of her mentor was the top of her peach-haired head. She turned back to watch the pink petals drift down from the branch of the cherry tree that arched over the balcony. It really was a wonder that Tao could find anything at all in that chaos.

  "I haven't told anyone else about this yet! I was saving it to show you first." An unfamiliar masculine voice resonated from the doorway. Nerissa’s head whirled around, and she found Tao standing there with a mischievous smile on her face.

  "What...did...you...say?" She stuttered, blotting a spot of tea from her black pants. After turning so quickly, she had nearly sloshed the entire cup. Clearly, she must have misheard Tao's voice somehow.

  "It is a combination that alters your voice." The deep voice emanated from Tao herself! Even her laughter was a deep, throaty chuckle instead of light and musical as usual. She pointed to the necklace embedded with crystals that now snuggly encircled her neck. "There is one to lower your voice and one to raise it. I expect these may be quite popular—especially for the masquerades." Tao handed a second necklace to Nerissa, who quickly fastened it around her throat.

  "How do they work?" Nerissa giggled at the sound of her own voice, now ridiculously high pitched—at least two full octaves higher than normal.

  "Well, when you talk, your throat vibrates. It is a type of energy of movement. The crystals twinned here absorb that energy and transform it. Either a higher or lower sound is created depending on the combination of gems used. It's quite simple, actually."

  "Simple, but brilliant," Nerissa squeaked and then giggled at herself again. "Do you have any more for tomorrow?"

  "No, only these two prototypes so far," Tao said glumly, her voice back to normal after having removed the necklace.

  "That's too bad. So tell me how you came about this discovery." With that, the conversation continued on with more pleasant topics for hours. The two companions sat watching cherry blossoms fall to the ground in the gentle breeze until the sun finally settled below the horizon.

  As Tao bid Nerissa goodnight and watched the light from her glow lamp grow dimmer with the distance, she felt oddly nostalgic. Simply being around that child was like basking in sunshine. The charm and charisma she exuded were two of her greatest assets, the strength of which was amplified by the fact that she was completely unaware of the effect she had on those around her. Nerissa was the most talented and brilliant student she had ever had the fortune of teaching. It was to Tao's great regret that her parents viewed crystal studies as being riddled with superstition and thus an unfitting focus for the future Blood of Chiyo. Nerissa's desires, however, became an unstoppable force when it came to things she was truly passionate about. Their weekly visits were the result of a compromise with her parents. There was no doubt in Tao's mind that she was destined to be one of the greatest rulers Chiyo had ever known. A nagging worry tugged at the back of her mind, and she found herself hoping that time was not too near.

  Nerissa waved once more to Tao before turning back onto the winding path through the statue-filled gardens. She clutched the small glow lamp in her hand firmly and kept her eyes focused on the path immediately ahead of her. Hopefully, the tiny light would somehow dispel any more strange visions before they reached her eyes.

  As she neared her family's estate, she was comforted by the familiar creaking of the large fans in the river. The fans had been built many years ago to provide relief from the sweltering summer heat in Niamh. Propellers deep in the water, turned by the flow of the river, kept the blades moving day and night, creating the constant breezes Niamh was so well known for.

  Her grip on the lamp did not loosen until she set it onto the balcony adjoining her bedroom. The comforting scent of bergamot and cedar wafted around her as she collapsed into the pillows for the night.

  Chapter 3

  An Urgent Message

  Shae bolted upright in bed with a startled gasp. Sweat-ridden blonde locks clung to her face. A dream, no, a nightmare, had awakened her prematurely, long before the first glimmer of dawn. She pushed the damp strands of hair from her furrowed brow with shaking hands and took a few deep breaths. Having collected herself somewhat, she reached into the wobbly night table next to the bed and pulled a pen and notebook from the top drawer. The pen was almost empty and the notebook cover was tattered and faded, the effects of frequent use. Her hand scribbled furiously across the page, trying desperately to record the entire nightmare in every essential detail before anything was forgotten. By the time she finished writing, her mind felt relieved of its burden but was also now completely awake. After wrapping herself in a blanket to stave off the pre-dawn chill, Shae tip-toed through the small house, wincing at each creak from the cold floor. The last thing she wanted was to awaken her daughter. The tribulations of a heartbroken teenager were most certainly intense, but they were of no comparison with what Shae had witnessed on the backs of her eyelids.

  The dreams of most people were simply a fantasy world, vivid in one's own mind but having no direct impact on the waking one. For Shae, however, dreams were quite a different matter. She was a prophetess. It was a talent that had been passed for generations from nearly every mother to daughter in her family. So accurate were her visions of the future that her reputation was known throughout Renatus. Shae's own version of the talent was particularly unique. Her visions came not only in dreams but in waking times as well. It was a wondrous gift and simultaneously a burdensome curse. The benefits were obvious. When her insight helped avoid an accident or revealed the solution to a difficult problem, it was incredibly gratifying. The negative side of seeing the future was often overlooked. The feeling of helplessness that she experienced when witnessing a tragedy beforehand, as she had this night, was as terrible as experiencing the actual event. Worse yet, was the doubt, the questioning of skill, and even the blame that occurred when a calamity went unpredicted. How could she foresee trivial events like her neighbor bringing over an extra pie but fail to see a warning of the tragic accident that stole away one of her most beloveds? She was now sure that the explanation of how the gift
worked was as elusive as how it even existed in the first place.

  Shae poured herself a cup of water from the brass pitcher on the counter and sank heavily into one of the wooden chairs. The moon had already set. Not a ray of light penetrated the windows, yet she did not bother to unshutter any of the many glow lamps hanging about the room. Darkness' black fingers wrapped tightly around the familiar objects in the room, turning them into indiscernible shadows. The sound of the dried strands of the woven chair back crackling under her weight was her sole companion. At times like this, silence was as deafening as a drum beat. It had been a very long time since Shea had felt so woefully powerless. The last time she had found herself in this position was immediately after the untimely death of her husband. Though time had helped her come to terms with her grief and self-doubt, she was not going to let anyone else experience that pain if it could be prevented.

  She sat for several minutes with her face in her hands, willing herself to think calmly. Her dream had foretold a catastrophe which would befall Chiyo. One that she knew would occur imminently. Though she had never been to the capital city, she knew the building she had seen engulfed in flames was the Royal Manor in Niamh. Above the burning Manor, a silver-blue dragon rained balls of fire onto the building, shaking its walls from their foundation. The imagery had been so intense that she felt the heat of the flames on her skin, and the horrified screams of fleeing costumed men and women echoed in her ears as if she had been there herself. A great phoenix had then risen from the rubble, crying in pain before flying toward the western mountains and disappearing into the heavens. Perhaps the eeriest thing of all happened just before she awakened. The dragon somehow became aware of Shae watching and swooped toward her with its fiery gaping maw, chasing her from the dreaming world to reality.

  As visions go, this one really could not have a more straightforward interpretation. The dragon and the phoenix were the symbols of Marise and Chiyo. Two decades ago, Casimer had attempted to assassinate the rulers of Chiyo and failed. The anniversary of the event was marked in Niamh each year by a city-wide masquerade party. Clearly, this dream was a warning that, tomorrow, on the night of the masquerade, Casimer was going to make an attempt again. Shae's heart ached, thinking of the phoenix flying toward the heavens. It could only bode the departure of the rulers of Chiyo. If events continued on their current course, this time Casimer was going to succeed. Never once had Shae's visions been wrong though they had been misinterpreted on infrequent occasions. Even still, she had a hard time accepting that this one would happen. Shae could not fathom that the tranquility their land enjoyed now could ever be destroyed. Even Casimer's initial attempt to assassinate the King and Queen had now faded to nothing more than a trivial bit of history.

  The last part of the dream was still puzzling. What could it possibly mean that the dragon turned to her at the end? She had never been anything other than an outside observer in her dreams. Was it a warning? If it were, Shae couldn't figure out the significance.

  Knowing now that Casimer was planning a second attack, it was painfully logical that he would choose to strike at this time. The masquerade itself was an open mockery of his failure. The crowd of people moving freely into and out of the Manor would make an undetected entry easy. It was a bitter irony that in celebrating their previous success, the Blood and the Bond had become more susceptible to a second attack. She knew from experience that the likelihood of changing the outcome of this vision was small, but Shae was unwilling to simply accept such a fate without a fight. There was one option that she could think of and even that had only a small chance of having any effect whatsoever on the future.

  She crept back to the bedroom to fetch her notebook and change out of her bedclothes then resumed her seat at the table. The glow of an unshuttered lamp illuminated her determined face as she copied every detail from her notes onto a blank sheet of her personal letterhead. Once finished, she folded the warning letter and placed it into an envelope with shaking hands. After dripping yellow wax onto the flap, she impressed her family's triangular seal into it. The capital city of Niamh was a two-day ride from Shae's tiny farming village nestled at the border of Chiyo and Marise. She knew it would be almost impossible for a messenger to reach the city with the warning in time, but that was no reason not to try.

  Shea pulled on her gray wool cloak and stepped into the cool gloam, making haste to the town messenger's home. Shae felt a twinge of guilt for knocking on his door at a time before even the birds were awake. However, getting the message to Niamh was of the utmost importance and there was not a moment to spare. She sincerely hoped that she had not awakened his wife, Gladys, in the process. Gladys was the nosiest woman in the village. In Shae's opinion, she was possibly the nosiest in Chiyo itself. This matter required the utmost discretion. If that woman found out, half the village would know of Shae's urgent message by sunrise and the rest would know by sundown. No doubt she had married Erik because his job made him the nexus of all news to and from the village.

  A moment later, the door in front of her swung open silently and a half-dressed Erik waved her into the house. To Shae's great relief, she could hear the sonorous snores of the busybody herself emanating from the adjacent room. With a smirk, Shae decided that the woman should be glad that she didn't have the same fondness for gossip, or else her loud little secret would be known to the world. It was a wonder her poor husband could sleep with the walls practically rattling.

  "Only something very urgent would bring you here so early, Shae," Erik said, rubbing the stubble on his chin as he lumbered stiffly toward the immense wooden table in the center of the kitchen. He picked up a kettle from next to the hearth and began filling it.

  Shae pulled off her cloak, folding and refolding it anxiously in her arms. "It is. This message must get to Niamh before tomorrow evening."

  "Tomorrow evening! Even if I leave now, it will still be nearly impossible." He winced. Shae wasn't sure if it was in response to the task at hand or the sound of a particularly loud snore from his wife.

  "I know. But this is a matter of the gravest urgency and discretion. This warning must get to the Blood and the Bond before the masquerade tomorrow night. I know it may already be too late, but the lives of the rulers of our country are at stake." Her voice was filled with distress, despite being confined to a whisper.

  Erik's jaw line tightened with every word Shae spoke, but he gave no further protests and asked no more questions. "I will be gone before the sun rises."

  Shae placed the folded, sealed note into his outstretched hand and departed. The echo of one last resonating snore still rang in her ears as the door clicked shut behind her. On the other side of the door, Erik stared at the envelope. It would take too long to contact his cohorts. Taking the letter directly to the Blood and the Bond was the only option left. A matter of mere moments later, the lone witnesses to the horse and rider galloping from the town were the birds twittering at the first ray of dawn.

  *******************

  Desta's eyes fluttered open as the door to her bedroom creaked. Her mother quietly entered and sat down on the edge of the bed, gently smoothing her daughter's dark hair from her face. The deep chestnut hue was identical to that of her late husband.

  "Do you want some breakfast?" Shae's words were soft, but Desta thought there was also an edge to them.

  "Not really." Desta's own voice was raspy and hoarse from crying herself to sleep the previous night. She realized that there were dark circles under her mother's eyes. She had not slept well either. "Is something wrong?"

  Shae gave her a wry smile. "Not really...at least, I've done all that I can about it now." She paused. "I do worry about a daughter who won't eat though. Depriving your stomach won't make your heart hurt less. I know that from experience."

  "I'll keep that in mind." Desta was now absolutely certain there was something her mother wasn't telling her. Changing the subject was one of her favorite evasion tactics.

  Shae was quiet for a moment,
apparently lost in thought, her glazed eyes staring blankly across the room. "I've learned something that will make you laugh." A mischievous glint appeared in Shae's eyes as she spoke.

  "What is that?"

  "Gladys snores loud enough to shake the walls!"

  "How did you ever find that out?" Desta pulled the blankets a bit higher so that nothing but her head and the tips of her fingers were exposed to the cold morning air.

  "I sent a message out early this morning with Erik. Gladys was still asleep when I was there." She chuckled a little, hoping to encourage the same response from her daughter.

  Desta knew what her mother was trying to do, so she humored her with a forced laugh. "It's a good thing for her that you aren't nearly as big a blabbermouth as she is."

  "You know, I thought the very same thing!" She stroked her daughter's tangled mass of hair one more time. "I have some work to do in the garden this morning, but if you want anything to eat, I'd be glad to make it for you."

  "Thanks," Desta said noncommittally.

  Shae stood up and walked to the door. "I'll make whatever you want," she added turning back halfway to the door.

  "If I get hungry, I'll make something myself. Don't worry," Desta promised.

  "Fair enough," Shae agreed as she pulled the door shut.

  The door was merely a second from clicking shut by the time Desta's overwrought mind realized the implications of what her mother had told her. "Wait! You sent a message this morning?"

  Shae hesitated briefly before answering, not bothering to open the door further as she did. "Yes, nothing terribly important though."

  "Oh, alright then." Like I'm going to fall for that, Desta added to herself silently as the door clicked shut. She was certain now that the message was important. If her mother sent a message away so early in the morning, it had to be related to a dream. No doubt Shae was keeping her own troubles to herself to avoid upsetting Desta further.