The mirror world, Icy had heard tell of it on many occasions.

It was a place so similar to their her own in nature and, in some ways, in look. She'd glimpsed it for the first time in Lake Roccaluce and suddenly the stories had a potency, a tangible thing that she could grasp. If she could only access it then she could escape the wanted posters, the persecution, and her looming execution.

All she had to do was take the dive.

She dipped her fingers into the water, marring a perfectly uncrippled surface. In the vaguest sense, Icy could feel the hum of energy, the vibration of a place she'd never been. It had a coxing air to it. The sense of having nothing to lose, propelled her over the edge. She could die at the hands of her foes or she could die trying to make her way to a new place. Death by freedom was sounding sweeter and sweeter as the footsteps grew closer.

She had one place to run.

The water was bitingly cold, an inviting and reassuring sign. She closed her eyes and let the energy of the other place pull her in, taking her to a place deeper than the water, far beneath the bottom of the lake water. Sounds from her world were growing muffled, slowly intermingling with the with those of the mirror world. Desperate and angry cries morphed into joyous shouts. Familiar bird calls grew into foreign ones.

Icy supposed that it only made sense that she would arise in snow and the mountain side the portal opened into was plentiful of it. The place seemed terribly isolated, as well as she liked being alone she didn't fancy it in the long run. She'd always at least had Darcy and Stormy. Flight made her journey to the topmost portion of the mountain easier. She remained there for sometime basking in the frigid air. She was free. Free, but to do what, she knew nothing of this new place, of this mirror world. She knew less of the people and power types it hosted. She was a goal driven woman with nothing to aim for. She supposed that her best bet was to find this world's version of her, she wondered if this person was dead. From what she was told, a person journeying into the mirror world would rise up by their counter-part; two twin souls that longed to get reacquainted. Yet not a soul seemed to dwell in this barren place.

She made her way down the mountain, in search of a shelter to spend the night in. She had yet to come across a mountain, at least in her own dimension, that didn't have a cave within. Wings or not, scoping such a place out had taken a great deal of time. The mountain was shrouded in darkness before she came upon something suitable.

Something that would have been anyhow, had it not already been occupied. It was occupied to the point of having furnishing as if the woman had decided to make the mountain her home. The woman in question was reclined—with one arm propped up on the armrest and supporting her head—on a lush looking chaise lounge, a flute in her free hand. It was an elegant thing of silver and adorned with pearl. The flute was poised to her lips as though she would be playing it had Icy not entered. A curtain of thick black hair cascaded over her shoulders with length enough to frame much of her figure. She set her hand down and glowered at Icy with steely blue eyes.

Eyes so hauntingly similar to her own.

Understanding set in that she had found her mirror world counter-part.

There was something satisfying about know how she'd look with raven black hair and a slightly fuller figure.

"It's been some time since I've had company." The manner of speech was like her own but spoken in such a different accent she almost didn't recognize it. But the tone and timbre of it was much the same.

"I can't imagine that you'd have…or want any."

Her lip curled up. "You imagine right. I have only the company I need." She set the flute aside and made a delicate beckoning motion. A band of four peeled themselves from the wall. They had stood so still, Icy had mistaken them for statues. A masked man and a wolfish beast alongside a pair of fire and ice. "They help me steal what I desire and get rid of what I don't."

In the same way that she knew she'd get rid of an unexpected guest, Icy detected the threat. "I have an interest in power myself."

"Oh?"

"That's why I'm here. I made a grab…or multiple grabs for it. None of them ended well..." Hopefully her mirror self was having more success.

"And so you wish to steal mine?" She quirked a brow.

"Who's to say I'm not chasing the same power as you?" Icy asked. Surly this world would have its own equivalent to the dragon fire.

"I think that you do not know what you seek." The woman shrugged. There was a nonchalance about her, a kind of cool collectedness that was absent within Icy's own self.

"Maybe I don't. But I know about the other world."

"The other world?" She had the woman's interest.

Icy smirked. "I think that we can help each other out. You tell me about the magic worth stealing and I'll tell you about yourself."

"What could you possibly tell me about myself that I don't already know?" She came to stand before Icy with her hands clasped behind her back. She was some shorter but had the same powerful stance, that intimidating presence everyone so hated her for.

"Tell me a name for the magic you seek and you'll get a basic run down." Icy bargained.

"It is called Quintessence and it belongs to me, not to that naïve wide-eyed, red-head." She circled Icy.

So that must be Bloom. She needed a name for mirror Bloom. "In my dimension it is called the dragon fire." Not exactly what her mirror self was looking for, but she figured that it was a fair information exchange. The beasts, sensing the woman's dissatisfaction stepped forward. She held up a halting hand. "My coven worked to harness its power, they had it in their grasp. It was theirs…it was mine. But it the last moment, it fell into the hands of Bloom Peters." She paused. "A wide-eyed, red-head, if you will."

"Will." The other woman muttered. "My troublesome red-head is Will. Wilh elmina Vandom."

"And she is the same…" more or less, Icy added to herself, "as my Bloom Peters."

The woman propped herself against the cave wall. "You are going to tell me that we are the same."

Icy nodded. "I figured you'd get the drift, I'm no fool."

"No fool indeed…" The woman trailed off, contemplating the worth of believing her supposed counter-part. "Say I believe in this second dimension. If you couldn't steal the…"

"Dragon fire."

"How are you going to help me reclaim the Heart of Kandrakar?"

"It's pretty simple." Icy shrugged. "There are two of me, two versions anyhow, that'll be the extra push I need."

The woman brushed away a sweep of that long, thick hair. "Nerissa."

Icy tilted her head, prompting for context.

"That's my name." She paused. "Or yours, if we're continuing this hypothetical."

Icy combed her fingers through her tresses. If she were being honest with herself, this version of her had some unsavory diversions. She was more reserved, seeming older in mentality where Icy herself was crasser and with an immature streak. But they had the same goal, the same drive, the same determination, and above all else the same seething hatred. She couldn't pass such things.

"There's nothing hypothetical about this. We are the same person and we'll be unspeakably powerful…" if Nerissa would cooperate. Not that cooperation was a high point of hers either. Matter-of-factly, Icy was already coming up with ways of double crossing the woman and had no doubts that Nerissa was too.

"I suppose, that it would suit me well to have a partner in crime that isn't completely mindless." Nerissa decided. Despite how well she loathed Shagon's visages of human free will. "We can steal the heart together."

But for the moment, until the heart was in their hands, they were a team. An unstable alliance. "And then we will take the dragon fire." Icy added. To have the power of her own dimension was one thing, but to harness the power of the mirror world on top of it…

Who would have thought that her foes would put her exactly where she needed to be.