prologue
thirteen years ago
A small child of four, brown hair tumbling over her shoulders, her amber eyes glistening, ran across her mother's room in a secluded home outside of Castle Town. She was intrigued by the ornate mirror lying on her mother's bedside table, and now that her mother was busy in the kitchen, it would be hers. Stumbling across the room smiling, she reached out and grabbed the mirror, studying it; as she touched it, glowing symbols, circles, and most notably, three triangles, arced throughout the small hand mirror's surface. She had to show her mother this; why had she been not allowed to touch something so fun and exciting? Squealing with delight and smiling innocently, she waved the glowing mirror through the air and ran into the kitchen, where her mother stood preparing their usual lunch of fish caught from the nearby small creek.
"Ariadne?" came her mother's soft, gentle voice, as the girl ran into the kitchen. "What are you holding?"
"Look! Look at this mirror!" Ariadne said with delight, waving it at her mother. Her mother looked up from the food she was preparing quickly, her knife landing on the table with a clatter. Her beautiful face, skin a mixture of black and whitish blue, her eyes bright yellow with red irises, was a mask of fear; the blue glowing lines etched upon her soft skin glowed brightly with her intense emotion, and just like that, she was gone. She dissolved into black, and the black was sucked into the small mirror Ariadne held.
"Mother?" Ariadne said, looking at the mirror as it's glow died. She saw her mother's reflection briefly, streaked with tears, and it upset her; she dropped the mirror and it cracked and broke, and with a scream she began to cry.