Mirrors of silver


As Sakura walked towards the forest, her Coadjutor told her of the story of Szoreny.

"He has always been a tree, but in the past he was the other way up. What you are seeing are his roots. Before he became a Yozi he shaped time, separating Now from Then. He also had a role in designing the loom of fates. It could be said that he engineered the ability for someone to change their fate."

Sakura looked at what she now knew were roots. She had gotten to the clear entrance to the forest, a place where the trees grew thinner. She watched her reflection in the trees, due to their shapes they twisted the reflection like funhouse mirrors, Those on the left made her shorter while those on the right made her taller.

As she stepped below the arch of the trees she murmured "So he's important then?"

Her Coadjutor spoke quickly "Pay attention, this place has been known to kill the unwary." Sakura looked around quickly. All she saw were trees that warped her image.

As she continued walking and looking around her Coadjutor finally answered her question "Yes, in terms of the Yozi he is very important, but he declined to join the Reclamation so supposedly the other Yozi don't trust him."

"He declined?" Sakura parroted so her Coadjutor gave a mental nod "No one knows why, one of his allied Yozi did the same but at least in that case it's because he found the idea of sneaking around to escape to be boring."


As they walked, Sakura saw that her reflections had begun to distort in impossible ways. She was currently not disguised so she had white hair but in at least three of the reflections she saw purple hair. There were other strange things too like facial expression, right now Sakura was controlling her face but some of her reflections had manic smiles or seemed to be despairing. One particularly creepy one was one with purple hair, she had a serene expression and wore Sakura's old clothes, ones she had left back in 'her world' yet those clothes were covered in blood.

She looked closer at that reflection only for it to nod to her knowingly. She fell back in surprise but the reflection still stood and smiled down at her. When she stood again the reflection looked like it took a step closer and it pushed it's hand against 'her' side of the mirror. After a moment as if stepping through a curtain of water 'she' stepped forward and gave a curtsy before speaking in her own voice "Please follow me to your meeting."

Sakura gave a moment for her Coadjutor to suggest what she should do but it just gave a mental shrug "I don't know, I expect this is a creation of the silver forest. A reflection given form. If so then she is controlled by the silver forest. If so it is safe to follow it, at least somewhat."

Sakura nodded "Lead on." and her reflection let out a little giggle.

As they walked deeper, her reflections warped more and more.

She saw a reflection with Rin's hair colour, maybe that could have been her if Rin had been sent to the Matou instead of her. That reflection looked happy.

She saw a reflection that was a corpse covered in crest worm, could that have been what would have happened if Shirou had never saved her?

She saw a reflection that had longer and still purple hair wearing a long girls school uniform she had never seen before, her eyes in the reflection were red and empty and she carried some sort of cane like that used by the blind to see. She honestly had no idea where that image came from. Maybe it would have happened if she ended up blinded by one of the experiments done on her?

Many more reflections appeared.

One showed her as a Solar like Shirou, she looked powerful and able to protect him properly. She could never be like that now.

One showed her as a walking corpse, a symbol like a bloody mirror of the solars glowed on her head and she seemed to be carrying a spear of a black metal. Another possiblity for evil then? Truely was she cursed to always oppose those she loved.

One didn't look any diffrent from her at first glance but she understood as the reflection failed to blink yet it still moved to reflect her, that version of her had no soul. How it had happened Sakura didn't know but it scared her.

Eventually her guide stopped at a clearing with a pool of what looked like mercury (Her Coadjutor made a note that the metal called mercury was generally known as quicksilver, as there was a goddess called Mercury).

Her reflection turned to her "Now wait here for a bit." As she said that, Sakura realised she was looking at an image in a reflection again.

Sakura waited.

Eventually a voice echoed out of the trees around her "What think you of my garden?"

It was as if the forest itself was talking. Sakura just shook her head "That isn't why you called for me."

The voice answered calmly "No, but answer the question."

Sakura sighed "It scares me, I could have been so much better than I am."

"And she said it!" The forest spoke again, and Sakura could swear that there was applause coming from somewhere in the forest.

Sakura sighed but the forest spoke again "So what are your thoughts on some of them in particular, how about this one?"

Suddenly all the trees reflected the image of her that had remained with the Tohsaka family instead of Rin.

Sakura took a breath "It would have been better than the life I led. I would have been happy. My father would likely have still died in the war but Kariya likely would not have joined the war. I heard he joined it for my sake."

Something inside her twisted and she continued "In addition, Rin would have been forced to go through the pain instead of me, she would be the dirty and unclean one and I might have Shirou just to myself."

Her reflections around the clearing all raised an eyebrow (Not all the same one) and the forest spoke "Not the most loving sister are you? I guess that is Kimbery's curse though."

The reflections all changed to her as a Solar. The forest waited expectantly so Sakura spoke "I wish I could have been like that, I could have protected Shirou."

"Ah, but," the forest began "In this one you swapped roles with Shirou, he is the infernal and you the solar."

Sakura's face stiffened "I would happily follow him here, as he should of."

A laugh echoed around the forest "It seems like you are just not a nice person. Very well then."

The reflections changed again, though at first she couldn't tell how they were warped, they all looked just like her. When she payed attention to the faces though it clicked. They were all infernals but they were fine with it. They didn't hate what they were.

Sakura was silent, she couldn't accept that. She would never accept being a monster that could hurt Shirou. That is what it seemed all her reflections had done though.

She turned and the forest spoke out "Leaving are you?"

Sakura walked quickly and answered "If you are just going to play games with me, making me see the other options I will just leave. I'm not a monster."

At that the forest went quiet and Sakura left in a hurry. Her Coadjutor was silent at first but eventually spoke "He never said what he actually wanted to talk about."


Deep in the forest a new man appeared, dressed in a suit so black it seemed to be devouring the light. On his face was an expression of complete pride as if there was nothing he couldn't do if he wanted to. His reflections in the mirrors appeared to just be him with no diffrences which any scholar would have told you was impossible.

"It seems you failed to get her then?" The man spoke to the forest "I thought you said you needed her for your plan?"

The forest shook and the voice spoke "I do need her but as she is now she still is suffering from the after affects of Kimbery's torment. I need her ready to face what she is before she is useful."

The man arched an eyebrow "And you think she will come back after you scared her off?"

The forest shook "She will come back, I know it. Before Calibration she will return. I personally believe she will come even earlier though, to use mortal time I would say she will only be a few weeks, a season at worst."

The man shrugged "I don't really care, I am still picking mine."

The forest chuckled "Either way, my spies tell me that her sister made it into the city just a few hours ago."

"And you didn't tell her?" The man inquired.

The forest laughed "Why would I do that, I need her sister after all."


End of chapter.

Unless I am mistaken, this chapter brings us to over 100,000 words. Great!

I have been planning something like this since I choose for Sakura to be turned into an infernal.

BTW, I put Fujino Asagami in as a reflection because Sakura was based off her. I am not implying they are the parallel versions of each other

If you have any questions feel free to ask.