The mirror glimmered a reddish tint like it had in her second dream, a sign appeared in the middle of the glass

Rizion Ralfeta – "The Shiner of Light"

The mirror glimmered a reddish tint like it had in her second dream, a sign appeared in the middle of the glass. It was of a crescent moon on the left side of a sun, creating a complete circle. Inside of the sun was a heart, and to the right of the sun you could see the rays of light shooting off. The sign flashed brightly, and then sent a beam of red light into her heart, causing her to faint…

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Tomoyo fell backwards, but everyone had been crowding around her so she fell into several pairs of hands.

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Eriol was the first to recover from the initial shock of seeing red light shooting out of a mysterious mirror knocking their friend unconscious. He picked up the slender Tomoyo and carried her over to the bed, laid her down gently and then turned to the mirror.

The anger on his face did not portray his inner rage, but his better judgement quieted the fire in his mind, and he tried to think rationally.

*Better wait till she wakes up… if she does. *

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Tomoyo opened her eyes to dozens of scenes at once, all projected into the sky above her. They mingled into each other and over each other, hurting her eyes and making no sense. The sound was so loud and there were so many different voices that her ears were burning, ringing. The pictures changed too quickly to make out anything. Once she thought she saw a young boy playing with a ball, another appeared to be a woman in a kitchen. But nothing that made any sense to her.

Then, it stopped.

Suddenly the void she'd landed in became just that. A void. No noise, no light, no definite walls, there was only the floor she was sitting on which she could not see anyway. Everything seemed far away and yet close at the same time. Then a bright light started shining far away to her right. It looked like a star, incandescent, bright white in a black night sky.

Tomoyo crawled across the vast ebony expanse. The light began to grow larger and larger till it enveloped her entire body, blinding her eyes, and yet she still moved forward. Towards whatever created the Light that surrounded her…

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Eriol-tachi had formed a circle around Tomoyo, who was lying on the bed as though she was simply asleep. Eriol and Suppi were on her right side, Sakura and Kero were on the left, and Taiyo was sitting quietly at her feet. The very forlorn looking group sat in silence, not knowing what to say.

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When Tomoyo opened her eyes again, the bright light had dimmed, though only slightly. She squinted, attempting to see through the opaque scene. In front of her was a very young woman dressed in a white robe; her wavy brown hair loosely tied back with a white ribbon. Her soft features gave her a motherly look, one of caring and understanding. A soothing look. Tomoyo's anxiety and fear fled from her as the lights continued to dim till Tomoyo could see the expansive floodlight that was pointed in her direction.

The room was empty except for two white metal chairs and a matching table.

The woman gestured to them and Tomoyo quietly obeyed. They both turned to walk to the table, and it was then that Tomoyo noticed the nearly transparent white wings that sprouted from the woman's back.

"Am I in heaven? Are you an angel?"

Her companion's face remained neutral, yet empathic.

Once both were seated the unnamed one looked at Tomoyo, and her expression changed. Almost as if she were asking permission to do something. She raised her left hand, palm facing Tomoyo, and gave a questioning expression.

*I get the feeling I'm already dead, so what harm can she do to me? *

She nodded her head in agreement.

The hand reached across the table to rest in midair a few inches from Tomoyo's forehead. A look of concentration covered the woman's face, and her palm began to glow a red iridescent color, it became almost transparent.

*The feeling from her hand. It feels the same as Rizion did right before I fell unconscious. *

The light collected into an elliptical sphere of light that floated between her hand and Tomoyo's face. Then it became a beam of light, shot between hand and face. Tomoyo's mind was filled with the same pictures and sounds as before. There were too many to comprehend at once, together they were blaringly loud and horribly bright in her eyes. It went on for a minute, then ten minutes, and then an hour. The images never seemed to stop. It was a constant picture show that told the story of the woman's life.

Her mind ached; there was so much information flowing into her subconscious at one time, overwhelming her senses to the bursting point. Her head fell to the table with a resounding * Thump! * as she fell unconscious.

The spectacle lessened, and soon stopped. The woman held her hand in the air for a minute, then let it drop to her side. She looked at Tomoyo with a look of complete motherly love, and then, in a flash of light, disappeared.

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After two hours, and still no sign of Tomoyo reviving, Eriol picked her up and carried her to the house. He walked up to her room, and set her down carefully on the bed. He pulled the covers over her and then walked out into the hallway.

Sakura and Kero were worried greatly for their long-time friend. They had no idea what had taken place. But the bright light emanating from the mirror's surface could only have been magic. They had both felt a heartbeat of magic from the mirror, but it had been so faint that they hadn't feared it.

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Eriol was pensive, sitting in a chair with his chin rested upon one hand, which was in turn resting on the dining room table.

* How could this have happened? Why did it happen? Is this soul cursed to lead the one it loves to a dark path? *

He forced his mind to search his past life's memories for any helpful hint to what might have happened to Tomoyo. His highly trained mind flip from memory to memory, till he found one pertaining to Rizion.

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Sitting across the fairly expansive table from him, was Sakura. Her face held a worried and sympathetic look.

* He must really care about her. I've never seen him so nervous. *

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He replayed the scene in the theater of his mind…

Clow and Sana were walking through a marketplace. It looked to be sometime in the early Middle Ages. They were happily chatting about an incident involving Taiyo falling into the pond. Being made fun of tended to make Taiyo unsociable, so she spent a lot of the time sitting in Sana's bag.

Brightly painted dolls, dazzling jewelry that caught the sun's eye, dresses made in every color known to the artist's eye, all were laid out before them.

They walked into a small, dark shop that smelled of roses and mint. Multi-colored Persian rugs covered the floors, and dark pine green-paint covered the cold walls. The oil lamps had dark red covers that turned the confined space a blood red. Mirrors, frames, and mysterious artwork lined the walls and crowded the corners.

Sana walked close to the wall, touching an occasional mirror or frame, admiring the craftsmanship. Many of the picture frames and mirror frames were gilded in gold and silver that reflected the crimson lighting. Just then a young woman stepped out from behind a hanging rug, from behind her, Sana could see a hallway leading back.

"May I help you?"

"We're really just looking," replied Clow as he was turning around.

The woman stood less than 5 feet tall, but still had an intimidating air to her. Her short crimson hair and large dark red-brown eyes did not seem proportioned on her small face. She wore an outfit unconventional to the time yet beautiful in and of itself. The floor length dress had long sleeves that flared at the wrists, and a slit on the right front that came to just above her knee. At the top of the slit was a round, dark forest green jewel that held two ribbons to the dress. The ribbons flowed around the woman as she walked. The hem of the dress and the ends of the sleeves were a dark red but the color faded to a peachy tan going away from the ends. It had a deep, wide V-neck but there was a strip of dark green fabric under the dress to cover more of her chest. The most curious accessory of the outfit was the long stringed necklace that she wore around her neck. The pendant that hung at the end was that of a dragon's head with a tail curving an arc over it. The jewel on the pendant gave the creature a piercing stare as it sat on her collarbone.

"Ah! Shi-ente! I haven't heard from you in years. I'd not heard of a new shop in town."

"Please just call me Shi, the title is getting passé. And no, this is not a new shop. I inherited it from an old friend. She passed away a few months ago and I came back last week to keep this shop running."

"I understand, well, seeing as it is your shop, I assume these artifacts are not purely for show."

"Oh, Clow, you of all people should have recognized some of these pieces! I mean, you studied the ancient magic runes long before they were considered ancient," she added with a look. "When I was scouting for magical amulets and talisman I came across this pendent," pointing to the dragon hanging around her neck, "and the mirror in that corner."

We both looked at the mirror, then at each other, then at the mirror. The dusty old thing was not reflective anymore, the innumerous black spots on the glass, and the chips in the gold gilding made the piece useless and sad looking. It looked like a child who had lost its parents.

"Both of them have extraordinary powers. I'm really surprised you didn't notice it. This is The Pendant of Fury. The mirror is called Rizion Rafleta, the ancient words mean 'mirror of light' or 'shiner of the light'. The fury pendant was used to defeat the Dusk Ones hundreds of years ago in the War of Light. It brought power to the fighters on our side, but brought shame and insanity to many. Rizion Rafleta was created to shine light in the world: 'to drown the dark with rays from the burning sun,' is what the old inscription said."

"I read that Rizion was supposed lost after centuries of searching," commented Sana, quietly as a dormouse.

Shi noticed her for the first time, and replied, "It was lost. Until three Nemages found it in an old catacomb."

"How could Nemages find something magical without magic? Especially if no one with magic had found it before?"

"The most powerful Mages may never know."

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AH! Disclaimer: I don't now, haven't ever, WILL never own Card Captor Sakura and co. or the Sakura story. So don't sue me!

Wow that was a long chapter…

Nemages = non-magic users

Mages = magic users

Ente (N-te) = formal title (I made it up) meaning third level magic user

Note: There are 5 levels. Most Mages are at level 2 or 3.

Anyways. Hope you liked it. If anything confuses you leave a review or send me an email at yingfa@excite.com

PLEASE R+R

Stay tuned for the next chapter…