-1Through the Mirror

By Kordi

Chapter 1

Ceridwen quickly grabbed all the supplies she would need, thankful that she had memorized the famous Morgana Shee's biography while studying in the library. The information in it would definitely come in handy if she really intended to make her outlandish idea work.

She had spread all the supplies out across her bed and began checking them off: deerstongue, ginger, mugwart, oakmoss, thyme, incense, and candles. She placed a velvet bag full of white stone runes into her pocket.

Moving the mirror had been a problem. It was large and bulky. She nearly dropped it twice while trying to remove it from the wall so that it was at a height where she could fit through easily.

She was rushing, yes, but there was a good reason for that. Each second that passed was a second closer to a council member realizing his or her staff was missing. Once the council realized it was missing it was only a matter of time before they put all the facts together and realized Ceridwen had it.

She had a lot to do and very little time. After preparing everything she had to craft a talisman. Once the talisman was crafted she had to turn the mirror into a portal.

Normally it was a long and tedious job. No sorcerer or sorceress in his or her right mind would do this. But that's all it was, tedious. After hearing the stories of the four human children that helped the legendary Morgana by crafting a talisman of their own, Ceridwen figured that even she couldn't screw that part up. If a human could do it she certainly could do it.

She grabbed all the supplies off of her bed in one large armful and brought them into the hallway leading to the living room where the large full-length mirror was. She dumped all the supplies onto the floor, along with the silver staff, and sat down amongst them. She began mixing the ingredients together, being extremely careful to not overdue anything.

Once the ingredients were thoroughly mixed she placed a stone into them, lifted the silver staff, spoke in a hushed whisper, and removed the stone after a few seconds. She tied a cord to it and then wrapped the completed talisman around her neck.

Next, she began preparing the mirror since it had never been used in this way before. She sprinkled salt water on it and lit candles and incense around it. The talisman was the stone mixed in a combination of flowers, plants, and herbs. It symbolized the fourth and final element.

Ceridwen stepped back and looked at the mirror. This was it, the moment of truth. Would she step through into the human world or bounce off the glass of the mirror, remaining forever trapped in Findahl?

She walked backwards across the room, trying to leave enough distance so that she could get a running start. If she just stood there and walked through she knew she would never do it, she was too afraid of what lay on the other side. But, if she had momentum behind her there would be nothing to stop her when all the doubts and fears came rushing to the surface of her mind.

She grasped the silver staff tight in her hand and sprang forward, dashing towards the mirror as though it was about to disappear any second.

When she stepped out on the other side she was in a small room with no doors and no windows. Her first instinct was to turn around and jump back into the mirror, but she heard a noise coming from the far corner. She walked over to the noise and saw a small child who couldn't be more than five years old clinging onto the pants leg of a boy who appeared to be in his mid to late teens.

"Who are you?" Ceridwen asked them, "And where are we?"

The little girl clung tighter to the boy's clothes. He looked up at Ceridwen, a troubled expression on his face. "I'm Connor and this is my sister Avery. As for where we are… I was just about to ask you the same thing."

"Well how did you get here?" Ceri insisted.

"Our mother just remarried and we moved to a new town," Connor began to explain, "in the basement of our new house we found this game. My sister begged me to play with her, saying that she had no friends in this new town and she was very bored. I agreed, we opened up the game and set everything up according to the directions… but when we put the playing pieces on the board the strangest thing happened-"

"You entered the game," Ceridwen finished for him. Oh god what had she done? She recognized that technique immediately. The Shadowmen used it to lure in humans since they could not enter the human world themselves. As long as they read the directions on the game box and agreed to the warnings they were stuck.

Connor furrowed his brow, "How did you know that?"

Ceri shifted the staff in her hand and Connor eyed it curiously as he picked his sister up protectively. "No time to answer that now," she grabbed his hand and began dragging him in the direction of the mirror. "We have to get out of here before they come."

"They?" Connor asked her.

"The Shadowmen," she said acidly as she continued dragging them toward the mirror, "Go through it. Trust me."

"The what?" he asked again.

"Me," a new male voice stated flatly as he materialized in front of the mirror.

Ceridwen took a step back, shoving Connor and Avery behind her. Now was the time to start really panicking. For starters, she was trespassing, a huge problem when the various worlds were concerned. The humans were safe… safe in the broadest sense of the word. They had come through the game the Shadowmen created and were therefore there legally… maybe not of their own free will, but still legally.

Ceri glanced back quickly to see Connor holding onto his sister as though he might lose her any second, which she realized suddenly that might very well happen. Avery had her arms wrapped around her brother's neck to the point where Ceridwen could have sworn he should have been blue or purple by now.

She looked back at the Shadowman, debating whether or not this was a good time to start showing courage. "Wh-wh-" Yep, she spoke marvelously when in an awkward situation. She was suddenly reminded of the test she had failed only hours earlier. She couldn't find her voice then either.

Humans she could handle, but council members and Shadowmen were another story entirely. And the way he was staring at her, eyeing her like a lion waiting to pounce, wasn't helping any.

She had heard tales of how grotesque the Shadowmen were, but nothing had prepared Ceridwen for this. He was tall, probably over six feet, and with Ceri's small stature beside him he appeared even taller. He had a human-like body covered in reptile skin. It was a mixture of greens and browns with a bright golden chest and abdomen like the underside of a turtle shell or lizard. At first she thought he had a hunchback, but after squinting her eyes in the darkness she could see that it was not a hunchback but instead leathery bat-like wings pulled and tucked close to his body. His eyes were the same gold as his chest, making him resemble a reptile even more.

Ceri finally found her voice, "Who are you and why are you blocking my path?" Probably not the two most important questions to be asking him; he was obviously a Shadowman. Why he was standing in front of her was easy to answer too. She had trespassed. But, she wasn't exactly in a very good state of mind at the moment.

"Braedan," the Shadowman answered as he focused his predatory gaze solely on Ceridwen, "and because I can."

The way his voice flowed was beautiful. When he spoke he sounded almost human, and his movements said that at one point he might have been one.

He had actually told her more than she expected. "What do you plan on doing with us?"

Braedan's mouth formed an evil grin, "A game, as always… my kind loves games." He lifted his hand and the staff Ceridwen was holding disappeared. "Using that would have been cheating… though I must say I shouldn't have been able to take it from a great sorceress of Findahl so easily."

Ceri stood stiff, rigid, as she looked at him, refusing to comment to the last statement. Having him think she was a great sorceress was the only thing she had going for her at the moment.

Connor shifted behind her and Ceridwen finally remembered that there were other people there. Braedan had managed to instill so much fear in her in such a short time that she wasn't thinking straight and barely remembered anything that had happened since she arrived in the Shadow World.

"What kind of game?" she asked him. Her palms were sweaty from the terror she felt. She had heard about the games Shadowmen enjoyed playing and wasn't very fond of any of them.

"The kind of game isn't nearly as exciting as the stakes," he told her taking a step closer to her.

"Get away from her!" Connor shouted as he walked up beside Ceri.

Avery stood on the floor between the two of them now, peering between them at the monster her brother was shouting at.

Braedan raised his hand and Connor went flying across the room, slamming into the wall. "I am talking with the sorceress, not you. She has disobeyed the law and therefore she must pay. You, human, are here on entirely different terms."

"I trespassed, not him," Ceridwen said in anger, "don't take this out on him."

Avery ran over to her brother, her small arms reaching for him, trying to pull his unconscious body up.

"So, you have compassion for these humans? You have a heart?" Braedan sneered at her, "Don't worry, I will have broken it by the time you finish the game."

"If I play the game will you forget that I trespassed and not enter Findahl?" she asked him anxiously. By breaking the pact between Findahl and The Shadowworld Ceridwen had given the Shadowmen the opportunity to invade her world.

"Of course not," he told her, "That's no fun. But, I do have a better idea." He licked his lips before continuing. "If you play the game and win I will allow you to demand of me one thing. If you wish to return to Findahl just say the word and I will step away from the mirror. If you wish for my people to not invade your world only say the word and I will forget that you trespassed. But, if you lose the game you remain mine forever."

"That's not fair," she countered, noticing that from her anger courage was born. "If I choose to return home you will invade my world and I will end up being yours. If I tell you I don't want you to invade I cannot return home and I am stuck here as yours. And if I lose I'm yours. Where is the fairness in this?"

"I find it very fair," he drawled, "You broke the most sacred pact between the worlds. In fact, this may even be too lenient."

"And what about the humans?" she asked, "Can they return to their world?"

"If they survive the game," he responded, laughing. "I would ask if you agree to the terms, but you have no choice in the matter."

"Are you at least going to tell us what this game entails?" Connor had finally woken up and was brushing himself off as Avery jumped on him.

"For a human you are very demanding. You're lucky I don't crush you and your sister right now."

Connor slumped back and Ceridwen was thankful for small miracles. He must have been crazy as it was to stand up to a monster like that.

Ceri put her arm in front of Connor to keep him behind herself and looked Braedan directly in his yellow serpent-like eyes. "We have the right to know what this game is and what the rules are since it is our lives you are playing with."

"You have twenty four hours to make it back to the mirror. This building is a maze in the center of the Shadow World, if you step outside of it I cannot control what the elements or other Shadow Men might do to you, but you can leave if you wish. While traversing the maze you will battle nightmares, monsters, and any other skeletons locked away inside your own minds." He continued to grin, "Every hour on the hour the clock will chime with how many hours you have left. Any questions?" He didn't give them any time to answer. Instead he said, "No? Good, then let the games begin!" snapped his fingers, and Ceridwen, Connor, and Avery were scattered throughout the house in various locations.