-1Through the Mirror

By Kordi

Chapter 2

Ceridwen blinked and found she was standing in a completely different room. At least she thought it was different. It was difficult to tell exactly where she was since the room was completely black and she couldn't make out anything even one inch in front of her face.

"Damn that Shadowman!" she cursed vehemently as she stubbed her toe on an unknown object. Vulgar language continued pouring from her mouth as she walked slowly across the room, grabbing anything she could so that she wouldn't trip and fall over something not seen.

She suspected the room wasn't overly large, just difficult to maneuver with absolutely no sign of light at all. When she eventually reached the wall she leaned on it, finally allowing her mind to take over. Confusion was the first thing to sweep over her. She never feared the dark… it wasn't a nightmare she kept hidden from the world… in fact she often found sanctuary in the dark. So, why then did Braedan send her here?

The clock sounded twenty-three times and brought Ceridwen out of her trance. An hour could not have passed already. Battling furniture in the dark had proved to be more of an obstacle than demons.

She began groping the wall, searching for a doorway, door, window, crack, anything that would let her out. Finally, she struck pay dirt. Something was there, not a door, but something. A button? No, a switch. She went to flip it but was stalled by a voice… his voice…

"You really don't want to do that," Braedan told her casually.

"Why not?" Ceridwen whirled around to face the direction his voice had come from, "Are big monsters going to come out and devour me whole?" She tried to make the question sound sarcastic, hoping that he wouldn't realize she meant it as a question and not a joke.

She couldn't see the expression on his face but somehow she knew he was amused. "It's called a light switch… from the human world." He took a step closer to her. Now she could hear his breathing but was still unable to see him. "Sometimes the darkness is safer than the light."

"Why? Are you afraid I may see your face again?" she snapped before she realized exactly what she had said to him. She mentally scolded herself. She was playing his game in his world with his rules. She couldn't risk making him angrier than he already was.

Ceri wished she could see the expressions on Braedan's face while they talked, but she couldn't even see an outline or a shadow of his form. Somehow she knew that even though she couldn't see him he could see her perfectly.

She heard him take another step closer and tried to step back, but found herself already pinned against the wall. For someone who was never claustrophobic, this was definitely the wrong time to start.

"You've seen it once," was his simple reply, "it hasn't changed." She heard him take another step.

Lifting her arm to the switch he deemed a light switch she flipped it up. The lights began to flicker on slowly, too slowly. Before the room was ablaze Braedan had turned to gaze intently at the globes before they shattered into a million pieces, glass raining down on them.

Ceridwen tried to run for cover but he blocked her path, "I told you not to do that."

She had caught a quick glimpse of him during the few moments that the room had been slightly illuminated and her assumptions were confirmed. A sinister grin danced across his face from ear to ear.

"I should have known you would do that," she confessed, "you did warn me not to flip the switch."

"You fell for the oldest trick in the book."

Way to not build my self-esteem she thought as she countered, "But I'm learning. Now I'll know for next time."

"No, you won't," he said it with so much confidence she was forced to believe him. "I never play the same way twice."

And it was probably true, she realized. With the way he looked and what she knew about the Shadowmen she realized that Braedan had probably been playing these games for hundreds of years. He probably knew every trick there was. He was probably a professional at manipulating his players. Speaking of players…

"Isn't it against the rules for you to be conversing with the players?" she asked curiously.

Braedan took a step closer and Ceri could feel his breath on the side of her face as he leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Here, I am the rules."

Too close, he was way too close. It registered in her brain like a flashing, screeching, warning. She had to find a way to get rid of him, but how?

All things considered, first she would need to be able to see him. Holding one hand behind her back she closed her eyes and concentrated, forming a small ball of light. Next she opened her hand and held it palm up as the small ball of luminosity floated to the center of the room.

When she opened her eyes to see Braedan he had vanished as quickly as he had come.

"It's missing!" Aidan screamed as he threw the contents of his closet onto the floor for a third time.

He knew searching his quarters was useless since he remembered bringing the silver staff down to the meeting earlier that day. The problem was he had scoured the garden with no luck and searched the large conference room and libraries twice.

Holders of silver staffs didn't just misplace them; it was careless and unheard of. If he didn't find his staff before the next council meeting he was doomed.

"Ok, just calm down," he said out loud, hoping no one was walking by to see him talking to himself, "just relax, Aidan, or you will never find it."

He glanced over his room from the doorway and shook his head in disgust. Even if the staff was in there somewhere he would never find it now. The room looked like a tornado had just hit, uprooting and overturning all the furniture while dumping any and all the contents of the drawers onto the floor.

Desperate times called for desperate measures, and that's exactly what he was… desperate. If he had his staff and was missing another item he would have used magic to find it hours earlier, but without his staff he wasn't as adept with his magic. Hopefully, making a few minor alterations to the spell would result in still locating the missing item.

Aidan began rummaging through the heaping mess of his room until he had found all the supplies he would need. It was a simple, old spell, one that even someone with no background history in the magical arts could still accomplish.

Quickly he melted candles in a large metal pot until they were of a water-like consistency and poured the liquid into a large bowl filled with cold water. He watched as the wax began to form shapes as it cooled.

He leaned in close to look in the bowl and traced the wax shape with his eyes. It appeared to be the face of a young woman. Big bright eyes, a small nose, full lips. The wax was all one color so trying to go by eye and hair color was no use. He continued to stare at the wax sculpture as he pictured in his mind everyone he had seen that day.

"Ceridwen," he whispered, remembering, "I had placed my staff on the stool when first entering the garden and than another council member came over to talk with me. I must have forgotten it on the stool."

It made sense, he realized. Whether she took it intentionally or not didn't matter to Aidan, all that did matter was getting it back.

He shut and locked the door to his room and began a brisk walk from the great manor to her small cottage on the edge of town. When he arrived there he walked up the small path and knocked on the door. No answer so he knocked again. Still no answer so he began to bang loudly.

The door creaked open but no one was there to greet him. Aidan poked his head around the door and gasped when he saw all of the supplies on the floor… and then his eyes spotted the mirror. Not only had she directly disobeyed the council's decree by using magic but she had done it by practicing forbidden magic while using a stolen staff.

But he didn't have time to be worrying about the hundreds of ways Ceridwen had disobeyed the council or the thousands of punishments she would be receiving when she returned. Now, Aidan had to find her on the other side of that mirror and reclaim his silver staff before she did something really stupid.

Luckily the candles and incense were still burning and all of the herbs and stones had been previously blessed. All he had to do was tie some cord around the talisman and jump through. They would be back before dinner.

And that was exactly what he did. Aidan grabbed a stone, tied the cord around it, placed it around his neck, and walked through the mirror.

And he stood rock solid, frozen still from fear and amazement. The monster standing in front of him was tall, with scaly skin and bright, menacing eyes.

Aidan drew his hand back instinctively and then pushed it forward quickly. Nothing happened.

"Where the hell am I?" he shouted, "What's going on here?"

The creature looked on him, an expression resembling a smile on his face. "Great Sorcerer of Findahl, I, Braedan, welcome you to the Shadow World." He licked his lips and took a step forward.

As Braedan moved forward Aidan moved back. Oh goddess, what had Ceridwen done? Something really stupid had already happened and he was too late… and so much before making it back before dinner… he would be lucky just to make it back alive and in one piece.

"You're wondering why your magic doesn't work," Braedan told him, "unfortunately I am unable to answer that. Maybe you should ask your young friend. She is the one who crafted the mirror, afterall."

"Ceridwen? Where is she?" Aidan demanded.

"Come now," Braedan seemed in a playful mood, "do you honestly think that it is right for you to enter my world uninvited and then question and demand me?"

"What have you done with her? Did she have a silver staff with her?" Aidan began to ramble.

"Are you speaking of this?" Braedan held up his hand and a silver staff materialized.

"Yes!" Aidan leapt for it, but Braedan was quicker. The staff disappeared and Aidan stumbled forward a few feet before recovering his balance. "Where did it go?"

"A game," Braedan told him, "Ceridwen is playing a game. If she survives it and reaches this mirror before time runs out I told her she has the opportunity of stopping Findahl from being invaded."

"But what does this have to do with my staff?" Aidan blurted out.

The expression on Braedan's face shifted from a smile to that of annoyance. "You will play too. If you win I will give you the staff back… If you lose you remain here, as mine, forever."

Aidan nodded, dumbfounded. How had the Shadow Man managed to keep such control over him?

Braedan snapped his fingers and Aidan was gone.

It took a moment for Ceridwen's eyes to adjust to the light she had created, but she didn't mind waiting because the shock of having one of her own spells work correctly needed to subside.

Once the shock was gone she jumped up, shouting, "YES! YES! I DID IT!" and stopped when she realized where she was. Her excitement was replaced by hate. "No. No. Oh goddess no."

This was her nightmare, the thing she dreaded above all things. It was the garden where the testing to earn a staff took place. All the council members formed a circle around Ceridwen, watching her.

The Archon stood up and looked at her, "Ceridwen, are you ready for your first test?"

She looked on him, half confused and half knowing that this wasn't real. "But I already took the test today. I failed, don't you remember?"

A sorcerer with a gold staff stood up, "You are doomed to fail."

"Well in that case I'm not ready for the test," Ceridwen told him, nervously. "I don't want to fail again."

Now a sorceress stood up, "But you must remain here until you do pass."

Another sorcerer, this time one with a silver staff, "Only you will never pass. You have been tested ten times and have failed ten times… surely you can not expect to ever pass at this rate."

One by one the council members began to stand up and shout and chant. "You are doomed to fail. You are doomed to fail."

Ceridwen clamped her hands over her ears and started screaming, trying to drown out the voices of the council members. "No! I'm not! No! No!"

It was no use. The more pressure she put on her ears the louder the chanting grew. "You are doomed to fail. You are doomed to fail."

The floor faded away and in its place was a large spinning wheel. Ceridwen stood in the center, her hands over her ears. The wheel began to rotate and all the council members began to revolve around her.

The voices were coming from all directions, evil, menacing, and intimidating. Ceridwen fell to her knees as she continued to scream.

Now they started to close in on her. As they moved in Ceridwen's direction their bodies started to change shape. Their hands turned into claws, their eyes were red and glowing, the teeth in their mouth looked razor sharp.

Ceridwen jumped up and began lashing out at them, "Get away!" she shouted, "Leave me alone."

"You are doomed to fail."

She pulled her arm back, formed a ball of fire in her hand, and launched it at the council member turned monster closest to her. He went up in flames as she smiled, "If I'm going to turn into you I don't want to pass."

They stopped attacking.

She looked at them confused. What was going on? Could it be? "I don't want to pass," she said again.

They began retreating.

"I DON'T WANT TO PASS!"

And they were gone.

She fell down onto the ground, leaning over breathing deep. She did it… she survived the nightmare.

A few things about it were still out of place though. Never had she feared the council members turning into monsters. And her magic, it had worked for a second time.

Ceridwen wanted some answers and she wanted them now. She shuffled to her feet and then began calling to him in a loud, shrill voice. "Braedan! You sadistic bastard! Braedan get over here right now!"

The form in front of her was distorted until it had completely materialized. He looked down on her through his golden eyes and grinned from ear to ear. "Hey honey, I'm home."