Hassan, Muriel, and I looked at the tall towers before us. They both rose from the same base. Suspended between the towers, as if by magic, was this chamber.
Before setting off for here, I obtained a chain sickle to replace the copper sword. Muriel got herself a thorn whip. We then headed north and west of Reidock Castle, and arrived at these towers.
I inserted the key into the door's keyhole and turned it. I heard a click and then the door opened.
"We're in," said Muriel.
"Let's not celebrate until we know that the mirror is here," said Hassan.
And so we went into the first floor. It was basically a huge room, with a mirror in the back. The roof was supported by massive pillars.
Looking around, we could not find the stairs to the upper floor; we all wondered how to go up. We did see two stairwells going down. Maybe we had to go down in order to go up.
One of the stairwells led to an empty chamber. The other stairwell led to a chamber with a treasure chest; it contained a half plate which I equipped, providing the extra protection. We searched all over the place, both the first floor and the two basement chambers.
"This is frustrating," said Hassan. "We can't seem to find a way up."
"It has been almost three hours," said Muriel.
"I don't understand," i said. "there must be a way to go up- unless those are two solid stone blocks above us."
I looked at the mirror wall and the reflection behind it. "This is too much."
"Maybe we missed something in the basement," said Hassan. "Why not go down there again?"
I looked behind me towards the sdtairs leading to one of the basement chambers. "We checked there like a dozen times already," I said. I looked back towards the wall.
The stairwell was not reflected here.
A panel of the mirror wall slid open. "There's a door here!" I exclaimed.
But then these three walking corpses came out the door. I held my chain sickle and we attacked.
Muriel cast Upper on me to raise my defense even as I swung with my chain sickle. Hassan jump-kicked the zombies. These guys were tough, keeping us on our toes. More than once did Muriel have to heal us. Eventually, the poisonous zombies fell. Murile cast Antidote to heal the poison and we were on our way.
We finally saw a staircase heading up, and it led us to this balcony. We can see two towers and the chamber suspended high above us. One of the towers was locked, so we went inside the other tower. We began our ascent.
We were suddenly confronted with these three mirrors. They had what appeared to be tiny wings on their backs. There was suddenly a bright flash of light. I managed to close my eyes; I looked at Hassan and he was clearly dazzled.
Then one of the mirrors puffed into smoke, and then I saw...myself? Those mirrors had the ability to mimic us.
I glanced at my doppelganger. He was dressed in the same outfit as I was; he even had a chain sickle. The other two mirrors then puffed into smoke, and mimicked Hassan and Muriel as well.
These mimics of us attacked using the same techniques we did. The Hassan-clone slashed with an iron claw and jump kicked (and he hit hard, as I felt it) and the Muriel clone was able to heal the other two with her Healmore spell as well as strike us with ice shards by casting the IceBolt spell.
"Aaahh!" I yelled as my clone strukc me with his chain sickle. Muriel quickly cast Healmore to heal the wound. I then swung again with my chain sickle and took down my clone.
After a minute, Hassan took down the last of them, his own clone, by delvering a powerful jump kick. all that was left of them were shattered mirrors.
"Let's go on, people," I said.
We continued up the tower. We found a strength seed in one chamber, and we had some more encounters with other monsters like these shadows which had a high defense, these onions with legs and arms and a face, these huge moths, and these furry animals.
"Hello," I heard this high pitched voice say.
"Who's there?" asked Hassan.
I then saw someone. A ghostly shape. I could tell that was a silhoutte of a girl or woman, but that was about it.
"I know you're there," said Muriel.
I looked at a nearby mirror and the girl or woman was not reflected.
"I'm here looking for the Mirror of Ra," she said. "I don't know how I got like this, but maybe I could become visible if I looked into the mirror."
"We're also looking for the Mirror of Ra," I said. "It's a long story. You could help us out. Since you are not visible, you can warn us about monsters. Or have monsters here been able to see you?"
"Uh, no they have not."
This was dfferent than my experience in the Cave of Dream-Seeing, where monsters detected us while we were invisible to most of the world. Perhaps it had something to do with the place, or the monsters in the cave had that inherent ability. "Come along," i said.
"Okay," she replied. "My name is Barbara.
We all introduced ourselves to Barbara and we went along to the upper levels of the tower. We came across a switch on the wall. I pulled it, and heard something from far away.
"What was that?" asked Hassan.
"I hope you did not set off some trap," said Barbara.
"We'll cross that bridge when we get there," I said.
"A bridge?" asked Muriel. "You extended a bridge or something."
Clibing up some stairs, we were greeted by the open air. We were on the roof of the tower. We can see the chamber floating in the power, it was apparently suspended by four glowing beams.
Then was two staircases leading down, so we climbed down one of them. We saw this strange purple orb just sitting on the floor. It was reflected in a mirror attached to the wall.
"I wonder what that is," I said.
I looked at it. It felt cool to the touch, and there did not seem to be anything peculiar about it.
I accidentally kicked the orb and it rolled along the floor. Suddenly it shattered.
"Looks like you broke it," said Barbara. "I hope you don't have to pay for that."
Nodding in agreement, I led the others back to the roof above, as there was nothing else in there.
I looked and saw only three beams keeping the chamber suspended.
"I think we should go to the other staircase" said Hassan.
And so we did. We saw the orb, reflected in a wall mirror. I pushed the orb out of the way and it shattered. Returning to the roof, we all saw that only two beams were keeping the chamber suspended.
"About those other two beams," said Muriel.
"Maybe they're in the other tower," said Barbara.
And so we went down to the second-level balcony, fighting off the monsters as we went. After we reached the second-level balcony, we went to the other tower. The door was open; perhaps that switch I pulled opened the door. We headed into the door and headed up the tower.
We came across a problem when we could not find a staircase leading up.
"Not again," said Hassan.
"I guess we've got to find a way up," said Muriel.
And so the three of us looked around the room, hoping to find a hidden door or a switch.
"Look," I heard Barbara say.
"What is it?" I asked.
"The stairs are here."
I looked and saw a mirror and my reflection. I could see a staricase going up in the reflection. Looking back, the staircase did not appear.
Looking at the mirror, I stepped to where the stairs was and set my foot down. I looked and my foot was apparently resting on thin air.
"It's invisible!" I yelled. "Just climb up here!"
And so we all climbed up the invisible stairs. Soon we were greeted with the outdoor air, and we were on the roof.
We would see two other stairs leading down, as well as the chamber being suspended by two bright beams. We headed down one stiarcase and moved the orb away from the mirror to shatter it. Looking from the roof, there was only one beam left. We went down the other staircase. I moved the orb aweay from the mirror. When it shattered, I heard this sound just seconds later.
We went out to the roof. The chamber was now on the second-floor balcony, between the two towers.
"Let's get down there," said Hassan.
And so we did, fighting our way past the monsters. We reached the balcony and then entered the chamber.
The chamber was small, with a terrace in the back. On the terrace was a mirror.
"That must be the Mirror of Ra!" yelled Barbara. "I can see my reflection."
I looked at Barbara's reflection to find out how she looked. She was this woman with red hair tied in a ponytail, wearing a blue blouse and blue miniskirt and a purple cape.
"Wait a minute," said Muriel. "Maybe the Dream-seeing Drops. do you still have it?"
"Yes," I said, handing the drops to Muriel.
Muriel then poured the Dream-Seeing Drops on the ghostly figure and chanted.
"What's happening?" asked Barbara.
I saw a primatic display of colors, and then Barbara became visible again.
"These two were like you before," said Muriel. "I figured if I did this to you, you'd become visible."
"What?" asked Barbara. "You could have made me visible all this time?"
"I guess so," said Hassan. "Anyway, we got to take this thing back to Reidock Castle."
"I'd like to go with you guys," said Barbara. "I've really got nowhere to go. I can't even remember where I came from."
I understood how she felt. "Okay, then," I said. "Come with us. There is much to show you."
I took the mirror; it was about as large as me.
"Don't break that," said Hassan. "We don't need any more bad luck."
We left the tower and I cast Return.
oooooooooooo
Less than a minute after casting Return, we were in front of the ruins of Dhama Shrine.
"I thought you were taking us to Reidock," said Muriel.
"We came from a parallel universe," I replied. "We have to go through to get the Reidock we came from."
"Parallel universe?" asked Barbara.
"No time to explain yet, just follow us."
And so we went into the still-intact basement of the ruins. The glowing well was still there.
"What do we do?" asked Muriel.
"Let's all gaze into the well," I said.
I gazed into the well and it seemed to draw me in.
And then I was outdoors. I can see the hole that Hassan and I fell through.
"What happened?" asked Barbara.
"We're in a parallel universe, the one we came from," I said. "This hole leads to the world where we found the mirror." I looked and saw the sun setting in the west. "Let's return to Reidock, shall we?"
And I cast Return.
oooooooooooo
When we returned to Reidock Castle, the soldier at the gate led us in, informing us General Soldi was waiting for us. Muriel and Barabra stayed outside.
"There you are," said the general, waiting by the stairs leading to the throne room.
"Mission accomplished, sir," I said. "We have retrieved the Mirror of Ra."
"Excellent you two," said Soldi.
"Do you know what we went through to get this, sir?" asked Hassan.
"You can debrief me later; the King wants to see you."
And we went upstairs and the King of Reidock was in there, sitting in his throne. We all bowed before our liege.
"So this is the Mirror of Ra," said the King.
"Yes, your Majesty," I replied. "We spent a great deal of effort to obtain it, sire."
"Mudo will not be able to escape," said the King. "I must speak with General Soldi and the royal court. I will meet with the two of you tonight, in the conference room downstairs. Dismissed."
"Yes, my lord," I replied.
ooooooooooo
At night, Hassan and I were waiting in the meeting room. We had been waiting for a few hours now.
"How much longer must we wait?" asked Hassan.
"There you are," said General Soldi. "We are meeting in the throne room. You two, with me!"
"Yes, sir," I said. We followed the general upstairs.
"Ugggh," I heard as I got up. I looked and I could see the King was in pain.
"My liege, are you okay?' asked the minister, who looked identical to Minister Geban in the other Reidock.
"Another...Reidock," said the King.
"Is that the real Mirror of Ra?" asked Soldi.
"Of course it is, sir," I said. "I'm sure it is, unless you were wrong about what the mirror does."
"That's not the King in the reflection. What sorcery is this?"
The Mirror of Ra flashed.
I looked, and saw this woman sitting in the throne in place of the King!
The woman collapsed on the floor.
"Who is that?" asked the minister. "A witch?"
"We'd better take her to bed," said Soldi.
And so we set her on the bed.
oooooooooooo
I had more dreams, dreams about Lifecod. It was just an ordinary life.
oooooooooo
The next morning, I went to the royal bedroom. The woman who somehow replaced the King odf Reidock was still sleeping there.General Soldi, the minister, and Hassan were all there.
"Only the four of us know what happened here," said General Soldi. "Let's keep this quiet for now."
"T...Tom?" asked the woman.
"Tell us who you are," said Soldi.
"My name is Shera," said the woman. "This is my real appearance."
"That names sounds familair," saiod the minister.
"Why were you impersonating the King?" asked Soldi.
"I...I don't know," said Shera. "Something happened and I somehow became the King of Reidock."
"So where is the King?" asked the minister.
"Sadly, the real King is with Mudo."
"Mudo?" we all asked.
"Has Mudo captured the King?" asked the general.
"I think the King is Mudo. I know this does not make sense, Tom, but don't you believe me?"
"Tom?" asked Soldi, clearly nervous. "Who's Tom? My name is Soldi. Never mind that now. The King is apparently Mudo's prisoner. We must send an expedition to his castle to rescue him!"
"I must go on this expedition," said Shera.
"Okay, then," said Soldi. "You will go to Mudo's castle and rescue the king," he said to me and Hassan.
"Yes, sir," we replied.
"You will depart at 1200."
"Sir, I request leave," I said.
"For what?" asked Soldi.
"I wish to return to Lifecod to bid farwell to my sister," I replied. "There's a good chance I won't come back."
"How will you get here in time?" asked Soldi.
"I can cast Return, sir," I said.
"The fastest form of transportation," said Soldi. "Be back. If you aren't, you will be treated as a deserter, and you know what happens to deserters."
"Yes, sir."
oooooooooooo
I returned to Lifecod that morning.
"Hi there," said Judy. "you back from soldiering?"
"I have to go back soon," I said. "I want to speak with Tania."
"She's over there."
I looked and saw Tania by the well.
"Brother," she said. "Welcome, home
"Tania, I will only be here for a little while," I said. "You see, the Army is shipping me out on an important mission."
"What mission?" she asked.
"I can't tell you yet, but you'll probably hear about it from me or from someone else. How are you feeling?"
"Fine, brother."
"I wanted to say goodbye because...because I might not come back."
Tania;s eyes started to tear. "Don't say that, brother! You've got to come back! Promise me, brother!"
"I can't make a promise if I am not sure I can keep it," I said. "But I hope to come back. Please stop crying. Let's make this a happy memory for the both of us."
"Okay," she said, wiping the tears from her face.
"I understand what he's saying," said Rand, who obviously overheard what we were talking about. "I'll watch out for her if you don't..."
"Goodbye, Rand," I said. "Goodbye, Tania. When this is all over, I want you two to be happy."
"I hope you have a share in it, brother," said Tania.
I cast Return and went back to Reidock Castle.