This second story is based on the vocaloid songs Mirror's Magic and Magical Mirror, the Rin and Len versions (well, not that there's any other version, as far as I'm aware). Whereas the first story was more individual, this one is related to the next, but they can be read in either order. This one is KouHaku. All rights to SEGA/Crypton media etc., I only own the plot.
The World Through the Mirror
There is a girl in a tower. High above everyone else, she stays tucked away from the rest of the world, alone and forgotten. It's peaceful here, with only herself for company, but sometimes it can get very lonely.
Her name means 'Crimson Jade', and on days when the sun streams through the windows to set her hair on fire like a river of vivid scarlet, she feels as though she almost understands why. On other days, though, she feels as though the name belongs to someone else. Someone more suited to the role she's supposed to play. That name belongs to a princess, not her.
She doesn't understand the jade part, though. What part of her is green? Her hair is a deep fuchsia, her eyes a lighter shade, but still very definitely pink. Her skin is a smooth, creamy white, pale from lack of exposure to the sun. After all, it is unseemly for a Princess' skin to be tanned – she is not a common labourer in the fields.
Unless it refers to a more metaphorical meaning? If that were the case, she can certainly understand why. By herself, she is nothing. It's only when she is shaped, carved and remade into something new that she will have any value. And even then, it will only be as something decorative, pretty to look at but not much use for anything else. A trinket, meant to be worn on someone else's sleeve. Admired at a glance, and then forgotten.
And very, very delicate. She is windblown glass, destined to fly away on the breeze. Just a lonely little girl, dreaming of happiness.
The girl looks down at the courtyard below her, looking through the glass of her window to see the world outside. A world she can never be a part of.
Through the glass, she sees a boy. He has dark hair, stunning deep blue eyes and a winning, gentle smile. His name means 'White Dragon', and, like hers, it is both fitting and not. He doesn't exactly have the temperament of a dragon, but perhaps he will grow into it, with time.
He is also a Prince. A Prince of Fortune, loved by all. He has servants, retainers, a loving family who adore and care for him very much. He is happy, complete. He wants for nothing, and his world is one of light and laughter, so different from the lonely girl in the tower.
It's odd, the contrast between the two. Like light and dark, black and white. Two sides of the same coin, fated to exist side by side, but never meet.
Or will they?
From the sidelines, a crafty magician watches the two. He sees all, knows all, but keeps it to himself. He is whimsical, capricious, and no-one has ever quite managed to figure him out. His crimson eyes take the measure of everything he sees, and charts it all for his own amusement.
He's been watching the two for quite some time now. He wonders what would happen if he tempted fate, if he interfered with destiny and allowed the two to meet. What would happen if they could take the reins themselves, and live life on their own terms, unbeholden to any plan?
He's going to find out. One day, he approaches the boy. He strikes up a conversation with him as naturally as if they've known each other all their lives, and the boy, intrigued, begins to listen.
The magician tells the boy about the girl in the tower. About how lonely she is, how pitiful. About her life, so different from his own.
The Prince feels sorry for the girl. It's not her fault she is locked away in the tower. She doesn't deserve such suffering. She deserves to a Princess, just as she has always dreamed of being.
And so, the Prince resolves to do something about it. He climbs to the top of the tower, intent on seeing the girl for himself. He sees her through the glass of her window, sees how lonely and sad she is.
Knock, knock. He taps on the glass, startling the girl. She's surprised, frightened – how did he manage to get all the way up here? No-one is supposed to be up here.
The boy soothes her fears. He tells her he is a Prince, and he has been given the power of a Magician to help save her from her loneliness. The girl giggles and smiles, and when he is finished, she takes his hand.
And so begins a time of happiness. For the first time in her life, the girl experiences what it is like to be loved. With the boy's help, she can move freely around the palace. Her family opens up to her, her brothers taking her under their wing. They accept her as one of their own, and the girl's heart is full. Even the strife that threatened the country seems to lessen, and a dark cloud is lifted from her. It seems as though everything is falling into place, finally.
But it is not to last. The dark clouds begin to gather once again, as the Magician works to bring about the downfall of everything the two hold dear.
It's not his fault. He is too young to fully understand the implications of his actions, too young to understand how drastically he has changed destiny, and the consequences of such denial. He is a puppet, his strings controlled by those in the shadows, their minds pitch-black as the wings of fate.
In an instant, the pair's roles are reversed. Suddenly, the boy becomes a Prince not of happiness, but Misfortune. Reviled by his mother, despised by his peers, he becomes the opposite of what he once was. A symbol of all that is wrong with the world.
His heart is dyed black, dark as the destiny he has come to hate. The Magician sees, and comes to him once again.
What if you had the power to change your fate? He asks, his words insidious and oddly charming. The boy is hesitant to listen at first; he has never entirely trusted the Magician, and isn't quite sure if he should do so even now. But the words he whispers are exactly what the boy wants to hear, and despite himself, he lets the Magician have his way.
The girl knows nothing of this, of course, though she senses something is wrong. The boy has become so sad, and she doesn't know how to comfort him.
It seems things will never be right between the two, after all. Their destinies are connected, as all are in the great flow of fate, but their paths are not meant to intersect. They are on two very different roads, and though they will pass by each other from time to time, they will not walk that road together. Perhaps with the Magicians' help, they could do so in the future, but that time is a long way off and far ahead. The boy has left on a journey, taking the Magician with him, and the girl does not know when she will ever see them again. She cries, but there is nothing she can do.
For now, all she can do is wait, and hope. She will hold her head up high, take pride in her role as Princess, and wait for her Prince to return, Magician in tow. Until the day she can finally see him again, waiting for her outside the glass. The day she can call his name, and he hers.
Until the day she can finally feel the warmth of his hand.