The floor was getting bothersome. In an increasing number of places, Kay could see himself reflected – countless fractious, broken Kay's—and it took first self-control, then apathy of the bitterest kind to keep from smashing himself to pieces again.

A month had crept by (or so he hypothesized).The cold had put a creeping, relentless stop to activities that went beyond the mirror's progress. There wasn't much he could have done with the door anyway and he knew it.

Speech stepped into the background more and more each day, until the room stood pristine and dead around him. It was like being in the middle of a swimming pool with all around him calm, not a ripple in sight. That feeling, that solitude, was getting to be more of a comfort than 'looking alive.' Breathing and the beat of his heart set Kay apart from the room, something moving within the solitude, but he was fairly sure these items wouldn't be around much longer, once the puzzle was completed.

Once he had 'agreed' to Lumi's proposition, he honestly didn't expect to see the season again until the puzzle was done. She wasn't the type to micromanage with so many projects weighing on her mind and the single-handed resurrection of an empire.

It came as a surprise to find her there when he woke one morning. She was kneeling on the great floor, fingering a single shard and looking sternly at the floor.

She knew he was there, kept her back to him, and took pleasure in not noting him as he stared at the far wall. He could go back to bed, theoretically but it was just a gesture. Playing at tiredness. He stood there, hands in his fraying pockets, eyes closed, until she chose to speak.

"You must work faster," she said.

Kay inclined his head slightly. That was doable – he hadn't been pressing himself. It was hard to rush towards his own death, however much he told himself he wanted it.

"One of my spies has told me someone is on their way. She will not stop this, if you complete it first."

He got excited before reality could hook his imagination. It could be Cinderella – a Fable spy somehow knowing that he was here, in pursuit… having escaped the ministrations of the soul-sucking vampire wandering around Bullfinch Street. No, he reminded himself, everyone was dead. Despair shuffled back into place.

Lumi was continuing. "How much longer, at speed? …Kay. Kay."

The voice called him back. "Days."

Lumi made an affirmative sound. "The cold will not slow you?"

That required even more thought. If he still felt the cold, it might trouble him; as it was, she should be more concerned about his mind drifting, losing sight of a lifetime that had ended but ceased to function, but this wasn't something she could or would guard him against. He shrugged.

"Good. I will be back in two days to start the proceedings. Be ready."

"Wait."

Now that his mind was here -

She waited, air thick with her impatience and anxiousness to be gone. He almost lost his question wondering if he made her uncomfortable. When she sighed, he decided he that did. She probably didn't have to deal with dead people much, at least, not ones that wouldn't leave.

"Who is coming?"

"She will die before she ever gets here," Lumi said dismissively. "Nothing changes."

That was fair enough. She left without fanfare and Kay knelt, taking up the shard she had left behind. It had no temperature, tripping only slightly over the frozen cuts on his fingers. The escape attempts that created them seemed to have taken place an eternity ago. He turned it over and over, thinking slowly. It was a relief to know things would continue, that this female interloper wouldn't come between him and death.

There were still some two hundred shards to go, scattered and oddly shaped, and he would be working faster now. He swallowed what little despair remained of the thwarted hope and began searching for the shard's hiding place in the jumble of pieces.