Bracken reappeared from the black fog with the horn in hand. The black spiral seemed to be the source of darkness in the mist because the light seemed to be repelled by its aura.
"You got it!" Seth exclaimed, exited up until the moment he noticed the young man's pallor; it was a sickly grey.
Once Bracken stepped through the magical barrier he collapsed on the ground, the horn falling from his hands and clattering away.
"Hold on, Bracken, please!" Seth pleaded, gripping his hand and standing to pull Bracken to his feet. "We'll get you to the exit, just hold on!"
He struggled to lift the young man, but determination set itself in Seth and he dragged Bracken back though where they came from through the mist. Seth had to stop and readjust Bracken's limp arm on his shoulder constantly so he could keep going.
Mi'aiq called out from behind him, "Wait! You forgot the horn!"
Seth kept putting one more foot in front of the other, "We have to get Bracken out of here first, forget the horn, I'll come back later."
Mi'aiq felt pride once again for the first time in thousands of years. "Yes, but." He changed shape, "Mi'aiq can bring the horn in this form" A jackal bounded over to Seth, and in its mouth the dark horn glittered darkly.
"Good job, Mi'aiq!" Seth wheezed, readjusting Bracken's position a little then continuing on.
The darkness swallowed all the light around it, and Seth found himself wandering in pitch black clouds. He smacked into one of the columns holding the mirror and knew generally where he was. He shuffled around the column and gained his footing again.
A hand grabbed his arm out of nowhere; he panicked for a second, then forced himself to calm down.
A stone glowed with blue light and Seth found himself face to face with Bracken's twin from the mirror. The images of Bracken looked the real version of himself up and down then handed Seth the light stone.
The second Seth appeared out of the darkness and came to a stop when he saw Bracken hanging limp off Seth's shoulder. Seth's doppelganger winced and looked down, moving closer to his Bracken, "Take good care of him, okay?"
Seth nodded and took the light stone, holding it in his right hand, using it to light the way. He looked back over his shoulder one last time at the two clones; they were holding hands, and waving goodbye.
Using the light of the stone, and Mi'aiq's guidance, he found where he had first appeared. Instinctively he searched for deepest darkness, the hole in the dimension that let him get there. In a few seconds they were once more standing in the medieval section of the art museum.
Fortunately there was no one around that Seth could see so he dragged Bracken's body along in the shadows of the building.
He was in the middle of the hallway, in the dark, on the second floor, having dragged the limp body down the stairs. Out of seemingly nowhere, a security guard came patrolling down the hall.
Mi'aiq's voice rang through his head, Just keep walking, but believe that all the guard sees is shadow.
Seth did as the jackal said, and kept walking down the hallway, shadows seemed attracted to both the horn and to Seth as they moved closer to the guard. When they passed, the guard didn't even blink.
All the lights were off save a few on the outside and security lights. Occasionally a security guard would pass by, but Seth just kept moving, and they never noticed.
Once he found the main doors, tall and made of glass, he found them locked. He jostled with the door handle, but it was no use. Looking around, he saw a bench and heaved Bracken up onto it, and sat down himself.
While he took a breather, Mi'aiq padded up to Seth and dropped the horn like an overly large stick on his lap. Seth picked it up cautiously, but it did nothing to him, so he put it away in his backpack. Almost half of it stuck out, but it stayed in there, darkly glittering.
Seth let out a heavy sigh and rested a hand to Bracken's forehead, it was hot. He didn't know about first aid as much as he would have liked, but he knew enough to know that cool water would help. He turned to Mi'aiq and asked, "Will you make sure no one sees him?"
Mi'aiq shrugged and waved a paw, "You can do that all by yourself, Seth. Just imagine putting a blanket of darkness over him."
Seth nodded, stood, turned to the bench, and waved his hand. A light film of darkness spread over it until the bench appeared to merely have a shadow cast onto it. He looked in awe at his hand for a second, and then sobered up; he needed to get some water for Bracken, at least to cool the unicorn's burning temperature.
Seth began sprinting to where he thought he saw a water fountain by the bathrooms. He ran into the men's bathroom to grab a paper towel, only when blinded by light, he realized he was totally visible. Custodians looked up at him in confusion, he instinctively raised a hand.
What am I doing?
He had just time enough to think before all the shadows in the room seemed to come alive and swallow the room whole, creating a darkness that enveloped the lights.
A janitor cried out in fear, he silenced it with another wave, his instinct taking over. He then found, to his surprise, he could sense presences in the room, dead and alive. The shadows he had bended to his will, appeared to be dead souls. The custodians who cowered together in the middle of the bathroom glowed faintly as alive, but with straits of black leaking from their glowing core.
Something inside Seth told him it was fear and that… He raised his hand once more and used his powers to search their souls, he found the source of their fear, him, and cut his image and the memory of darkness from their minds.
He quickly grabbed some paper towels after that made a run for it out of the bathroom. He ran right by the water fountain then backtracked to wet the towels.
He sprinted back to Bracken and placed the cool towels to his forehead. Seth then knelt down next to the bench and listened to Bracken's breathing, it was raspy and shallow, painful to listen to. But Seth knew that Bracken had to be alright, he just had to.
And so they waited out the night in the dark museum, sheltered from the snow outside.