High King Ajax sat at his Royal Table, reading. He looked up from the Cryer's daily pamphlet. Across from him was Pruna. She was his wife of 10 years. It flitted into his mind that it was odd that he had to think of that. "By the way, Pru," he said, "yesterday, I was talking to Morrie. He tells me there is a new specialist in his Realm. He might be able to help with Junior."

"That's nice," Pruna said, sipping her tea.

"Ah, where is… Junior?" Ajax said. It occurred to him then that he had never thought of giving a child his own name, nor was he sure which of his names he would choose.

"He is in the Gardens with the Attendants," his Queen said. "It is the same every morning. It is good to have our privacy for a little while, is it not?"

"Of course," Ajax said. He waved his hand, and had an odd sense of weight. He glanced at the wall, and looked again. There was an oval mirror on the wall. It took a moment for him to remember that it was the Royal Wishing Mirror. "Say, didn't we have that in the Bedchamber?"

"Oh, I asked the Attendants to move it out here," Pruna said. "It was a bit odd having a powerful Relic facing our bed, was it not?"

"To be sure," the King said. He pondered what came up in his mind. "You know, I will send a message to that specialist. We could use a little more help with Junior."

"Yes, my love," the Queen said. She did not hide a sigh.

"What is it?" Ajax pressed.

For a moment, it appeared his Queen might simply ignore him. Then she looked up and folded her hands. "Remember all the doctors we saw when we were trying to have Junior?" she said. "The more time we spent with them, the less we talked with each other. It was why we weren't arguing, for a while. It is the same now, only sending Junior to the specialist means less time with him and with me."

"What are you saying?" the King said. "That we shouldn't get help for our son?"

"No, I am saying that there's no substitute for time with me and with him," the Queen answered. "There's only so many things you can try before you start losing us."

"You say him," he said, growing querulous. "What about you? Are you saying that you don't think I care about you as much as him? Or do you really mean that you and I are already lost?"

"I love you," his wife said. "I always have, I always will. But…"

"But?" Ajax fumed. "But what?" He rose and shook his fist, which he abruptly realized held his brother's old hammer.

"But," the Queen said, "this is not real."

The King advanced toward the Mirror, as he would on an enemy capable of destroying him on sight. He looked back at Pruna. She glowed with a strange light that seemed to fade her features. "Go forward, great Ajax," she said. "Just know, this is the easy part." He swung.

"My Lord," a familiar voice said, "whatever are you doing?" The hammer dropped from his hand as he turned. He was in the Royal Chamber, facing Persephone, his Queen.

"I was just thinking," he said, "perhaps we should move the Wishing Mirror. It was nice, right after we married. But perhaps it is time to move it to the Storehouse."

"Perhaps," Persephone said. She came to his side with a certain gait she had always used when she knew he watched her, demure yet confident. For a moment, it seemed that her skin shone with an iridescent scaly sheen, and her nose began to merge with her lip. "But why did you bring Hector's Hammer?"

"Ah… I was just remembering, I should return it to Hector," he said. He reached for the Hammer. His Queen's hand met his, smooth and oddly cool.

"Give it to me," she said. "I will find a place for it."

"I… would rather keep it," he said.

"Fine," she said with a smile. She let go of the Hammer. "No matter. I was about to change into something better for our guests. Why don't you go play with the kids?"

"Ah, yes, the kids," he said. Two faces came to his mind, both beautiful. He found himself tempted to see them, just for a little while. "What… what are their names?"

"Why, my King, what a silly thing to say," Persephone said. He backed away from her. She stepped between him and the Mirror. "You are acting strange. Why don't you lie down for a while?" He saw that her free hand held a rope.

"I think I will go spend time with the kids, after all," Ajax said.

"Hm, now that I think about it, I believe I would like to spend a little time alone with you, after all," said his Maiden. Smoke trickled from her nostrils. "Our guests can wait. So can the kids. We can always use a little private time." She stretched out the rope. She spoke with a thickening accent, "Wouldn't you like for me to please you as you pleased me? Just once?"

"You are a creation of the Mirror, sent to stop me," said the King. "But if there is anything of Persephone in you, listen to me. You thought you could win your place as my Queen, but you did it by trying to hide what you were. That was never going to work. Even if I had thought I loved you, it would not have been the real you."

"Really?" Persephone said. "You would have loved me, even like this?" In a moment, she transformed into a Lindormess.

"No," Ajax said, "but I would have been happy to know the real you." He sidestepped, and she moved to meet him. "But this is not you, only a distorted Image. The Mirror captured your desires and what you would do to get what you thought you wanted, but I cannot believe that this is all there was. And now I see, I was not so different, except that I never sacrificed who I was for another's dream." He knew if he rushed at the Mirror, she would surely intercept him. Instead, he dived just far enough to see the glass and hurled the Hammer.

"My King!" she shrieked mournfully. Then the Hammer hit the glass, and she was pulled in after like smoke out of a hastily opened window. It seemed that the whole world imploded into the Mirror, and he too was dragged in after. For a moment, he opened his mouth to scream, and he found the very air was pulled from his lungs…

Ajax tumbled to the floor at the feet of a familiar figure. He looked up at the Mirror Pruna and two other figures. One was Pruna's daughter, holding a Lindormling. The other was Lemmia. He froze at the sight of another, Persephone in her Lindormess form, waiting next to the throne. "Good, you made it," Lemmia said, her tone decidedly cool.

"I thought you might have trouble," Pruna said. "We did what we could. Most likely, we will not be able to do it again. I suspect that the hardest trial is what is ahead. Ah, yes, I suppose you will want this." She pushed the Hammer of Hector to him.

"Thank you, my Lady," Hector said. He looked to Persephone. She bobbed her head, and held up a ring of betrothal. It bore the crest of Angelo. He turned back to the Mirror on the wall and hefted the Hammer. "All right, Mirror. What's the worst you can do?"

He swung… and then he found himself standing on carpet, in front of a full-length mirror mounted on a door. "Alex?" said an exasperated voice. "What are you doing with that old thing?" He turned, and gasped.