The group managed to find the caravan in Westrabbit woods and thanks to Eda and the witches, the caravan got fixed. But Rapunzel and Cass still hadn't talked about what happened at the Great Tree which was making things tense. Cass ended up using a Wand of Oblivium to erase Rapunzel's memories which made her think that she never left the tower. Cass managed to get the ingredients for the potion, which was fifty-two ingredients, but she had to lie to Rapunzel that she was taking her back to the tower. But Rapunzel caught onto Cass's lies and she almost dropped Eugene and Lance into piranha-infested waters.
Cass gave Rapunzel the potion and her memories came back. Rapunzel and Cass finally talked about what happened at the Great Tree and now they were free from the burden. Soon everyone piled into the caravan and took off to continue the black rocks path. Unfortunately, being stuck in a cramped caravan wasn't all that it's cracked up to be. It had been raining for a week straight, so the caravan was leaking water from the cracks in the roof. And all of their little ticks have been getting on each other's nerves and sometimes it would get to the point where they would try to strangle each other.
Luz and Varian were actually relieved to see and feel the normal rain and not the boiling rain from the Boiling Isles. The girls kept to one side of the caravan while the boys kept to the other side of the caravan, but the ticks were getting annoying. Cass mostly worked on her training, but she also got annoyed with Rapunzel's quill scratching away in her journal, along with Lilith and Eda's molten feathers. Amity and Luz would read Azura books most of the time which annoyed Eda because she hated the flowery writing. Then came the thing that annoyed them the most, Lance and his whistling.
All of the girls went over to the boys' side of the caravan to get Lance to stop. They saw Eugene preening himself in the mirror, King had a pillow over his ears while Hunter and Varian were mostly reading Demenitis's journal. Cass and Eugene started to argue, and Lance resumed his whistling which got Hunter annoyed then he threw a pillow right at Lance. "Hey, what was that for?!" Lance shouted.
"Your whistling was giving me a migraine," Hunter stated.
"Oh yeah? And what do you know about music?" Lance asked, harshly.
Everyone broke into arguing which was annoying the palismen and Ruddiger. Suddenly, there was a loud crash coming from outside and the caravan came to a complete stop. Rapunzel went outside to check what was going on, and it turned out a tree had fallen in front of them, and the caravan was stuck in the mud. Cass figured that they'd just have to wait out the storm in the caravan until Rapunzel spotted something from the window. It was an inn that was entirely made up of seashells. Cass told her that the place was creeping her out but as usual, Rapunzel didn't listen and went towards the inn.
The others followed after Rapunzel; Cass eventually joined the others after getting soaked from a new hole in the roof. They walked in the downpouring rain towards the inn; Rapunzel knocked on the door and a strange man opened it. He had long platinum hair in a ponytail, a mustache and spoke with a French accent, he said that his name was Matthews. He was more than welcoming to Rapunzel and her friends, except he had the horses wait in the stables. When all of them got inside the inn, Matthews took one look around before shutting the door and locking it. They followed Matthews who was leading them to their rooms where they will be staying.
However, Eda and Lilith could not shake the feeling that something was off about this place. Matthews pointed out that there are refreshments in the lounge as well as enough room for everyone. Rapunzel promised Matthews that he wouldn't even know that they were here, but the others weren't helping her case. "So, Mr. Matthews, what is this place called?" Luz asked.
"It's called, The House of Yesterday's Tomorrow," Matthews answered.
"Yesterday's Tomorrow? So today then." Lilith stated.
"I never use one word where two will do, right, correct? Please, enjoy your stay... however long that may be." Matthews stated before leaving them.
Soon everyone went into their assigned rooms; Cass was with Rapunzel, Eda, and Lilith who were still suspicious about this place. That was until dinner; when they were all at the lounge eating the most amazing feast, Shorty came in acting strange. He had impeccable manners, perfect posture, and even his breath wasn't so stomach-churning. No one except Rapunzel, Varian, and Hunter noticed Shorty's sudden change. She gestured for Varian and Hunter to follow her, and they did. They went to the hall; Rapunzel told the boys that something weird was going in.
Just then, they heard Shorty coming their way, so they hid in the armoire to see what he was up to. He just walked towards a weird looking mirror, but he wasn't alone, Gus, Luz, and Lance are with him. He had them look into the mirror then suddenly something pulled them into the mirror and out pops exact duplicates of Lance, Luz, and Gus. Hunter gasped, "It can't be. History states that those were destroyed." Hunter said, quietly.
"What is it?" Rapunzel asked.
"That mirror... It's from the Boiling Isles. Years ago, those mirrors could create the perfect copy of another witch while the real ones were pulled into a mirror-like dimension. Some witches used those mirrors to punish the wild and rebel witches who refused to fall in line. But the mirror copies turned into evil demon copies that went on a killing spree. After that, the mirrors were destroyed, shattered to pieces." Hunter explained.
The doubles left the hall and headed back to the lounge. Rapunzel and the boys ran back to the lounge to warn the others about the mirror doubles but when they got there, they saw that the doubles including Amity, Willow, and Lilith tied up. "Guys, Lance and the others aren't..."
"Themselves? Figured that out from Lilith, Amity, and Willow. They might look like them but there is one way to tell them apart, the palismen. Palismen can tell who the real deal is by the bond they have with their owners. Also, the Shorty and Lance doubles weren't convincing." Eda answered.
And since Sapphire and Flapjack were with Varian and Hunter, they were the real deals. But since Cass, Eugene, Rapunzel, and Pascal don't have palismen they need to find a way to prove how they are who they say they are. Varian had the idea of doing some tests to see who is real and who is a mirror demon. They started with Rapunzel; Varian knew that the real Rapunzel could find the art in even the dullest situations, so he had her turn the food into something beautiful. It took her just thirty minutes to make a diorama of Corona with a few figures. Eugene commented that he wasn't impressed until Rapunzel squished one of the figures.
"Uncle Monty?!" Eugene screamed.
"Yeah, that's her." Cass stated.
"Rapunzel hates Monty? But everybody loves Uncle Monty, he makes the best sweets in Corona." Varian stated with confusion.
"Long story, kid," Eugene said.
Next up was Pascal, Rapunzel had him change colors to match what she said, the Corona flag, a bimberry, and even Lance turned when he got bitten by a poisonous spider. Rapunzel knew that this was the real Pascal since he knew that Rapunzel's favorite color was all of them because they are each amazing in their own way. Rapunzel asked Eugene just a couple of questions like what Max's favorite food is and what is Pete the Guards' middle name. Eugene was able to answer the questions correctly including figuring out which of the posters shows an exact representation of the real Eugene Fitzherbert, aka, Flynn Rider.
Eda snickered "Wait, wait, wait. Your last name is Fitzherbert? Ha! Wow, that is so terrible!"
"I get it, I get it. I get enough teasing from Cass." Eugene said, sulking.
However, when it came to Cass, Rapunzel wanted her to chop an apple into eight perfect slices with her sword, but she kept making excuses not to. That was when she raised her sword, but instead of cutting the apple, she cut the other doubles free and revealed her red eyes showing that she was a mirror demon. Eda and King told Hunter, Varian, Rapunzel, and Eugene to run while they hold the mirror doubles back. Except, when they hid back in the armoire, Eugene called Pascal a chameleon and he dropped Rapunzel's journal, he took it. "That's how you know my secrets," Rapunzel stated then she and the boys backed away from Eugene.
"No! I was just holding the journal. You dropped it, and, uh..."
"Do the smolder." Rapunzel ordered.
He made a weird face with a finger gesture which proved that this Eugene was a fake. Turns out, Eugene was the first person in their group to gaze into the mirror; he kept up his act long enough to get Rapunzel, Hunter, and Varian into the mirror. Soon the other doubles showed up with Eda and King being dragged behind them in vines. "Varian, Hunter, Pascal, run!" Rapunzel shouted.
The boys ran past the doubles, but Eda and King were shoved into the mirror and replaced by doubles. They tried to push Rapunzel into the mirror too, but she wrestled with her mirror copy until she had pushed the copy back into the mirror and posed as the mirror demon in front of the other doubles. Hunter and Varian used the invisibility glyphs to hide while Pascal camouflaged himself to blend into the wall. Until they heard Rapunzel's voice thinking that she was a mirror demon, but Pascal knew that she was the real Rapunzel although Varian and Hunter weren't convinced.
"Tell me something only the real Rapunzel would know," Varian ordered.
"When we first met, you thought Eugene was the real Flynn Rider from the Flynn Rider books you read. He was your celebrity crush." Rapunzel said.
"And that's the real Rapunzel," Varian stated.
When they went back to the hallway with the mirror, Rapunzel saw that her reflection was gone and that their friends must have figured out that the mirror demon wasn't her. Hunter explained that the mirror works when the person makes physical contact by touching the mirror, giving the reflection a chance to put the real person into the mirror and the mirror demon takes its place. So, if they get the doubles to touch the mirror then their friends should be able to pull them back into the mirror and take their place. Rapunzel removed the mirror from the wall and placed it down on the ground while Varian placed the invisibility glyph on it.
Hunter and Pascal were being chased by Rapunzel and the other mirror demons which was luring them to the trap. When the mirror demons realized that Rapunzel was real and the mirror was missing, Varian released his breath revealing the mirror that they were standing on. The mirror demons were pulled back into the mirror and all of their real friends were free from the mirror. Lance and Eugene turned the mirror around to face the wall so the mirror demons couldn't escape again. They made sure to grab everything including the Palismen and ran for the door. But just as they were about to leave, Matthews stopped them.
"Did you meet the people in the mirror? I should have warned you about them. Oh well! Live and learn! Or just live. The good news is, you are welcome to stay for as long as you like. You might even grow to enjoy it." he stated.
"Staying in a creepy inn with mirror demons and a creepy innkeeper? Um, no thanks." Luz stated.
But when Rapunzel opened the door, the storm was even worse, so they had no choice but to stay until the storm died down. But this time, they were all sleeping in the main room with sleeping bags just in case. Little did they know, the tree falling and the caravan getting stuck was no accident.