Tarrus carefully pulled a small box from the shelf in front of him. A small plume of dust came with it, making him grimace. It was hardly the first time that had happened today, and he held his breath, trying to waft it away from himself. When the dust had settled enough, he brushed off the tag on the box, which identified the contents. Cursed amulet of reflection.

He squinted at his short list of items. His shopping list, as Renauld had jokingly called it.

He snorted. He wasn’t far off.

Renauld, assistant to the Guild Master, was in charge of general facility operations at the Guild. That included the scriptorium and the vaults, one of which he found himself in now. Often viewed as an armory of powerful enchanted objects, every Guild had at least one vault. While there usually were powerful items stored for emergencies, the reality was that they were largely filled with items that had niche or useless effects.

Cursed items, such as this amulet, were a common find in the vaults, at least until headquarters could send someone to dispose of them. He turned the amulet around in his hands, noting a very dull rough gem set in the center, a dark reddish-purple.

Calling these items ‘cursed’ was, of course, a bit of a misnomer. If there were truly cursed items, items haunted or targeted by malign spirits, they were not well known. No, these items simply had enchantments that were, on the whole, detrimental to use. This amulet, for example, redirected damage taken by living things in the area to the user. While there might be some obscure abilities that could make such a thing useful as a support member of a party, it also made it impossible to harm enemies.

He had a few ‘cursed’ items on his list today that he’d gone through, each more or less as useful as this one, all so far useless to him. Lifting the item from its box, he closed his eyes and reached out with his mana. Connecting to the magic that made it function, he began feeling around at the structure of the enchantments. All of the items he’d looked at today dealt, in some way, with the concept of moving energy or forces, and he was on the hunt for some component that would fit with the magic he already knew.

Probing the structure of the magic, he felt through to the main component, which he knew dealt with identifying and preserving what the enchantment defined as ‘damage’. Knowing it would be too complex for him at his skill, he moved to slide past that structure… and he kept going, and going… Abyss take me, that’s a large mana structure.

Suddenly, he came to the end of it. There, hooked into the massive structure, was a little bitty piece that was responsible for transferring forces. At least, according to a prior researcher's analysis.

Tarrus had used notes from this researcher, one ‘Sven H.’, and had found them to be trustworthy. He already had the transference enchantment recorded, so he took the time to feel out how it connected into the larger effect created by the item. He needed a particular connection type to match the effects he already had, so he probed carefully around where the mana circuits connected the two, looking for just the right shape…

Eyes closed, he began to smile. “Finally! I can get out of this dust trap of a basement.” Crumpling up his list, he placed the amulet back into its container. He put it in his bag and took it with him, making sure to check it out of the inventory as he went.

Now, he just had a few prototypes to make.

-=-<^>-=-

Elsewhere

Alfred watched as Lindor carefully looked over the mirror, switching the lenses on his goggles every so often to see something new and constantly recording his observations. Lindor was a typical addition on survey missions, though not a member of Alfred’s party. The man was a self-proclaimed ‘Domain researcher’, and often favored Gran for its variety of Domains.

Self-proclaimed or not, the man knows what he’s doing. The Guild had used his services several times, and it was through his analysis that they’d narrowed down the windows of activity for the known Domains. He had a knack for reading the mana that made up critical components of Domains in a way that helped determine its behavior. He could also point to a weak spot for demolition teams when the places needed to be destroyed, and he’d do it all with a smile on his face, just happy to be free to research.

Which made his current demeanor concerning. While he’d started his analysis with a lot of excited declarations, he’d fallen into quiet muttering with a tight concern evident on his face.

It was worrying, to say the least, especially given how this delve had gone so far.

Alfred pulled out his own notepad, a short checklist of their objectives.

* Find the mirror to enter the sub-Domain

* Take an accounting of the monsters inside

* Map the sub-Domain, compare layout to main layout

* Confirm the nature of the Boss

He’d assumed the first steps would be the easiest, that they’d simply go about mapping the layout of the main area, find the mirror while doing so, and head back once they were done. And, technically, they had. They just hadn’t realized it.

He glanced at the mirror, doing his best to ignore the confused and questioning looks from his comrades. It was a smaller mirror than they were expecting. Barely the size of his torso, it was seated in a plain, unadorned frame, and the mirror itself was so clouded that it could hardly be called a mirror anymore.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

It didn’t match the description they had in the slightest. The only reason they found it was because Lindor had sensitive equipment. Alfred sighed. Something strange was happening, and he didn’t like being at the center of it. He shook his head. I still have a job to do, though.

He stepped up beside Lindor, and crouched down next to him. “What are you finding?” he asked, quietly.

The man looked at him in silence for a moment, lips tight, before sighing. “It’s… strange.” He pushed his goggles up to his forehead. “Sub-Domains are found within Domains, which everyone knows. Most people don’t know, however, that they are in a parasitic relationship with the host Domain. Nested within the hosts mana, they have to feed off of it to maintain their own existence. That means that they must always keep an entrance open.”

He rapped his knuckle on the mirror beside them. “Technically, this meets those requirements. From my analysis,” he waved his notepad, “it is letting mana in. The forms that make up the entrance are working, but they’re constricted. Like…” He shuddered. “Like a creature, holding their breath to avoid notice.”

Alfred looked at him sharply. “Do you think there’s some… intent behind this?”

He shook his head. “I couldn’t say. But, you hear things sometimes, about strange Domains, and unusual magics, you know? It’s hard not to be concerned.”

Alfred just nodded slowly. “Yeah, I understand.” He glanced at his checklist and sighed. “Can you get it open?”

He nodded. “I should be able to. It’ll take a while, though.”

“Go ahead and get started.” Alfred stood and faced his team, his party and those others who had joined for the survey. “It’s been confirmed that this is the mirror we’re looking for. Obviously, the situation is a little different then we expected, but we’re prepared to deal with the unexpected. Lindor here is going to get the mirror open for us. Until then, get yourselves ready. We can’t be sure what we’ll face in there.”

-=-<^>-=-

Later

When Lindor managed to pry the mirror open, the cloudiness disappeared. Instead, the survey team simply saw a reflection of the room they were in, without them in it. They wasted no time in entering.

They set out a route based on their understanding of the host Domains layout. Working off of the tip that this area should have a reflected map, they sought out nearby landmarks to orient and confirm. The experienced team had little trouble moving through the rooms, and faced little opposition.

A member of Alfred’s party, affectionately known as Boar, came up to him. “Hey Al, doesn’t this feel a little weird?” He gestured out at the room, where their rogue was picking over the bodies of the few dead monsters. The very few dead monsters. “This room was light on threats. Every room has been light. Where are all the monsters?”

Al he could do was shake his head. “I don’t know, but it’s definitely a deviation from the report. Lindor, what do you think?” He asked, turning to the man next to him.

Lindor put his goggles back on, and looked around as the enchantments on them lit up. “Hmm… It’s a similar feeling to earlier, with the mirror. The mana to support more monsters is here, but it feels like it’s moving elsewhere.” He pulled his goggles back off. “But beyond that, I can’t really say.”

Alfred, arms crossed, tapped his finger consideringly as he looked around the room at the team. They were ready to move. “Keep your goggles on, and keep an eye out. Assuming the whole Domain isn’t behaving strangely, we can expect to come across monsters that are reflected versions of ourselves soon. Let’s get back into formation and move out.”

Stepping to the front of the group, he slammed his gauntleted fists together as everyone assembled behind him. Referencing their map, he lined up at the door to their next destination and glanced behind himself to check that everyone was ready. Seeing they were, he kicked the door in.

It splintered off its hinges, sent flying through the room, where it crashed against the furniture in the room. Amidst the clattering of scattered furnishings, the team spread out, defenders in the front line with damage dealers and support close behind.

Alfred looked around. The room was empty, except for the furniture. “Grem.” The jack-of-all-trades rogue in his party looked up. “How long until we’re expected to run into those reflections?”

She consulted her map. “At the rate we’re going, maybe seven more rooms?”

He grunted. “A real fight would make me feel better about this delve. Let’s see if we can’t speed that up.” He lined up at the next door, ready to push through.

A gauntleted fist came bursting in toward him.

The door soon followed, crashing against his hastily erected defense. In its wake, the promised fight came pouring in.

From the back, Lindor gasped. “I know where the mana was moving! It was needed to maintain the copies!”

Alfred squared up against his clone, grinning. “Well, let’s hope it can put up a fight.”

-=-<^>-=-

Tarrus wiped the sweat from his brow. This wasn’t quite what he’d been expecting. “Why am I the one doing this?”

Astrid stood next to him, taking notes. “As the one who is making the products, you need to know best how it is to use them. Now, do you notice any issues other than the obvious heat?”

He tilted the pan he was holding, looking at the circle on the enchanted stone under it. Setting it back down, he stirred the food, taking note of its condition. “It’s projecting the heat too much, obviously, but I think it’s also uneven?”

Astrid nodded, making thoughtful sounds as she took notes. “Are you able to change the level of the heat at all?”

He sighed. “...no.”

“Hmm. Same issues as the cooler, then. Well, as soon as those problems are dealt with, we can show them off to locals and a few merchant friends I made the other day; I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to have another reason to come to Gran, but they’ll more than make up for it when they get their hands on these.”

He perked up a bit. “And you’re sure we’ll make much off of these?”

She chuckled darkly. “Oh, son of mine. They don’t know it yet, but we have something they want, and when we’re done with them, you’ll be able to fund whatever projects your heart desires.”