Will burst through the mirror, sword first, as Not Nina bore down on it. He collided with her, his sword sliding easily through her chest up to the hilt, and he winced as he heard a distinct shattering sound. His momentum carried them on, slamming Not Nina into the wall opposite the mirror, his sword sinking in deep, jarring his arms and pinning the creature to the wall. The thing had seemingly lost all its energy, dropping its weapons and clutching at its wound in pain. He didn’t spare it much thought, quickly turning, heart sinking as he prepared to face the loss of his party.

He found himself face to face with Nina, her face turned to the side, nostrils flaring, lips lifted and compressed as if she was shoving her face against a wall. Will stopped and stared for a moment, his panic subsiding. He couldn’t help himself. He started laughing, relief washing over him as his legs finally gave out after all the running they’d had to do.

Nina growled, pushing harder against the now almost liquid glass of the mirror, its surface stretched around her features. “A little help?”

Will breathed out, leaning back and laying down. “In a moment. Pretty sure the dangers passed,” he said, waving at the impaled reflection, limply clutching at its wound and whimpering quietly. He glanced at Nina, eyebrow arching. He giggled. “Besides, I’m enjoying the faces you're making.”

She flushed, pulling her face back out of the mirror, glancing at the reflection. After a moment, she sighed, relaxing. “Yeah, it looks like we can take our time now.” She turned, glancing at Annette and Gerald approaching, both panting heavily. “Speaking of… I think some of us need to add more cardio to their training.”

Gerald, leaning against the wall, rolled his eyes. “I’m not exactly young anymore. Legs aren’t what they used to be. Anyway,” he said, pointing through the mirror, “What’s going on with all this?”

Frowning, she turned back to the mirror. “I can’t get through the mirror. I think it’s because that is out there,” she said, pointing at Not Nina. She pushed on the mirror, and the surface of it deformed around her arm up to the elbow. “It just does this when I try to get through.” She grunted, pushing harder, but made no progress. Frustrated, she pulled her arm out and punched it. Gerald and Annette shouted in panic when she did, but there was no damage. In fact, her punch made even less of an impact, just sending ripples across the surface of it.

Annette moved to the mirror, gently probing the mirror with her fingers. Finding no resistance, she quickly stepped through. Turning on Nina, she huffed, waving her finger at the younger woman. “What would you have done if it had broken? We would have been trapped in there with you!”

Nina waved her hand dismissively, rolling her eyes. “I ran face first into the thing earlier and bounced off. I don’t think you can damage it from inside.”

Narrowing her eyes, Annette stared at her for a moment before sighing. “Still, it freaked us out. You should have let us know first. Right, Gerald?” She looked at Gerald, still inside the mirror, crouched down by the frame looking intensely at the dividing surface and trying to touch it.

Absently, he said “Mmm, definitely.”

Nina lowered her head a bit, embarrassed. “...Sorry.”

The group lapsed into silence for a moment. Will scooted forward, placing himself on the opposite side of Gerald. While the older man tried to place his hand against the glass of the mirror, Will mimicked his motions, raising his hand and placing his palm against where the surface would be. Their hands met at the separation of the worlds, startling Gerald, who had been absorbed in what he was doing. “Hey Gerald. What are you doing?”

He cleared his throat, pulling his hand back. “Well, I was trying to see what I could figure out about this… whatever it is we pass through, that is blocking Nina. Clearly, the only difference between us right now is that,” he said, pointing at the copy. “Which leads me to believe the goal of our clones was to eventually take our place… Gives a bit more context to that tip you had, Will. Only question now is, how should we get Nina out?”

“Well…” Annette began, “Wouldn’t we just throw the copy back through?”

Will tilted his head, considering. “Huh. I figured we’d just kill it. Tossing it back could work though.”

“Kill it? But it’s helpless right now… and it looks just like Nina.” She shook her head. “I don’t think I could hurt her like that.”

They all looked at the copy, still stuck to the wall with a sword through its chest, whimpering. Annette started, and leaned in closer, looking at the sword. “Is… Is she leaking?” Hearing the conversation, it looked up and made weak grasping motions toward Annette. She gasped and put her hands on her cheeks, looking at the others with wide eyes. “...Can we keep her?”

Nina glared at it, hands pressed against the mirror. “If it can get me out of here, I’ll consider it.”

Gerald and Will walked over, interest piqued as they looked at the sword as well. Gerald reached out gingerly, watching the clone as he reached out toward the blade. He touched the metal and his eyebrows rose in surprise. “Now, that is unusual…” his hand had come away covered in a silvery, reflective fluid, nearly invisible on the metal of the sword, but a stark contrast against the wizards pale skin. He glanced at Will. “You definitely nicked something in there.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The man in question scratched his head, leaning in to get a look. “That must be why I heard a shattering earlier. I thought that it had managed to break the mirror, but it must have been whatever’s inside of it. Actually…” He leaned in closer, squinting. “Is it just me or is this thing losing its color?”

The others leaned in, curious. There was a small area around the puncture wound that had gone monochrome, completely losing the color that had been copied from Nina. It quickly became apparent that the area was spreading, as well.

“If this thing dies out here, we might not be able to get Nina out. We need to toss it back, quick!” Gerald said, swearing. With a new burst of energy, Will pulled the sword free, and it came loose with a spurt of the same reflective liquid that had been coming out at a trickle. Now, the leaching of color from the construct was progressing at an easily visible rate. The men grabbed the arms of the dying mirror monster and heaved it back toward the world it came from.

From the side, Annette watched with concern as the construct cried out, panicking as it was dragged. When they got it to the edge of the mirror frame, it pulled on its last reserves of strength, setting its feet on either side of the frame and locking out its legs, resisting with everything it had left. Nina pounded on the mirror from the inside, trying in vain to get out, throw the clone off, anything.

Pushing against the mirror, she made eye contact with her reflection. And realized that, in many ways, it was her reflection. She saw the same panic, anger, and fear on its face that she felt on her own. She recognized herself in the construct, and knew that it saw itself in her. She faltered for a moment. Then she clenched her jaw. This bitch wanted to take her new life from her, and she’d burn the world down before she let that happen.

“LET. GO.” she growled at her reflection. It had already lost a lot of its fight, with how much of its ‘blood’ it had lost. It looked at her, and a single reflective tear tracked down its face.

“I just want to be free. You get that, right?” It spoke through quivering lips, a shaky voice. Her voice, at her weakest.

Gerald paled, hands tightening on Not Nina’s arm. He spoke to it in a tense tone. “You know you don’t have long. Wouldn’t you rather one of you gets out of here, at least?”

It turned its head, giving him a long, teary look. “Don’t let me go back in there, Gerald. Please.” Then it tensed, pulling its arm out of his grasp and slamming its hand deep into the open wound, reaching for its chest. It pulled out a shimmering, leaking orb and threw it at the mirror– threw it in the mirror. As soon as it passed, Nina stumbled out, gasping and running headlong into the now colorless and unmoving construct.

-=-<^>-=-

The group lay around the mirror, collapsed from exhaustion. Will groaned, levering himself into a sitting position, and looked at the group. “So... That was awful.”

Annette snorted, carefully measuring honey into several steaming teacups. “Which part? Getting halfway through and being accosted by ourselves? Realizing they could kick our asses? Maybe strategizing to take ourselves out, or the mad dash back, or…” She glanced at Gerald and Nina, both still quiet, and the still form of Not Nina, leaned up against a wall. She cleared her throat. “Fighting against someone who could use my powers, but better was… hard. I know I don’t have much experience with fighting, and I joined this group to fill a support role, but being needed in a fight and having an example of just how much I was underperforming…” She shook her head, hand tightening on her cup. “I didn’t expect it to be so emotionally draining.”

With a tired smirk, Gerald nodded, reaching for a teacup. “I’ve been there. The Archives almost exclusively train people for support positions. Part of what they teach us is to understand that, in a party, everyone has their own role. A well-rounded party is ready for any challenge a Domain might throw at them. Whether that’s a puzzle, a test of character, or a straight slugfest, everybody has things they are and are not good at. The reason the Adventurers Guild generally doesn’t clear people for solo delving is because there are vanishingly few people who are strong enough in their area of expertise to just plow through everything that can be thrown at them.”

She nodded thoughtfully, sipping at her tea. “Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Still doesn’t make me feel much better though.”

“Yeah, it’s one of those things that you can know, but not really get. That just comes with experience. Take it from me; you did fine.” He looked over at Nina, sitting sullenly in front of her dead doppelganger, and sighed. “Just wish everyone needed a simple reassurance.”

“Is she… okay?”

“Yes… and no. I mean, it would take a truly callous individual to watch something with your exact likeness die in front of you and not be affected in some way.” He shook his head. “Shook me up too. Reminded me of… Well, less pleasant times. I’d bet it’s the same for Nina. I think she just needs some time, and company.”

They sat thoughtfully for a bit, in comfortable silence. Annette stood up, grabbing the final teacup. “I’m gonna go talk to her.” Gerald watched as she walked over, gently set herself down beside the other girl, and offered over the cup. After a moment of staring, she accepted. Wordlessly, they simply sat, drinking and enjoying each other's company.

-=-<^>-=-

Some time later, they found themselves walking back through the mirror without issue, though with newfound caution, and carefully started traversing the reflected rooms they had already cleared. Fairly quickly, they found themselves back in the foyer.

“Looks like they left the door open. I’ll poke my head in and see what we’re up against.” Will scouted forward, the rest of the team falling behind him in formation as they made their way to the door. He stopped at the threshold, and slowly peeked his head around into the room. He froze for a moment, and pulled back, turning to the others in shock.

“Oh, please don’t tell me there’s more of them,” Annette cried.

“No… I think they might have killed everything already.”

The others pushed him out of the way, rushing into the room ahead, only to find it littered with the remains of defeated enemies, slight damage to the floor and furnishings, and dead bees. They wandered into the center of the room, taking it in.

“Huh.” Gerald poked at a bee with his foot, sending it rolling on the floor. “The existence of relics in a Domain can change how certain regions or encounters work, and it’s not unheard of for there to be violence between creatures in a Domain, but I wasn’t expecting to see that here.”

Nina nodded. “Yeah, it’s kind of anti-climatic.” She pointed off at another open door. “Do you suppose there’s anything left between us and the relic now?”

Will made his way over. “Only one way to find out.”