“You know, normally I might ask what happened,” Amy grumbled as she stumbled over to me, grabbing hold of my shoulder to prop herself up. “But this looks pretty self-explanatory.”

“Isn’t it always though?” I laughed. “I mean what’s not to get?”

“Seriously though, what actually happened? Because last I checked we were outmatched in every way, I was pretty much dead, and no one looked confident they would come out on top.”

“Well…” I took a deep breath. “Julian and I took care of you, then we helped Dante with Owen. Dante, of course, was incredibly underpowered and tricked Owen into killing himself with a sort of terrifying confidence play. Hope handled Trish pretty much by herself, nearly killed her actually. Dante had to distract her with flirtation so Julian could get Trish to safety.”

“Where is Julian?” I looked over to where he’d walked off with Trish but they were gone without a trace.

“He probably went home.” I was a little nervous. If Trish actually died Julian would probably die with her, and I kind of liked him now that he wasn’t being a jerk. “How was your little power nap?”

“I honestly thought it was impossible for us to sleep, but that is what just happened so I guess it isn’t impossible after all. It kind of makes sense though, I mean there’s only so much recovering the brain can do while we’re awake and most of what I just went through was mental.”

“Really? Because I had to stab you and I thought I almost killed you for a second.” I made a stabbing motion with my sword.

“Speaking of your sword, it’s… on fire.” Amy had been staying clear of the flames and every time I moved the sword around she inched away. “Could you maybe put that out?”

“Can I do that?” I hadn’t really thought about it. The fire didn’t hurt so I’d just assumed it was harmless. “Maybe if I just sort of…” I tried focusing on the vial that was supposed to be holding all of the extra soul fragments I’d accumulated but nothing was happening.

“Try...” Amy was trying to direct the sword without actually touching it and it was only confusing me. “Try touching the blade to the vial.” I touched the tip of the blade to the vial and for a second it almost looked like I was trying to stab myself. The flames slowly flowed down the blade and vanished into the vial and the sword vanished with them.

“Well I guess that solves the problem of having to carry it around all the time. I almost thought I was going to have to get some kind of cool looking harness to hold it.”

“That could still be arranged.” Dante had slowly made his way over to the two of us, with Hope in his arms for some reason. “I can get you a sheath, but it isn’t exactly as convenient, actually it would really only get in the way. If it's what you want though…”

“No, this is fine.” I shook my head and held my hands up in protest. “A little cooler actually, like Julian and that dagger he pulls out of his heart.” That had actually been pretty cool in hindsight, a little unsettling, but cool.

“Let’s get what we came here for then.” Dante smiled as he walked over to the pillar of blue fire still burning right where we left it.

“How did you manage to kill him?” Hope asked in a somewhat annoying tone, the same one I’d heard girls use all my life when they were trying to be cute. My voice didn’t quite reach that pitch.

“Same way I managed to catch such a beautiful girl in my arms, confidence.” Hope frowned. “By which I mean he killed himself.”

Dante slowly lowered Hope to her feet and approached the flame. He hesitated with his hand reached out to touch it. His eyes darted around the room nervously before he stuck his whole arm in and the flames died out in his hand. With the flame gone the room was significantly darker, the lights must have died out after Owen had died, but I could still see a splinter of glass in his hand. It was crazy to think that something so small could be such a big deal.

“And that, is why I trusted you.” A calm voice reverberated off of the cobblestone walls of the dark room. The voice was accompanied by a painful sensation, almost like I was being pulled in every direction, but not that hard.

Something weird was happening, which was sort of obvious. Dante had hinted that we wouldn’t have much time to do anything once we were finished with our job, and he was right. We had been transported somewhere completely different. Another circular room, much smaller this time. The transition was jarring, almost like when Eleanor had kidnapped me, and I found myself on my knees dizzy and gagging on a whole lot of nothing. When I finally straightened out where I was, two things caught my attention. One was the big basin in the middle of the room with smoldering embers burning away in it, and the other was the person who had spoken. The Old Man. He wasn’t the only new face though. As I scanned the room, embarrassed by my display of motion sickness, I noticed two other guests. I hardly recognized them, they looked so strange together, but I could tell who they were.

On the other side of the basin, waiting patiently, stood Alistair and the women I had almost shot so long ago. Eleanor. Though I’d hardly had anything to do with her this whole time, she somehow felt central to this whole mess… and yet she was far more relaxed now than the last time we’d met. She was wearing a short white lace dress with a veil that obscured part of her face, though I could still see a stern expression. Alistair was wearing something much more unusual. His face was very convincingly painted to look like a skull and there were human looking bones tied to a more ragged looking black suit that somehow still fit him perfectly.

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“Now that we all seem to be well and good,” The Old Man hummed, a note of annoyance in his voice. “We can proceed to finish this… for good.” He gestured to Dante. “Give me the mirror.”

“Oh?” His voice was mischievous. “I went through all the trouble of putting it back together, at least give me the satisfaction of destroying it.”

“It’s a very complicated procedure. I’d like to do it correctly.” The Old Man was holding his ground. I was beginning to sense some subtle hostility between the two. Looking around the room I noticed a tension I had been oblivious to previously.

“I’m not going to run off with it the second I put it back together if that’s what you’re thinking. What kind of fool do you take me for? I know you wouldn’t rest till you found me and wrestled it out of my arms.”

“Very well then.” The Old Man slowly held out the last shard of glass. Before Dante could take it though, the old man’s hand closed around it. “We all know what this artifact represents, and I know that, but I want to be clear. Destroying it is the right thing to do. There is a balance to the world, a system of order, and that mirror is disturbing it. Power is earned, and those that earn it know its value from the work required to gain it. As contractors we serve as a reminder of that principle by teaching a harsh lesson to those that would try to subvert it. You, more than anyone else in this room, should be aware of this fact.

“Trust me, I know.” The Old Man opened his hand and dropped the shard of empty glass into Dante’s hand.

The room was silent as he held up the nearly complete mirror and pushed the last piece into place. I half expected something spectacular, like an intense ray of light that would shine down and reflect off the mirror and blind everyone, but nothing like that happened. The room remained still and silent.

“Now, place it in the basin.” The Old Man’s voice was low and commanding, but Dante didn’t move. The Old Man slowly reached out to take the mirror but Dante pulled it back. “Place it in the basin.” He sounded more threatening now, almost dangerous, even thought he was probably a lot more than almost dangerous.

“I know what you did.” Dante said slowly. “You orchestrated the entire affair with Owen, you probably even gave his brother the shard that set Alistair on him. Easy, malleable targets I guess.” The Old Man didn’t flinch as he was accused. “While, what you said just now may be true in some sense, it isn’t exactly the point. We aren’t a part of some natural system. We exist because we defied that system ourselves, and we were rewarded, not for our tenacity, but for our deceptive abilities. We gained power through cheating, and that all began with you, didn’t it? And you want to keep on cheating to maintain that power.”

“Albert, put the mirror in the basin.” The Old Man’s voice was cold. It wasn’t what set me off though. He’d called Dante, Albert. Albert was the kid I’d shot and killed. Dante was not Albert.

“You’re not Albert though…” I muttered. I was ignored completely.

“You had Owen send someone to my apartment to draw me in so he could kill me. You missed a few things in that regard though. For one my mother was there, and far more than capable of defending herself. Additionally the scout ended up killing me instead, giving me a collector, which might seem like an insignificant detail but I think it’s made a big difference at how I’ve approached this little problem.”

“There is no problem here. Just destroy it, and we can all move on with our lives.”

“But there is a problem. In order for this,” Dante waved around the mirror, everyone in the room flinched as he did. If he broke it again it could mean very bad news for everyone near it. “To be completely destroyed, someone, and it has to be a contractor, has to die. Which is why you wanted me dead, and it is also why you gave me that silver pendant to give to Hope. You wanted to make sure I meant enough to at least one contractor for them to want to bring me back. You weren’t so sure about Alistair, so you played it safe and tried to get me together with Hope.” Dante grabbed Hope’s hand in his free one. “Which did work out very nicely, thank you for that.” Hope growled a little but didn’t say anything.

“Who do you suggest dies then?” The Old Man looked around the room, his gaze was a threat. “While I can’t kill you, lest the mirror be lost to whatever machinations you have set in place should that happen, I can easily kill anyone else here. Your mother?” He was pointing at Eleanor but staring directly at Dante. “Maybe young Agatha, I did set you two up after all. It’d be fitting if I ended your relationship as well.”

“Oh, no.” Dante shook his head, a smile still on his lips. “I’ll do it. I’ll destroy it. I’ll die, but not for you and not on your terms, though perhaps you deserve to know why if that wasn’t clear to you yet.”

“Why then?” The Old Man had calmed down a bit, but he still looked very dangerous.

“Mainly because it’s the right thing to do.” He turned to Hope. “I love you, Agatha. Even if you live forever I hope you can remember that.” She nodded. She looked sad, like she legitimately had feelings for him, but there were no tears on her face. “But also because I've learned something since the first time I died: No one should live forever.”

I saw something move out of the corner of my eye, when I turned to look Alistair and Eleanor were gone. I heard something snap, and when I looked back I saw something I hadn’t expected. Dante had broken the mirror in half, with the reflective side pointed at the Old Man. His eyes were dark and serious as he reattached the two halves… but not facing him… though I wasn’t really sure that that mattered at all. The mirror belonged to Dante, or Albert, or whoever… and it had the Old Man’s soul in it now. The Old Man just shook his head slowly as Dante dropped the mirror, now whole once more, onto the smoldering embers in the basin.

“Consider that poetic justice. The ultimate form of cheating to kill the ultimate cheater. Dante took a deep breath and turned to face me and Amy, Hope had taken a step back as well and was standing next to Amy. “Goodbye.”

“So you… I actually killed you?” Dante nodded silently. “And you didn’t care?” He shook his head.

I hadn’t noticed that during my questions black mist had slowly been creeping up his legs. He didn’t have much time to shake his head in answer to my question before he was completely engulfed. The mist slowly blew into the basin and Dante was gone. The Old Man was still standing there though, shaking his head with a furious look on his face. I looked to Hope confused but she didn’t look like she knew what was happening either. The room started to shake and I went from slightly worried to panicked.

“We should leave.” I put my hand on Hope’s shoulder, mimicking Amy who was already way ahead of me. Without warning they vanished and I was left alone with the Old Man.