Kalrina and a handful of other girls around her age stood naked before a shrewd woman with greying hair as she inspected them for disease and deformity. Kalrina fidgeted as the woman's grey eyes landed on her. She hated the feeling of being laid bare before these strangers.

How can they do this to us? She thought as tears bubbled in her eyes.

"How old are you?" Duinith asked.

"E-Eighteen, mistress."

"Don't quiver, girl. A sorceress of Akhessai does not quiver, come what may. We're the guiding hand that shapes the fortunes of the worlds of Mirithia." She snapped her head to the other girls. "From this day forth, if I ever see you quiver, stutter, or stammer, I will flay your skin. Even if you're facing down an archdragon, your spine will be stiff as an oak tree. Do you understand?"

"Yes, mistress!" The girls shouted back.

"B-But," Kalrina couldn't resist asking the question nor keep her voice from shaking the in the presence of the fearsome woman. "Mistress, how can we take control of the situation when faced with a stronger opponent?"

Duinith's expression didn't change even a single bit. She walked back to Kalrina and slapped her so hard she cried out and stumbled into the next girl.

"What did I say about stammering?"

Kalrina touched her burning cheek. It took everything she had so as not to repeat her mistake. "No stammering."

Kalrina gasped as the memory abruptly changed, but that was all the time she had as she was plunged into another ghost of the past.

Kalrina was smacked across the face by Brulecca. The barbaric woman was Duinith's helper. Kalrina had stolen the tome that had granted her the means to acquire the Dance of the Mirrors class, which made her the sorceress of mirrors. It was supposed to go to another initiate, but Kalrina liked it better than the class they had picked for her. So, Brulecca punished her for a little while. The memory changed swiftly.

The next one was about training, which wasn't any less painful. Duinith had a learn-by-doing approach. Kalrina was bloodied several times as she squared off against stronger opponents. Then, just before it looked like she would die, they would give her a Health potion, only for the torture to begin again.

It didn't last too long, and soon, she was pulled out and thrown into what seemed a mundane memory. However, it felt even more painful in hindsight than the last.

Kalrina sat on her desk with a feather quill in her hand. She dipped it in ink as she finished a letter to a very special friend.

I must tell you, the way you complimented my eyes was lacking. Please try harder next time.

She giggled to herself.

Also, your eyes are pleasant enough that I don't want to immediately rip them out when you ogle me. So, I will let you when next we meet.

I will be in the market for my supplies two days hence. Maybe I will stop by your stall to buy something, or maybe not. Depends on what you are putting on display.

Yours,

Rin

Then she kissed the letter, put it in an envelope, and sealed it with wax. She walked to the aviary and handed it to Neshi. She made an excuse by saying it was a list of supplies she needed from the village apothecary and needed to be sent immediately.

The world went black, and a few moments later, she was brought into another lovely memory.

Kalrina sat before Dorheia and her mirrors, bleeding from her eyes. The pain that welled up in her eyes was so sharp that she figured they would burst at any moment.

"Speak the truth, dearie," Dorheia goaded. "Or lose your eyes, and we have no use for a blind sorceress."

Kalrina heaved and gave up. "I hid the necklace in Neshi's room."

Dorheia patted Kalrina's cheek lightly. "Good girl. Why did you do that, love?"

"My turn, you hag." Kalrina barked, wiping the blood on her sleeves. "How do I gain control of your mirrors?"

Dorheia raised an eyebrow with a light smirk on her lips. "Feeling bold today, are we?"

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Kalrina continued to glare at the fat woman. One of the first things the sorceresses were taught was how to brew potions that let them morph their forms in any way they wished and reverse their aging. Just because they had extended life, it didn't stop their aging. So, in a world of pretty women, Dorheia chose to look like a fat, old grandmother.

"It's simple, my dear," the Truthsayer said. "You make me lie—a lie that kills me, and my pretty mirrors will see you as their mistress."

Kalrina laughed. It began slow, but it built up in the back of her throat as it took her over. She didn't know why she laughed, maybe at the simplicity of the task or at its difficulty. But she needed these mirrors, and for that, all she had to do was make a woman who held no secrets lie.

There must be something this woman holds close to her heart that she would die protecting, and I will find it. These mirrors will be mine.

Dorheia looked at the other woman in the room. "Dear me, I fear I might have broken her."

Aksha grunted. "No, I will break her for her crime. This game of yours is over."

"Now, don't be hasty, dear Aksha. The criminal admitted to the crime but hasn't revealed her intent." Dorheia turned to Kalrina. "Why did you frame Neshi?"

"It's obvious. She ratted me out, the bitch. I wanted to kill her, but why get my hands dirty when Aksha is all too happy to torture two-faced lying cunts."

Dorheia kissed her teeth. "A lady must always be polite and respectful, especially towards her enemies, or she will reveal her true intent."

"I will remember that." Kalrina smiled. "Thank you for the lesson."

The memory changed once again. This time, Kalrina didn't even get time to breathe, but when she saw where she was, she forgot how to breathe.

"No, no, no," Kalrina exclaimed, trying to get up, only for Hemera to push her back down.

"If we break the connection now, your mind will crack," Hemera said, voice strained as she struggled to keep Kalrina in place. "It will fracture into various parts, reliving your past. We can only stop once the memory is over."

"I can't. I won't go back to that day."

"Please, Kalrina," Hemera pleaded. "If we stop now, you will be giving up everything. All your hopes and dreams. Everything you wanted to achieve."

Kalrina stilled. "It's just a memory," she reminded herself. "Just a memory…"

She lay down as tears leaked from the side of her eyes and relived the worst day of her life.

The next few memories did not matter as Kalrina was still stuck on Eston's death. The way he screamed and thrashed while she lay there helpless. All her skills and powers…and she might as well have been a slug unable to do anything against the whims of the mighty.

Her memories flipped from one to the next as Hemera tried to find the one that had been suppressed. There was one where Arvena consoled her, and then another where she stole a necklace and planted it in Neshi's room, which got her in trouble but not executed, which Kalrina handled personally later. That memory came up as well.

Then, a memory started with one of her mirror golems depositing Meera on her doorstep. This one she had no recollection of. She and Meera played a game of truths after Meera handed her the Crystal of Darthin. Many curious truths were brought to light, like how she and Neel were from a distant world called Earth. That one piqued her interest. It ended with Meera smashing her precious mirrors. Kalrina let her go for the price of one divine chakram.

Not moments later, a pair of blonde men arrived, who introduced themselves as Silas and Cossus. Kalrina gasped in the present as things fell into place. These were the Cosmarians who Meera was talking about. The one called Cossus resurrected her mirrors. Silas broke the rules of the mirrors of Dorheia by asking multiple questions, then broke the Crystal of Darthin with a simple word.

Kalrina felt the pain of its loss once again. She practically yelled the same thing again, as her past self did. The memory ended with Silas taking her memory, but this time, she remembered, and there was one curious thing about their exchange that gave rise to a question in her mind.

What are a pair of Cosmarians doing serving an oracle?

She was about to tell Hemera to stop when the next memory started, so she would have to wait till it was over.

"Rina, come to your senses," Arvena pleaded.

Kalrina's eyes were bloodshot from the crying. Her head had been shaved bald with a rough blade. She had several cuts that had leaked blood down her face. Her clothes were filthy, ripped, and bloody. Her ordeal before the sisterhood had just finished. But the pain of shame and the intense pain in her belly from the poison was nothing compared to the pain of Eston's loss.

"What you're talking about is madness?" Arvena said.

"No, Arvena, I'm in full control. I'm going to bring this place down brick by brick just as I tear Aksha apart limb by limb, but I will not grant her death until she sees her dear sisterhood crumble to dust."

Kalrina heard a gasp, and the memory slowly faded to black. Hemera's hands moved away from Kalrina's face. She removed the towel off her face and saw the sorceress moving away from her, eyes wide, brow furrowed.

"I thought you said you couldn't see my memories, dearie," Kalrina purred.

"I-I—"

The door smashed open, and Aksha strolled in. The real Aksha, not one of her daughters. She wore an acidic yellow dress like she did at most times. Arvena trailed behind the butcher with her eyes on the ground.

"I'm sorry, Rina. I had no choice," Arvena said.

"Yes, of course. Why would you have any other choice aside from betraying your own blood," Kalrina replied.

Hemera ran to the protection of the sorceress of poison, who stared emotionless at her new prey. "Aksha, she-she means to—"

Hemera was rudely interrupted when a mirror dagger protruded from the front of her neck, marring Aksha's yellow dress with blood. Hemera clutched Aksha's dress as she gargled blood, trying to speak.

Aksha was so emotionless that she didn't even bother holding the poor woman as she fell to the ground, leaving a bloody trail on her dress, turning it from yellow to crimson. Arvena, however, wasn't so heartless towards Hemera. It's too bad this empathy didn't extend to her own sister.

Arvena cradled the dying sorceress's head in her lap. "You said you wouldn't kill her."

Kalrina shrugged. "She was in my way."

"This is the second sorceress you've killed," Aksha said.

"Actually, the third, love." Kalrina winked. "You ever wonder why Neshi committed suicide so suddenly?"

Aksha's nostrils flared.

"Now, before you do anything rash, just remember, I'm still a sorceress of Akhessai until the Conclave of Five proclaims otherwise." Kalrina walked up to Aksha until she was in her face. "So, let's move, shall we?"

"There is only one punishment for your crimes," Askha replied.

"As is yours."