“Is that what I looked like when I was shattered? It looks… painful.” Gio said.

Rio squeezed his now-disembodied hand, floating on the other side of his shattered forearm and the crystalline fragment pointing towards their nearing destination.

“Well, firstly- we shattered together. At the time, I didn’t have this class. Secondly, this doesn’t hurt at all. If anything, the shattered bits are kind of numb.” Rio said.

“What was that like? Before you could be separate from me… were you trapped? Was it unpleasant? I hate to think I was keeping you held hostage to my every move.” Gio said, grimacing.

“No no, you’ve got the wrong idea about it. It was… it’s hard to explain really. Imagine that a clown was mocking you, like… every time you said something, the clown would say the same thing at the same exact time. You couldn’t do anything to stop them from doing it at the same time as you, because they were able to read your mind. Imagine that, except pretend like it wasn’t annoying.” Rio replied.

“I can’t imagine this clown doing anything except driving me insane,” Gio said.

“Yeah, I know it’s a bad comparison. Before you went to that mirror room, I never knew anything else. Before then, there was no you or I, it was just… me. It’s not unpleasant at all. It’s sort of like sleeping… kinda. Returning to my previous analogy, It’s like the mirror allows me to step out of the clown's way.” Rio explained.

“Huh. but… if we ever lost the mirror somehow, wouldn’t you feel trapped? Like… now that you can do your own thing, wouldn’t you miss it?” Gio asked.

“Hmmm… it’s hard to say. You know, I know we’ve been referring to me as “Rio”, but I still consider myself to be “Giorgio deGloria”. I think whatever spirits have been watching me would probably get annoyed, but if things went back to the way they were, I’d probably just… hang out. But, thankfully- so long as that mirror stays intact, I can do more for us.” Rio said.

“We need to like… take out an insurance policy on the magic mirror or something,” Gio replied.

“For sure. Speaking of, we’re getting close. I can feel my main body nearby” Rio said, looking off into the starry void.

It had been a relatively uneventful journey across the Between after the encounter with the spider. Most of the reflections they passed on the way were either hard to discern the nature of, or very mundane.

A few times, the novelty struck Gio, and he would stop for a brief moment to study a passing reflection, like one where the scene beyond was a dizzying array of golden tubes that looked to be pipes, covered in bolts and dials and all manner of knobs and dials. Another reflection was clearly the interior of some sort of bank vault, with rows and rows of glass cases with velvet linings, each of which held all manner of shiny objects.

A few times, Gio and Rio both looked quickly away from a particular place, as they realized with great horror the sheer amount of mirrors and other highly reflective surfaces present in bathrooms around the world.

Eventually, the pair came to a halt, as they beheld the gargantuan reflection that had bloomed before them. The diamond-like facade of the legendary dungeon-turned-school created a stunning effect inside the mirror dimension.

Each facet of the intricate, mind-bending surface of the dungeon’s physical shell projected a web of distorted but shimmering views of the Gilded City beyond it’s reach. Each image branched far out into the distance of the mirror dimension at neck-breaking angles. Gio could see that it was early morning, just past sunrise as millions of tiny incandescent suns rose slightly above the towering obsidian walls in the far distance of each spiraling, fractal version of the sprawling City of Gold below.

Gio shivered, realizing that he could feel the morning air briskly flowing outwards from the breathtaking cascade of light in front of him.

“Its… beautiful,” Gio said, noticing his breath fog as he said it.

“Yeah. This one… I’ve only seen it a few times before you, but it hasn’t gotten old yet. Despite all the hassle, I’m still so glad that we got into school here.” Rio said.

“Ditto. My only question… How are we supposed to get inside?” Gio asked.

“Well, we’re still in the Between. It gets a little easier to navigate if you phase into a reflection, rather than just looking at the whole picture from here. With that being said, though, we’re not going to do that. Do remember that although we perceive this dimension as three-dimensional space, it’s not a perfect map of the real world. We just walked home... Okay maybe more like swam? Or maybe floated with purpose home from another dimension.” Rio explained.

“[Enlightened Catoptromancy] must be a fantastic skill, because I feel like I know what you’re talking about even though I’m kind of information and visual overloaded right now.” Gio said, still examining the awesome sight in front of him.

Rio waved his hand, and the Crystal Ring grew foggier, as it condensed back into a glowing point in the starry sky. He began to place his hands in front of him, before pausing and turning to Gio.

“Hey, you know what we should try? We haven’t really gotten a chance to try doing any magic together, so maybe you could try helping me with this. All I'm doing is just focusing on my link to the copy of us located in the mirror room and like… uuh, crap- this is actually way harder to put into words rather than just doing it.” Rio huffed.

“I kind of imagined it like you’d be making your connection into a big rope and then pulling it” Gio said.

Rio blinked in surprise.

“Yeah I gotta remember that we’re the same person so I don’t need to do as much translation. Alright, let’s do it.” Rio said.

Gio got into position behind Rio, who put his arms out, trying and failing to sense the connection to something outside of his perception of the world.

“Are you sure about this? I haven’t done any group casting since…” Gio started.

“-Since Quinn got hurt. I know. I also know how much we have wanted this. We’ve been dying to have someone to try group casting for years. Remember, It doesn’t Have to be easy, it just-” Rio interjected.

“-Needs to pe possible. Are we really quoting Mister G right now?” Gio finished.

“Oh come on, you know how cool that quote is. Take my hand!” Rio yelled, beginning to shape mana in front of him.

Gio clasped his reflection’s hand in his, feeling the nearly electric buzz of mana flowing into him. Something deep within him resonated, and he felt an intangible weight on him. He tried pawing at the invisible burden to no avail.

How am I supposed to shape something I can’t even properly feel?

Gio focused on the hand holding onto Rio’s. The spark of mana there was familiar. They had tried passing mana through the surface of mirrors before and had even managed to succeed, albeit to no impressive result. Gio pulled, not with his physical body, but with his magic.

He felt it. A thin, but steadfast thread. If it had been a physical object, it would have been so thin and so taut that it would have cut like a razor’s edge, but in the magical sense, Gio could fully grasp it. He pulled further and felt Rio pull alongside him.

They pulled together and felt their stomachs drop as they lurched forward as if suddenly falling headfirst into a vast hole.

The thin string yanked them forward. The ephemeral stars of the place between reflections flew by, blurring into incoherence. A shining nova appeared dead ahead of them, as they began screaming from the abrupt velocity.

The fast-approaching reflection ebbed with golden lines of woven enchantments. Gio did not have time to process how fascinating seeing this side of the mirror should have been.

“WE’RE GONNA CRAAAAA-” Gio screamed.

_____

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Rio’s main body gazed curiously into the surface of the mirror, which currently displayed the empty image of the training room in the real world. Nobody had come in today, and only one or two people had shown up the day before.

Weekends were usually days where he could relax and study the spellforms that one of his copies had retrieved throughout the week. It became harder to study when someone was actively using the training room, as it usually meant that there was some young mage throwing all sorts of battle magic at the mirror. He usually just hid over to the side, out of view of the real person using the room. He caught one or two curious gazes from reflections, but ultimately a lot of them didn’t seem to be particularly interested in doing much more than engaging their originators in combat.

Rio’s originator was currently approaching from the place between mirrors with his fragment. He could sort of communicate with his fragments, and sometimes he got clear thoughts but it wasn’t until they re-joined him that he managed to fully understand what it was that they were up to during the time that they were separate. He knew, for example, that the real Gio was planning on going off to Hart’s Casino, but he didn’t know what had happened while they were there. He got a brief pang of distress a couple of times, and the vague but alarming notion that his fragment might have been planning on further fragmenting off would have been perilous for both the fragment and his main body.

He had called back and merged with his only other fragment just in case the fragment on Gio duty needed the extra bandwidth to split into more copies. [Fragmented Persona] was a very good skill, but Rio hadn’t had time to truly train with it the way he would have liked to, devoting most of his attention towards solving the domain problem with Gio. He looked back to the surface of the mirror.

He felt a brief tug on his skill. And then another one. He looked closer into the glass surface, squinting as if it might help him see into the Between. He debated trying to stick his head through with [Mirror Jaunt] but decided against it. This time, he had felt the tug physically as if his whole body was being pulled.

He felt another tug and was pulled forward into the mirror so hard that his face was pressed to the cold glass like he was up against a window. It wasn’t painful, but he couldn’t move.

“Wha?” Rio said, smooshed up against the mirror.

Suddenly, The surface of the mirror rippled as Gio and his fragment burst forth, tackling Rio to the ground.

Rio and his fragment broke apart. Gio writhed around in pain as the connection that he had been channeling began coursing through him like lightning.

Gio and Rio merged.

Fragments of the shattered man pierced his skin, not in a way that drew blood, but in a way that riddled his soul with holes.

Giorgio deGloria was whole. More than whole, he became more. The first thing that he experienced was the rapid transfer of information. It started with the most recent memories, as he experienced himself speaking to himself, and even hugging himself, as he realized that he couldn’t discern which body of his was the real thing in retrospect.

He also experienced a quiet day of study, reviewing and gleaning much useful knowledge from the stolen reflections of several domains.

He then went backward, experiencing the quiet yet gleeful, almost intoxicating thrill of taking the reflections from the other students. It was a victimless crime, after all, and even if he knew some people might see it being morally wrong, it was also something that he knew for certain he was likely to not see repercussions from.

He saw the past few weeks from a variety of different perspectives. And then, he saw the omitted lie. The thing that he had been keeping from himself. The fact that he had been tortured by a gold-masked inquisitor.

His thoughts became like a roiling sea. A frothing cauldron that spanned mountains, threatening to boil over into anger. He felt the indignance of being sheltered from the memory, yet also the spirit of kindness that had made the choice not to tell. The fear of being perceived as a threat to the main body, while also knowing that he had passed the test. He knew that he wasn’t a danger to himself, but understood the reasoning behind erasing the painful memories of the test, while simultaneously being furious and powerless to defend himself against it.

Gio grasped at his head.

He stood shakily, breathing heavily. He wanted to call for… himself. He knew that all of him was here, and had always been here… but he felt alone, perhaps for the first time in days. He looked outwards into the empty mirror. On this side of the glass, no reflection greeted him.

Once his mind began to settle, he felt a sense of discomfort building within him. Something at the core of his being felt… cramped.

It clicked. He was the Mirror Mage. He was the Shattered Man. He was both. Instead of fighting for supremacy, the two classes began to melt together. Gio’s knees buckled. The enchantments on the mirror flashed a bright gold, almost orange glow. Something resonated. A thin strand of red magic violently unraveled from the enchantments of the mirror. The red strand pierced Gio’s body center mass like a lance. He screamed, fainting.

Deep within him, a tiny- almost imperceptible, microscopic piece of something far greater began to leap with glee along the shattered path from the place it had newly called home, racing towards the heart of the host it had desired all along. The true prize was at hand. It began to race the irritating red string that always seemed to follow it everywhere. The abominable strand wouldn’t win. It laughed. It was nearly there.

“No.” Said a voice.

“Sigh. You never let me have any fuN! YoU HAvE GoT TO bE THE aBSOLUTE WORST PROPHeT-”

A gentle hand, wreathed in a rainbow of dissonant colors swept through the mirror dimension. The mirror cracked, reformed, cracked again, and then a tiny piece of it flew over to the prone form of the schoolboy, embedding itself quietly into the cover of his spellbook with a wispy strand of gossamer red, unnoticed by all present. A bald man with a magnificent beard wearing a tattered sackcloth robe appeared in a swirl of prismatic sand.

“How intriguing. The mirror dimension! Masters, you’ve outdone yourself this time. A good plan!” Said the man.

The boy on the ground spoke with words and voices that were not his own. His eyes closed, his breathing the deep breaths of sleep.

“... if you truly think that, then why stop us?” They said meekly, their influence already fading.

“Because foresight isn’t what you do. If you send him out there like this, he’ll die. They will hunt him down like the others before.” He replied.

“You have killed more of our hosts than the hunters have.” Said the voices.

The man smiled a sad and hollow smile.

“One day, I hope we find an aspect worthy of the gifts you bring. Today is not that day. Not yet.” He said.

He reached down, cradling the boy in his muscular arms. As he lifted, grains of iridescent sand fell away from the boy’s body, forming an identical copy lying on the ground. The man placed the boys next to each other, praying a few silent words over them.

The man took out his spellbook, tearing a blank page out of the magnificent tome. He plucked a strand of hair out of his well-maintained beard, twirling it in his hands until it was a metal fork. And then bending the fork until it became a dagger. And then rubbing the dagger until it became a beautiful pen. He summoned a writing desk out of sand, writing a note.

To Giorgio and Rio,

I apologize that it took me so long to find you both. My projection cannot stay in the mirror realm for long, so I’ve left you this note instead of making a half-cocked attempt at an introduction. I will travel to the Goldwatch Empire so that we may meet on the Primary Plane.

Allow me to be very clear! Chaos’s blessing is an immaculate gift. The many voices of the eternal choir sing grandiose songs of your virtues. I will judge you formally once we meet. Until then, stay safe, stay effervescent, and do as you will.

- Very Respectfully,

Lot, the prophet of chaos.