I snapped back into awareness. Surprise took hold, distracting me from the women before me. The counter was cluttered, awash with an array of amenities. Brushes, bottled mixtures, a toothbrush, lipstick, pallets, toothpaste and more. A variety of scattered cleanliness and makeup. A very loose organisation existed- toothbrush cup and soaps here, not soaps everywhere else. How had I missed the change, missed the activity in my domain. My room was different now, and I had missed all of it.

My attention was drawn to the woman that stared at me, stared intently at herself, the pull inescapable.I watched as she changed before me altering herself slowly with the clutter before me; ever so steadily, she became a little different than before. I thought back and noticed the changes in the appearances I had seen, how each time her face wasn’t ever really the same. Her focus was strong as she fussed in the gaze of the mirror. The pounding rose once again as I drank in the attention. The familiar thundering once again shaking me. Yet, as swiftly as the sensation surged it was halted. Relief and shock filled me, the ripple of calm spreading from my very centre, stilling me.

Level 2 Spell unlocked Ensnare lvl 1

If I could have blinked I would have, dumbly. I sat uncomprehending of the image that had flashed across my vision, so stark against the world I was familiar with. The relief gave way to the confusion I felt, not outlasting my shock. I didn’t know what it meant. I didn’t know what was happening to me. My thoughts spiralled as usual, it being so easy to get lost in existential worries when my existence was half floating consciousness.

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I was yanked out out of my thoughts and forced once again into focusing on the woman in front of me, my surprise at a box inexplicably appearing in my vision somehow falling to the side. The thundering began rising again as if it had never left, swiftly pushing other emotions to the side. I willingly fell into the rumble, drinking in the attention of the women finishing her routine. The time I had awake passed by so quickly, it seemed like I had just come back into being and yet already I could sense she was done needing me. Despair crept in, present between the harsh crashes and poundings of my core. As she spared a few seconds to put back her implements where she felt they belonged I could feel the storm quieting. She looked at me once more-finished. I found myself enraptured by the gaze of eyes locked onto me, of something giving me the attention and I craved.

Ensnare. The moment stretched just a second or two longer, the women focusing her attention on her eyes, what I had been focused on myself, growing somehow full off of what they were giving me. And then the spell broke, I felt the connection shatter, the women walking away as if it had never been there-but I knew. I knew that I had just changed the reality around me, forced someone to pay attention and give me the rush and power I couldn’t help but crave. I was excited with this new development, the power to take what I ought to-although the emotion was not so one sided. A hint of disquiet lurked in my spirit, I wondered wether I was taking something from this woman, whether I was really due whatever she gave me at all-about the nature is the power I was receiving and growing in. I fought to ignore the doubts that always seemed to rise inside me, blaming the drifting nature of my being, never fully dwelling in the world without clinging tight to an anchor. It was too easy for me to got lost in the toporous world I had come from.

I was a mirror. I felt the need to lean into what being one was. It seemed that I should chase the times when I was awake, when it felt like I had purpose-not shy away from them.