"Hol' up," interjects Mireuk, putting his feet up. "Nice analysis. Not bad. But you're catching the fleeing cat when there's a tiger ready to eat you from behind."

Shinhak crosses his arms.

"Guemul appearing, not appearing, who gives a shit while you and I are here. We're not focused on the little details. Let's get the big picture," shrugs Mireuk, finishing the last of his mochi, slurping his tea clean.

He continues in earnest, facing me directly. "Your mirror shattered above Seoul. About 5 million people saw it. They thought that the shattering explosion was a nuclear attack. If your mirror exploded over say, the Americans or the Soviets, the world could have literally ended," he delivers in a speed so fast that I can barely keep up.

"Now," he continues, "how can we make sense of the fact that your mirror shattered?"

Shin leans forward to give me his answer, but –

"Nono, let her say it," blurts Mireuk, stopping Shinhak with his hand. I spy a glint in his eye.

I think. My mirror was shattered, broken; its shards flung everywhere. There was no other mirror that could shatter mine, not even a Mythical. So... it defies explanation. Maybe there's another rule?

"Maybe I tried cutting something with my mirror that couldn't be cut?"

"Like what?"

"Like, the vulture guemul's wings?"

"But you were cutting it off just fine before, weren't you?"

"Yeah."

"So that obviously can't be our answer," Mireuk shrugs, chuckling.

I rack my head.

"Need help?"

Shinhak looks at his watch below his navy-black sleeves. Mireuk pays no attention as he maintains his gaze on my reticent figure.

"Remember what happens if two mirrors of the same grade are pitted against each other?"

"One breaks while the other... survives?" I ask.

"So what would that mean?"

The disturbing answer finally arrives in my mind.

"That my Demiurgic mirror went up against another Demiurgic mirror?"

"Bingo!" praises Mireuk, relaxing into his chair, kicking his feet up on the table.

"But where?" I ask. "I didn't see any mirror nearby."

"True," Mireuk casually remarks. "But mirrors don't care how far away they are from each other, as long as their opponent is in their line of sight. As far as I'm concerned, you were in the sky, far above the city, am I right?"

"Yeah?"

"Which means the mirror was in a position to reflect all of Seoul below. You get my point?"

I do. That meant –

Mireuk nods slowly, his brows raised. "Someone was down there in the streets of Seoul with a Demiurgic mirror, looking up. At you."

He continues his barrage. "And if your mirror broke, whatever person that was down there, wielding their Demiurgic mirror – is more skilled than you are."

Shinhak massages his temples as if to ward off a coming migraine. "And this person may have produced the vulture guemul to get her high in the sky, I get it. Fuck," he sighs, squeezing his eyes. "Aw shit, this means more overtime for me."

"Everything fits the puzzle," Mireuk remarks. "Why the guemul in question was capable of flight. To bring you to the skies so that the person below could get you in their line of sight, simply flick their mirror at you, and shatter it."

I ask. "But why? What for – 'cause they're afraid? Jealous that I have as good a mirror as he – she – whatever, does?"

"Oh, I wouldn't say that," Mireuk replies, rather casually. "Afraid? Pfft. Why would they be afraid of you? And jealous? For what reason – because your mirror is greater? I'm sure that they could have just seized it from you by force given their greater skill."

"Let me take this one," Shinhak says irritably. "I want to get to freaking bed. It's not like I'm going to get decent sleep for the coming months."

"By all means," replies Mireuk, rather mischievously.

"I'm going to keep it short. Listen up," Shinhak says, closing his eyes, squeezing them. "Mirrors have powers. If it breaks, it makes shards. Guemuls eat those shards. Guemuls are what they eat. If they eat those shards, they get stronger. More people die. Get my point?"

"Mmmhmm," I nod, narrowing my eyes.

"Yours is a Demiurgic mirror. If any small, insignificant guemul roaming the cities or countryside gets their hands and mouths on its shards, they can become like that vulture guemul you fought. Potentially even worse."

"Oh, vehemently worse, actually. That vulture guemul was nothing. We're talking back to the Golden Age of Demons in antiquity. Compounded by the fact that your mirror shattered high up, so all of its Demiurge-grade shards are probably raining down everywhere across the globe by now," says Mireuk, rather nonchalantly.

"Wait, all across the globe?"

"At that height? With the force of a nuke? Wouldn't be a surprise if it didn't," Mireuk adds, finding disappointment that there was no more tea. "I actually saw some fly into suborbital trajectories, spying from my vantage point at Namsan."

"Even then," I protest, "there's air resistance and stuff, right? Couldn't have gone everywhere? At least most of it would have landed in Korea? Japan?" I argue, reluctant to believe.

"Maybe about say, 50% maximum landed in East Asia? The other 50% are going to be carried by air currents, jet streams, typhoons, Hadley cell shenanigans, and of course, fall back on the earth when they drop out of orbit."

"Wouldn't those that go into orbit burn up when they, you know, re-enter? I learnt that stuff in school."

A knock on the door. A young woman who looked to be an assistant or an intern enters, hands a leaflet of paper to Shinhak, and leaves without a word.

Shinhak shakes his head.

"Fuck."

"What's it say?" says Mireuk, retying his long ponytail.

"They completed phase 1 of the test."

"And?"

"Indestructible."

"IDC-NNF?"

"Worse. IDC-NTF."

"Well, I guess you have your answer," says Mireuk, looking at me. "The shards won't be destroyed at all by any natural means, or any artificial means, by that matter."

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

"Or, to summarize," Shinhak finally adds, looking up,

"You – Kang Reza – have essentially doomed the world with your mirror."

"......"

"...Quite spicy."

"Shut it, Mireuk."

"You know, that'd be a funny title for a show or a manga," says Mireuk, completely ignoring Shinhak. He gestures wildly as if reciting lines from a medieval play, taking us both by the shoulder and dramatically pronouncing into the shadowed ceiling above, "'How I doomed the world with a mirror... Or did I?' No one puts these two-and-two together because no one imagines that a mirror can destroy the world. Wouldn't it be comedic?"

Shinhak grimaces, his eyes closed.

"Uh-huh..." I trail off, pursing my lips. My thoughts were elsewhere.

If guemuls like the vulture were going to pop up all over the world, or creatures worse than that like whatever Mireuk said appeared in the 'Golden Age of Demons', then the blood of millions were going to be on my hands. Maybe already.

"Come on, you two, don't be so depressed. Anyway, for the real reason I'm here," announces Mireuk, a knowing gleam in his single eye, standing up straight and cracking his neck, "The higher-ups will probably have received that report by now. When Phase 2 of the test completes, and they know it's a Demiurgic mirror for sure, they will definitely want you erased from this world for breaking, let's see –"

"Tenets 1, 3, and 9." Shinhak says, eyes closed, arms folded.

"But what use is it for us to throw away a valuable asset like you?" Mireuk says, leaning in so close to my face I could smell his skin. It smelt of fresh, citrine perfume, much different from what I expected.

He leans away again. "There's no guarantee that we will ever have someone like you who can wield a Demiurgic mirror with such a natural, gifted prowess. Well, other than that person with the other Demiurgic mirror, but they're our enemy, seeing that they probably planned this debacle from the beginning."

"So," he drives up a finger, "how do we not get you executed? To be executed or not to be – that is the question."

Shinhak takes his sunglasses by the hand and gives it a twirl.

"Hey, no using that yet," says Mireuk. Shinhak twirls it still.

"I need to come up with a plan to convince the hag and the other geriatrics. To do that, I need more information from you," declares Mireuk, opening up a little pad of note-taking paper. "It's actually fortunate we still have a small portion of your mirror still intact. Well, better call it palm-sized, but it's better than nothing, meaning you can still use it."

"Right."

"I need you to tell me anything else you haven't told me so far."

"Isn’t that a bit too wide of a criterion?"

"Anything else that will help your case in, you know, not getting yourself killed by the higher ups. A special ability. Some new insights."

"Well..." I pause, wondering whether it was a liability or not to mention that my mirror literally ate people.

"Go on," says Shinhak, listening closely.

"Well, my mirror, it, uh, eats people."

"It eats people?" He asks, a little taken aback. "Elaborate."

I tell them the rather grisly details of how it went the first time: the Jopok that got pulled into the mirror like a crab being crushed into a jar too small, and of the following instances where the mirror devoured others. Shinhak's face doesn't change, while Mireuk listens on the edge of his seat.

"...And so, when the vulture guemul regurgitated those... people, my mirror swallowed it all," I conclude.

"Absolutely wonderful," praises Mireuk, "because our mirrors can't freaking eat people." He scribbles notes so fast that the graphite begins to give off smoke; his reaction is far removed from my expectations. Shinhak only gives a glance at him, and a small sigh.

"Is that a, uhm, a positive thing?" I inquire, trying to make sure that he wasn't being sarcastic.

"Without a doubt," Mireuk replies, "because if it can eat people, then it can surely eat lots of other troublesome things. Tell me," he asks, excitedly leaning in so his eye is just a hand's length from mine, "did you experience anything special when your mirror ate people?"

"...Yeah. The first time, I felt a lot of memories flooding in which wasn't mine, and – " I pause, trying to recall, "well, my left hand had been cut off in that restroom, but after my battle with the Jopok underground, I found it restored."

Mireuk and Shinhak both take a studious look at my left hand.

"Real?"

"Real."

"And anything else?"

"And my right arm," I add.

"When?"

"When it was torn off by the vulture guemul, but regrew when my mirror swallowed that corpse-ball."

"How fast?"

"Within like, a fraction of a second."

Mireuk nods with a roguish smirk. "Impressive. Very nice." He gives one nod to Shinhak, who dons his earpiece-less sunglasses.

"See you in a bit," says Mireuk, while Shinhak motions his hand.

"Wait, why are you – "

Dao Mirror Art:

Musings of Still Night.

And in an instant I find myself on a boat in the middle of a moonlit lake.

Unlike the last time Shinhak used his technique – or mirror art, whatever it was called – on me, I am a human this time, and still me. I am aware that I am in a dream, but as I scoop up the cold water of the lake in my palms, I am almost convinced it is real.

Soft snow falls around me as I lay back in the boat, flakes landing on my face to give a tiny pinprick of frost. They melt away like dew. The air smells crisp, snowy, only punctuated in places by a whiff of yeontan – coal briquettes – nostalgic in their scent.

I find no dull ache or pain from my bruises. In fact, I glance at them to see them completely gone in this dream. And for the first time, I am given the leisure to reflect upon the events of days ago: they happened so fast as to be a fever-dream or a nightmare. I remember wanting to escape the watchful eyes of agents from the North, and seek a place where they could not reach me. Deeper down, I wanted to see my family again – my mother and father, and little brother, and wished that such a terrible fate had not befallen them.

But my wants all changed when my mirror lent its powers to me. I was given joy for the first time, an ecstasy from the power I could wield and wrongs I could make right. I was imbued with the instinct to avenge; no, rather, it amplified and unlocked the emotions I had deep down since forever. But I had not known what I could be bringing into this world by using the mirror, let alone a secret world existed of people who were once like me. Now, I was ensnared in a different kind of danger altogether: one from the people I scarcely knew, and another in that I had plunged this world into doom.

But perhaps it also presented a new chance at life.

"Correct," says a familiar voice, tapping my shoulder.

As I turn, the boat disappears from under me; the lake also, and the moon becomes that single ray of light falling at us from above in the shadowed interrogation room.

"Welcome back," Shinhak says. "Hope it wasn't too long."

"Sorry we couldn't let you privy to our discussion," clarifies Mireuk, "but we've decided on our plan."

"More like he did," comments Shinhak. "Regardless, I see the merits. And also, I want to get to bed, because I've been working overtime for 57 freaking hours. Wrap it up for us," he says, tapping Mireuk.

"Here's what you're gonna do if you want to live," announces Mireuk, taking the limelight in earnest. Mirth wipes off his face.

"One, you will regather those broken shards to make your mirror whole again. Two, with the power of your mirror, you will seek out and eat the original sins from which all guemuls spring – the Allfathers and Allmothers of demons. They won't be easy to find, nor easy to defeat. Chances are, you will probably die. But that's better than dying right now at the hands of people you don't know without having made a single shot."

I remain quiet.

"You will, to sum it up, reverse your mistake, and unlock the full powers of your Demiurgic mirror. This will help prepare you against whichever enemy brought about your mirror's original shattering. Then, you will use your newfound powers to achieve what has been impossible for 7,000 years since the dawn of civilization. Any resolve weaker than this will not justify your existence in the eyes of those making the decisions."

"How exactly will I go about doing all that alone?"

"You won't be alone. You will join us and become a Mirrormusha," Shinhak answers, despite his exhaustion. "Since the dawn of civilization, we Mirrormusha have protected humankind from the shadows, guarding it against threats from this world and many others. You too will become warriors like us. We will teach you everything there is to know and learn, until you are able to accomplish your mission."

I have but one question. "Okay, okay, I get that, but as you said, I'm still a Demiurge-Grade threat," I pause, formulating my thoughts. "Say I restore my mirror. Say I eat the original sins, the source of all guemuls, demons, whichever. You think that my mirror has a variety of powers, including becoming stronger from what it eats. Wouldn't my mirror and I become... invincible then? How would you stop me if I decide to betray you? Not necessarily that I'm going to, it's just a practical thing to ask."

"Oh, don't you worry," Mireuk says with a lighthearted chuckle. "I won't be making this suggestion unless I was confident enough in my abilities to stop you."

"Stop me?"

"Yes, you can't defeat me," he laughs. "Now then, two paths await you. One of death, and one of prolonged death, but with a chance to get anything and everything you ever wanted with powers that shall be yours. A chance to begin again. A chance to be reborn and leave your old life behind."

A knock on the door. The young Mirrormusha intern enters again, hands Shinhak a file, and leaves once more.

The file reads 'Phase 2 testing results'. My time is almost up.

Both Shinhak and Mireuk look at me expectantly, glimmers in their eyes.

"So, Reza – what do you say?"