On her way home, the reflections chased Amy through the streets. They no longer held the Witch's form but only her own. Still, they rested heavy on her mind. Each time she glimpsed something in the glass, a hint of something else, the Witch resting there once more, wearing a mask of her own face. And each time, the temptation grew.

Mirrors. Simple things, found everywhere nowadays. A mirror in a bedroom. A mirror in a shop. A mirror on a pane of glass. A mirror on a puddle on the ground. A mirror on a shiny coin. Perhaps, Amy considered, rather than calling them all mirrors, they'd be better called reflections. And what better place is there to hide then than where you'd already expect a person to be? Reflections follow the real, a perfect copy. Amy had already played with 'reflection' before, in making the Lesser Illusion to hide herself when hunting that deer. A strange comparison, but one too similar to completely ignore. In fact, despite her apprehension, she had already thought of where she'd implement such an idea. Amy had always needed a way to infiltrate the museum, beyond sneaking in, and this option seemed too perfect to neglect.

And yet, some part of her couldn't shake the ominousness of it all, brought into focus by her recent realisation. Hadn't she been becoming more impulsive these last few days? More prone to taking needless risks and experimenting too much? The stunts she pulled, testing the Witch's Cloak right out in public where any Mage could've seen her, was just one example of that. Yes, she had rationalised to herself why it wasn't dangerous to do that, but now that she was looking back on it, even that seemed suspect. Her paranoid thought-hole she jumped down when confronted with simple characteristics of Beatrice were so off-putting that it was what set her off about this all in the first place. Could this then, her sudden obsession with mirrors, be caused by whatever influenced everything else?

Perhaps, Amy grimaced, hurrying her pace. The deeper the contemplations went, the stranger the entire past week seemed. She hadn't noticed it at first, locked inside for basically the entire first half of it, studying and theorising different workings for Witch's Cloak. So why now? It just doesn't add up.

Entering her room, Felin was there as always, lounging sleepily on the bed, actually seeming like he hadn't been doing anything while she had been gone for once. He perked up immediately when he saw Amy, however, standing up quickly.

"And, how was it?"

"We didn't talk over-much, but it's all confirmed. I'll be meeting all of those involved in a couple days too," Amy said, getting the good parts out of the way. The cat though seemed to latch onto something else about her, looking concerned. "But there's something else I just noticed during the meeting. I- I don't really know how to properly put it to words, to be honest."

"Talk to me," Felin demanded, floating up to her face as she continued standing there in the doorway, unmoving.

"I- I think something's wrong with me... mentally, I mean," She suddenly confessed, trying and failing to keep the vulnerability from showing on her face. "Something about this past week is- It doesn't seem right, like it's all wrong and-"

"I understand. Come, sit," He said, gesturing at the bed, his gaze firm on her.

"I just noticed it now, talking with Beatrice," Amy rambled, stumbling over and taking a seat on the bedding. "I'm getting all worked up and-"

"It's fine, Amy. You don't need to explain any more. I'll get to the bottom of this, I assure you," Felin re-empathised, laying both of his paws on her temples.

Pure virid mana exploded out from him, burying deep into her head. Amy could feel the invasiveness of it all as it rattled her brain, her mana recoiling at the foreign influence on it. In spite of how she felt, Amy didn't rise to action. Felin couldn't possibly mean me any harm, right? Right? His mana's touch, both light and rough, brushed and pierced at her mind, testing each infused part of it intensely, almost as if it was trying to drag the mana inside it out. Finally, after what felt like hours of discomfort, Felin leaned back, releasing command of his mana, and letting Amy free.

"So- What is it?" She asked, suppressing her stutter.

"It seems that we were both too hasty," Felin began dramatically. "There is nothing strictly wrong with your mind, rather it is something every Apprentice eventually encounters with their enhancements. Only, it's never usually this severe. I can only guess what caused this, but I surmise it has something to do with your abnormal mana portion for your Tier."

"But I thought you checked my enhancements? You said they were fine, no?"

"Indeed, and they still are. There is nothing inherently wrong with the enhancements but rather it has something to do with the entire picture; the entire brain," Felin explained, switching away from concern to his usual - and comforting - teaching tone. "When you enhance certain parts of the brain, and not others, there exists a dissonance between the parts with them and those that don't. This dissonance only builds the longer its left without correcting this, by either doing what you did - forcefully draining mana from your mind - or enhancing the other parts in turn. These dissonances accentuate certain parts of your mind for better or for worse, likely manifesting in what you have experienced recently."

"That... does make a lot of sense," Amy murmured. How come I didn't think of that before?

"The only reason I didn't recognise these symptoms in you earlier is... well, you may not realise it yourself, but you changed a lot after becoming an Apprentice and, subsequently, leaving Triesen. I merely thought some of what you described was still part of that change, just more subtle and slower. People do indeed change as their circumstances change around them, and no person ever stays the same, forever. Not even immortal Ascendants. I simply didn't expect... Well, I'm repeating myself, aren't I?" He smirked at her, shaking his head. "Well, getting back to the topic at hand, you can most likely predict why mana portion would affect these dissonances then, correct?"

"Yes, I think so," Amy pondered, cupping her chin with her hand. "The higher mana portion means my base enhancements are stronger than another Apprentice's. A peak-Tier Apprentice would be no less capable as I would, at the end of the day, but I'd have an easier time getting there than others with the amount of mana I can invest into it. As the mana portion is greater, the difference in the enhanced and relatively mundane parts of my mind is even greater than the average Apprentice. The dissonance is worse then too, and so is the effect... I imagine."

"You would be right. Excellent reasoning, my dear Apprentice," Felin praised, his smile growing wider.

"This is- what happened to me, then?"

"Indeed," He confirmed, his smile drooping at the admission. "There are few solutions to this that have not already been said. One, which you have already done, is only activate your enhancements when necessary; keep your mind unenhanced the majority of the time so the dissonances do not build up. The other is to enhance your mind uniformly and quickly. One or two rounds at a time, on each section, and repeating all over again once they are all at the same stage of enhancement. Dissonances are kept at the minimum, but your mind is weaker for it and it takes longer to build up to your desired goal. Another, is to simply not enhance your mind. It's not as if an Apprentice must enhance it, it is simply very useful too. However, such an Apprentice would find it extremely difficult to advance past their current Tier, and impossible to comprehend higher Tier magic because of it."

"What do you mean? Why would it be harder to comprehend higher Tier magic?" Amy asked, latching onto that small piece of information. I can guess that they'd get harder the higher up you go, but I've never actually seen a Spellform higher than like Tier 6. Those higher Tier Journeyman Spells just aren't in the FPG for public access, and my old School sure as Hell didn't have anything like that.

"Well, there's a lot of factors all contributing to that difficulty, so I'll only mention a couple. One is keeping track of all the different Elements and streams you have running through your Spellform or other Spellcasting tool, all required to be controlled precisely by the Mage in question. After that is the fact that Spellforms do not remain entirely two dimensional. Somewhere in the middle of Journeyman Tier, Spellforms contain such complexity and detail that they cannot be properly given justice to in just two dimensions. Thus, they expand to three. A hint of this is something you can see in Bolt's design, a three-dimensional Spellform at only Tier 1. Finally, or perhaps not, Monarch-Tier Spells become four-dimensional, their existence beyond what can reasonably be called physical reality. The usual way Mages represent this fourth-dimension, in both casting and writing, is by including time."

"...Four dimensions?" She asked blankly, not properly understanding.

"Higher dimensions aren't really taught outside high-Tier Mage institutions, so it's understandable that you might be confused. Don't worry all that much about it. You won't come across anything like that until at least Monarch," Felin assured, waving the problem away.

"O-okay," Amy shook her head, still struggling to comprehend such a thing. Time? As a 'fourth' dimension? What? Just... never mind. As Felin said, no point worrying about it. Just one other point to worry about though... "Umm... There was another thing."

"Oh? More questions from my curious Apprentice?" He teased, but Amy could tell it was more comforting than genuine. To put me at ease after me stressing about all of this I suppose.

"This should be the last big one, I guess," Amy smiled. "I was thinking about this on the way and I don't think I've ever heard much about it during my studies. It's also somewhat related to my dissonance issue as it came up during it, but I don't know if it's a dead end or... Well, I'm interested in looking into Mirror Magick. How does that sound?"

"Mirror Magick?" He repeats, cocking his head. "Do you mean Reflection Spells and the other?"

"No, rather Spells that actually deal with mirrors themselves."

"Hmm," Felin rocks his head back, hanging it there and thinking. Faintly, Amy could make out whispers of his, low and rushed, "Maybe pool-scrying? No, not quite... Perhaps... Huh."

"What?"

"I'm sure that Mirror exists as an Element, but proper Mirror Magick? I can't think of anything. Reflection magic, or Spells that use mirrors as mediums, yes, but Spells that entirely focus on the Mirror Element as a whole? They are either too obscure to be useful or extremely rare. It honestly sounds something like what my previous contractor would look into."

"That is strange," Amy frowned, not lasting long before transforming into a small smile. "Maybe I could be the first?"

"Hah!" Felin laughed loudly, "I don't mean to take the wind out from your sails, my dear Apprentice, but I highly doubt you're the first. However, that doesn't mean you can't pioneer the field, no. And, honestly? If you feel like this is right for you, go for it. I see nothing wrong with it."

"I suppose... But you don't think this could be related to my mind issues? That it could be... wrong, considering where it came from?"

"While these dissonances of yours are no doubt disturbing, after all is said and done, they are still you. They are simply more amplified and distorted versions of thoughts you might've already had or were about to have. To distrust your own thoughts is a fast road to insanity, my dear Apprentice. Don't make that same mistake."

"Alright," She nodded steadily, unable to hide her excitement. "...Alright, I'll go for it."

"What sort of things were you thinking of then?"

"The first one that stuck out to me was actually something I might use in the heist," She described. "A way to 'enter' my reflection or someone else's and pose at it, following it along."

"That sounds like the Reflection Magick I mentioned earlier, no?"

"Kind of? I was thinking of it more travelling into the mirror, rather than into the reflection."

"Into the mirror?" Felin's ears perked up, his interest piqued. "Expand on that for me."

"Well, when you look into a mirror, you see everything around you right? So what if that reflection in the mirror was actually another place? At least that's how I'd imagine it. A sort of mirror world that I'd travel into."

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"Hmm... I see how that can be different to Reflection, but how do you cope with the limitations of such a world? What else is in that world beyond the mirror? And once you start considering those questions, you start venturing well beyond your current capabilities. Instantiating such a world into being, pre-existing or not, would require very high Tier magic."

"Perhaps instead of a full inverted 'mirror world' it would be like pockets of reality in those mirrors? Restrained by what the mirror can actually 'see'?" Amy suggested, frowning as she dwelled on Felin's words. When he puts it that way, this sort of magic would be high Tier.

"That could work, but then how do you travel between these isolated mirror worlds? Would there be an in-built way to teleport between them in the worlds?"

"Now that definitely seems high Tier," Amy pointed out, creasing her brows.

"And it is. However, I don't mean to limit your Concept on such a meagre factor like 'Tier'. Let yourself grow and flourish into your idea, than stifle it so that it only fits you as you are now."

"I suppose," Amy said, her focus shifting elsewhere. If this 'mirror world' could be related to more things, then why not... Unknowable? Or even Fae? I mean, isn't that how I stumbled into the idea anyway? Through seeing my Monstrous Visage in the mirror? And I guess Illusion could be there too, but... eh, it's Illusion. Who cares about Illusion? And is such a 'mirror world' inherently Unknowable? A place behind the veil of reality, where one never knows what lurks inside what you can't see? When you look into the mirror, looking around, hoping nothing else is there but you? Yeah, that sounds Unknowable to me. Just that right amount of horror of the unknown.

"What are you scheming in there?" Felin said, Amy finding him almost directly in front of her, having moved some time during her daydream.

"Oh, sorry... I must've gotten distracted."

"It makes sense however; without your enhancements now you have less time to 'think' up there than before, your brain moving slower."

"Huh," She realised, eyes widening. "That does make sense."

"And what were you thinking of then?"

"Just about how I could maybe link this mirror world stuff to Unknowable. To me, those two Elements fit together perfectly."

"Indeed," He commented, as he absentmindedly nodded along. "I do see how they could fit together so well."

"Should... I go for it then?"

"Now? If you so wish. All I ask, as always, is to show caution," Felin smiled at her warmly.

"I always will," Amy smiled back, turning to a certain part of her room. A standing full-body mirror left in its corner, slightly dated and dusty. As she slowly walked towards it, she ruminated over the aspects of her possible working, specifically the Mirror aspect of it. How do I even reach such an Element. It's Advanced, assuredly, so what combines towards it? I imagine Glass, which is a derivative of Earth, or Sand and Fire. What next? Light maybe? Or perhaps only mixing in Reflection, an off-branch of Light? There seems to be many ways to approach it, but I think I should go with the easiest. I still struggled with Advanced Elements the last time I properly tried, and this isn't just a simple combination of two Basic Elements like Coruscation. This is many layers deep. And that's not even touching on how to incorporate it into my Magecraft. Hmm... It might be worth it to re-engage some of my processing enhancements just for this. It should help keeping track of all the Elements and visualisations and I'll turn them off immediately after too.

A certain section of her mana pool leaked back up into her mind at her will, stretching out into a large web-like structure, stringy and thin yet complex; all it needed was further depths for it to truly be a remarkable working of mana. It latched onto the front of her brain, the enhancement seeping in, spreading even to adjacent parts of the lobe to keep the dissonance at a minimum. The enhancement back in order, everything about Amy seemed to come back into concentration, as if she was aware of everything about her in a far more vivid way. Her thoughts revved back up to her 'normal' speed, as time slowed for her.

With that out of the way, all it took was a thought for Amy's mana pool to transform. A massive whirlpool of wild energy spun deep within her, sucking in the mana around her like a hungry abyss. Coalescing within, it wasn't long before her mana pool was full with Pure, her innate mana barely able to envelop it all. Just as Amy was about to reach a hand towards the mirror, her mind turned to a different part of her mana pool. A familiar part of it.

The stage of the universe took hold inside Amy's mind, the dancer nondescript, and the audience eagerly waiting for the show. So, the dancer delivered.

At first, her movements were slow and steady, almost inevitable in the way she flowed. Her style was grounded, every action of her design with the strength of stone behind them. This strength could not withstand the currents of time, however, and eroded away. Still firm and confident, the forms were almost the same as before, with one key difference. Now, they were faster, more reactive. As if the flows were less like the titanic movements of the depths, but the gentle shifting of Sand. Fire needn't not be here however to temper this sand into rigid glass, for the audience's reactive gaze was more than enough to bring the scene into focus for the dancer. Her actions, no longer hidden behind strange and esoteric choreography, were now in the language of the world they lived in. They could understand, and see through the sands. The shifting slowed, and slowed, until it was that same inevitable speed as before. Except, subtly, the language of the dance had changed. No longer was it too strange that only the Earth could understand its language, but it was now transparent. It could be seen, understood, as clear as Glass.

In that anointing of understanding, the audience understood something else. Strangely, that glassy, almost fragile dance that had to balance its nature carefully, seemed to reflect something within them. The audience could see themselves in that dance, hesitant to react too strongly to break that same balance within them. To erupt or to calm would crack that careful reflection between both of them, as the audience and the dancer could only aspire to match each other. Together, separated by the sides of the stage, they were between a Mirror.

And finally, it arrived. It was time for the curtains to fall on that grand dance, to once more shield the transparent from those unworthy of witnessing it. That view behind the mirror, of them, of the dancer, so clear before, would be obscured from them. Yet, the audience couldn't help but shake another feeling, one that rooted itself inside of them nearer towards the end. How could a single dancer reflect that of an entire audience? The entire universe? And entrenched in the horror of that forbidden thought, she revealed herself. Stepping out from the audience, the Witch returned to the stage, the one responsible for the act. She had orchestrated that act of magic, to enable the mirrored dancer and audience to play together, rather than alone. Because of course she could. She was the monstrous Witch. And now, she was returning to the stage. For the audience had never been the real, but rather the reflection. And the Witch had enough, playing in their world for a time. Now, it was time for her to return to the dancer's side, to return to one. To Amy.

So did the curtains close on the audience's world, enshrouding that Mirror World in Unknowable darkness, waiting for someone to glimpse at them again, to open the gates to play once more.

Huh. I don't understand.

Wha-?

Snapping back to reality in sudden confusion, Amy found her arm submerged within the mirror, silvery, reflective mana dancing up and down her arm, twisting in strange patterns and runes. Beneath those reflective, molten lines, was that familiar purple-grey void of Unknowable, disguising the truth from the world around her. Her head followed soon after, as did the rest of her boy, as she half-entered that mirror almost unconsciously, attracted towards it. And inside, she witnessed it all.

It was a boon, in a way, that she had activated her enhancements. Without them, she wouldn't have been able to complete her Magecraft. And without them, perhaps her mind would've broken upon seeing that Mirror World.

Amy appeared behind the mirror as the Witch, black hair tumbling down her sides, Unknowable-purple in her eyes, and with skin pale as death. In front of her was the same room as behind her, yet something lurked in the edges of the world, tendrils of horrific dark shadow caressing it and holding it in an unwanted embrace. Felin too was there, his feline form somehow diminished compared to what existed behind her, in the world she could no longer see. All that remained of him was a distorted floating cat, barely reminiscent of the Archfey himself. And as Amy's eyes followed the tendrils corrupting all, she witnessed what almost claimed her sanity.

Beyond the veil of ordinary, reflected reality, was the inverted. A reciprocal space where nothing makes sense, cracked and warped like smashed glass where this imitation world tried to understand what it couldn't see. It tried to understand the Unknowable. Shapes bent and twisted in ways her mundane sight couldn't comprehend, and her Mage Sight struggled to keep up with it. Even in the space that was somewhat regular, hidden within those shadows where the light couldn't reach, where the mirror couldn't understand, those same mind-bending sights remained, waiting for her to witness them. All of the distorted reality converged into that mirror from whence she came, the door back to the real, and yet the world surrounding that door was the most insane of it all. With the least to build off of, the Mirror World ceased to be around that door, all that was left being a wriggling void of Unknowable limbs and appendages all trying and all failing to build a picture of anything that could be called normal geometry.

It was... horrifying.

A scream creeping up her throat, filled with bile, Amy leapt back and escaped.

Felin was there for her immediately as she fell away from the mirror, all the mana she had gathered spent in that grand act of Spellcasting. The Mana Ocean felt rabid as it invaded her thoughts to enlighten her with its runes, and yet her mind could not properly visualise them in the state they were in. It was only with a new-born instinct nurtured in this past week that she managed to direct those strange runes to somewhere deep in her mind. The runes found themselves in her Record and her memory of them went with it. And in that same action, Amy found solace in the familiarity of it, and - with some semblance of reasoning returning to her - Amy barely stifled her scream in time, swallowing her sick with it.

"Amy!" Felin shouted, getting up in her face. "Are you alright?"

"...Yes," Amy eventually said, her brain still slow to process. She even felt that if she had receded her enhancements as planned, she might not even have been able to talk like this immediately. It would've been a few minutes at least before she had recovered herself enough to speak properly. So, they would stay, for now. "I just... I saw things."

"I should've stopped it. You lost control of the Magecraft near the end there, did you know?"

"Yes, I did, but... it felt right."

"Right?"

"If I didn't do that then... it wouldn't have felt right. True to my vision of the Spell... if that makes sense," She rambled out, her gaze stuck on the mirror. It was real.

"Damnit," Felin swore, shaking his head. "And I always tell you to be careful-"

"I was," She interrupted, suddenly firm. "This was going to happen, whether that be now or later. I was going to cast a Mirror Spell like this and it was going to go wrong. I already know I have a bad affinity for Earth-like things, so it's no wonder I failed with this. At least it wasn't a total failure. I did end up getting some runes from it."

"In your Record? I thought I sensed something like that there."

"Yes. I... can't remember them properly now. With my mind as it was after that... it's no wonder I can't."

"Then... Do you recall what you saw?"

"Unfortunately, yes. I remember it all. I think... that Mirror World isn't meant for mortals to traverse. It's meant for those far higher Tier than me. If I want to wander through those glass halls once more... I need some way to shield myself from it all. So my mind doesn't break again if I catch a glimpse of something in the shadows."

"Your mind... broke?" He said, Amy unable to read anything specific from his words.

"That's how it felt like."

"And you included Unknowable."

"Yes."

"...I'm sorry you saw those things."

"...You know what they are?"

"I've encountered them before, yes. And you are correct. Those things aren't meant to be seen by an Apprentice."

"Who are they meant to be seen by, then?"

"Well... a Journeyman probably could, if they were prepared enough. Archmages definitely can."

"And they are what? They seemed... almost alive."

"You would've seen them before, I imagine. On my past contractor's coffin."

"...I did, didn't I?" Amy realised, thinking back. Those shadowy arms, banished by the light inside the coffin when she pried it open. "They weren't so bad though. Nothing like this."

"Because they were grounded in reality. The ones you saw in there... They are the genuine articles."

"Still, Felin, what are they?"

"There are things that dwell within Elements. The most... normal of them are the Elementals most know of, those of the Basic Elements. Beings made of Water or Fire. The Esoteric Elementals however... are far different."

"Those were Elementals?" She asked, almost excited if it wasn't for the memory returning and bringing the pain back with it.

"Not quite, but something similar. Technically all manifestations of Elements with some sense of 'life' are Elementals, but those... Well, as I said, it is more fitting to call them mere manifestations."

"Why then? What caused those things to be there?"

"Because you touched upon something core to them. The idea of a Mirror World is... it seems to be something closely related to Unknowable."

"Like, the same?"

"No, not at all. Rather, the Concept of the Mirror World resonated so closely with Unknowable that it attracted manifestations of the Element within the working. Good Spells always do that, but excellent Spells actually manifest them. While not a Spell yet, yours... seems to have done exactly that."

"At least that's something going for it," Amy laughed dryly, no smile to be found.

"...Do you think you're going to refine it then?"

"...I..." Amy trailed off, still stuck staring in that same spot, not focusing on anything else, not even Felin right in front of her.

"You don't have to, you know? Not all workings need to be Spells or even anything you'd actually end up using."

"...I think I will use it."

"Are you sure?"

"...I think so. As you said, it needs some... refining. To protect me, definitely."

"...Alright then, I'll respect your decision," Felin said, something strange in his voice. At that, Amy finally looked down at the cat, really concentrating on him for the first time since she escaped. He wore a complicated expression of his feline face, Amy unable to decipher anything specific from it. It was exactly that... complex.

"What do you reckon the Tier of it was then?"

"Tier 4, as you call it, definitely. It perhaps wanders a bit into Tier 5, but it only lightly touches upon those upper ends of Apprentice Tier."

"That seems... strangely lower than I expected."

"It's because of those Unknowable manifestations. They helped bring the Tier down for you otherwise this wouldn't have even been a successful casting. It would've failed the instant your hand touched the mirror."

"...And they're alive."

"Yes. They are."

"...I see."

"Don't worry too much about manifestations, and, in turn, Elementals, Amy. If you want to make sense of it, then think of them as trickles of what I am. I am, essentially, a Fae Elemental, no?"

"...Yes."

"Then think of them like that. Just a limited version of things like me. Alive, yes, but not in any sense of what you consider to be 'alive'."

"...Alright then."

Felin sat there for a little while, half in Amy's lap, and half floating in the air, just watching her. In the end, he finally broke their shared silence.

"Have you thought of a name?"

"No... Maybe later."

"Alright, then. Come, let's get some rest," Felin smiled for the first time in the conversation, getting up into the air. He offered a paw down to Amy, still sitting on the floor, almost unresponsive to everything.

Eventually, Amy reached a hand back and got back up.