Dave East drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair as the image slowly faded. Once all he could see in the mirror was his reflection, it slowly slid back down into the floor.

“I am not like her,” Dave frowned. “I would never have treated others the way she did.” He fought to keep his voice calm, aware he was only slightly succeeding.

You found the Story displeasing?

“No,” Dave admitted. “It was fascinating. That world she came from, with its metal marvels. Are there many worlds like that?”

In infinite dimensions, there are naturally limitless options.

“I still fail to see the similarity,” Dave said. “How did you assess that she was similar to me?”

I did not.

“Was it random, then?” Dave asked.

It was not.

Dave considered what to say next carefully. Despite the intricate nature of whatever allowed this place to operate as it did, he was beginning to suspect the entity he was talking to was limited in some way.

“Explain how this mirror was chosen in regards to what I asked for, please.” He tried.

You requested someone who lost it all and someone like you.

The Lady certainly lost it all, and it had a person of character similar to your own.

“Who was the one you judged similar to me?” Dave asked immediately.

The spirit the Lady created. Mal.

He was loyal and kind and strived to better himself.

“So why not show me the story from his point of view?” Dave asked. He was willing to accept his similarities to the Mal character, at least for now.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

I no longer have access to his Mirror.

“I see,” Dave said, although, in truth, he didn’t. It was clear that some rules were guiding this place, no matter how miraculous it seemed. “I need to think. Can I return to this room later?”

Of course.

Viewing will remain available for as long as cleaning and maintenance are carried out regularly.

“Thank you. I’ll return later then.” Dave got up off the dark chair and headed back down the ridiculously long stairs.

Fetching his cleaning supplies from his room, Dave got to work.

Cleaning always helped him to think. For years, it was all he had. He cleaned the university while he tried his best to overhear as many lessons as possible. When he couldn’t, he would think about what he had heard. Slowly, over the years, he had pieced together enough to become a mage.

He had almost been ready when that Bernice thing had dropped that damn hand mirror focus into his hands. Like an idiot, he had thought he was lucky.

Dave East was never a lucky man.

In retrospect, he had been so desperate to escape his position in life, so desperate to believe someone would welcome him into the life he wanted… He had never even stopped to ask if he was blinding himself to reality.

And this was his punishment. He was here, in some dimension with nothing but glass, mirrors, shadowy creatures, and this place.

Dave finished up on the upper level, finding a stylish but comfortable bedroom that had appeared on the landing.

He was rewarded for cleaning with things and with the viewing of those mirrors.

It was some new kind of magic, unlike anything he had heard of before.

When the mirrors played out in front of him, he didn’t just see the image; he experienced it. He heard the thoughts and felt the feelings, good or bad.

It was incredible.

It was terrifying.

It was… time to clean the downstairs area.

Cleaning an area that no one but he used was much easier than the much-trafficked halls of a university. In no time at all, it was shining and spotless once more.

While he ate his lunch in the strange silence, Dave considered the spirit or whatever it was that ran this strange house. It had the kind of power that Dave had never even dreamed of, but when he spoke to it, there was something stilted about its replies.

Something was not quite right about the way it thought.

“Well, I have a job, food, shelter, and mystery,” Dave smiled. “Somehow, I suspect they didn’t expect me to do quite this well on this side of the mirror.” His voice echoed strangely in the empty rooms, but he didn’t mind.

Dave East was not rattled easily.

While he carefully washed his dishes and cleaned the counters, his mind strayed back to the mysterious entity and all those mirrors.

Some testing was in order. Experimentation was the cornerstone of learning, after all.

His first viewing had shown him that the entity was literal. He asked for one thing in two different ways, and it took each sentence as a separate request. It never linked the two into a single meaning.

That spoke to a very literal mind.

It was time to try and learn more.

Sitting back onto that strange dark chair, Dave found a real sense of excitement. And not just for the mystery he was trying to solve.

He was about to get a glimpse into a crucial moment in someone else’s life.

It was a heady feeling.

Powerful and frightening all at the same time.

What would you like to see?

“Show me someone who refused to give up,” Dave said, resisting the urge to go into any greater detail.

Mist swirled, and a mirror began to rise. Dave felt himself leaning forward in anticipation.

The mirror completed its rise, and a ripple passed over the surface as a figure began to appear once more.