Whatever she expected, it hadn't been for the mummified creature to blink out of existence as it's outstretched hand touched the mirror.

She had assumed opening it would unleash some kind of magic, or some kind of bright light or something to make it back away. Maybe some kind of ward. Then again, what did she know about magic?

With the most imminent danger over she snapped it shut again to properly examine it. The little creature hissed at her, flying within her vision and towards the compact. Orena flicked it open again, and instantly the creature darted away. She raised an eyebrow at it, clearly whatever this little bat was, it was smart enough to know what this thing did. And believed it belong to it, or maybe it's master?

She shut it again to examine it. As she turned it over in her hands she spotted an engraving that would sit against her palm when it was open.

Touch my face, and you are me. Use me well, and I consume everything.

Well that wasn't ominous at all, Orena thought before turning her attention back to the door behind her.

Tucking the compact into the top of her bodice for safe keeping she pressed her hands back against the door's surface, trying to seek out any way of opening it. Without the imminent danger of the shambling corpse behind her she managed to find a seam in the centre with her fingertips. She tried to dig into it to force it open with her hands, but couldn't shift it at all. She bit her lip as she thought before picking up the poker she had propped up against the nearest desk when she had examined the mirror. She wedged the tip into the seam she'd found and took a step to the side and shoved all her weight against it to try and lever an opening.

She strained against the seemingly ummovable door, gritting her teeth as she resisted giving it up as a lost cause, before a screech warned her she was about to fall a step forward as it gave. She almost laughed at her progress, before shoving the poker deeper and repeating the process until there was a gap just big enough for her to squeeze through, and she started down the staircase on the other side.

~-x-~

At first Orena didn't realise that the little bat creature was following her. It was only when the twisting corridor at the base of the stairs opened into some kind of grand vault and it landed on the case she was peering at that she knew it was there. It glared up at her and snapped it's tiny jaws. She raised an eyebrow at it, her fingers were nowhere near the glass, so she wasn't sure what it thought it was warning her from doing.

If she were honest, she wasn't sure what she was looking at. At first she thought they were precious gemstones, only to realise that the colours she could see within the glass moved. Could magic be trapped? She wondered as her curiosity got the better of her and she forgot about her predicament to try and get a better angle to examine some of the trinkets.

A voice startled her out of her reverie and she turned towards the door she hadn't come through. Of course there would be guards for this kind of treasure. And she was sure they wouldn't be too amenable to someone who had just attacked one of their household - if not the head of the household - even in self defence. And even if she managed to hide that, she looked very suspicious standing in a vault with a fire poker.

Her eyes darted around the room as a second voice replied to the first, they were getting closer. She spotted a gap between one of the cabinets and a creepy looking statue. Or at least, she really hoped it was only a statue and she wasn't about to find out just how sharp the business end of that scythe was. She ducked down so she could wedge herself in as small as possible, hoping that they wouldn't feel the need to enter the room at all. Her heart leapt as the door opened with a low creak of it's hinges. She tucked her feet in even closer, grabbing at her skirts to pull them in as well.

The two guards took a couple of steps into the room, clearly expecting it to be empty. A nice routine patrol.

Her breathing felt far too loud and she was sure they were going to hear her, especially when the little bat creature plonked itself on the statue.

"What's the boss' homunculus doing down here?" One of them asked.

"I thought it was a familiar," the other said, before shrugging and adding, "Probably just getting one of those artefacts for him, it's stronger than it looks."

"I thought they were used for spying?"

"Then why would he need guards?"

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Orena really wished they hadn't started debating that. Especially when the homunculus took off again, but this time dived towards her, and she bit her lip to stop herself making a panicked noise as it pawed at her hair, she batted it away with the hand that wasn't holding the poker against her leg to hide it. She winced at the noise the creature made as it collided with the cabinet. However, it simply flew up and away from her, back into view of the guards.

"What is it doing?"

"No idea, it's probably either messing around or doing some kind of bidding. Either way, leave it alone."

"Good idea, I don't want to find out if it bites." Me neither, Orena silently agreed with the guard as she heard footsteps heading back toward the door.

Once she heard the sound of the latch on the door clicking closed, Orena finally dared move again. She leant over slightly to try and peek out of her hiding place without potentially giving herself away if one of the guards had stayed behind, breathing a sigh of relief when she found the coast was clear.

However, easing herself out the gap she was in, was a bit tricky. She had to let go of the fire poker so that she could use the statue to stand up. A little worried when it shifted as she did. She was about to try and nudge it back when she realised there was a doorway behind it. For a moment her gaze darted between it and the door the guards had used as she tried to work out which would be a better bet.

One had known guards, the other did not. Sure, she had the compact, but it had to touch whatever she wanted to disappear - even assuming it didn't make the mummy reappear - and she wasn't sure she wanted to risk the second being able to tear it from her grasp as she dealt with the first. On the other hand, was the secret passage likely to even lead to the exit?

The familiar was flying around her, clearly agitated about something. Given that it had already tried to claim the pocket mirror back from her, and then tried to alert the guards to her presence, she was assuming it was not on her side and wanted her apprehended as soon as possible.

After retrieving her weapon, she started towards the door she presumed lead to some kind of corridor since the guards had come and gone via it. She swatted the homunculus away from her face as it tried to intervene, and pressed her ear to the wood in an effort to try and determine if the guards were still nearby. She couldn't hear anything, so she decided to chance it.

She eased the door open as quietly as she could, the groan of the hinges was audible, but soft so hopefully it hadn't carried too far, and after a cursory check of the corridors she pulled it shut behind her and took off in a random direction. Eventually she came to a dead end with a door either side. She tried the one on the right first, and it came up locked. She crouched to peep through the keyhole and saw what looked like some kind of treasury. Right now, however, gold didn't hold too much appeal, so she decided she didn't want to waste time trying to find a way into it and instead tried the door opposite.

It opened into some kind of antechamber, and any effort she'd put into remaining hidden were rendered fruitless as two guards turned to look straight at her. It would almost have been funny as all three people just froze as if they couldn't quite believe what they were seeing, before the guards unsheathed their swords and Orena fished out the compact. Even though she didn't fancy her odds when outnumbered, she fancied her odds when using that as her weapon rather than the poker.

"What've you got there, girlie," one of the guards taunted.

"Magic mirror, it swallowed a corpse whole," she retorted, trying to dig out some kind of confidence.

The guards laughed. "Mirrors can't eat people."

Orena almost swallowed as she realised that she didn't know if it would work on anything other than the mummified corpse. What if there was some kind of protection on it to stop her using it on things that were alive?

"Are you sure you want to test that?" She challenged.

"Are you?"

Orena decided she was, because she didn't have anything to lose by backing down. She flicked it open and pressed the glass to the nearest guard's arm. Just like the creature, he disappeared almost instantly. Even so, she was still shocked into freezing, as if she hadn't quite believed she could do it a second time. When her eyes flicked to the other guard, he was just a stupefied as she was.

"I don't want to be disappeared, so... I never saw you."

Orena wasn't quite sure she trusted him, but she would prefer not to fight more people than she had to. "How do I get out?"

"Keep going down, you'll hit the ballroom when you get to the ground floor. Should know your way from there."

"How many?"

"Two floors inbetween," he explained, then pointed to another door. "That'll take you to the armoury, and the stairs are through there."

Orena decided not to question the layout of the floor, all she wanted was to escape. She'd already been distracted enough. She carefully made her way towards the door he indicated, making sure to keep him in her field of vision and out of his reach at all times. When she reached the door, she nodded at the way she'd come. "Maybe it's time for you to make a patrol."

"Yeah, I think it is," he agreed, and he headed down the corridor she'd arrived down.

She figured that would give her a little bit of a headstart if he changed his mind, and so she snapped the compact shut and opened the door that would take her into the armoury. She was relieved to find it empty of other guards, a part of her had worried the guard had cooperated to walk her into a trap of his fellows. She quickly scanned the weapons on display, many of them seemed more ceremonial than functional, but a couple of daggers caught her eye. A quick test proved neither were blunt, and she decided to borrow the one closest to the one she usually had hidden upon her. She figured it was a debt repayment.

It wasn't difficult to locate the stairs, and she hurried on her way. They led to yet another corridor, but as she approached the first branch, she could hear low scuffling sounds. Once she reached the corner she pressed herself to the wall so she could peek out without attracting attention. Only to recognise the man making noises.

"Cirro!" She hissed.