"Why?"

    You never would have known it was there, tucked away in a corner of the universe. And frankly, it liked to stay that way. 

The room had been through more than you’d imagine a simple room of mirrors would encounter in its useful life. Of course, this room wasn’t a normal room, despite how normal it looked to the untrained eye. 

The room had a brightness to it, a warmth that was hard to describe. The warmth threw off the strange vibe the mirrors gave it. Although in all fairness, it wasn’t every day you found mirrors that showed no reflection of their surroundings. 

They had been waiting for her. She needed a place to keep all her universes in one place. Especially after she was gifted her abilities. She had great power, and a place to reflect was always nice. 

Perhaps that’s why she appropriately named the room her reflection room, despite the fact the mirrors never showed a true reflection. Perhaps the idea of it was enough. After all, the mirrors showed the girl in all her forms across her universes, and it seems she considered them all reflections of herself. The same person, just living different lives. 

>><<

This room was supposed to be an escape, a place to be free from the struggles she faced. And yet, the woman stared at the mirror rising above the top of the swirl on the floor, staring at a gravestone. She knew the grave was empty, but she also knew the sacrifices made by the person whose name was engraved into the stone. She felt like she was being taunted. Like she was being tormented over and over again. 

It took the cloaked woman by surprise when a figure appeared on the gleaming surface. The woman in the mirror was dressed in a torn flight suit, a loose bun keeping her blonde hair back, although not well. Her face had scratches and bruises, some of which seemed to not be quite healed. She was surrounded by a haunting glow as if she was a ghost that wasn’t visible elsewhere in the room. 

The cloaked woman gave the woman a once-over, trying to figure out what had brought this image into the mirror. To the cloaked woman’s surprise, the mirror woman moved, stepping over the grave as if it had physically been in front of her. She was supposed to stop there, but somehow, the woman in the flight suit stepped out of the mirror, now standing in the room with the cloaked woman as a full and complete person. 

“Why’d you do it?” 

“What-” the cloaked woman backed up slowly, confused as to why this woman was now present. 

“You killed me, Traveler. Why?” 

“I-I had no other choice, I-”

“Enough excuses,” the woman in the flight suit suddenly felt a lot closer, inches from the cloaked woman’s face, who turned away in surprise. 

“I-I’m sorry, I-”

The woman in the flight suit began to circle her, glaring. She pulled the purple hood of the cloaked woman down, revealing blonde hair kept back in a ponytail. Her eyes were red, puffy, stained with tears. 

“I was the one part of you that kept you tied to reality. You got to have all the adventures, but I had to live the life we were given. That we didn’t have a say in.”

“No, you went on those adventures with me.”

“But did I?” 

A box faded into view on the floor in front of the two, matching the glow of the mirror woman. The engraving in the top was done in a simple font, reading only two words: The Traveler. 

“It wasn’t me making that decision on the dock. No, you came back before that box was even open. I was dead long before the magic came back into our lives.”