mirror shards // matthew fairchild {1}

three // "i'll be fine"

"If you have come here to tell me," says James, "that what I did to Cordelia was unforgiveable, I am well aware, and beginning to regret it quite deeply."

"You'd better," says Sydney, "but that's not what this is about." She crosses her arms over her bosom and sits down. "You went Under at the ball, didn't you?" She reaches into the bodice of her dress for her bar of chocolate.

James nods, almost imperceptibly.

"What did you see, James? What did you see in your Shadow-World?"

James sits silently for a long moment, thinking. "I saw a...strange sort of...tendril," he says finally. "The Shadow Realm and our world were...blended together in a way they've never been before. And this tendril, it reached up, and it grabbed Barbara's ankle, and it pulled her down."

"Was there anything distinctive about this tendril, did it have scales, spines, anything like that?"

"No. It just looked like a...black shadow."

Sydney nods quietly. There's something in his sister's face that James has never seen there before, something he can't read, or perhaps just doesn't understand. She sighs and steeples her fingers in front of her nose, resting her elbows on her knees. The fire catches her hand and one side of her face, the other half cast in shadow.

"The fact that you saw your Shadow-World...layered on top of ours, so to speak, could that mean that somehow the veil between our worlds is thinning? That perhaps things from that world can reach into ours, and vice versa?"

"Sydney," says James, "what were you really studying, in Romania? Because I refuse to believe it was dragons. Or Vlad Dracula. Or the mating habits of handsome East European vampires."

Sydney doesn't answer. She's gone completely still. James isn't even sure she's breathing.

"You think you've found him, haven't you? Our demonic grandfather."

"Some of my research," says Sydney, "was about that, yes." She stands up, her skirts rustling like fallen leaves.

"Do you know who he is?" James asks her again.

"No. Maybe. I don't know."

"What lead you to Romania, anyway? If that was the track of your research, I'd think you'd want to do your research closer to the hub of the Spiral Labyrinth, perhaps, or to India, where they have a vast archive devoted to the study of Greater Demons..."

"I was pursuing one specific name that was given to me years ago, and that name originates in Romania. Besides, I had a lot of friends in Târgoviște."

James doesn't fail to notice the past tense.

Days Past: Idris, 1899

It's not common for girls to attend the Academy. You have to be really good, and you have to fight for your place. So it makes sense that Sydney and the dark-eyed, golden-haired Stoica twins gravitate into each other. They're all a bit weird: Sydney with her demonic grandfather, Adriana who speaks six languages and counting, Nadia who collects mundane Medieval vampire-hunting kits as a hobby.

They pick their way through the rubble of the ruined East Wing of the Academy together, laughing.

Sydney scrambles up onto a block of Carthage stone, spreads her arms in a parody of an opera soprano, and launches into an enthusiastic, if slightly off-key version of 'Figaro,' except she only knows the part that goes, "Figaro, Figaro, Fiiii-gaaa-roooooohhhhh!!!"

"You should do 'Mysterious Moon,'" suggests Adriana, "Since you love that one so much."

"Another time," says Sydney, jumping off her makeshift stage. "I nearly tore my voice out on that one. We should get out of here before a wall collapses on us, or worse, Professor Fell finds us here and lectures us into oblivion."

"Well, you've been found, but not by Professor Fell."

A boy about their age emerges from the rubble. He's pale, with inky black hair and hooded eyes so dark the pupil disappears into the iris. He offers the girls a sheepish sort of smile.

Behind her, Sydney hears a faint intake of breath.

"...and you are...?" Nadia asks, leaning around Sydney to peer at the new arrival.

"Emil Koval," he answers, scratching his head. "From the Institute in Kiev." Then he trips on a bit of broken pillar and falls flat on his face. "Ow. Sorry, that was dreadfully rude of me."

"Here." Sydney offers an arm to help him up.

"Thank you," says Emil, as he lets her pull him to his feet.

"I'm Sydney Herondale, by the way. My friends, the Sisters Morozhenko." Sydney gestures to each girl in turn. "Nadia, and Adriana."

Emil smiles and offers the three girls a low bow. "Very pleased to meet you. I see a certain green professor heading this way, shall we make a run for it?"

A/N:

Where's Waldo: here's to anyone who found the Harry Potter reference.

This Day in History: 'Mysterious Moon' is a song that existed at least as early as 1912, when it was recorded by Ada Jones. It's about the mysterious 'airship' sightings in the 1890s that culminated in the Aurora Incident, which Bedtime Stories over on YouTube has a great story about. The song also serves as the opening sampler for Pinataland's "Devil's Airship."