Mirror, Mirror

Chapter 8: Decisions

A huge, fiery beast was standing in front of me.

It looked sort of like an eagle, but its wings were made of fire, and it puffed little bits of fire at me.

"What are you?" I called out bravely.

"I am a fire-bird, sent from the king of Mauvais. Sent here to kill you."

"Hardly fair, don't you think? You look a bit stronger than me."

The fire-bird laughed. I winced. The laugh sounded awful, like a giant piece of metal being crushed.

"War isn't fair, love. Cheating is accepted in the fight between Mauvais and Acacia."

"Is it?" I asked. "Are distractions allowed?"

"What?" asked the fire-bird.

I threw a fire-rat at the bird. In the short time that the fire-bird was gone chasing after the mouse, I whistled for my dragon. I'd named him Chance, after a fish I'd once had that was the same green-gold color.

Chance roared at the fire-bird, and the bird flew off.

"Good job, Chance!" I praised.

I climbed on his back as we flew back to the palace.

"Queen? Queen Cassandra?" I heard as we flew into the palace.

"Queen! Wake up! There is much you need to do today! You have only three days here, remember?"

I opened my eyes and groaned. Another dream. Not really a nightmare, though.

"Get up and get dressed, Queen. We must do your orientation today, so you can begin your queenly acts as soon as possible."

I groaned again, but reluctantly got up and showered.

"Shaya?" I asked, standing in front of my closet dripping wet.

"Yes?"

"What should I wear today?" I asked.

"Here is what all soon-to-be queens wear," she said, setting a plain, silver dress on my bed. I slipped it on. It had long sleeves and a thin row of crystals across the waist.

Shaya helped me with my hair and makeup.

"Now, I'm sure you must have many questions."

"Yes. Firstly, who all lives in this castle? It seems so quiet!"

"Well, there is Faun, the cook, Illan, you, and I."

"That's it?"

"All our servants went to the dark side once the former Queen died," Shaya answered quickly.

"Why did you and Faun stay?" I asked.

"We had sworn our loyalty to Acacia. We both would rather die than join the dark side," she replied.

"So you can avoid going to the dark side?"

"No. It is a pull, stronger than gravity. If Joven calls you to the dark side, there is only one thing you can do to escape it."

"Which is?"

Shaya paused for a moment and began making up my bed.

"You must go over, back into your world, and kill yourself with a weapon of this world. The weapon will transport your body back here, and you will be here forever."

"You did that?"

"Yes. Illan, Faun, and I all did."

"So you all used to live in my world?"

"No, only Illan. The queen called him here, like we called you."

"He grew wings too?"

"As soon as he turned thirteen, he went crazy and smashed himself into a mirror, disappearing. You got the easy was out, growing wings."

"Oh."

We were silent for awhile, just waiting.

"Will Joven call me?" I asked.

"I don't know, Cassandra. I wouldn't put it past him."

"If he does-and I do go over...will I still be able to go back home?"

"Yes, but then you will have to come to Mauvais three days a week, no exceptions. Or else you will be called back to Mauvais and kept there forever."

"There's a lot of forever in this place, isn't there?" I asked.

"There didn't use to be. It used to be that Mauvais was just a couple dark witches, wizards, and fairies, and perhaps a dragon or two. People from your world could come and go as they wished."

"Why isn't it like that anymore?"

"The fairy Demonia had too much power. She took over Mauvais and grew it into a huge city, calling people to the dark side and growing an army.  She has now passed it off to Joven, which you know, and I'm afraid that Joven has even more power than she did.'

"Shaya, will we have to fight a bloody battle? Can't it just be Joven against me? No one else involved?"

"That depends. If he brings out an army, we're going to have to fight back."

"So we do have an army?"

"Well, about a thousand men are still on our side and ready to fight for you."

"Wow! A thousand?"

"You never payed attention much in History, did you? A thousand is not nearly enough to win a battle." Shaya sighed. She looked defeated already

"Who would you say has the stronger magic? Acacia or Mauvais?"

"Probably still Acacia, if we got some strong witches."

"So that means there's hope! We can win!"

"Joven has an army of ten thousand at least."

"But we still have magic," I said.

Shaya suddenly brightened. "Wait! The Dark Crystal, of course! It's the only thing that gives Mauvais all its power! Destroy the Dark Crystal, and there's no way Mauvais can win!"

I smiled at this ray of hope. "Well, I guess I know what I have to do."

***

A/N: Sorry, I know it's just a filler. But I wanted to get an update out before school starts on Tuesday.

Anyway, COMMENT, VOTE, READ...

and see you all next update!