Paint it Another Colour

Chapter 29

Egil was experimenting. He was supposed to be back at the base, where the rest of them were, but he wasn't. Instead, he was here in the middle of nowhere. Stupid them for putting their base in the middle of no where. Even though there wasn't any sign of civilisation for miles and miles, even less a road of any sorts, Luciano had still dubbed the area dangerous and that they should stay inside unless it was an emergency. Staying cooped up in the same building with the same people seeing the same things, eating the same things, doing the same things had finally got to Egil's head, so he was out. Sure, someone would have noticed he'd gone by the time he got back and he'd be in for an earful at least, if not a beating of some sorts, but that didn't matter.

As long as he'd got to get out, he was fine.

He didn't see why the main doors should be so wide open when no one was allowed out, but there was probably some stupid reason Luciano had decided on that day. A draft, accident, a fresh delivery of pasta or something like that. Maybe it was an accident, but that didn't matter. It wasn't like he was really doing anything wrong. The only thing wrong that he could think of was the fact that as he'd left the building, he'd still had the mirror tucked neatly under his arm.

Oh well. He'd deal with the consequences when he got back.

After a while of running and not really getting anywhere, he stopped and sat down. To his right was a clump of trees, but everywhere else was just open field. There was a train track running along in the distance, but it looked long since abandoned. For a moment, Egil just sat there, staring at whatever there was to stare at, before getting out the mirror and looking it over, not letting his gaze linger too long over the glass part. That was the bit that did the damage.

"One would never have thought" he muttered, tracing part of the intricate pattern on the side. "It looks normal, but then..." he put it down face first into the grass and lay down, watching the clouds. He hadn't seen them for a while really. Fluffy things that floated this way and that in various shapes and sizes. There were whales bigger than any he'd seen, trees that had lost their leaves, people, boats. He was trying to figure out what a rectangular one looked like when a twig snapped. Instead of jumping up and reaching for the knife strapped to his belt as he'd normally do, he waited, staying stock still. He wasn't in the mood for fighting, whoever they were, so his best chance of getting out of it was lying still. Their footsteps were coming from the canopy of trees anyway, so he had no chance of hiding there.

"What are you doing?"

Egil gave up and rolled over to face the person, covering the mirror with his body. They'd never know it was here if they couldn't see it.

But he'd expected one of his own. Not any of the 1p scum.

The person frowning at him looked like Markell, but without the slightly too red eyes. Matthias, he guessed. He hugged their coat, a long black one in comparison to Markell's suit, a little closer around them and took a couple of steps forwards.

"I thought you were with Vlad Emil."

Egil fought back the urge to laugh and shook his head, burying it in the ground so he could silently laugh.

"You found the mirror that quick?"

His head shot up again and he stared at Markell's counterpart, Matthias. They knew? How? It had been his idea! What if... no. The idea couldn't have possibly been shared between him and Emil could it? That would be ridiculous, but the fact that the counterparts knew about the mirror too made it worse. That meant that they'd know it wasn't there. That meant they knew they had it. That meant they knew what they were doing.

Everything had gone wrong.

"What?" Matthias frowned. "Are you alright?"

Egil nodded hurriedly and held up the mirror. "We found it see."

"Careful with that" Matthias took a step backwards and covered his eyes.

"No, no, no. Lok... Lukas? Lukas told me you had to use some sort of Latin for it to work" Egil hid his smirk again. How could he not tell the difference between the two of them? There was huge differences between him and the boy who's puffin he'd eaten. "It's weird and I think there's a flaw in it. See here, you tell me what you think."

"Where?" Matthias retook his step backwards, and added another onto it so he was peering closely at the mirror. "I don't see it."

"No, it feels like a scratch in the middle, see, here" Egil waved his hand around it quickly, touching the glass a couple of times as if to show no harm could be made.

"Here?" Matthias ran his hand over the middle of the mirror, slowly. "I don't think there's anything wrong with it Em. It's probably just you." He grinned.

"Yeah, probably" Egil said, and before Matthias could take his hand off the middle of it, removed his knife from his sheath and buried it in the other's thigh.

Matthias let out a strangled cry and looked down. Egil finally let out the laugh he'd been hiding the entire time and started chanting one of the few spells Loki had taught him. Both him and the mirror glowed green, Matthias staring on with horror. There was a flash and Egil staggered backwards, falling to the floor in exhaustion.

He stayed there for a second, breathing heavily before sitting up. He was alone again. The mirror was lying face down in the grass again, still shaking slightly. Carefully, Egil turned it over, nearly crying out in delight when he saw Matthias, outraged, on the other side of the glass.

"It worked!" he shouted, holding up the mirror. "It worked, it worked, it worked!" He ran a victory lap of the field before sitting down again and staring ecstatically at the victim, now looking almost sick. "It only worked when I tried it out on Allen because he let me try it. He just never thought it'd work! And I had the spell book with me. But it worked without any of that!" He leapt up again, tucked the mirror under his arm and sprinted back towards where their base was. "Come on Markell's counterpart. I have to show you to everyone."