Mirror

Aftermath

"Shadows have no soul unlike every other creature in the world," Danny said as we made our way down the mountainside, following the river. "A soul is the very essence of something alive. It can grow stronger and it can become damaged, but it doesn't have a physical existence. To make it stronger you create connections to other souls: make friends, treat others well, fall in love, and so on. Hurting another living creature harms your own soul. Damage to the soul can be healed by forgiveness. There is one thing, though, a soul can never recover from because the victim can never offer forgiveness."

"To take the life of another living being," I said.

"Yes, that's right."

"So that's why shadows need a human host, huh? Because they have no soul they can't kill another living creature. They need something with a soul to take the damage for them. What happens if they try?"

"If an original shadow tries to kill a living creature without a soul to take the hit, they would die."

I looked at Danny with his three missing wings. "Do all shadows have wings like this?"

"No."

"Are you the only one?"

"Yes."

"You could kill him," I said referring to the man with the braid.

Danny's eyes disappeared behind shadowy lids and turned his face blank. "I did."

"And the man with the knife that I faced the day I got the amulet."

"I did," he said again.

I opened my mouth to ask who the third one was, but the only question that came out was "Why?" Even though I knew the answer.

"To protect you," he said. I could hear in his voice that he too knew I wouldn't be happy with the answer.

I remembered the dead, bloody bodies that surrounded Danny and I when I'd first encountered a shadow. "Only me and no one else?" I asked.

"Yes."

"What about-" I began to ask, but didn't finish. I wasn't sure I wanted to know.

"The third one?" Danny finished for me anyway.

I nodded.

"Cantery."

Danny let that sink in for a moment and I took my time letting it. He spoke again before the full extent of his words hit me. "Cantery needed to be stopped. Once he became dissatisfied with this world he was just about ready to try again. One world was enough. He was leaving a wake of destruction in his path."

"Lithallia."

I struggled to move, but my body seemed distant and separate. I had felt this kind of sensation before. It always came when I had fallen into a space between Mirror and Earth.

"Lithallia."

The one who called my name was the same voice that plagued my dreams and nightmares long before I knew of Mirror, the one who gave me Cantery's Couere de reve. I liked to think of her as the divine spirit of Mirror, but otherwise I knew nothing about her and it had been months since I last heard her voice.