The mirror leaned slightly against the stone wall.
It was tall and slender, draped in a sheer gray cloth that had half-fallen to the ground.
The frame was of metal, and though it seemed old, it wasn't rusted, just dull.
The same was true for the glass itself. If it had been polished, it might have looked good as new.
The glass seemed darker than what it should have been.
Hiraeth shifted uneasily on her shoulder as she got closer.
There were things in the room more obviously strange, but it was the mirror that held her.
It didn't feel like a spell or magical, not in a way she could tell.
Was this one of the wrong things? Something forced.
She couldn't tell if it was.
Her reflection came in pieces.
First her elbow, then shoulder and eye, but there was something off. A delay, maybe. Or the way the mirror's darkness seemed to creep into the outline of her shape.
She hadn't realized how close she was.
She reached out.
Not fully aware of it, her hand hovered just above the surface.
The glass wasn't quite glass.
It had depth, like it would give way the moment she touched it. A thin layer between her and something she wasn't sure of.
Her fingers inched closer.
Then, she heard something.
"Sonder!" Hiraeth shouted, a sudden, sharp break in the heavy stillness.
She jerked her hand back like the mirror had burned her.
The sprite flared up on her shoulder with a bright green light, and his face was alarmed.
"What are you doing?" he said, louder than she'd ever heard him speak. "Don't touch it. Never."
Sonder's breath came strangely fast. She stumbled a half-step back, like she'd been caught doing something truly terrible.
"I wasn't going to-"
"Yes, you were," Hiraeth cut in.
There was no arguing.
She looked back at the mirror. Even from this distance, she felt something.
A thread that wouldn't let her go.
She wanted to ask what it was but was afraid of what Hiraeth would say or what he wouldn't say.
Sonder's hands curled into fists.
"We should leave," Hiraeth said.