Almare - The White Mirror

Virginia was scared. She was so scared and confused that nothing else seemed to matter. At this point, she found herself thinking about the strangest things. Events that had happened a long time ago - or what seemed like a long time ago - come back to her mind vividly. As she stood there in the mist, staring into space, she tried to sort it all out.

Acrotis was some kind of alien. They had been traveling with her for days without knowing it. Her sister lived in the mirror. She had taken Patrick and called Acrotis a traitor.

That was what Virginia was trying to digest, but her thoughts wouldn’t focus on it. She was thinking about the night they'd left New York. The power had gone out. She wondered why she hadn’t been worrying about that. It had seemed like such a big deal then. They had walked through Central Park in the incessant rain, with Patrick. He was sleeping so soundly. Virginia involuntarily smiled. His little fist curled up, stuck in his mouth. He was such a good baby. He hardly ever cried...

Wolf nudged her gently, and Virginia blinked the tear out of her eye. Wolf’s face was pale and he didn’t say anything. Tony stood silently. Virginia saw Lorelei, Acrotis’s sister (no, that couldn’t be true... but it was) standing in front of them. She slowly unclenched her fists and took several deep breaths. Then she turned toward Virginia, Wolf, and Tony with sadness in her eyes. Virginia was afraid to hear what she had to say.

“I can’t...” Lorelei stammered, fighting back some horrible force within her. “I can’t explain it to you now... I...I have to bring you to the boy...” With a moan Lorelei crumpled to the floor, buried her face in her hands and sobbed.

Virginia hesitated before trying to comfort the girl. What if she simply blew away with the mist when she touched her? Virginia wasn’t sure of anything anymore. Nothing could be assumed, no one could be trusted.

But this was different. She bent down on her knees and helped the very solid girl to her feet. Tony and Wolf helplessly let her lean on them while she tried to choke back her sobs. They didn’t know what else to do. They didn’t know much of anything right then, Virginia realized slowly. Whose side were they on?

Lorelei straightened up and took a shaky breath to steady herself. Virginia stayed close to be able to catch her if she collapsed again.

“I’m sorry,” Lorelei apologized softly. “It’s just too much, seeing her again now. I should have been ready, but...” She trailed off again, and shook herself to concentrate.

“It’s okay,” Virginia said quietly, soothingly.

“Yes, it will be,” Lorelei nodded. “But now you need to see your son.”

Virginia’s whole body tensed. Yes I need to see my son! Why have I been standing here so long? Wolf shifted impatiently next to her, and Tony nodded vigorously.

“First, I must tell you that there are more than one of my kind. Patrick is with him, in good hands.”

Virginia wasn’t too surprised. She had figured that the girl wasn’t a completely solitary creature in this lonely abyss.

“You mustn’t be afraid,” Lorelei said slowly, “when you see him. He isn’t like Acrotis.” Her voice grew cold then, and something alarmingly like hatred flared in her eyes. “Neither am I.”

She turned abruptly and they had to hurry, trying desperately not to slip, to keep up with her and not get lost in the mist.

They walked for a long time, each person keeping the back of the other in sight. It was a rather boring trip because there was literally nothing to look at except the inside of the cloud. Virginia had convinced herself by then that it was a cloud. First of all, what else could it be? No place on earth had this much fog. Okay, the Nine Kingdoms wasn’t exactly earth and she didn’t know for certain that there wasn’t an area in the Kingdoms that was perpetually foggy. But her second reason was the breathing problem. The atmosphere was definitely thinner here, and the most logical explanation for that was that they were very high up.

Not paying much attention to her surroundings again caused Virginia to be very surprised when they finally reached their destination. She didn’t know what she had expected, but it certainly wasn’t what she saw before her as Lorelei came to a stop.

Buildings, streets, and towers stretched up far into the sky, their peaks lost in the cloud. It was an entire city, with shops and meeting houses and apartments. It looked an awful lot like Manhattan, actually. Except that it wasn’t real.

Actually, that wasn’t precisely true. It was real, but in a different way. It wasn’t solid. No, it had to be. How could anyone live in the buildings otherwise?, mused Virginia. But the material- something - that the houses were made of was translucent, and it shimmered like water. The buildings themselves seemed to be made of some type of liquid. Virginia frowned in confusion. It looked like the ground the were standing on, almost. The clear force field. Perhaps everything these sky people built was constructed of force fields. It made sense, Virginia supposed, because there weren’t too many building materials just lying around up here. There was nothing up here except this city.

Lorelei was standing perfectly still. Her head was tilted up slightly, as if she was listening for something. Then she glanced around and sighed.

“It’s begun,” she muttered. “They’re all gone.”

It was then that Virginia noticed for the first time that the city was deserted. Unlike Eulonia, and definitely unlike Manhattan, there were no people lining the streets, buying and selling things, shouting at each other, and going about their everyday business. The sidewalks were empty and silence covered the ghostly city.

“Where did they go?” Virginia whispered.

“Battle stations.” Lorelei strode into the city and again the others hurried to keep up with her. She led them along a confusing path of twists and turns, through narrow alleys and wide streets. It seemed a lot like the hall of mirrors at an amusement park, because everything was almost see-through, but not quite. For Virginia, the result was seeing weird, distorted mirror images of herself everywhere she turned. It wasn’t a very good feeling for someone who is already too nervous, to see movement everywhere and not be able to know if it was her own reflection or...not.

After walking silently for a long time in the misty fun house, Lorelei came to an abrupt stop in front of a very ordinary building. Ordinary compared to others in the odd city, anyway. It was two stories high and windowless, certainly because of the complete lack of need for windows since the house itself was almost transparent. There was a normal- sized door at the top of a set of steps. Virginia could also see inside the house, and its contents appeared the same as any other residence they had pasted; a bedroom and a kitchen and a family room. It looked remarkably like any regular one-family house that one could find in the Tenth Kingdom.

They could all tell from Lorelei’s expression that there was something different about this house, though. Almost reverently, she led them up the steps. Opening the door, she motioned frantically for Virginia, Wolf, and Tony to hurry up and get inside.

“What’s the rush?” Virginia asked. “Whoever you think we’re hiding from can see us just as easily when we’re inside as when we’re outside.”

“No. They can’t see or hear us,” Lorelei said softly.

“Then why are you whispering?” Tony demanded.

“Shhh! The Guardian can’t take loud noises.”

“Oh,” Wolf said sarcastically, “Now everything’s clear. What’s a guardian?!”

“Our leader,” Lorelei told them matter-of-factly. “Our king, you might say. He is a good, brave man, but excessive noise is harmful to him.”

“Harmful?” Virginia questioned skeptically.

“His sense of hearing is supernatural. Nothing escapes his ears. I mean nothing. Sometimes, when the conditions are perfect, he can hear into the past.” Lorelei paused, smiling at their surprised expressions. “And also,” she added meaningfully, “the future.”

Virginia met her eyes as Lorelei looked at her. She was trying to tell her something. But what?, Virginia wondered. That was real nice that their Guardian could hear the future. He must be a very handy guy to have around. But what did it have to do with her?

“Come on,” Lorelei said to all of them, still staring at Virginia, who finally looked away. “He is down in the emergency shelter.”

They followed her through a hallway and down a steep staircase. They were descending into the cloud, under the solid force field. Soon everything was darker, and finally they found themselves in an opaque chamber. The little room was lit dimly by a single candle that sat on the floor in a holder in the corner closest to the stairs. The chamber was bare of furniture and any decoration at all, except for the candle and one solitary stool.

A figure sat hunched on the stool, bent with age and exhaustion. Virginia could barely see his features, but even in the partial light she could tell that he was a very old man. He wore a dark hooded cloak, with the hood pulled back. But Virginia stopped analyzing the man right then, because there in his arms was her son.

She gave a cry and ran to him, snatching Patrick out of the man’s arms. Tears of happiness, relief, and all good feelings in the world ran down her face. Wolf came over and took both of them up in his arms. Virginia kissed Patrick’s face over and over again, and the baby laughed happily. He threw his chubby little arms around her neck and buried his face in her chest, and Virginia couldn’t stop crying and saying his name for a long time. Tony joined them and the finally united family held each other like they would never let one another out of sight again.

Virginia let Wolf hold Patrick as she smoothed the baby’s hair until she had practically rubbed it all off. Patrick gurgled and cooed as if he wondered why they were all making such a big fuss. Virginia hadn’t realized how much she needed to see her son until he was right in front of her. She noticed everything about him, tiny little things that she had taken for granted before. How he blinked every other second. How he stuck his entire hand in his mouth instead of just his thumb. His dark eyebrows, and how they shot up when something surprised him. His nose vibrated when he laughed, and he was always laughing. His eyes were the palest blue, a clear sky on a cool spring morning.

While Tony took Patrick and started playing patty-cake with him, Lorelei managed to tear Virginia’s eyes off them for one second.

“The Guardian wishes to speak with you.”

Virginia glanced somewhat savagely at the ancient man who sat stooped in the corner. He had stolen her son and caused her immeasurable grief. And now he wanted to sit down with her and have a conversation? It seemed more than a lot to ask of her. Virginia sighed but walked over to the man after Lorelei gave her a pleading look.

“May I help you?” Virginia asked sarcastically. She regretted it a moment later, though, when she noticed how very weak the man really was. He could barely lift his head to look at her.

“Yes,” he said in a trembling voice. “You can help us all.”

Virginia kneeled on the ground so that she could look into the man’s eyes. When she saw them she reeled back in horror.

The man had no pupils. His eyes were purely and utterly white, like the face of the mirror. She assumed that the man was blind. The blankness of his eyes was unnatural, something that should simply not be.

“I don’t understand,” she whimpered.

“It is a long story, but you must hear it.” The man lifted his terrifying eyes and knowingly stared into Virginia’s with an intensity that made everything in her want to turn away. But she held his gaze and listened to his words.

“What I will tell you means the difference between life and death. For everyone.”