Nowhere To Go But Up

Shattered

Feeling a bit dazed from the realization, Magolor redrew the map, making absolutely sure it was accurate this time. He checked each door three, four, five times. Apparently, figuring out what exactly the problem is is a huge part of the solution. As for the rest... no idea. I like him, but it's never going to work because Sectonia has been dead for only a day and a half, and I have absolutely no idea how any of this works. However, all of my other Taranza-related problems have been solved after I ignored them for over a year, so if I just do that, it will fix itself. Hopefully. Feelings like this are strange and I don't like dealing with them.

Regardless, I still need to get that mirror. There's no telling what might happen if Taranza starts looking into it as well. I should discreetly ask him about it in a way that makes it look like I don't know anything. ...Yeah, that'll never work in a million years. I need help with this one. Magolor checked the time on the cell phone he remembered to bring back into the castle. 10:46 pm. Taranza liked to go to bed about fifteen minutes from now, and would usually read in bed for about an hour before falling asleep. How did I not realize it sooner? I remembered all that even though I had no reason to believe it would ever help me.

Magolor picked some books off a shelf at random, and skimmed through them to pass time in case Taranza came in to check on him. He's really considerate like that. ... Of course, the doing nothing for an hour strategy means I will accidentally end up yearning in silence. I'd really like to be able to stop doing that. Man, I even sound like a moron in my own mind. At 10: 58, right before Taranza was going to bed, he popped into the library.

"Hey, did you end up reading any of those books I recommended?"

"Oh, yes, I liked them quite a bit. You have good taste."

"All of them? How did you pull that off?"

"I guess I read pretty quickly, ha ha." Even though I haven't said anything stupid yet, I still feel like an idiot.

"So what are you reading now-oh. Well then. I will, ah, pretend I didn't see that, er, goodnight!" Taranza hurried out of the room. Is this a weird book? I should have probably looked at it before I picked it off the-yep, that's weird. Of course. Never grab books from the dustiest section of the library without looking at them first. Now he thinks I like this kind of thing.

Once it was safely past midnight, Magolor went to the other side of the room the Lor was outside of and opened the door. This was where Taranza slept, among other things. Don't get distracted. I need to find the mirror. I am not going to spend any more than the necessary amount of time thinking about all the flowers, or the music box and the crate of discs labelled "lullabies'', or how soothing the one that's playing is, or maybe stealing a few of these? No! I'm not going to steal from people while they're asleep!

I really have changed, haven't I. That's a nice bit of validation from myself.

Magolor continued searching. He made sure to make no noise. The only place the mirror could be is in the locked door next to the bed. This sucks. Taranza's never leaving the general area, so any attempt to break the door down is gonna be heard by him. The only way for me to break down this door without getting caught is if he's not in the castle. I could try and do something now, but I don't know how light of a sleeper he is, and I really don't want to disturb him when he looks so peaceful, and I've been looking at him for too long. Gotta come up with a plan for tomorrow, and fast.

He wrote up a few plans for what might work, settled on one, and the sun was coming up soon. Taranza would be awake any minute now. Maybe I should make him breakfast? That'd be a nice thing to do, wouldn't it? Magolor went to the kitchen and cracked some eggs into a pan. He was finished with everything before Taranza came into the kitchen. It was about 6:30 by now. Magolor carried about half of what he'd made back to where Taranza still lay asleep. He set the tray on the empty nightstand that, he presumed, used to belong to Sectonia.