The Mirror (Completed)

ELEVEN

My father has been here. It is no surprise to me, that this is him, because these are the exact flowers he would give my mother for any event, whether it be her birthday, a holiday, or their anniversary. Besides, the ribbon as well, the way it is tied, it is a knot my mother showed me that my father discovered for his magic tricks, how you overlay the strands and pull them at different angles. My father either visits here and places these flowers down sometime...or he knows that I am here. He would know I am here because of the lightning strikes that called the King and his men here. My father would not expect anyone else to show up here besides someone in his family due to the fact he probably made the first portal or something, the same spawning point meaning to him that whoever entered Iduna came through the same mirror he did. That mirror is kept in the old house he once purchased for his family, only his wife and child having access to it.

"So Heka is closer than we thought," Kyril comments, looking around the entrance, and as he turns to the wall before the marble slab, his eyes catch his reflection in the mirror hanging from the wall. A mirror, one you would expect in Snow White, the shape it takes and the silver frame around it carved with precision. The King looks at his reflection, walking over to it as I find my throat running dry. That is the mirror that I came from and the mirror that I could possibly return home in. My eyes focus on the floor, looking around the floor for the journal, only, this is not the best timing. If my father got here before us, then he would have seen the journal, taking it with him. The journal is lost more than anything, in the hands of my father once more as I was a few days too late. Now what do I do? I expected to find that journal and it aid me in making these men trust me as well as for me to have an idea of where to search for my father. I check the floor for perhaps a journal that he left behind, as well as any sign to see where he has gone. "Lady Candice." My head perks up, looking to the King as he calls for me. He seems puzzled as he looks at his reflection in the mirror, head tilted as he lifts his hand up, meeting the solid mirror as his fingers press against the glass. A piece of me fears that his fingers will sink into the mirror and he will portal back to my house, but his fingers are not swallowed by the mirror. "Why would a Temple so sacred have a mirror? Why have an object that belongs in a bathroom hang in the main room of a Temple?"

I have no idea other than the mirror being the portal that brought me here. "My Lord?" I ask, walking around to where he stands, only to catch a glimpse at the engravings upon the sides of the marble slab, the once gibberish symbols translating right into a language I grew up reading. I stop walking, facing my entire attention upon the sides of the marble slab as the King and his men take notice.

"And so, the Lady can read ancient words lost in time," Duke Gravon comments, walking up to where I stand, examining the words on the slab as he cannot read what I am. They say these words are of some ancient language, but this is not ancient at all, but new. No, not days new, at least not all of it. This is a journal, some record book, English, and a signature at the end of each paragraph reading of the name of the man that my mother loved, and I called my father. They are dated too, all the way back to his first days here as he was trying to discover this realm and think of what all he would need. In the first entry he lists his fears of the creatures outside the Temple, how it was amazing to him the mountains surrounding the Temple, and how he was impressed his magic landed him in the exact spot he wanted to go. I carry on, falling to my knees as I read the lower paragraphs too, eyes scanning quickly over everything as I cannot believe what I have just discovered here. My eyes stop, focusing on one journal entry dating back to only three days ago. How do I know it was just a few days ago? My father enters dates using the exact year and months that my home realm uses. This entry from a few days ago explains how he traveled here after rumors of a spell over the Temple, meaning that someone had traveled here. He talks of his journal from the Eastern Islands where the mermaids have claimed their domain and elves allow him to live beside them in peace. He talks of his excitement for someone from his home to have ventured here, but there is one thing that throws me off. My dearest Katerina, be safe in a world of wolves who can sniff out a traitor from a mile away. He writes to my mother, believing that it is not his own daughter that has come to find him, but the wife he left to suffer.