Elliot Crow's life is forever changed after he...dies. The last thing he's able to discern before his death is that his killer made a terrible mistake. His intended victim was his older brother, Casper.
His only hope of preventing Casper from suffer...
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A render of my character, Elliot Crow by A.C. Culkin. Thank you for the sketch, I love it!!! My favourite picture she did is of Gear...too bad she's not in this chapter...
"Before you go to the realm of reflections," Trinket interrupted himself, "Let me give you a bit of advice." He leaned forward onto the table, staring at his cup and swirling the tea around in a luxurious sort of way. He looked back over at Elliot, "Always believe in yourself. You won't survive long if you don't."
"Trinket told me the same thing." Elliot said in an unusually quiet voice.
Slomoe hummed,
"Trinket Deadlock was always very adept at advice giving." He seemed to agree, "What he might not have told you, is that there are two steps to believing in yourself. The first step is to trust your instincts. The second is to believe you can do something, no matter how impossible it might seem to others and no matter what you're told. You're a bit odd, you know? It seems you did the second step before the first!" "I did?" Elliot wondered.
"Of course, you did!" Slomoe exclaimed, looking surprised as though Elliot really ought to know this already, "You believe that you can save your brother. You believe that you can contact your loved ones and warn them of the danger no matter what other people throw at you. But, you still have a very bad habit of not trusting your own instincts, and they're very good instincts too." He looked Elliot up and down appraisingly.
A bad habit, Elliot thought, thinking that was a rather peculiar way to describe it. He did find himself agreeing though. It had been his own fault that he had died, having gone off when his instincts had warned him not to, even when his friend had warned him not to.
"Once you start a habit," Slomoe said a little calmer than before and far soberer than Elliot had heard him speak so far, "good or bad, it becomes very difficult to break. I stand by what I said before. I will only take you as my apprentice if you can retrieve a crystal heart from the realm of reflections."
"I'll do it." The words were out of Elliot's mouth before he could stop them.
No, Elliot thought to himself, he didn't have room for doubt now. He couldn't doubt himself. He needed to save Casper and if he had any hope of accomplishing that, he needed to enter the realm of reflections.
Slomoe had told him that there were two steps to believing in ones' self, which meant he needed to focus on those. Whether he was psychic like Sam claimed (and he was starting to think that maybe that was an actual possibility), or whether it was just a very good intuition, it didn't matter anymore.
Cairo jumped up onto his lap and looked up at him with her wide, green eyes. Elliot got a strange feeling that she wanted to help him. He looked up at Slomoe,
"Do you mind if I take Cairo with me?"
Slomoe raised an eyebrow,
"Far be it from me to separate a wizard from his familiar. Do as you please, ya know?"
A wizard? Elliot wondered to himself. He decided he'd ask Slomoe what he meant when he got back. It was something he did often when he wanted to give himself the incentive to see someone again, to leave a question hanging. Maybe it was a form of stubbornness, or maybe it was just a personality quirk.
Elliot finished up his tea,
"Thank you, your majesty, the tea was very delicious." He complimented.
"Of course, of course." Slomoe waved casually, then got up, a single eyebrow raised in an inquisitive manner, "I assume you wish to go now, then?" "If I may?" Elliot agreed.
Slomoe gave him another look of amusement,
"You're unusually polite, ya know?"
Was he? Elliot wondered a bit to himself.
"Especially for a teenager." Slomoe shook his head, "But, then again, the last teenager I met enjoyed adding in curses to every second word."
"Gear?" Elliot guessed, unable to think of anyone else who had a mouth like hers.
"Yeah, that one." Slomoe agreed, "You'd look very good in a hat, ya know?" Elliot paused again, once again a little bit startled by the sudden change in topic. It seemed that Slomoe got bored when they stayed on one subject for too long.
"Maybe not one of them knit hats that the teens wear, but a top hat." Elliot had no plans on wearing a top hat but decided it best to nod along politely anyways.
"I...hadn't considered that." He said honestly.
"You don't consider much."
Was that a jab? Elliot wondered.
"Oh, where is Blue?" Slomoe frowned, "Blue? BLUE!"
After a long silence that seemed to stretch out over nearly five minutes, a man came running into the clearing. His face was pale and sweat appeared to be forming on his brow.
"Where is my mirror? I need the mirror. Elliot Crow is going to enter the realm of reflections now."
Now? Elliot knew he was ready...sort of. But what was with the sudden transition? The man, Blue, bowed at the waist then ran off back into the maze of bookshelves. Slomoe clucked his tongue,
"Really, you'd think he'd already know what I wanted. Blue doesn't speak, ya know?" Elliot nodded, not really knowing what to say.
"He's mute. Had his voice stolen by the witch of the masquerade. Well, no real loss, ya know?"
Slomoe seemed to say 'ya know' a lot, Elliot thought absently. It made him want to nod along, even though he got the sense that he wasn't asking for any sort of confirmation. He did have a question though,
"Who's the witch of the masquerade?" Elliot asked him curiously.
A smile formed on Slomoe's face. It appeared slowly, as though the corners of his mouth were crawling up towards his cheeks.
"The witch of the masquerade, she steals voices, ya know? Collects them. Of course, she can only take your voice if you show her any sort of emotion. Trinket was the only person ever known to have outwitted her. 'Course now she's obsessed with him, wants his voice for her collection. That's why he's one of the most famous wizards out there, ya know?"
Elliot actually hadn't known that. Trinket was famous? Then again, Time had known him, and so had Slomoe. That was two people who were considered gods in their own right who knew Trinket by name.
Blue came back, carrying a large mirror decorated in a golden frame. He set it down in front of Elliot. A voice rang through Elliot's head warning him that there was something wrong with the mirror.
"This isn't a normal mirror." Elliot said uncertainly.
Slomoe hummed, approaching Elliot from behind, and then, caught off guard, he gave Elliot a mighty push, sending him into the glass.
So...I said I'd post this story on Friday but...it turns out I'm going to be busy for the next week and a half and I'm not going to have a lot of time to be on my computer. (Seriously, my schedule sucks ☹) But on the bright side, my story is up a few days earlier than anticipated.
