Hello, Mirror

"The mirror showed a reflection that wasn't my own." Elvira whispered. Princess Moremi looked at the mirror her sister described earlier as dusty, rusted and shattered. Though the mirror she gazed at now was perfectly in tact. There was no damage to it's glass, the beautiful silver dragons encasing the mirror were un-rusted and the edges of the mirror looked more polished than dusty. Elvira's long black hair and bright blue eyes reflected back at her, same as Moremi's long silver hair and gold eyes reflected back at her with no marks, no error, no broken glass and last of all lacking any conscious that would imply the reflections were more than a reflection.

"This isn't right." Elvira protested, knowing that it probably looked now to her sister like she was lying.

"The servant who carried the mirror looked into it! Her reflection acted like it was drug into the mirror and when it vanished, the mirror shattered! It looked old and rusted, full of dust and the servant fell! Right here!" Elvira exclaimed, pointing at the ground where they stood.

"She didn't move! She was dead! I am sure of it. When I looked into the broken mirror, I wasn't there. Instead, the servant was, standing over her body. Only, it wasn't the servant! Her face was all strange and broken! She picked up her own body and-"

"Elvira, that's enough! You have always had a rather dark imagination... perhaps consider being a novelist?" Moremi jested, turning away. "There is no servant and the mirror is perfectly fine."

Elvira flushed red and shouted at Moremi; "It's not my imagination! I am not spinning fables!"

Moremi seemed to expect this reaction because she gave no reaction in return. She simply turned away in her monarch gown. A long black gown made entirely of silk with shards of orange and yellow at the ends of her dress that resembled the monarch butterfly. She looked over her shoulder to Elvira as if she would say something- but instead, she just sighed and left. Leaving Elvira to scowl and turn, kicking the mirror as hard as she could. The whole mirror shifted and fell and the sound of glass hitting stone made Elvira jump backwards and shriek. Getting on her knees she grabbed the mirror as quickly as she could. She didnt care if she dirtied her riding trousers on the stone of the floor. They were far less important than this mirror- even if she did think it was cursed.

Giving a silent prayer to the nine gods of eternity she lifted the mirror with all her might; Please, don't let me be the one who broke it...

Begging all that was, for it to not be broken. Because it was a gift to their mother, the Queen from her beloved mentor before he passed. Pushing it up against the wall, checking that it wasnt broken. Not quite noticing that her reflection was gone again. At least... not until the servant smiled at her from within the mirror. The servant girls hair was tattered and matted. Her face was shattered as if it was glass and blood dripped from its jagged edges onto the invisible floor she stood on. She dantly waved her fingers at Elvira and tilted her head with a smile. Showing Elvira her gums full of holes with missing teeth. Elvira shrieked again and let go of the mirror just in time to see the servant girl give her a stern look and hold one finger solidly over her lips. Elvira backed away from the mirror and screamed again.

"Lady Elvira! What's the matter?" A guard, Elvira recognized as Nerul, came rushing to her side. He removed his helmet, revealing his sandy blonde hair and lifted his sword with one hand from his waist, so it wouldnt drag on the floor. His black armor reflected dimly in the room as he held out his gloved hand for Elvira to take. Elvira lifted her hand as if she would take his, but her hand froze as the servant girl climbed out of the mirror. Her feet sounded like glass grinding into sand with every step she took. Blood continued to trail along the ground as she walked. Elvira screamed again and began to climb backwards but Nerul didnt seem to notice the servant girl. He just reached to grab Elvira, full of concern he tried to talk her down.

"Princess, please! It's just me! Are you okay? What's wrong?" He pleaded, panicked now. He couldnt understand why she kept screaming, why was she backing away from him? Other guards came rushing in to find what all the ruckus was about but once they saw the girl made of shattered glass and blood- they all stood still and dared not move. Fear consuming their souls from the inside out as they watched the servant girl of glass wrap her shattered fingers round Nerul's throat and squeaze. Blood dropplets rising to the surface of his skin through his pores.

Chapter One - The Curse of Death

"It was not your fault." Creedence whispered, brushing his hand along Moremi's wings. "You couldn't have known that it was Death's Cursed Mirror."

Moremi jerked her wings from his touch and feeling herself crumble from within she gazed at the stone prophecy on the wall. "You don't understand!" She sobbed.

"The Twin angels were destined to fall at Death's grip! We were the Twin Angels. Elvira and I were destined to fight Death. But she was so afraid of that mirror and I was so naïve! I ignored her concerns and her fears down to the moment she showed me. It looked like a plain mirror..." Moremi sank to her knees in front of the stone prophecy. The snake of deceit crawled along the canvas of stone. Moremi was depicted in stone in the center of the mural and holding either of her arms was Death, while all her comrade angels reached out to her as nothing more than skeletons of their past.

"There was nothing you could have done to change the outcome." Creedence said solemnly.

"I could have listened!" Moremi barked, her wings flaring outwards as feathers turned to ice shooting forward at Creedence. Creedence flinched and dodged the icy daggers before turning away. It was as if he wanted to say something, but couldn't bring himself to. So he just left. That action alone, seemed to remind Moremi of how she left Elvira that day in the ballroom of the castle with the Cursed Mirror of Death. Now Elvira was Death. An uncurable curse that befell only a certain kind of person that gazed into the Mirror. Anyone who wasn't 'worthy' of the curse would simply die. Their souls getting absorbed into the Mirror which was rumored to be the very first of Death's Gates. A Gate designed by the first Death to gather souls who are meant to die.

Death was an ancient curse from the dawns of time and the first of Gods that demanded the being travel all forms of worlds and realities to gather the dead and bring them to their afterlife. Be it in the Veil, or in the Beyond.

Moremi felt the warm tears well in her eyes as she fell forward and her wings vanished, leaving blood streaks where her wings were on her back. That's when she heard something she never heard before. A strange grinding... like glass? Moremi stood and brushed her tears from her eyes.

"Go away Creedence!" She shouted only to feel a cold touch followed immediately by pain on her arm. The Servant girl stood with a horrid bloody smile while her shattered glass grip dug into Moremi.

"I have never played with an angel before." Her voice echoed around the room and it sounded like dry sand. Moremi screamed and tried to free herself of the girls grip, but the glass only began to bury into her arm, shattering over and over until Moremi couldn't fight anymore. The girl then turned and drug Moremi to the Mirror, walking through the glass like it was water. Her fallen angel only crying as she was pulled in.