Return of the Runebound Professor - Chapter 794

Noah approached the mirror cautiously. He kept his runes at the ready, muscles tensed to burst into motion at the first sign of anything suspicious. Some would say it was paranoia. He preferred to think of it as experience.

The mirror didn’t change. It just stood there, as mirrors tended to do. But last Noah had checked, they didn’t tend to reflect things that weren’t actually there. He was absolutely certain that the shelves in the real world behind him were completely empty.

It just seemed as if nobody had told the mirror that.

No matter how or where he stepped, the rows upon rows of thick tomes filling them to the brim remained present within the mirror. And there were more than books. Now that Noah looked closer, the entire room was different.

The plush chair that had once held a corpse no longer appeared faded within the world of the mirror. It might as well have been bought a day ago. The desk was completely devoid of any dust and piled high with stacks of paper and scattered quills.

It’s like somebody froze a slice of the world in time. I feel like I’m looking at a perfect rendition of someone’s office a few minutes after they stepped out to grab lunch.

“What is this?” Noah muttered. He let his domain run along the surface of the mirror. There was definitely magic within it. There was magic within the majority of the Citadel. But, now that his attention was more focused, he could feel faint imbuements as well.

They wove through the trimming surrounding the mirror, so fine that they may as well have been woven into the gold like threads. The back of his neck prickled. These imbuements were somehow of an even finer quality than the ones that had been present in the vexing wall he’d destroyed a short while ago.

“Shit. How many years must it have taken to learn something like this? I had no idea imbuements could get this small,” Noah breathed. The urge to touch the mirror was strong — but not strong enough to overwhelm his caution. Touching a suspiciously magical mirror sounded like a great way to somehow get sucked into and trapped within some mirror dimension.

Noah knew within an instant that the imbuements were beyond him. Everyone had things they were good at. He didn’t think he was bad at imbuements per say, but this was on an entirely different level. It was like asking a high schooler to do linear algebra. Sure, there were a few of them that could probably pull it off, but he sure as hell wasn’t one of them.

“I need to show Todd this place. He’d probably never want to leave.”

“Prayer,” Prayer agreed.

Okay. I am starting to think I really should have given him a different name. Prayer is just prayer-ing me constantly, and it’s really getting confusing. What is it, a fucking Pokémon? And why did it decide to stop using literally any other word?

Noah sighed. A pang of pain strummed his heart.

I miss Mascot. I hope that little bugger is screwing with all the people he wants in the afterlife.

He shook his head, returning his focus to the mirror. He couldn’t get distracted. He’d lose even more of the ones he held dear if he wasted too much time in the Citadel. This place was a treasure trove of resources… but he couldn’t let it hold him forever. He had to find a way to get out and bring everyone back here.

“Do you have my key?” Noah asked the mirror, moving from side to side as he tried to scan the contents of the mirror world within it. “I think you do.”

“Prayer,” Prayer said.

“Prayer,” Noah said back, not taking his eyes off the mirror. He shifted the shape of his soul, trying to prod at the mirror.

It did nothing.

Noah considered using Unraveling Disruption but quickly dismissed the idea. He couldn’t afford to risk damaging the imbuements on the mirror. It could sever the connection to whatever world lurked within it, forever sealing the key away.

His jaw clenched.

Damn it. I can’t think of any way at all to test this thing out without just touching it. I’ve escaped from the Line. I’ve escaped from the Beyond. I’m not going to get trapped by a damn piece of furniture.

Noah reached for the mirror. Then he paused. His eyes flicked to Prayer.

Though… it might be smart to test it with someone else first.

Prayer backed up, mandibles clicking as if it could tell what he was thinking. It wouldn’t have been hard to chase the centipede down, but Noah just sighed and looked back to the mirror. There was a chance the whole thing was trapped.

If it were, he’d have a much better chance of finding a way out than Prayer would. Sacrificing his only traveling companion was a bit too cold. Noah’s eyes narrowed. There was only one path before him.

He reached out.

His fingers brushed across the mirror’s surface.

Noah’s back tensed.

He left a smudge on the mirror.

And that was it.

Noah blinked. He pulled his hand back, then touched the silvered surface once more. Nothing happened. It was just like touching a real mirror.

His eyes narrowed.

“Oh, you have to be shitting me.”

The mirror didn’t respond. It was, after all, still a mirror.

***

Noah was starting to get quite hungry.

It had been around four hours since he’d broken into the researcher’s room, and he’d made absolutely no headway in finding a way into the mirror. That hadn’t been due to lack of trying.

He’d tried stepping into the mirror. He’d tried shaping his soul and extending his mind into it. He’d tried shoving Prayer into its depths.

Absolutely nothing worked. The mirror stubbornly refused to allow him entry. Noah even grabbed parts of the dead man’s body and draped them over himself like a grisly cape in an attempt to trick it.

That hadn’t done anything but cover him in corpse-dust make him feel like a psychopath.  

And now Noah was running out of time. His lips and throat were parched. His stomach growled on repeat like a caged tiger. It had been too long since he’d eaten or killed anything… and Prayer could tell as well.

The centipede had backed up against the edge of the room. It watched him with wary eyes, flinching every single time Noah glanced in its direction. But Noah’s hunger wasn’t the only thing ticking over his head.

His patience had run its course. He was getting dangerously close to finding out if he could just slice his way right into the alternate world with Sunder — no matter how likely that was to destroy the mirror and everything within it.

I didn’t break out of the damned Beyond just to get stuck trying to get into a fucking mirror.

Damn. I wish Moxie were here. I bet she’d be able to figure this thing out. Hell, she’d probably love the challenge. It would be right up her alley.

“What do you think?” Noah asked, looking over to Prayer. “How am I supposed to get into this thing?”

Prayer looked from Noah to the mirror. Deep contemplation passed through the centipede’s eyes. It was silent for several long seconds before finally finding the word to speak.

“Prayer.”

Oh, fuck off.

Noah sighed. He squinted at the mirror, chewing his lower lip as he crossed his arms in front of his chest.

Could the Line somehow help me in? I’ve used it to teleport before… but I don’t think that’s the right power here. The mirror is some kind of weird space inside the mirror. That or it’s a place the mirror is connected to. I don’t think it’s an illusion. Either way, I don’t think the Line can ferry me somewhere that I don’t know the actual location of.

He glanced to the crackling tendrils of fractalized white energy that still rose from his shoulders like tendrils ready to strike. The power still hadn’t shown any signs of leaving. It was definitely a part of him, now.

Noah also got the feeling that trying to use the white magic to break into the mirror would just end up destroying it.

He squinted closer at the mirror, studying it in search of any clues that he might have somehow missed before. The room was… well, a room. The same one he was in. Everything was there. The desk, the chair, the rubble, even the remains of the desecrated corpse.

Noah pressed a hand against its cool surface. He brought his face close to the mirror, trying to spot if there was some kind of separation between where his and his reflection’s palm. Nothing was apparent.

He stepped back and crossed his arms in front of his chest again as he studied his own reflection. A stubble-y beard had taken root on his face. The white tendrils coming from his shoulders didn’t have a reflection, but that wasn’t a huge surprise. Other people didn’t seem to be able to see them.

Everything looked right, from his rather beat-up uniform down to his scuffed pants. Even his nameplate was there, slightly askew to one side.

Noah sighed. He reached down to the little metal tag hanging above his breast pocket and adjusted it back into the proper position as he read it through the mirror.

Magus Vermil.

That name was dead, now. He had no reason to use it any longer… but he couldn’t quite bring himself to toss the plate away. It wasn’t even the first one he’d had with Vermil’s name. There shouldn’t have been much sentimental value for a wretched piece of shit like Vermil.

But it wasn’t the name Noah was attached to. It was the memories he’d gotten while using it.

A small smile pulled at the corners of his lips.

And then he froze.

The nametag.

He was reading it.

Through the mirror.

“Why isn’t it reversed?” Noah whispered, a chill running up his back and down his arms.

The mirror didn’t respond.

But this time, Noah didn’t need it to.

He turned around, facing away from the mirror. This wasn’t exactly the same thing as properly inverting himself, but it was his best guess.

And, at this point, his only one.

Noah stepped backward.

His back met the mirror — and the world before him inverted as he passed right through it.