Klaus stood with his hands clenched tightly and pressed against his chest. Giovanna stood with her arms crossed at the end of the Hall of Mirrors, the sound of her foot tapping impatiently echoing off the walls. Klaus looked away from her and down at his clenched fists. He opened his hands and stared at the two glass shards and the bleeding cut on his palm. His blood leaked out and pooled around the shards, seeming to disappear into them. “Hurry up!” Giovanna called, turning on her heel, her long black hair fanning out around her as she left the hall. Klaus closed his fist around the shards again and cast another look at the shattered mirror. Slowly, he made his way through the Hall.
“Reflections, you’re slow.” When Klaus exited the Hall, Giovanna was leaning against the wall, scowling. Giovanna reached out and grabbed his wrist, “come on, walk faster.”
Klaus ripped his arm out of her grip and snarled, “don’t fucking touch me!”
For a tense moment, the two silently glared at each other, their hands hanging in the air between them. Klaus tightened his fist a little more and a drop of blood squeezed out, hitting the floor. Klaus lowered his hand and broke the silence, “what’s a Mirror Warrior?”
Giovanna rolled her eyes and lowered her hand as well, “I’m a Mirror Warrior. And now so are you. We are people who have broken one of the Bridge Mirrors that connect worlds and we are forced to fight the mindless, all-consuming monsters called Images that terrorize some of the worlds, leaking out from the spaces in between them.” Giovanna’s voice became detached and monotone as she explained, “we use Shards from the mirrors we broke and Angelicas to fight them.”
“What’s an Angelica?”
“You met Ruel, the person with the wings.” Klaus nodded, “Well, they’re an Angel, kinda like a manager of Mirror Warriors. They get orders directly from the Three Reflections, the gods of the space between worlds and the Bridge Mirrors and Angelicas... are what happens when an Image eats an Angel.”
“Eats?” Klaus felt a thrill of disgust laced with fear go through him and shuddered.
“I said they were all-consuming, didn’t I? Anyways, Angelicas have an even lower status than us and have to follow our orders.”
“But if they were Angels...?”
“They aren’t. Angelicas are their own species, completely different.” Giovanna cut Klaus off impatiently, “Now, will you come with me to Ruel’s office?”
A sneer pulled at Klaus’s face once more before it relaxed into a pondering pout, his straight, dark brows furrowed, “what did you mean by ‘an eternity’?”
Giovanna bared her teeth in a mocking smile, “Congratulations, once Ruel fully initiates you, you’ll be functionally immortal. No more aging. Immune to poisons and disease. Hell, you’ll even be able to survive most injuries that would kill a normal person.” Giovanna spoke quickly, a sneer overtaking her features, “the only catch is they are never letting you go. So the only way you’ll ever be free is if an Image bites off your pretty little head.”
