“It sounds worse than death,” I remarked.
“I would imagine so,” Cassiel stated solemnly. “Because of this, we only use portals when absolutely necessary, as working with the Mirror Realm can be very risky. Once you get stuck, there’s no escaping.”
“So why do it at all?” I asked.
“Because when fighting a war, sometimes, the benefits outweigh the risk,” Cassiel replied.
“What else is there to know about mirrors?” I ran my hand over another flat surface. “None of these mirror portals are activated, so I assume it’s something that can be turned on and off?”
“Yes,” Cassiel said. “An Elf must activate their portal, and then it stays open for just a few moments as the Elf passes through. You can take others with you, but an Elf must lead them through. You couldn’t create a mirror portal, then walk away and expect it to remain active.”
“How big does the mirror have to be?” I asked. “These mirrors are all large enough to walk through, but Eddie portaled us to Ilamanthe with a mirror he had in his pocket.”
“We can use pocket mirrors, but they are a little trickier,” Cassiel said. “One must use it toprojectthe portal, reflecting the portal from the mirror itself onto the landscape. There must always be a reflective surface on the other end to portal through. You will soon learn that technique. Today, I want you to work on portaling through one of these mirrors to another on the other end of the hall. Do you think you can do that?”
I laughed nervously. “I can’t make any promises. In theory, this all sounds great, but I don’t know the first thing about how to actually achieve it. What if I get stuck like you mentioned?”
“I didn’t warn you about the Mirror Realm to scare you,” Cassiel said. “You are an exceptionally strong Elf. Traveling through mirrors should not be difficult for you. I simply wish to pass my knowledge on to you. Think of mirror portals like your battle magic. It’s just another tool, and if you misuse it, it can do considerable damage. But if you use it responsibly, it can give you an advantage over your enemies.”
I stepped up to the mirror on the end and pressed my hand to the glass surface. “So, how do I do it?”
“As with illusions, it simply takes imagination,” Cassiel explained. “Picture this mirror connecting with another. Imagine the glass melting beneath your fingers, allowing you passage.”
I shrugged. “Sounds easy enough.”
I did as he instructed and pictured my hand melding with the mirror and coming out the other side through a mirror at the other end of the hall.
Nothing happened.
I tried again. Still, the glass beneath my palm remained solid.
I stepped back to think it through. I could feel my grandfather’s curious gaze on me, but I ignored it. He wanted me to be strategic. I could try.
He also said I had tounderstandthe tools I was working with. All right. I could do that, too.
He didn’t say anything as I walked to the other end of the hall and felt the mirrors along the way. I stopped at the one on the end— my target. I was going to portal from the mirror on the other end of the hall to this one, but I had to understand where I was going first.
After feeling around for a while and getting an idea of what I was aiming for, I returned to the first mirror. I splayed my palm over it and imagined stepping through the mirror, and pictured myself coming out of the other across the hall.
Still, nothing happened.
“It’s not working,” I complained. Anger bubbled up inside of me again. I still wasn’t totally over what had happened earlier, and my frustration only grew.
“Keep trying,” Cassiel explained.
I drew a deep breath and tried again. This time, I pictured the entire hall bending to my will, imagining the mirrors connecting through space and becoming one. That was essentially how this magic worked, wasn’t it?
The mirror remained solid, and I got even more frustrated. My grandpa didn’t say anything as I tried to work it out, but I knew he was waiting for something to happen. I couldn’t let him down. I had to prove to him I could do this. If I couldn’t create a simple mirror portal, I certainly couldn’t sit on the throne once he and my father stepped down.
“You’ve got this, Charlie,” Cassiel encouraged. “All it takes is understanding and a bit of reality manipulation.”
Something occurred to me, and it made my anger flare. “Then maybe that’s the problem,” I said, smacking my palm onthe solid glass. “You say that like it’s so simple, but maybe I can’t manipulate reality the way that you can, because I don’texperienceit the same. You can look down the hall and see all these mirrors lined up, but I can only experience one at a time. I don’t know how to combine these mirrors into one point in space at the same time, because I can’t experience them all at once! I don’t have any sight!”
I never used my disability as an excuse, but it was the only thing that made sense right now. Cassiel said this should be simple, and I was the greatest Elf to ever live, so why couldn’t I do it like everyone else?
Cassiel spoke calmly. “You’re reacting to your anger. Feel your rage in your body, but instead of releasing it right away, turn it into strategy.”
“I don’t know what thatmeans,” I insisted, whirling toward him. My foot hit a rock, and it went skidding a few feet away. “You’re telling me what to do without giving me the steps to get there. I’ve got one mirror on this end of the room and another over there, but the steps between them aren’t making any sense.”
