Lena pointed at the mirror, and Ariadne followed the movement of her fingers as she drew strange runes in the air, across the length of the mirror. They crossed over each other, forming an X, and the surface stopped wavering.

"What did you just do?" Ariadne asked warily.

"I made sure for the duration of your first lesson, that no one could use this mirror as a portal into Altoria, the mirror realm like the others is a two way travelling system." Lena replied.

"You mean people can visit there, but that others from that realm, might also be able to travel, here?" Ariadne shuddered.

"Yes, the veil just acts as a barrier, travellers," Lena pointed at herself, then at Ariadne "cast a door in the veil, or use any mirror blessed by magic." She finished.

Ariadne nodded. Everything was backwards to her, she had spent all of her life living like a human, only to be forced back into a world full of consequences if she used her magic. Of course she was wary of it all.

"Those runes you drew across the mirror... Will I have to learn to make them?"

"Yes, but one step at a time. Kallen does not know of our bargain, and I would hate to see he found out because you died," Lena walked over to a low table and poured a glass of wine from a crystal decanter.

Ariadne sputtered and coughed.
"I could die?"

"Do not be so naive, death is a mercy compared to what being trapped in the mirror realm is like," Lena drank the whole glass in one go.

Ariadne paced the room slowly, taking in everything, before she settled on a low chair near the mirror. A small table had been moved between the space next to the hanging mirror, the dirt tracks were evident across the otherwise immaculate floor. The tome sat in the middle, while an empty glass of water sat on a tray, a small bowl of fresh fruits next to it.

Ariadne picked up a ripe, rosy apple and took a bite out of it. It had a slight sour tang to it, but they quickly gave way to sweet, refreshing apple juices. It dripped over her fingers and down her chin. Lena pulled a napkin from a small pile and handed Ariadne one.

"Thanks."

Lena snapped her fingers, and a matching chair appeared on the other side of the table. Lena gracefully sank into it, crossing her legs. Her gown, if you could call it that, split at the top of her legs and revealed long legs, and rich brown skin. The tattoos that wound up her arms also wrapped around a leg. They probably connected all the way down her ribs, without a single break.

Ariadne caught herself, and took another bite of her apple. Awkward silence filled the spacious room, as Lena's breathing filled the gaps in conversation.

Lena closed her eyes, and placed her hands, palms up on her knees.

Ariadne continued to bite around the core of her fat apple. Lena's breathing slowed, and for a moment, Ariadne thought she stopped breathing. Ariadne panicked, and put down her apple. She rose from her chair, ready to shake Lena's slender shoulders.

"Sit, back, down," Lena's voice was almost trance like, calm.

Ariadne slowly lowered back down into her chair. She picked up her apple and went to take a bite.

"Leave the Apple," Lena's eyes shot open.

Instead of the twin turquoise oceans churning there, her eyes had turned almost silver. It was otherworldly and threatening, Ariadne gripped the table as she fell over the side of her chair. Cold seeped through Ariadnes thick dress, and she struggled to get up.

Lena approached her and outstretched a hand. Ariadne shook her head.

"I'm fine. Give me a minute..."

"It is my eyes, yes?"

Ariadne nodded furiously.

"The first time I saw them change, I thought I had gone blind. It is the curse I bare as a traveller." Lena's voice was a deeper windchime.

Ariadne brushed off her skirt and stood up.

"They do not frighten me, but I won't lie and say they don't look... Different."

Lena chuckled, and sat back in her seat.

"I'm guessing there's a reason for them?" Ariadne questioned.

Lena nodded and poured a half glass of wine. This time, she sipped it slowly, before emptying the glass again.

"A traveller does not just see new realms, they see new worlds, and the places... Things. Animals, the monsters trapped inbetween them. Without my "traveller's" eyes, I would be left blind and vulnerable."

"There are things that even you- us Fae can't be protected against?" Ariadne realised she was Fae now.

It had finally hit home, and she fiddled with the pearls at her wrists. No doubt freshwater ones. Her mind raced ahead of her. Fae were the most dangerous race, every history book she had ever read told the humans so. To hear otherwise, meant that Ariadne was left in the dark, stumbling through a new world she barely knew anything about.

Lena's light cough broke through her thoughts.

"Yes, but the eyes of a traveller see the veil, they pierce through anything that might choose to hide. They give us an advantage no one else would have."

Ariadne swallowed back the tang of fear and the waft of sulphur that tickled her nose. Knowledge was power, and she craved knowledge like a starving man.

Lena looked over the mirror hanging from the heavy chains, her gaze turned thoughtful as she slowed her breathing once again. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, Ariadne was grateful to see twin orbs of turquoise.

Ariadne breathed a sigh of relief.

"You will get used to them eventually," Lena poured a third glass of wine.

Ariadne took a sip of her water. The cool water slipped down her throat like a soothing elixir.
"I'll get eyes like that, when we eventually travel through the realm?"

"Yes. Kallen has yet to decide if he will accompany us. Despite his many shortcomings, and he has many, being an unskilled traveller is not one of them," Lena replied.

Ariadne frowned. Kallen hadn't told her anything about himself since she had arrived. She was quickly learning that trusting him, and his word was stupid at best, and incredibly life threatening at the worst.

Ariadne sighed.
"I can't put everything between us aside, but-" she hesitated "If what you say is true. I'm going to need all the help mastering this new skill," Ariadne finished.

Lena nodded solemnly.

"Will anyone else be travelling with us?" Her curiousity got the better of her when she asked.

"Lord Redwood and Iyrena, that is all. The smaller the party we travel with, the less chance of being noticed."

Ariadne scratched the back of her neck, it made sense in the long run, but one thing tugged at her gut and the pain that throbbed there grew.

"Why Lord Orin?"

Lena hesitated before she answered. Ariadne tilted her head, hesitation on Lena's part was unusual. In all the time she had known her, which was very little time at all, Ariadne had come to admire Lena's lack of it. For her to hesitate now, she was holding back something. Ariadne needed to know.

"Please. Why Lord Orin?" Ariadne gently pushed.

Lena looked at the mirror again, and Ariadne turned to gaze at it too. The surface was beginning to shimmer at the edges. Lena tensed up, her shoulders immediately crept up to her neck. Her knuckles turned white as her grip on the wine glass tightened. The glass burst around her hand as it broke. The shards nicked Lena's skin and blood beaded across her knuckles.

"Lena!" Ariadne snapped.

Lena jumped, as if startled from a trance. The mirror began to rattle and shake, as the chains wailed and creaked. Lena's face paled, and the colour drained from her eyes, the swirling waves turned grey, almost tempestuous.

In a move that was skill and speed all rolled into one, Lena was next to the mirror, she bent down to the floor and gripped an edge of the tapestry.

"Help me! Quickly!" Lena yelled.

Ariadne stumbled from her chair and raced over to Lena's side. The chains creaked loudly and the mirror's surface began to warp. The runes across the mirror began to glow. Some split and disappeared. Ariadne's breathing began to speed up erratically.

Lena chucked the other edge of the tapestry at Ariadne, she barely caught it.

"Help me throw this over the mirror. Quickly, now!"

Ariadne looked to Lena, and she nodded. They jumped at the same time, and the world around them seemed to slow as Ariadne pushed off from the ground. The tapestry cascaded over the mirror and the shaking lessened to weak tremors. The chains however, seemed wail harder.

"Ari! Step back! Now," Lena's voice was a frantic yell.

Ariadne obeyed, and turned to run. This time, she lifted her skirt and raced behind the chairs, a safe distance away from the mirror. Ariadne watched as Lena snapped her fingers and an iron hammer all but plastered with runes appeared in her hand. Lena took a deep a breath and her arms swung above her head, with her breath out, she swung the hammer down.

In a great smash of glass, the mirror shattered. The noise muffled by the thick tapestry. It covered most of the shattered glass, but a few shards escaped and skittered along the floor. Ariadne side stepped them artfully.

Lena blew out a heavy breath and walked back to Ariadne, the hammer in her hand. Now that the runes along it had stopped glowing, Ariadne could see the red cast that coated it's Iron body. The handle was a mahogany wood shaft about four inches thick, wrapped with a faded brown leather grip.

A single, large rune sat on either side of the twin heads. It was the same rune that sat at the bottom of her bathing pool.

"What the hell was that!"

Lena huffed and placed the hammer on the floor. As soon as it touched the floor, it disappeared. Lena stood up to her full height, and swept a hand across her forehead.

"That? That was your first lesson. Albeit, and unplanned one," Lena sighed.

"WHAT!! Why did you smash the mirror?"

"Someone, or something tried coming through. Whatever it was, it was powerful enough to break the wards I had placed on it." Lena blew out a breath and continued. "Rule number one, the only way to stop anyone from coming back through a door? Smash it."

"Wait, don't you mean the runes?"

"Yes, the runes create the wards. The wards that should have prevented exactly that!" Lena snapped.

Ariadne recoiled.

"I apologise. I did not mean to snap at you."

Ariadne shrugged.
"It's fine."

"No. No, it is not. Kallen will need to hear about this. Every mirror in the castle will need to be covered, this is not right," Lena ran a frustrated hand through her hair.

"Lena, how many mirrors are there in the castle?" Ariadne's stomached dropped.

"Counting all of them, not excluding those that could become doorways... Two hundred and thirty," Lena groaned.

"All of them are blessed by magic?" Ariadne shivered.

Lena looked down at her feet.

"Shit!"Ariadne muttered.

Ariadne looked down at her own feet. A shard of glass lay right in front of her. It's point was a hairs breadth away from her slippered toe. The surface was an opaque black colour, all traces of magic gone.

Except for one big red eye, emblazoned on the surface of it forever. The pupils were a pure, endless abyss. Darker than even Kallen's. It was deep set under a scaled brow. It slowly blinked before disappearing. Ariadne couldn't look away.