From the open door charged a host of fancily dressed ladies and gents. Their posh suits and sparkling dresses flooded the space around me in a cacophony of gasps and awes. Divide attempting to hold back the invading hoard found herself pinned against the wall. The crowd pulled me off the table. My leg surprisingly did not hurt as my feet landed on the floor.

"My my," said one frilly laced gentleman peering at me closely through his monocle. He ran his fingers through my hair. "Dry, split, frizzed. Ugh. This hair will certainly not do." He whipped out a comb and began forcefully ripping it through my hair undoing everything Divide had already done. My screams of pain were drowned out by other voices judging my sorry state.

"Dearie, dear," gasped a lady with an overabundance of white makeup and an extravagant wig. "This blue dress they picked out for her will not do. It will clash with her skin. Bring the wardrobe!" Two men carrying a large wooden crate over their heads arrived by her side. The lady opened it and began sorting through stacks of folded dresses. "No, not this one," she cried, throwing the dress across the room and on top of other people attending to me. "Definitely not this one."

"You must bite your nails," said another woman rubbing her thumbs over my fingers. "Disgusting habit. This will not do." She unlocked a kit attached to her hip and began pressing on colorful nails.

Every time I tried to speak my discontent another voice would interrupt me.

"What are y--" I stuttered.

"Someone cover those bandages on her legs!" yelped one voice. "Stockings! Get the stockings!"

"Hey uh--" I called.

"Lace more lace!" gripped another.

"Can you not--" I pleaded.

"Blush! She needs more blush!"

At long last I managed to get a sentence out.

"Excuse me!" I cried pushing two women off me. "Stop it, please!" Everyone halted and looked at me. "What are you people doing here?"

"Why we are here for you," said a lady carrying a giant perfume bottle. "We are the royal dressing party. The king's advisors sent us to make you presentable."

"Did they now," I said sarcastically.

"Someone get me the enchanted comb," demanded the man with the monocle. "Her hair needs some serious dousing." I reached behind and grabbed the man's arm before he could do one more painful tug on my hair.

"I don't need all this pampering," I said. "I will appear before the king looking like myself."

"Nonsense, Mirrorbender," said the lady with heavy makeup. "You can't appear before court and king looking so trifled, so common, so black clover."

"Court and king?" I said confusingly. "I thought I was speaking with just the king." Everyone began to laugh.

"Such a ridiculous notion," chuckled a lady with a stuffed parrot in her hair.

"How utterly amusing," laughed a man in a high collared vest.

"Purely outsider ignorance," joked another. I didn't find my comments at all funny, but before I could get another word out, the makeup lady wacked my face with a cloud of foul smelling powder. I coughed.

"My dear, Mirrrobender," cried the voice of the woman with the large wig. She motioned to two other women as they shoved a poofy yellow dress over my head. "No one speaks to the king without going through The Court of High Heels. Fail to gain their favor, and you will be thrown out like last year's prince. It's why we were sent. To dress you like a goddess and make you turn heads. Fashion is everything to the court."

The man with the monocle saw his opportunity while I was distracted and did one final swish with his comb. In a gravity defying leap my hair bounced up and formed into a tall updo complete with curls and braids.

"Done!" he cried flinging the comb at the wall. "Magnificent!"

I looked down at myself. My legs had been covered in long white stockings. A pair of yellow heels poked out from beneath the massive frilly mess of lace and tulle that one would dare call a dress. My face heavy with makeup cracked and shifted with each twitch of my disapproving lips. If I could see myself now, I was certain I looked like a porcelain doll ripped right off the shelf of an antique store. All I was missing to complete the look was a giant bow in my hair.

"Our work here is complete," said the lady with the perfume. She gave me one last squirt of the flowery substance and rushed out of the room along with the rest of the ladies and gents. Divide shut the door, looked at me, and burst out laughing.

"Oh god," she said clutching her stomach. "You look awful."

"Shut it!" I cried yanking the gloves off my arms. "Those people are mad."

"Just wait till you meet the court. You'll see how mad people here really are."

I twirled and tripped, catching myself on the table. "I can't wear this. I look like a clown. And these shoes will be the death of me." I kicked off the high heels. "Now help me get this horrid thing off. The king just wants to humiliate me." Divide skipped next to me and began scrubbing makeup off my face with a damp rag. Suddenly another knock sounded from the door. "Oh lord, who could it be now? The royal entourage?"

The door opened and Heist poke his head in.

"May we come in?" he asked.

"Thank god it's you," I cried. "Please come in. Don't mind my terrible state."

He entered along with Owen, Zeno, and Gorin at the rear. Owen rushed up to me and smiled.

"Wow," he said biting his knuckles. "Definitely not your style."

"Tell me about it," I responded sarcastically. Suddenly Owen reached out and gave me a big hug. My eyes grew in alarm and my cheeks blushed. "Nice to see you again," I said with a nervous hesitation in my voice.

"You scared us," he said letting go. "I saw the stones falling and the bear reaching out. I thought for a moment we lost you."

"You were stupendous!" shouted Zeno raising his arms high in the air. "As my mother used to say, 'If ever you come to a rip you cannot mend, you are probably using the wrong thread.'"

"What does that mean?" I asked. Hijinx popped his head out of Zeno's hat.

"It is tailor talk for tough problems may be solved with simple solutions." The cat meowed and gave me a big grin. "But in this instance the phrase may be taken literally. A proper thread solved the problem. Great to see you well, Hope."

"Even if it was sevanter magic that made it happen," cried Gorin raising his long snout, "it was still my plan that saved the day. Don't no one forget it."

"I must admit," said Heist shoving his hands into his pockets and leaning against a table. "I had my doubts about the plan, but you all made it work."

The room grew silent as Divide appeared from behind me.

"What an interesting group of friends you have helping you, Hope," said Divide. "A Red Heart soldier, a wilder, a fairy in the form of a cat, a thief, and a sevanter."

"Who are you?" asked Owen his voice becoming stern and serious. He studied Divide up and down. "I don't recall meeting you."

"She's the one who knocked the silver tray into the arena and saved all of our skins," I cried. Divide bowed at the waist. "Everyone, this is Divide. She is a prisoner here like us and wants to help out. She will be joining our troupe."

"Temporarily," added Divide. "I want out of this city just as much as you lot. Whatever plans you guys have after leaving this city is none of my concern, but I know escaping from Blackstone is impossible to do alone." Divide turned to me. "So before the rest of the Red Hearts arrive and take us into custody, what's the plan moving forward?"

"We don't have one," I said, glancing around at all the shrugging shoulders. "Our main objective was to get out of the prison and gain an audience with the king. We accomplished that much. Now I'm not sure."

"I refuse to go back to that damp prison cell," gripped Gorin; his whiskers twirling about as he imagined the terrible place.

"Same for me," said Zeno. "I cannot stand another day of not using my magic."

"Speaking of your magic," I said pointing to my outfit. "Zeno, can you maybe do something about this horrid dress?"

"I was hoping you would ask that," cried Zeno, jumping to my side. "The royal dressmaker must hate his job."

Divide crossed her arms and tapped her foot impatiently.

"So you're telling me y'all planned that whole battle sequence in the arena just to get an audience with the king while having no idea what to do if you succeeded?"

"We were going to come up with something," said Owen. "I'm just happy we got this far."

"The king is not going to just let you free like birds to the sky," said Divide rolling her eyes. "If it were that easy I would have put in a request for departure long ago."

"So what do you suggest," said Owen. "Not that I trust you yet. I mean I barely trust this guy." Owen pointed to Heist.

"I thought helping you out of the colosseum dungeon was enough trust on my part," said Heist looking heartbroken.

"Really?" snapped Owen. "You're still a Juprus soldier. What do you have to gain from helping us? You're just putting your life and job on the line for a couple of fugitives."

Heist raised an angry finger at Owen.

"My whole life," he began, "I've been told that the innocent should be protected. Yet since I became a soldier I've protected and allowed greedy men steal from the poor and watched corrupt leaders condemn the helpless. I was tired of helping the worst of Juprus's ranks. There was no justice there. When I saw how kind and innocent Hope was, the good part of me took over and found purpose. Sure I can be executed for helping a Mirrorbender or aiding in the escape of a prisoner, but at least I will die knowing in my final days I did what was right for the world."

"Commendable," said Divide nodding approvingly. "But also stupid. Though it is rare to find good people nowadays, especially in this city. All help is appreciated."

"Indeed," said Heist.

"So not to interrupt this heartfelt moment," hissed Hijinx, "But to get back on the subject of escaping."

"It is simple is it not?" asked Divide looking at me. "We pretend to do what the king wants, find an adequate mirror for Hope to use, and with a swish of her Mirrorbender magic she scrys us out of the city. I had heard of the Mirrorbender's ability to cross reflections and seeing in action earlier only proved what Hope is capable of."

I shook my head.

"It's not that simple," I said twiddling my thumbs. "You saw what happened to the bear. I scryed him only a short distance and he came out torn and bloody. I've never travel scryed successfully without my own mirror. If I make a mistake like that to us, I could kill us or at best horribly mangle us."

"Xuxa still has your mirror attached to her hip," said Heist. "I couldn't snag it from her."

"And on top of escaping we also need to free the fairies from their prison," I added. "I couldn't live with myself knowing they are all counting on me and I abandoned them. What if they end up like that bear? Changed and sent into battle for sport?"

"We can't do all those things," said Owen with a sigh. "Sacrifices have to be made. We have to focus on saving ourselves. If that means scrying out of here without saving the fairies, then we must consider leaving them behind."

"I don't agree with that," I said, raising my chin in protest. "Those fairies down in the dungeon are our friends."

"Hope," said Owen, softly. "I mean this in the nicest of ways. You can't save everyone. But by saving yourself, those fairies may still have a chance."

"We shall see," I said looking down at Zeno weaving his fingers through my dress. He had already made some significant improvements to the fit and design. Divide clapped her hands.

"So it's decided. Our top priority should be to get Hope's mirror back."

"Retrieving it from the general's side will be no easy feat," said Heist pacing back and forth. "Xuxa will never just hand it to us."

"You can get close to the general," stated Owen. "You know her pattern of work. Her vulnerabilities. She trusts you."

"You underestimate Xuxa," said Heist dropping his arms to his side. "The arena would have been the perfect time to snag the mirror but there was that incident with the bear lunging out of it that made snagging it impossible."

"And that's my fault," I said. "I couldn't think of any other reflective surface during that moment."

"Well it did give the king a nasty fright," meowed Hijinx. He stretched his furry neck and chuckled. "I quite enjoyed it."

"Yes," said Heist, "but an opportunity like that comes few and far between. We will have to find some way to distract Xuxa again."

"In the meantime," said Gorin grunting and squeaking as he crawled on a chair. "We must keep suspecion away from our plan. Hope will kiss up to the king and do what he wants. The moment he finds her useless he will toss us all back into the dungeon. Then there will be no chance at escape."

"I barely kiss up to my mother," I said. "But if it benefits us, I'll do it."

"Then it is settled," said Divide. "We will each do our part to keep Hope in the king's good graces and while we have his attention we find some way to distract the general to retrieve Hope's mirror. Then once we have her mirror, she transports us out of the city."

"This will require a full use of our abilities," said Owen. "We don't have any weapons and our magic is limited. I can still sneak by easily unnoticed without magic. What about the rest of you."

"And I can weave," said Zeno.

"And I can think," said Gorin.

"And I can divide and conquer," said Divide.

Smiles filled the room. I had never felt this type of bond with anyone before let alone a whole group.

"What should we call our little band of renegades," said Heist. "Seems only fitting we have a name."

"I have one but it's a bit silly," I said.

"Go on," hissed Hijinx flicking his tail. "Tell us. Tell us."

"How about we call ourselves The Mirror Misfits." I shrugged waiting for approval. "All of us are unwanted by the world and yet connected by destiny."

"I like it," said Heist. "Kinda rolls off the tongue."

"Me too," said Zeno. He swished his long sleeves in excitement.

"Eh," said Owen, apprehensively. Zeno jabbed Owen hard with his elbow. He fell to his knees. "What was that for?"

"For a Glasswalker, you're not very supportive," said Zeno. I let out a little laugh.

"I can suggest something else."

"No," moaned Owen hunched over in pain. "Mirror Misfits is good."

Our group shared a short moment of content until the sudden sound of marching and clanging metal echoed from the corridor outside. Hijinx retreated back into Zeno's hat. Our bodies all stiffened and turned towards the door.

"Quickly," cried Heist; his voice cracking under pressure. "Hands up! I have to bind your wrists."

"Let me help," said Zeno. Twirling his fingers over the rope, Zeno made little work to the task. Before the door could burst open our wrists were bound with our backs facing the wall. Divide returned to her little station and pretended to mash herbs in the mortar. From the door entered a horde of soldiers two for each of us and Xuxa; her red blade bouncing against the mirror on her hip. Beyond her slicked black hair she gave Heist a stern look.

"Heist," she called. Heist clapped his heels together and straightened his back. He saluted.

"Yes, general?"

"Is the Mirrorbender ready for departure?"

"Ye--"

"I'm ready," I interrupted.

"Splendid," said Xuxa, glancing at my dress. "You clean up well, Mirrorbender. The court will be pleased." She chuckled. "And it seems the royal dressmaker finally made something tasteful this time. Wouldn't you agree tailor?"

Zeno glanced at my dress and nodded.

"I agree," he said with a proud, illustrious grin. "A tasteful dress indeed."