The mirror lurked in front of Andor like a slumbering beast. At first sight it resembled a normal mirror, yet he knew beyond doubt that it was anything but normal. Its surface was eerily calm and deceptively quiet, like a liquid pool of silver. The rectangular frame was made of wood, coated in gold that had dulled with age. The intricate vines etched into the wooden surface looked worn, as if many hands had passed over them in times long gone.

"What do we do now?" Elia whispered.

Andor tossed the sheet over the backrest of a nearby chair and released a long breath. "I'm not sure. I never imagined coming across one of these, and I don't think my mother ever mentioned in her bedtime stories how to actually use the Eternal Silvers."

He was tempted to touch the glassy surface that appeared to oscillate between liquid and solid, but Elia quickly grabbed his arm. "Wait! Don't touch it until we can be sure that it won't be dangerous."

"Why would it be dangerous?" He frowned, the pull inside him towards the mirror becoming stronger with every passing moment.

"I don't know. Unknown magic, maybe? Dark spells? Evil curses? The possibilities are endless." She raised one of her eyebrows at him, her grip on his arm tightening, as if she feared that he was going to leap right into the mirror. "This whole vault appears to be full of dangerous secrets, so I wouldn't be surprised if the mirror carries another one within."

Elia was right, of course, as always.

It was frustrating. Finally, right in front of his eyes, there was a real possibility for him to leave Elysse, and he didn't know how to use it. He let his hand sink and looked around. The way things were going for him it seemed likely that, once again, the answers to his questions might be buried between the pages of a book.

The Ancient One must be enjoying mocking him in a special way.

"What if we look around on the shelves to see if we can find anything about the mirror in one of the books?" he finally brought himself to say. Perhaps with Elia's help the search would not take too long.

"It seems that being around books has finally made you appreciate their value." She shot him a knowing glance, which he chose to ignore. He was so close to being able to slip through Xanthos's tightly woven net, that all he could think of was finding the solution, no matter how. Every moment lost was pushing Rose closer to lethal danger.

"How about you start with those on the left side, while I'll work through the ones on the right?" he suggested, and to his relief, Elia spared him another smart remark and got to work without delay.

He ran his index finger along the spine of each and every book while silently reading out the titles to see if any of them might give him a clue about its contents. But there was nothing about mirrors or magic, only more of the same books he had already encountered on his first visit to this vault — books about herb lore, recollections of adventurous tales, seasonal recipes and the likes.

Minute after minute trickled by and he wasn't getting any closer to unveiling the mirror's secret. Elia had pulled out a few volumes and was now browsing through them on the table, but every time she closed another book with a sigh, he knew that she wasn't getting anywhere either.

"This isn't working." He ran a hand through his hair, staring at the pile of books on the table between them, and then glaring at the mirror which only showed him a reflection of the vault but not a single trace of another world tucked away behind its silvery surface. The initial excitement at having discovered one of the Eternal Silvers had begun to wear off, being replaced by a sense of frustration. Maybe it would have been wiser to sneak through the portal tree and deal with whatever consequences later. He could have found Rose by now, instead of being stuck in this vault, wasting his time with these stupid books.

"Let's not give up yet." Elia tapped a finger to her mouth, her face scrunched up in concentration. "Perhaps we should take another look at the Blackthorn book." She pointed with her chin at the thick leather-bound tome that rested ominously atop its metal chest.

Even though Andor wasn't eager to open up the bearer of bad news again, he had to admit that it might be smart to at least give it a try. Anything to help him find a solution. "Fine, one more attempt, but if that doesn't yield any result, then I'm going to simply touch that mirror and see what happens. Drakon and his cronies have had enough of a head start. I'm not going to keep risking Rose's life by being afraid of a dusty mirror in an ancient vault."

Andor was prepared to counter another one of Elia's cutting remarks about how he was being unreasonable and impatient, but she kept her mouth shut and pulled the book towards her, silently leafing through the pages one by one. Andor joined her on the other side of the table, peering over her shoulder, yet trying to keep up with her pace was becoming difficult. Her eyes seemed to literally fly over the pages and she was done with one of them while Andor was still dragging through the opening paragraph. So he decided to let her work through the book, while he took to investigate the metal chest.

He played around with the lid, ran his fingers over the carvings of flowers and berries. Peering further inside, a small indentation at the bottom right corner caught his attention. They had both been so absorbed with the book that they hadn't noticed this slight imperfection in the otherwise pristine silver surface at the bottom of the chest. It wasn't much larger than a pinhead, but it was enough to fit in the nail of his little finger. He wiggled it around slowly, barely daring to breathe when he felt the metal give in.

"What is it?" Elia had joined him, the book now forgotten on the table, as he began to lift the silver plate. "A false bottom," she whispered, her excitement barely contained, when she realised what he had discovered.

"So it seems." He pushed up the plate with his finger and stared at what lay beneath it. A piece of paper, neatly folded into a small rectangle. He exchanged a glance with Elia. She only looked at him and shrugged, so he took that as a yes to go ahead. He picked it up and turned it around in his hand. There was nothing written on the outside, no name, no seal, nothing.

"Come on, open it," Elia urged him on, trying to snatch the paper from his hand.

"No warning about a potential danger?" He held the paper out of her reach.

"It's just a paper." She folded her arms in front of her chest and drew her eyebrows together.

"Fine, if you say so." He gave her a small smirk and then unfolded the paper as slowly as possible. Only the fact that his fingers were trembling gave away the fact that he wasn't doing this purely for show but that his nerves were rather shaken already.

"An inventory list? Is this a joke? It says the Eternal Silver needs to be unlocked." He pushed the paper into Elia's outstretched hand and gave the table such an angry kick that his big toe throbbed in pain. "I thought we were going to find some secret spell or a description on how to use this damned mirror, but no, someone thought it to be necessary to scribble a list of every single item in this vault on a paper, adding some cryptic words, and stuff it into a fancy chest." This was a complete waste of time. He shouldn't have even come here, and instead should have tried to find another way to leave Elysse unnoticed.

"It needs to be unlocked," Elia repeated what he had just read, but the words still didn't make any sense to him. He didn't know any spells to unlock a magical mirror.

"But it doesn't say how." He walked up to the mirror and waved his hands in front of it. Nothing happened, of course.

Elia joined him in front of the mirror and let the paper sink. "What if it's meant literal? You need to unlock it with something that opens locks." Her eyes were bright with the light of realisation.

"The key, of course!" Andor slapped his palm on his forehead. Why hadn't he thought about it earlier? The key hadn't only opened the vault itself, but also the metal chest, so why shouldn't it also work to somehow unlock the mirror and release its magic?

"Let's try this." He pulled out the chain with the key from under his tunic and glanced at Elia to reassure himself that she approved.

"Yes," she said, nodding.

Removing the chain from his neck, he slowly moved the key towards the silvery surface, feeling quite stupid, as there was no indication of a keyhole or anything alike.

"Please let this work! Please let this work!" he repeated silently in his head, while he fought to keep his hand steady as he gradually approached the mirror. His heart thumped in his chest and even Elia seemed to hold her breath. The vault was deadly silent, which made the rushing of his blood sound like a roaring river in his ears.

There was only a hair's breadth between the key and the silvery surface, when he gave it the final push. The tip of the key prodded gently against something that wasn't completely solid, but was also far from being liquid. Whatever it was, it suddenly gave way and the key slid in, glowing bright like a little star. Elia gasped beside him, as the mirror emitted a low humming sound and a swirling mist began to pool behind the surface.

Andor quickly pulled away the key and slung the chain around his neck again, while he watched with equal amounts of awe and trepidation as the mirror awoke to life before his eyes.

At first, he saw nothing. It was like looking into a fog so dense he could have cut it with a knife, but then! There! Wasn't there a pair of sky-blue eyes staring back at him? But before he could look again, whatever it was that he had seen, disappeared again and was swallowed by the white fog.

"Did ... did you just see what I saw?" Elia whispered.

Andor swallowed, nodding silently. "Do you think the mirror shows us where Rose is?" He was trying to peek through the milky fog that only seemed to lift at snail's pace, gradually revealing the outline of a table, wooden chairs, and something that might be an armchair. There was also a person moving away from the mirror, but it didn't look like Rose at all. As a matter of fact, it looked like a man, not a woman.

"I cannot remember much of the lore surrounding the mirrors, but I do know that there needs to be another matching one in the Upper World for someone to pass through."

"So, theoretically this could be anywhere then?"

"Yes, but the magic might work in your favour. Perhaps it can guide you close to where you need to be." Elia peered into the mirror and then the man on the other side came back towards the mirror, rubbing a hand over his mouth as if he worried about something. He lifted his head and stared directly at them.

It was too late for Andor and Elia to hide.

Behind his glasses, the man's eyes widened in shock. He stumbled backwards, nearly knocking over one of the chairs behind him.

"What do we do now? Who is this man and why is he gaping at us like he has seen a ghost?"

"Perhaps he isn't used to seeing elves?" Elia retorted, narrowing her eyes and putting her ear close to the mirror's surface. "I also think that the mirror only allows us to see what is on the other side, but does not transmit any sound."

Elia was right. Now that Andor observed the scene in the mirror it was clear that he couldn't hear anything, while the image had now cleared up considerably. The mirror appeared to be in another vault in a library, although definitely more modern and human-looking. There were books, lots of them, stacked atop each other, either piled up on the floor, or placed on shelves.

Great, he would be going from one library to another. 

The man was still staring at them in disbelief, but didn't dare approach the mirror and only observed them from a safe distance.

"Well, then. I better get going. Wherever this might lead me, it surely is outside Elysse, and that is where I need to be."

Elia didn't seem wholly convinced. "This man might be a problem." She pointed at the human with her chin.

"But we don't have time to try finding another mirror. Drakon is getting closer to Rose as we speak."

Elia wagged her head and was about to say something else, when suddenly the man dashed from the vault as if he was being chased by a dragon.

"This is my chance," Andor exclaimed, and adjusting his tunic, prepared himself to step through.

"Wait!" Elia grabbed his sleeve and pulled him back. "What if this man went to get help, like guards, or warriors, or whatever it is that humans have. You might be running right into their arms."

"What do you suggest that I should do then? I'm not letting this chance go by." This was ridiculous. He was here, right in front of one of the Eternal Silvers, so close to crossing to the other side, and now there was yet another obstacle to contend with.

Elia peered into the mirror, then back at him. Then she said, "Have you considered using the Elantymon to talk to Rose?"

"No, I haven't. Remember, she doesn't want to speak to me. She made that very clear when she left."

"Things could have changed since then. Perhaps her curiosity has gotten the better of her, and she might be intrigued enough to find out how it works."

Andor sighed and shook his head. "You are being overly optimistic. She might have even gotten rid of it." Perhaps Nebula had reached Rose by now and had been able to talk some sense into her. He wiped that thought from his mind before it could turn into a foolish hope that would unavoidably be crushed again.

"I still think you should attempt it at least once. If it doesn't work, then by all means, hop into the mirror and try your luck on the other side."

"Fine." Andor reached into the pocket of his tunic and pulled out the hemisphere made of rose-quartz, cradling it in the palm of his hand. It warmed at his touch, the mist that floated right under the surface swirling like a tiny maelstrom eager to break free.

"Rose," he whispered, staring at the Elantymon in his hand and feeling considerably silly, as he did not expect anything to happen. He held it even higher, closer to his face, and peered into the polished pink surface. Nothing. No image, no voice, no reaction whatsoever.

"Try it again," Elia urged him on.

He opened his mouth to say something when suddenly the man stormed back into the vault on the other side of the mirror. Only this time he wasn't alone. Andor's heart stopped in his chest and he nearly dropped the Elantymon. There weren't any soldiers, warriors, or guards with him. Someone else was by his side.

Rose.