8:12
Patti, Abe, and Dan returned to the center of the maze first. They wandered the circumference of the room, stopping in front of each of the closed windows. Book, bracelet, bird, hard, ribbons. Pausing in front of each, they stared like their focus could help them see past the colored glass.
“Did he get them all?” Patti asked.
Dan tracked his gaze from the open windows to those still closed. “Think so.”
Abe’s vigorous nod sent their hair flying in a poof around their face. “He did. I think he is helping.”
“That’s why I gambled on a Song.”
Abe turned from looking at the window with the book. “Whose idea was it that we can’t use our Magick here?”
“It was mine,” Kim said, walking over to them from the break in the hedge near mirror room. Dempsey, Gwen held up against his chest, emerged from the hedge and strode over to the table, dropping Gwen on it and backing up to point his finger at her. She mustered the energy to roll her eyes and point her finger back, though her entire arm shook with the simple effort.
“It was yours what?” Siobhan asked, coming out of the hedge.
“It was my idea that we can’t replenish our Magick here.” Kim offered in explanation. She turned to look at Abe. “I think I heard it, or something like it, when I was being held by Them.”
Abe’s head bobbed like a buoy in the ocean. “It makes sense. This place has its own Magick. It’s made up of Magick. At least I think it is. But its not our Magick. Its close.” They tapered off to stare at the wall with pursed lips and disfocused eyes before turning back to Kim. “That’s why some of you can manipulate the world The House creates but you can’t draw from it.”
“Oooookay,” Kim drew out. “You’ve thought about this.”
“Haven’t you?” There was such certainty in Abe’s answer, like of course everyone thought really deep thoughts about Magick that wasn’t Magick but was Magick only it was slightly different Magick. And didn’t make their brains hurt doing it. It was easier for Kim to just nod and give a rictus of a smile in response.
Clearly Abe read the expression for what it was as they turned to Dan with a beseeching look. “I’m right. Right?”
Dan poked a toothpick into the corner of his mouth, buying himself a mikro, then said, “Yep.”
“Okay,” Siobhan drew everyone’s eye. “We don’t have time to talk. We need to open the last two windows and then we need to start exploring them.”
Kim flashed her a thumbs up then walked over to the book window. Dan stepped to the right of it and they disengaged the lock and swung the window open to reveal a vast library. Vast. As in… well, vast. Far as the eye could see. Time and space warping optical illusion vast. Kim scissored a look at Dan. “Going to say this is your room.”
Dan was too busy goggling to answer. Abe wandered over, their hands clasped behind their back, and peered into the room. “Big.”
“Yep. Want to help me open the other window?” Kim swept a hand towards the bird window. “Gryphon didn’t touch any of the others. Did somebody catch what he said each time?’
“Not word for word, but the gist.” Patti said. “He broke the lamp. He hid the pieces. Considering he made himself say that then did something to the windows that let us open them? It feels like he’s trying to help.”
“So our next step is to enter the windows,” Siobhan.
“One left to open.” Kim stopped in front of the bird window and cast a look back over her shoulder. “Abe?”
Abe stepped to the right, laid their darkened hand on the frame, and pushed when Kim did. Once the latch disengaged Kim pulled the window towards her while Abe pushed gently so the glass swung easily on its hidden pivot.
“Whoa.” The word came unbidden to Kim’s lips in response to the room revealed.
“Beautiful,” Abe said, their gaze flitting almost as fast as the birds flying around what appeared to be an old-style orangery or, considering the birds, an aviary. The room, as the others were, appeared to be huge. Not large. Huge. So large the frames between the glass panels making up the arch of the roof appeared thread-thin. They couldn’t possibly be. The kind of frame work to hold that much glass would require considerable structure. So the relative delicacy of it had to be an indication of the optical effect of the size of the space. The fact the space contained fully grown trees, their branches spreading majestically over rolling lawns of deep green, was another indication of its size. Even squinting it was hard to see the far side. It would likely take binoculars to easily do so.
“I don’t know which is more beautiful,” Siobhan said from behind Kim’s shoulder where she’d wandered up to when the full scope of the room was exposed. “The garden or this.”
Kim turned her head to look at Siobhan. “Pick one.”
Attention on the trees and the plants growing beyond the window Siobhan’s response was slow. “Pick what?”
“Pick a window. We’re going to need to split up to make this happen. We have,” Kim turned to survey the room and the open windows, “five rooms to search.”
Dan lifted a hand. “Library.”
“Makes sense.” Kim turned to Patti. “Patti?”
“Uh, I don’t know. The painting?”
Abe raised their hand. “I’d like the painting.”
Patti nodded. “Makes more sense. Uhm,” she pivoted to look at the rooms. “I’ll take the birds, I guess.”
“Gwen and I will take the mirrors,” Dempsey called from where he was propped against the table, next to Gwen.
Gwen turned and lifted her brows at him. “What if I don’t want to go with you?”
Kim turned, leaving them to quietly go back and forth. In the end Gwen would probably go with Dempsey. Even if he had to pick her up and carry her through the window. A small smile kicked up the side of Kim’s mouth at that. It was kinda fun watching the big guy carry Gwen around.
“I’ll go to the garden,” Siobhan said.”
“Okay, so that leaves me with-” Kim spun around, finger out, stopping pointing at the central table, “staying here to coordinate, I guess.”
Siobhan frowned. “I could coordinate.”
“Go. Play in a garden. You know you want to. I’ll stay.” Kim tracked her gaze over each of the group. “Everyone got the plan.”
“No,” Patti shook her head vehemently. “Definitely no.”
“Okay.” Shoving her bangs back from her face, Kim looked around the space once more, at the windows, then at the lamp. Striding over to the table she braced her hands on the edge and stare hard at the lamp shade. “We’ve got missing pieces of the lamp. We’ve got rooms with windows that probably match the missing pieces. They have the basic shapes.” She pointed at the image in the sky, “That blob at the end might be a rose.” Tracking her finger to the right she pointed at the first rectangular shape and then the second, “One of the other of those is the book and the painting. That,” she moved her finger past the harp to point at the oval shape next to it, “is obviously the mirror.”
“Obviously,” Patti muttered. Sass tugged her earlobe, peeped, then pointed its arm at the sky. Faced with the mouse’s implied censure, Patti breathed a sigh and focused on the image in the sky. “Sure. Weird rectangle and other weird rectangle are book and painting. Oval thing is mirror.”
Kim looked down from the sky to shoot Patti a look, then returned her attention to the sky and the shape she pointed at near the blob. “That is pretty obviously a bird.”
Patti scratched her neck, nearly dislodging Sass from their perch on her shoulder. “I’ll give you a bird.”
“So-” Kim stopped mid-sentence and focused on the break in the back wall. “Incoming.”
Right before Ben came running out of the hedge, even his inexhaustible energy apparently exhausting to judge by the slow fall of his feet, Kim snapped, “everyone get ready to dive into that entry as soon as Gryphon clears it. If he can’t see us maybe he’ll continue to chase Ivan, Ben, and Prairie.”
As Prairie came dashing in behind Ben, Patti positioned herself to the left of the painting window, using its open plane to hide herself and muttering as she did so, “Shitty for them.”
“Agreed,” Kim whispered as she dropped in behind Patti.
“Shh!” Finger to her mouth, Siobhan ducked into the corner next to Kim.
Dempsey, carrying Gwen, Dan, and Abe ducked behind the cover of the open rose window just as Ivan came jogging out behind Prairie.
“Don’t think he’s slowing at all,” Ben grunted, fetching up against the table.
“Nope,” Ivan skidded to a halt, spinning around to face the hedge break, his attention split between it and searching the room. When his gaze fell on the others, crouched behind the cover of the windows, he frowned.
Kim raised a finger, spun it in a circle, raised her shoulders in a dramatic shrug, then pointed at Ivan. He goggled at her, raising his hands in question.
“Can you go again?”
“Maybe?” Ivan shot a glance at the hedge break. “He’s not slowing. We are.”
“We nee-” Kim’s explanation was cut off as Gryphon lumbered through the hedge break, lips drawn back on a snarl. Ivan cast her a wide-eyed look, then ran at Prairie, looping an arm around her, then spinning her out in the direction of the window Kim, Patti, and Siobhan crouched behind.
Prairie’s eyes went wide as she careened across the floor, the smooth surface giving her little chance to stop her swirl. Ivan didn’t stop to check that Prairie made it to the wall. Instead he made himself as big as possible, threw his arms back, and screamed loudly and wordlessly at Gryphon. Gryphon, faced with this show of dominance stomp clomped towards Ivan, arms held out with clawed hands reaching.
“Shit!” Ben yelled then spun on his heels and hauled ass for the original break in the hedge. Ivan wasted no time in pivoting hard and flying after Ben. Gryphon’s hooves gave him less purchase than Ben and Ivan’s boots, allowing them a short head start to disappear into the maze before he barreled his way after them.
“I’ll-” eyes so wide the white around them was clear in the phosphorescent glow of the torch hanging from Patti’s belt, Prairie took a huge breath, then another, then continued her thought, “kill that man.”
Kim nodded, then jerked her head to Siobhan who’d moved to brace Prairie as she swayed on her feet. Siobhan seemed the safest bet to help Prairie as she had potions that could revive her energy and heal any injury she might have sustained leading Gryphon through his chase.
For a moment she considered keeping Prairie back to rest with her, but they needed all eyes on this search and Siobhan could take care of Prairie until she recovered fully.
“Kill later. Go with Siobhan now.”
“Go?”
“Into the window.” Kim gently laid a hand on Prairie’s shoulder and pushed her into Siobhan’s stretched arm. Curling her hand around Prairie’s upper arm, Siobhan directed her past the next hedge break and to the window with the rose.
“We’ve got a lamp piece to find.”
At Siobhan’s murmur, Prairie weakly nodded her head and said in a very small voice, “Okay. Ivan’s a jerk.”
“That he is.” Siobhan paused in front of the window, then lifted a foot and planted it on the frame. She gave a tentative bounce, judging the soundness of the structure, then let go of Prairie so she could grab the frame and pull other foot up so she was standing on the window frame.
She reached back with her other hand to Prairie. “Grab hold.”
Prairie did just that and pulled herself up to stand on the frame next to Siobhan. It was thick, not quite a stoop, but enough it was easy to use it as a step. Siobhan looked back at Kim, moved to stand propped against the table’s edge with her arms crossed, and nodded when Kim made a glug glug gesture then looked pointedly at Prairie. Turning around she linked hands with Prairie and stepped into the sunlit garden beyond the window.
Dempsey hitched Gwen higher against his chest. Grudgingly, the sentiment clear by her mulish expression, Gwen looped her arms around his neck and settled against him. Once she was secure Dempsey walked over to the mirror window and heaved himself and Gwen up to the frame with a grunt.
“Serves you right,” Gwen grumped.
Dempsey looked down at her, shook his head slowly, then stepped into the dark room beyond the window.
Dan strode over to the book window and, without hesitating, stepped into it. Abe paused for a mikro, watching Dan go, then approached the painting window and the long staircase revealed behind it with slow steps. They looked back once at Kim, who lifted her chin and shot what she hoped was a look of confidence at Abe. “You got this!” she called. Abe looked down at their feet then back up at Kim. “I’ve got this.”
Just as they were about to step onto the stairs, a thought stabbed through Kim’s brain. She called out, “Wait!”
Abe turned.
“You don’t have a light.”
“Oh.” Abe bit their lip then raised their inked right hand and stared hard at the palm. The light from the lamp gave Kim plenty of light to see, at least vague details, but even if it hadn’t what happened next would have been clear to her. Abe got a look of concentration on their face. Their lips moved like they were talking, either to themselves or to some invisible force – who was Kim, who talked to forces invisible to others All The Time, to judge – and then they played their inked fingers over the air, like they were conducting an orchestra or maybe making a really large finger painting. At first Kim thought she was seeing something. She squinted. Shook her head to clear her vision. Refocused on Abe. Who was glowing. Honest to Magick glowing.
Her “Well, damn!” just kind of jumped out. Abe turned at it and gave a grin brighter than their fucking halo that Kim couldn’t help returning. Then they flicked the thumb of their clean left hand up and stepped into the window.
Kim’s “Don’t waste Magick,” came too late, chasing Abe through the window rather than stopping them.
“Guess we have to use some Magick,” she grumbled to herself, uncrossing her arms so she could heave herself up onto the table where she took a seat, crossed her ankles, and leaned back on her hands to stare at the partial message in the sky.
Even as she said this, and understood it, a twinge formed in her. Not a twinge in the stomach. More, if she got poetical, the soul. That which was her pulled back from the shell of what others saw as her, leaving a sucking vacuum in the gap between. Gulping and clamping her eyes closed she clenched her abdominals and pushed from her true core outwards, visualizing a wave of force coming from within to shove the substance of her up against the shell, demanding it cleave. She gasped as the two parts met, merging like plastic wrap adhering to a wet surface. Then sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.
Fucking cellular memory. Just when she thought she was past the memories of hunger those fuckers had to stir it all up again, like sediment on a river’s bed. Logically she understood They’d made her expend more energy than anyone was likely to on a standard adventure. The chances any of her friends, or her, would become a sucking vortex of need were slight. And yet…
She thrust the concern to the back of her mind before the whole cellular memory thing gave her that great big whoosh of gross again. They were forewarned. Therefore forearmed. It was all good.
Damn, coping mechanisms were awesome!
Tightening the weave of her arms, she positioned herself in such a way on the table that she could sweep her gaze over the windows her friends had entered. Bird, book, rose. A subtle shift, then painting and mirror. Mirror, painting, shift, rose, book, bird. The rhythm of shifting her attention to each soothed her, better even when she started a subtle chant. “Bird book rose painting mirror; mirror painting rose book bird. Bird book rose painting mirror; mirror painting rose book bird.”
If Gwen was there Kim bet she’d make it into a song. But she wasn’t. She was in the mirror window. With Dempsey.
Bird, book, rose, painting, mirror. Gwen.
*
There was a slight feeling of resistance as Dempsey walked through the open window. Like they were pushing up against plastic wrap, pulled tight across the frame. Dempsey’s nose actually flattened slightly as it met the invisible surface, distorting his features like he was wearing one of those stocking masks robbers wore to hide their identities. That was actually a better reference, Gwen thought, as the surface pressed against her skin before kind of gliding away. It felt like a pair of tights, the tension of their threads giving way, forming a run when something sharp hit the stretched fibers. In this instance she and Dempsey were the sharp object, forming a hole in the barrier across the window frame which Dempsey deftly carried Gwen through.
Gwen twisted to squint at the window frame as Dempsey stepped off it and onto the dark triangle tile of the floor with its double-line of light separating it from the abutting tiles. There was nothing to see. No obvious barrier. No hole. Here was hoping they could get out again.
As she squinted at the frame something occurred to her. The feelings, not her own, she’d been experiencing as the screaming cacophony of a third grade class running out the doors on the last day of school was now more of the murmur of two people, making dinner, four rooms over, with a door closed between her and them. She hadn’t even realized how loud Gryphon’s emotions were until they were muffled. For a mikro she wasn’t sure what to do with that. So she kept clinging to Dempsey’s neck while she took several long breaths, searched the immediate area with her eyes like they’d somehow provide input to fill the near silence in her mind, and felt energy slowly seep back into her body.
It was like when you had a really bad headache and then it went away. And you just sort of sat there. Unmoving. Like the headache was a predator and you were prey and moving would draw its attention back to you.
Yeah, like that.
After several more mikros where Dempsey pivoted to get the lay of the space they’d entered, Gwen unlinked her hands from behind his neck and prodded him in the collarbone. When he looked down at the poke she shot a look at the floor. “You can let me down now.”
Rather than complying Dempsey tightened his hold under her legs and around her back. “Can I?”
“Yes.” Gwen turned her head to look at the halls of mirrors stretching in front of Dempsey. “If something comes out at us you’ll need to be able to react.”
Dempsey cocked his head, pursed his lips. “Will I?”
Gwen poked him a bit harder in the same spot. “Let me down.”
“Are you going to fall on your ass?”
“Wow. That’s… Are you thinking about my ass?”
“If I was?”
Gwen rolled her eyes and poked him again. “I won’t fall on my ass.”
“Fine.” Instead of just letting her go so she’d go plopping willy nilly where she would, Dempsey stooped and gently placed Gwen sitting on the floor. When she didn’t tip over, though maybe she might have wanted to because head-rush, he straightened and turned his attention to the mirrors.
“What do you figure. Hidden room?”
“Why assume that?”
“Well. If we’re looking for a piece of glass small enough to fit in that lamp it will probably stand out in this space, what with all the mirrors being the same and,” Dempsey stepped forward down the first hall. It was narrow enough he only had to extend his hands about halfway out before they hit mirror. When they did, hit the mirror that is, his words stuttered to a stop. Gwen spun on her butt, pointing her feet roughly in the direction of the hall, and peered intently at Dempsey.
Her sluggish Magick reached out to read him and she frowned. Not just because the Magick responded like it was pushing through water, though that sure stunk, but because up to that meros she hadn’t realized just how much she relied upon her Magick when interacting with other people. It was kind of just of an extension of her, like breathing. Like you didn’t really notice you were breathing until you overexerted and started to either pant or puff or whatever.
Right now her Magick was acting like she’d run a marathon. It still came and it still seeped into Dempsey. But where usually that seep didn’t feel like much, more like air running through a screen, no resistance as it pushed through the porous barrier, connecting to Dempsey’s emotions felt more, hmm, more like water going through a terrycloth face cloth. Like the Magick had to push through something that blocked most of its flow, allowing only a small amount to ooze through.
It took so long to penetrate the natural barrier separating her from him that Dempsey had already pulled his hand away from the mirror by the time she flowed into him and all she got was a sense of him mentally shaking himself rather than if she’d connected quicker and caught whatever it was he was shaking off. She blew a mental raspberry, careful to keep it inside so he wouldn’t realize her frustration and then, maybe, ask an awkward question which she’d have to answer in an awkward fashion as she stumbled around the truth of just how much she invaded other people’s privacy regularly.
She frowned. She was definitely going to need to work on that. Planting her hands on the ground she pushed herself to stand. Well, more like pushed herself to crouch, took a breath, considered some of her lifestyle choices involving exerting herself, and then really slowly rose to stand fully. And then tipped sideways as her head spun. Thrusting her hand out at the last mikro, she braced against the column sprouting mirrors off at angles and saved herself from careening head first into the floor or one of the mirrors.
Stuck the landing! Bracing her feet she threw her hands up, like a gymnast after a vault, meeting Dempsey’s amused expression with pursed lips and a bob of her head.
“Stuck the landing!” she repeated, this time aloud so Dempsey could hear it.
Dempsey just looked at her. One mikro. Then another. She was just about to spout off some kind of snarky reply, when he raised his brows and curled his upper lip. “You are very special, aren’t you?”
Gwen made a big show of blowing on her knuckles then dusting them off on her shirt. “I am. Glad you noticed!”
A chuckle burst from Dempsey. By his surprised expression it came unbidden. Score!
Gwen gave a broad sweep of her arm, encompassing the hall behind Dempsey as well as the two others. “Explore?”
“Do I need to carry you?”
“Do I need to punch you in the face?”
“Like you would.”
Gwen’s expression went positively mulish. “Whatever!”
“Yeah. So, carry?”
“I’m okay.” To prove her point Gwen pushed up to her knees and then to her feet. She barely even wobbled. “My connection to Gryphon is muffled. Not gone. Just… like a voice in the back of a classroom whispering instead of the teacher at the front of the room lecturing.”
Dempsey nodded. “Makes sense.”
Gwen didn’t let him get away with that enigmatic stuff. Nope. “How so?”
“Because this?” Dempsey raised both hands, making circles with his forefingers to encompass the space. “Is a Magick item. We’re in a Magick item. Probably,” he frowned, looking around like he had just thought of something, “inside another Magick item.”
“Huh?”
“Like those nesting dolls, where you have one doll inside another and then inside another. Figure if you were the doll inside the other doll you wouldn’t hear what was outside so well. It would be muffled. Probably what’s happening with your Magick.”
“Weird.”
Dempsey shrugged. “I find it interesting.”
“You would.”
“I would.”
“Whatever.” Gwen flicked a look at the mirrored hall stretching in front of them. “Explore?”
“Sounds good.”
“Super.” Pointing her finger down the hall behind Dempsey, Gwen started forward. Dempsey turned and moved along the hall. Gwen noticed he made a real point of not touching the mirrors with his hands. Ha! “So, I noticed you went all spooky for a meros there.”
“Spooky?”
Dempsey bumped into the mirror at the end of the corridor and still he didn’t use his hands to brace himself.
“They’re Magick mirrors, aren’t they?”
Dempsey grunted in reply and turned left, bumping into another mirror. His face was going to be real angry at him if he kept doing that.
“I’ll take that as a yes. Any idea what they do?”
“Reflect?” He turned right and took a cautious step forward. When he didn’t go face first into another mirror he walked forward slowly until he walked up to but not into another mirror. He looked right. He looked left. He squared his shoulders and moved to the right. No mirror stopped him. Until one did. This one, weirdly, moved when his forehead came in contact with it. He stepped back and frowned at it. His hands remained firmly at his side. Gwen heaved a small sigh and poked him in the back. When he turned she pointed at the mirror.
“Let me.”
Dempsey looked at the mirror. Looked at Gwen. Looked back at the mirror then grunted again. “Fine.”
“Wow,” Gwen murmured as she squished past him, smooshing her side into the mirror to her right to get past his large frame. “That one really hurt you.”
Hand out, because she was no fool, she walked up to the mirror and laid her palm flat on it. Then she slid her hand to the side, still with her palm pressed against it. It slid along a channel hidden within the double light strip delineating the edge of the triangle tile they stood on, moving all the way to the right to reveal a hall. With no hesitation, Gwen stepped through the opening.
The window with its view of the center of the maze centered the mirrored wall to the right. “That was a circle. Should one of us be taking notes?”
“Makes sense. You have any paper?”
“No. Do you?”
“No.”
“We could check with Kim. See if she has any. Since we’re right here.”
Without waiting for Dempsey to agree or argue, Gwen walked to the window frame and stuck her head out. The sense of pressing against a barrier was still there, like pressing her face through a bubble. She held her breath. Not so much because she had to but it felt like she had to so she did.
It made sense to her.
Once her face was free of the barrier she took a breath and called, “Hey, Kim?”
Kim jerked slightly at Gwen’s voice, flinging a hand in the air with fingers curled like she was going to throw a ball. “Fuck, Gwen!”
“Sorry. Do you have any paper?”
Kim patted the pockets of her cargoes. “No. I could check with Siobhan or Dan?”
“Would you? We’ve got a maze and it makes sense to map our tracks so we don’t walk in circles.”
Kim pushed off the table and walked over to the window Siobhan had disappeared through. Gwen tracked her as she stuck her head through the window frame. Or actually approached it, pulled back, frowned, cocked her head, then lifted a hand to ping the resistance with a finger.
“Weird, huh?” Gwen called over.
“Very.”
“Dempsey has a theory these are Magick items. Like those Russian nesting dolls.”
“Well, I guess he’d know Magick items. Just push through?”
“Just push through.”
Kim laid her palm flat on the barrier. “It feels like a bubble of air. Cool.” She pushed her hand through then followed it with her head and upper body. Her fingers curled on the window frame and around the edge of the window and her arms bunched.
Gwen couldn’t hear a thing once Kim’s head went into the window but about a meros later Kim let go her hold on the frame, jabbed her arm through the barrier, then drew it back with a piece of paper and a pen. Her upper body leaned further in and she teetered forward, only stopping the fall by dropping the paper and pen and groping for the window frame. Her arms clearly tensed and then she was stumbling back into the room.
Her bangs looked like they’d been in a wind tunnel.
“Damn. Some kind of vacuum effect. I do not recommend going halfway on those things.”
Gwen looked at the window frame she was projecting out of, then back at Kim. “Must be a you thing.”
“Fan-freaking-tastic.” Kim stooped and picked up the paper and pen then walked them over to Gwen, frowning at the way Gwen hovered in the window frame. “Weird.”
Gwen shrugged and took the paper and pen. “Thanks.”
When she pulled back into the room Kim lifted her hand and pressed her palm to the barrier, frowning at the invisible surface. Gwen left her to it and turned back to Dempsey, thrusting the paper towards him. “You want?”
“Nah, you hold on to it. I’ll go first and you mark the turns.”
“Okay.” Gwen made a rectangle on the paper. It was presuming the space was a rectangle but she had to start somewhere. Then she made a circle on the paper to represent the left column of the first hall they went down. Then she placed another circle for the right column of that hall. Looking over to that first hall she noticed something. “The mirror slid in front of the first hall.”
“It did.”
Gwen drew a line halfway between the first two dots and noted it was a sliding door. Then she made another dot equal distant to the right for the third column and hall they’d walked down to get to the sliding wall. After that she drew their path in the first hall up, turn to the right and back to where they stood. Tucking the paper in her waistband she turned to the right and walked approximately the length that corresponded to two hallways then stopped next to the mirrored wall there.
“You think this slides too?”
Dempsey shrugged. “Try.”
Gwen laid her hand flat on the wall and tried pushing to the right. It didn’t budge. Then she pushed back to the left, towards Dempsey. The mirror slid, revealing another hall.
“Score!” Gwen yanked the paper out of her waistband and made another equal distant dot before looking back at Dempsey. “Down this hall?”
Dempsey walked up. He craned his neck to look down the hall Gwen revealed. “Sure. Let me go first.”
Gwen rolled her eyes as he did just that. Then grinned when he walked into a mirror with his face about ten feet down the hall.
“Maybe I should go first?” she suggested, curling her lips over her teeth so she didn’t bust out laughing at the disgruntled look on Dempsey’s face, visible in the glow of the lights from the floor bouncing off the mirrored walls and ceiling.
Dempsey gave a sigh and waved his hand, indicating Gwen should lead. Ouch, she thought, that had to hurt. Well, growth was good for him. She sidled up next to him, smooshing into the mirror again as she squished past him and took a right. Just past there there was an option to turn left or go straight. Gwen marked these on the map, then looked back at Dempsey. “I’m going right.”
“Okay.”
Gwen walked about five feet then bumped into another mirror, set at an angle. Pausing she marked it on the map, then looked back at Dempsey. “I have a straight or right. I’m going right.”
“Kind of in a circle.”
Gwen consulted the rudimentary map. “More like a square. It looks like a short walk but there might be something back here.”
“Okay.”
Wow, such enthusiasm! The right turn was at an angle, forming kind of a pie shape with the wall to the left where they had the option to go straight, at least that’s how it looked but the mirrors were really making a mess of her sense of space. This was real evident as she walked smack into another wall. A look to the left and to the right seemed to give her two options. “Going right.”
So saying she did, stopping a short distance forward when she hit another mirror. Dempsey bumped lightly into her back. He was following that close behind. Gwen turned and looked at him. “Why don’t you put a hand on my shoulder.”
“Why?”
“So you don’t smack into me?” Her tone implied “d’uh,” but she politely refrained from actually saying it.
“Nah. I’m good.”
“Sure you are,” she muttered under her breath. “Following this wall to the right.”
“Got it. You don’t have to keep announcing every move.”
“Sorry.” Not sorry, she added in her head. Was he intentionally trying to push her buttons or was this just his standard modus operandi? Big, silent, thug guy.
Boom she smacked into another mirror. Pulling back she noted the turns on the map then frowned. There should be… She laid her hand flat on the mirror and jiggled. It slid to the right, revealing a space the size of a single one of the triangular tiles.
“What’s that?” Dempsey craned his neck to look over her shoulder.
Gwen stepped into the space, pivoting slowly to look at the mirrors making up the walls. Her face stared back at her from the one closest on the left wall, weirdly distorted. Her skull was massively elongated while her torso was very foreshortened. She reached a hand up towards the mirror. The hand reflected back had elongated fingers, phalanges at least twice their normal length terminating on bulbous fingertips, their dimensions similar to the mushroom shape of her skull. She leaned forward, peering into her distorted face.
“Huh.”
“Huh?”
“Fun-house mirror.”
“Anything else?”
Gwen pivoted, sliding her gaze over the three mirrored walls. “No. Just a fun-house mirror. And,” she pivoted so she could take in the full length of the walls coming together in front of her along two sides of the triangle defined by the floor tile. “A bunch of other regular mirrors. Nothing else.”
She pulled back from the mirror and stepped back into the hall, sliding the door back into place. “Backtrack the way we came. We’ll go straight where we turned right to get here.”
“Got it.”
Gwen followed Dempsey out of the dead-end. He waited where they’d taken the right, letting her lead to the left or, theoretically, straight. She was already getting confused! Pulling out the paper from her waistband, she made another circle for the post in front of them marking the far edge of the pie-shaped space. This hall lead forward a short distance before another mirror loomed in front of them, requiring a sharp left. Again Gwen marked this then walked forward about ten feet before knocking into another mirror requiring them to go right. About five more feet in, the length of one of the triangle tiles and another pillar loomed, with a mirror coming out of it forming a switchback towards the left. Gwen noted it then frowned. She turned and looked at Dempsey. “Go back to that last turn.”
“Why?”
“Because,” Gwen looked down at the paper then up at the mirror to what was now her right. “I think there might be another hidden space here.”
Testing her theory she put her hand on the mirror and pushed to the right. It slid along the floor channel revealing another space the size of one of the triangular floor tiles. Gwen stepped into it and looked at the walls. Again she was confronted with a distorted image reflected back at her from a fun-house mirror positioned so it would immediately reflect whoever entered the space.
This one made her legs look ridiculously long and shorted her torso. But maybe that was just in comparison to the daddy long legs effect going on with her lower body. Weirdly, her arms weren’t distorted at all. Even when she reached up to touch her cheek the elbow bent like an elbow should bend and her hand was the right shape to curve around her normal-shaped jawline.
“Another fun-house mirror.”
“Nothing else?”
“No.”
“Here.” Dempsey poked his head into the space, still carefully keeping himself free of the surface of the mirrors. “Let me see.”
“Sure. Move.” Dempsey stepped back from the sweep of Gwen’s hand and she moved so he could step into the space. It was a tight fit, especially as he was clearly making sure not to touch the mirrors as he did a slow turn. “Yep. Its a funhouse mirror.”
“Because I lie.”
Dempsey didn’t deign to respond to Gwen’s sarcastic comment, just indicated with a lift of his chin he wanted her to step back. Fine. She rolled her eyes and did just that. Once he stepped out of the space, she slid the door closed.
Dempsey stepped back behind Gwen, indicating she should lead them forward. “Let’s assume we’re looking for a hidden space like that with the piece in it.”
“Let’s.” Rather than turning around the pillar leading to the switchback to the left, Gwen continued forward until she came to another mirror. She placed both hands on it, sliding left and right. Her right hand came into contact with a mirror set at a ninety degree angle to it, forming the wall of the hall they stood in. Her left hand found a pillar then followed around it to find another mirror set at a ninety degree angle to the right.
Following the logic of ‘stay to the right’ she followed this mirror, assuming Dempsey would follow. He did, bumping into her again when the hall came to an abrupt stop in a tight vee formed by another mirror set at a one hundred and thirty five degree angle – roughly – back to the left. Dempsey was following close enough he managed to really smash Gwen into the vee. Her chin snapped back, her head hitting her shoulder blades, and her boobs smashed into the mirror.
“Oof!”
Dempsey’s hand clamped down on Gwen’s shoulders. Probably so he didn’t throw his hands up into the mirror. Not that it really saved him as his momentum carried him forward so his shoulder barreled into the mirror to the right and he toppled sideways to smash his face against the surface.
The force was enough his left hand flew off Gwen’s shoulder and smacked into the mirror to the left. He froze, his eyes wide on the mirror, his expression going slack for several mikros. Then he visibly shook himself, yanked his hand from the mirror, and thrust himself backwards with a virulent “Fuck.”
Gwen pushed away from the mirror, righted her nose – ouch, then turned to Dempsey with hands planted on her hips. “Okay, Shady, time to share.”
“I don’t want to touch the mirrors.”
“Yeah. Caught that. Why?”
“Becau-” Dempsey jerked his head violently to look back down the hall they’d traversed. “What’s that?”
“Ha ha! I stopped falling for that in grade school.”
“No. There’s-” He broke off on a gah, reaching back to grab his shield from his back and drag his sword from its sheath.
Trusting his instincts Gwen snapped her plunger off the loop on her belt and fell in beside Dempsey. And just in time as at that moment, from around the sharp turn they’d taken along what Gwen supposed to be the side wall came a… Gwen. A Gwen that announced herself with the drag of knuckles on the tiled floor, a subtle thump thump sounding as they encountered the double strip of light edging the triangles. A Gwen that did this because they had horribly elongated arms, their drag all the worse for her foreshortened torso and half-sized legs. Her over-sized head with its horrifically elongates forehead, wobbled on her neck. She fought to keep it upright as she moved towards them with the oddly fluid undulating movements of an orangutan crossed with a gelatinous mass of seaweed.
Bile rose in Gwen’s throat, almost too bitter to swallow, coming unbidden from a stomach that clenched in horror at the impossibility slip gliding towards she and Dempsey.
“What did you do?” Gwen demanded, fighting through the rising gorge to grunt at Dempsey.
“I told you I didn’t want to touch the mirrors!”
“You could have told me sooner!”
“I didn’t know!”
Their argument could have gone on longer but foreshortened and elongated Gwen reached them at that point, flexing her shoulder to snap her long right arm out like the sling on a trebuchet. Her fist hit Dempsey’s shield with the force of a payload released from that siege engine.
Dempsey swung his sword forward. It connected with Not-Gwen’s shoulder with a weird thunk followed by a wooba-wooba. The closest comparison Gwen could make was the sound a cheap sled made when you snapped it out and it went, well, wooba-wooba. He barely got his shield around to block the looping swing of her left arm. Ducking in from his side, Gwen came in low with her plunger, popping Not-Gwen’s knee from the side. The hit didn’t produce quite the sound it did when Dempsey’s sword hit it, but more of a thunk. Like rubber hitting plastic. Not-Gwen’s leg rippled, flexing with the force of Gwen’s whack.
“She’s a mirror image!” Gwen yelled at Dempsey as he blocked yet another swing, falling back slightly and driving Gwen back to smack into a mirror.
Dempsey threw his shield up, blocking another wild swing, then came in from the side to land a hit on Not-Gwen’s side that was about as effective as his last one or Gwen’s attempt. Stopping a hit from the other arm with his shield he cast a quick look at Gwen.
“What?”
“Funhouse mirror image! Not flesh!”
“You think?”
Gwen juked to the side then came running at Not-Gwen, diving at her and wrapping her arms around her knees as she bore her to the ground. Not Gwen landed with a bounce. Not a big bounce, but the hit didn’t have the impact it would have one someone made of flesh and bones.
The back of Not-Gwen’s large dome smacked into the mirrored wall and then right threw the reflection. Well, not right through. The top portion of her elongated noggin disappeared into the mirror, the mirror’s surface cutting a diagonal line across the left side of her forehead and down through her brow, traveling across her nose and coming to a stop where her cheekbone disappeared into the glass. Her left eye, free of the glass, focused on Gwen, pain and confusion reflected in its depths. It jerked around, focusing on Gwen then on the mirror cutting above it then back on Gwen.
It was… Gwen had no words. She just stared back, eyes wide, the corners of her mouth turned down, and breath trapped in her chest.
“Waaaah!” Dempsey dropped to his knees, skidding forward a few inches with the impetus, and reached out his hands to scoop them under Not-Gwen’s too short legs. Rising with a rush, he flung Not-Gwen into the mirror.
The glass offered no resistance, parting to swallow Not-Gwen. Dempsey panted back from the surface, reflected back in the mirror on the other side of the hall, then back again, multiple Dempsey’s marching back into what appeared to be hall upon hall trapped in the mirror. Gwen twisted to stare at the mirror, her eyes about an inch from the glass, straining to see a dark figure deep in the glass, lying in a heap about eight Dempsey’s back.
“Oh,” she said, jerking her head this way and that, wide eyes not knowing what to focus on. “Wow.”
Dempsey rose from his crouch, shaking out his shoulders. “Told you I didn’t want to touch the mirrors.”
“Did I do that?” Gwen squinted back along the hall in the direction of the first hidden area she’d found where her reflection had stared back at her from the funhouse mirror with elongated head and fingers and foreshortened torso and legs.
Dempsey followed her gaze, then shook his head. “I think I did.”
“How?”
Stooping to pick up his shield, he swung it back on its strap over his back then shoved his sword into its sheath. “Magick.”
Gwen used the mirror to shove herself to her feet, dusted off her legs, and clipped her plunger back on her belt. “Let’s try not to do that again.”
She turned to stare into the mirror again, her gaze focusing much easier on the dark lump back in its depths. “I really hope no one else is dealing with this level of weird.”
“What are the chances of that?” Gwen just looked at Dempsey reflected back at her from the mirror. After a moment a small grin ticked the very corner of his mouth. “Yeah. They’re probably fucked.”
Enter The Woods 