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 Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 8:13 pm
She wasn't getting anywhere with her search for answers. If there were folks around that could give her some clue, Navi hadn't found them yet, or they simply weren't cooperating with her. She supposed it could have been either, but the why didn't much matter. Regardless, the Dark Mirror didn't feel as if she were getting anywhere on her search. It was not only discouraging, but had begun to wear heavily on the girl. She was quieter in her day to day life, less cheerful, chronically tired. A few of her peers had even begun to ask if she was depressed.
That wasn't the case, at least not in full, but she couldn't tell them what was really bothering her. Could she?
Mirror Space had begun as an idle musing, but as time stretched on fruitlessly, Navi had begun to wonder is the answer to her leaving the court really was hidden away in within the heart of it. It had seemed so unlikely, so terribly far-fetched, but at this point? She was willing to explore every avenue.
Even if that meant going where she had so cautiously avoided for months.
The idea of facing Remarque or Leto terrified her. More so the latter. She didn't know what to say to to them. Hadn't a clue how to tell them, or even begin to explain. Avoiding those conversations, for as long as she was able, was the cowards way out, but Navi had never claimed to be brave. She was, before and now, a selfish creature.
Thoughts of the Senshi of Danger bolstered her nerve as she stepped into the mirror on the back of her door. As always, the room she arrived in was large and vast, mirrored walls, mirrored floor and ceiling. Reflective surfaces as far as the eye could see. It bounced the light, played with the shadows, and made navigation beyond this point a tricky, sometimes dangerous, endeavor.
But that was where she was headed. Away from the familiar walls she knew, through an arch, along a mirrored walkway. It was new, a path she'd never seen before, but that was hardly surprising. The girl was positive the place changed at will. Shifting and morphing as fluidly as the shadows that danced across the silvered surfaces around her. She moved slowly, cautiously. Anxiety riding high with the fear that at any moment she'd come face to face with another of her court.
She carried on that like for some time before eventually that awful tension began to ease. Still uneasy, but at a bearable level now. Her pace had quickened, pale eyes searching the endless vastness around her.
Hours, it felt like, she walked on and on, and there was nothing. Yet something drove her onward. A gentle pulse, she thought. A warmth radiating from her vary core. It had been faint at first, a simple stirring, but it had been enough to keep her from turning back the way she had come. She carried on, perplexed, discouraged. Following the lulling draw of something. Like a thread, it trailed from the deep to disappear through the center of her chest.
Answers. She hoped.
She prayed.
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Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 9:20 pm
Losing time seemed an inevitability in the ever-changing landscape of mirrorspace. There were no landmarks to mark her path, no constant to let her know where she was going or how far she'd come. Only the sound of her heels clacking against the glass under foot, echoing around her in rhythmic beats. At first it had been unnerving, seemingly deafening in volume. Now it was almost a comfort in the otherwise silence that surrounded her. There was no way of knowing how long she had been walking, hours, if she had to guess, though she didn't have a clue as to how many.
Long enough that she would have given up ages ago if not for the subtle pull of something deeper still. A promising sort of unknown that picked and poked at the dim flicker of hope that had struggled to stay alight within her for months now. Hope was a terrifying thing though, it's edges were sharp, construction fragile. Easily broken when allowed to grow.
Navi hadn't let herself dare hope too strongly, though neither had she accepted the possibility of her dream drying. It had been a tightrope walk between the two, exhausting, but survivable.
Exile
The somber, solid notes of the song were a comforting backdrop to the frantic whirlwind of thoughts and emotions that filled her head as she continued onward.
It takes your mind again
It was darker here. She hadn't noticed it at first, the change coming over gradually, but now she did. Darkness swam in the shadows, the reflected over and over in every surface she passed. Looming large and ominous, and somehow she knew, without knowing, that she was growing closer. The pulse in her chest was warmer, the urge to continue onward stronger. She bit her lip, pausing only briefly as wide, hazel eyes looked into that unknown dark, then started forward again, humming softly under her breath.
Does it feel like a trial?
Does it trouble your mind the way you trouble mine?
Navi had never been this far. She'd never dreamed of exploring this deeply. Never considered how very vast the mirror might stretch. Fingers twisting together, she moved cautiously now, taking her time to examine her surroundings.
Of course when she found it, she knew. Pale eyes landed on the shimmering edge of something that looked remarkably like a starseed, but wasn't. Mirrored on all sides, she wondered, if that's what lay at the core of her being. The pulse, when she reached towards it, was intense enough to make her gasp, buckling her knees, and grabbed the shard from where it had rested suspended by nothing, cradling it to her chest as if one false touch might shatter it into a thousand pieces.
"What do you intend to do now?"
The voice, her voice startled a ragged gasp from the kneeling senshi. She'd been alone, she was sure of it, even now she felt no aura. But when she turned, fingers tightening around the precious shard in her hands, she was there. Dainty, delicate, but with a certain inner strength and confidence that Navi no longer possessed. The replica stood over her smiling condescendingly, small hand resting on a cocked hip. "Are you really going to turn your back on them? After everything they've done for you? Are you that ungrateful?"
"No." The protest was automatic, but the tense set of her shoulders, the nervous flick of her eyes betrayed the obvious guilt. "I'm grateful. I owe them more than I could ever pay back, but..."
"But what? You're going to throw it all away, for love?" The replica's tone made a mockery of the word, lips twisting up in a cruel sneer. She laughed, and Navi flinched. "It's not going to last, you know. You're broken, he'll see that eventually, and you'll be left with nothing." A heel snapped against glass as the replica took a step forward. "Better to stay here, with people that really love you. With the family you already have, not the one you don't even know will want you."
"Shut up!" It was a desperate command, and her voice wavered with it. Her eyes were burning, tears threatening to spill down her cheeks as the mirror imagine of herself ripped away the veneer and tore into ever doubt and insecurity the senshi had revolving around Chaonis, her court, her desire to leave. She could feel her hands trembling around the shard, and either the replica saw it, or it knew, because it laughed again as it sank down to crouch before the original.
"You're nothing without the court."
"No, it's not true."
"It is. You're nothing but fallen soldier. Too broken even to do her job properly. You're pathetic."
Every word was like poison, burning and eating away at her insides, and finally the tears fell as Navi shut her eyes against the replica, bending over the shard in her hands until her brow touched the cool surface of the mirror beneath her. "Stop it." It leaked past gritted teeth. "It's not true."
Chaonis' voice came back to her, soft and earnest. She remembered the soft brush of his fingers along the scar that marked her cheek, the press of his palm as he turned her face up to his, so he could smile down at her. She made him a better person, he'd confessed that to her one night in their secret little haven. Her prince, her handsome Fiyero. He loved her--despite logic, despite reason or intent. He loved her. She saw his smile, the dark warmth of his eyes when he looked at her. The bass of his voice when he murmured near her ear. It filled her up, from fingertips down to the soles of her feet. She clung to that knowledge, that love, wrapping it around herself like armor.
This wasn't running away from the court, this was removing herself from as much of the awful, weighing burdens she could. This taking care of herself, her mental and physical health. This was doing what she felt she had to do, what she wanted to do. It wasn't weak to stand up for your own happiness, it was courage. It was strength, and resolve, and knowing oneself well enough to take control and do something. She loved the people in her court, she respected the court itself, but she just didn't belong there, not anymore.
She lifted her head, glaring up at the replica of herself kneeling before her, and with an angry snarl she gathered up every ounce of her resolve and screamed into that other pretty face. "RAZOR WIND SNARE!"
The magic erupted out of her, blasting the other back before trapping them in the bramble of branches and swirling, slicing wind. The replica shrieked, loud and rage filled, and the sound echoed off the glass walls around them before dying off as the magic faded. When the branches fell, disappearing before they had even touched the floor. The replica was gone...
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