She was used to the strangest dreams that plagued her while she slept.

They normally had to do with her family; with humans stealing selkie skins; with the sea witch and her tentacles. It could sometimes be an amalgamation of all of them, images flashing and then pulling her away, tentacles suffocating her right in front of her glassy eyed family with bloodied skins as she tried to gasp for air because she could not shift into a seal underwater...

She was used to seeing such darkness in her dreams. She supposed that she should really have gotten used to them because they happened extremely often. And yet she still awoke with a start, fingers realizing that her cheeks were wet from tears, every single time. It was another secret she guarded as she walked the halls of Amityville.

And so, when Marzena sank into her bed tonight, she expected the same.

It began with darkness. It always did. Bleak and empty darkness, black everywhere and she couldn’t even properly see. Such things had always been eerie to her, especially when she could see just fine underwater, in deep and dark waters.

But her eyesight did not adjust. It remained as dark as ever and she started to wonder if she was blind until something shimmered into existence.

She found herself swimming towards it. This was no land where she could walk. Surrounding her was a dark chilling water, but somehow, she could breathe here. It was the only comforting thing right here; it was nostalgic because she had almost forgotten what it was like to breathe underwater.

The thing in question was a tall rectangular mirror. It had a black, gothic frame, and the glass of the mirror gave off a strange silvery light. She touched its side but it did not move, strangely though. It seemed rooted into place, even though they were both floating in this water, even as she swam to the back to stare at it. It looked exactly the same from its opposing side; the decorations and figures on the frame were similar; with waves and seals and fish and... tentacles...

She touched the mirror’s surface and it shimmered again, beneath her touch. The silvery light concentrated on the face of her reflection and then burst, the light overwhelming her as she shielded her eyes with her hand.

When the light died down, she was looking at her reflection once again, but it was different now. For one, the skin of her reflection was utterly black, and she was not clothed in furs, the exception being the seal skin her reflection wore as a dress.

And then the eyes of her reflection opened, ocean blue eyes staring into similar ones, and the girl in the mirror spoke first.

“It’s you.” She said. She did not sound surprised even as Marzena could only stare at her in confusion, and only smiled at her kindly. “I never thought that I would see you again. Or even, talk to you.”

She gaped at the reflection, unable to speak. How had this girl who looked like her but was not her, know her?

Her reflection merely stayed calm, and continued speaking. “You can call me Justice. That was what I was called when I fell from the sky into the Black Kingdom.”

“I know you probably don’t understand.” Justice murmured. “I didn’t, until the White Pillar told me everything. But if you would listen, I will try my best to explain. Will you stay and listen to my story, Marzena?”

It was so strange to hear her own voice uttering her own name. There seemed to be a lump in her throat, and she could not answer back with her own voice, as if that it would tip the balance between her and her reflection. She only nodded. It didn’t seem as though she had a choice. There was nowhere to go from here, after all.

And so Justice explained that she was but a fragment of who she was, created by the Voice. Created as part of a facade, of a desperate power struggle to find the True King. They had all believed in their lives as people of their own Kingdoms and were loyal to their King. But things changed as a select few started turning on the Kings, causing confusion within them all. The world the Voice had created began to fall apart, and she had died in battle.

It was through death that she had met the White Pilar, who had told her the truth of her existence. She had seen the person she had been created from and realized that she was not real.

It was at this part of the story that her reflection changed. Her skin changed from black to pale, and her clothes were now silver. And most significantly; something she had never thought she would see ever again, Justice now possessed the long flowing platinum blonde hair Marzena had been born with.

“I just want you to find your true path.” Justice told her. “I found mine through death. It’s not a fate you should suffer. But maybe, if you remember what I do...” Her reflection placed both palms on her side of the mirror, gazing at her expectantly.

As if something within her had tied strings to her arms and were slowly pulling them upward, Marzena found herself raising her palms to rest on the mirror, lining up their fingertips. And then--

A silver light flashed in her mind.

A table. A room full of Shadows. She watched on, and then stood to address the one at the table with a crown; the Shadowlord--

Flash.

A Shadow with snakes for hair. Their conversation about the battle to come and the fear of death. Others on the stairs, playing--

Flash.

A tower. Falling debris. Miasma. Stairs--

Flash.

A battlefield. A white dragon falling from the whip she carried and gaining strength from that death. Cards summoned to convince the Queen. Taking a traitor down because that was proper justice, right? And then, poison filling her, choking her, and in the midst of that pain and loneliness, there was a hand, and there was singing--

...Marzena yanked her hands away from the mirror, eyes wide in appalled horror.

“Wait, I’m not done yet...” Justice said desperately, and Marzena narrowed her eyes at the girl.

“You put your trust in a stranger so easily.” She interrupted, voice cold. Why? If she truly was her, as she had claimed, she would understand. She would know that she had to guard herself, to be careful always lest she...

Learn? Justice wanted her to learn from what she had experienced? Marzena did not understand the point of this anymore. She found herself inching backwards, and Justice reached out to her in bewilderment.

“We were all fragments.” Justice said sadly. “And in the end, when I was about to die alone, I received kindness from someone I had never expected to gain kindness from. Did you expect me to push that away? Would you have pushed that away?”

Marzena only stared.

“You know enough now, at least.” Justice said with a sigh. “At least. But I know nothing about you.”

“Me?”
“I was always curious to know who the person I was created from was like.” Justice mused. “Like, why did you cut your hair? I did it when I was a Shadow because I never wanted to stand out, but you have no need to mold yourself into the darkness...”

“You don’t... need to know.” Marzena said shakingly.

“Of course she doesn’t.” A sickeningly sweet voice purred by her ear, as tentacles wrapped themselves around her form. Justice started forward, but could not break out of the mirror, banging on the surface desperately as a large tentacle swept through the waters and shattered it.

“It was the price you paid, after all.” The witch whispered, and then dissolved into cackles, her limbs curling around her whole body, creeping up her legs to her torso. “Nothing to be embarrassed about when you asked for it, didn’t you, dear?”

And then her face too was engulfed with the horrible feeling of suction cups on her skin and there was no air and she couldn’t breathe anymore; the water seemed to be gushing into her lungs and choking her--

For the first time when she awoke, there were no tears on her cheeks. Only clenched fists by her side, and a splitting headache.