Shadow Slave

Cassie laughed quietly.

“Look. The Dreamspawn might have failed to infect me with the plague, but he certainly infected me with that damn metaphor. I just can’t seem to get rid of it…”

She fell silent, and then forced out a smile.

“In any case, that is the reason why I am hesitating to betray your other self. It makes sense to ensure his rapid defeat to postpone the slaughter, so that Sunny and Nephis could return and save everyone. But if I can’t hide in their shadow anymore? Then this is it… this is the end. There is no tomorrow, and no hope if the King of Nothing is defeated.”

She laughed again.

“To tell you the truth… despite the fact that Mordret is watching my every step and listening to my every word, I still managed to fool him and build a trap for him, right under his nose. It was not that hard, actually. He is not as good at runic sorcery as I am. So even if he saw me create the array and read every rune, what was the point? He only understood enough of its general form to sate his suspicion. He didn’t see — had no capacity to see — the sharp knife I hid in the nuance, to drive it into his back at the right second and destroy him.”

The other Mordret stared at her from the mirror.

After a long stretch of silence, he said in a subdued tone:

“He was expecting you to manipulate his memories. He was so focused on creating countermeasures against your Aspect that he missed the real threat.”

Cassie shrugged.

“Naturally he did. That is the secret of magic, after all: attention, expectation, misdirection. The pledge, the turn, the prestige… what people see, what people cannot see. Like me. I am unseeing, and therefore remain unseen. And so, they never see me coming.”

She smiled faintly.

“Your other self was the only one who saw me for what I was, you know, and treated me with due diligence. But even he grew complacent after attaining Supremacy. It is in the nature of the Supremes to be overconfident and arrogant, I think. So, when he saw me covered in blood and trembling, a mere Saint, he let his guard down. Like I knew he would.”

She shrugged.

“Like they all do.”

The other Mordret sighed, then said quietly:

“But you are saying these things aloud knowing that he is listening… which means that you have changed your mind, in the end.”

Cassie let out a bitter laugh.

“Have I? Yes, I guess I have… just now.”

She raised her head and inhaled deeply.

“l am tired. I am at the end of my wits. I don’t even recognize myself anymore… and not only because my own memories are missing. All this deviousness, all these schemes, all these calculations — it is not in my nature. I think I heard your other self mention once that he simply reflected the world back on itself, and was therefore shaped by the world into becoming an exceptional monster. But he had been exceptional, to begin with. They all were. Children of legendary warriors, heirs of the gods, born under fateful omens, raised and nurtured by the crushing pressure of unimaginable adversity…”

She smiled wistfully.

“But I was just a normal girl. I had a normal childhood and normal parents. There wasn’t anything exceptional about me… until I was faced with exceptional challenges, and was left with no choice but to rise to the occasion. So that was what I did — right or wrong, I made one small choice after another, each twisting my form a little more. Until I couldn’t recognize it anymore. So who was really shaped by this cursed world into what they are today, between Mordret and me?”

Cassie sighed and faced the mirror once more.

“I used to believe that Sunny and Nephis would return and save the day. But if I am honest with myself… it’s all because of me. I set all of this in motion. I might have forgotten where they went, but I know that they left because of a message my past self had sent into the future. She must have had a plan… she must have had a vision.”

Cassie’s expression hardened, turning colder and darker.

“So now, I choose to believe in myself. I choose to have faith in myself. I won’t hope for their return anymore, so I will not betray your other self. Because he is all I have… just like I am all he has. A couple of monsters, forced to face a far more frightening abomination.”

She remained silent for a long while, and then reached toward the mirror. Tracing its cold surface with her fingers, Cassie raised her other hand and touched the blood-stained skin around her missing eye.

“But we, at least, have each other. While you have nothing. Are you envious of me? Because he needs me, while all you ever wanted was to be needed.”

The other Mordret seemed to smile.

“I don’t think I am capable of feeling envy, to be honest. I can pretend to feel it, though, if you want.”

Cassie sighed.

“He put you in the Great Mirror and kept you imprisoned there for so long. And still, you long to be needed by him, appreciated by him, valued by him. Because you think you love him. But how can you love him? You don’t even know him.”

The other Mordret remained silent.

She did, as well, and then said quietly:

“But you want to, don’t you? To get to know him. To grow closer.”

Finally, he laughed.

“So, what is this? The pledge, the turn, or the prestige? Am I failing to see you as well, Lady Cassia?”

She shrugged.

“The greatest ruse is the one you cannot resist, even if you see it coming. But no… I am not here to deceive, manipulate, or use you. I simply want to give you what you want, for no other reason than that I can. Now that our end might be drawing close, I wanted to do something good for once, without thinking about how it would benefit me.”

The other Mordret seemed to shake his head.

“Sounds exactly like something that a person planning to deceive, manipulate, and use me would say. Still… what is it, exactly, that you want to do?”

Cassie smiled weakly.

“I already said it, didn’t I? My power is to see, to know, and to remember. Or to forget. And ever since coming to the Ebony Tower, I’ve seen, I’ve gotten to know, and I remembered your other self — everything there was to learn about the years when the two of you were one being, and most of what there was to learn about the years you were apart. It was like I was there, with him. Up to the point when he attained Supremacy, at least. After that… containing his memories becomes quite hard.”

The other Mordret — one who had been separated from the only remaining part of himself — hesitated, then asked in a confused tone:

“Why are you telling me this? Are you taunting me, Lady Cassia?”

She shook her head.

“No. Don’t you understand? My power is to see, to know, and to remember — yes. But it is also to help the rest see, know, and remember. I am Song of the Fallen, after all. My fate is to sing about those I witnessed, not to bear the memory of them in silence. In other words, just like I took the memories of a lifetime spent alone from his mind… I can share them with you. I can help you experience all the things that he experienced, so that you come to know him.”

The other Mordret remained silent for a long while. Cassie waited for his response in the darkness, faced with only the coldness of the mirror under the fingers of her left hand and the hot, feverish slickness of her skin under the fingers of her right hand. Eventually, he whispered:

“Why would you do that for me?”

She inhaled deeply.

“It’s because I cannot see the future anymore, but I can still predict it. And I predict that you might need these memories, one day.”

He lingered for a few seconds, then said quietly:

“No… that is not true. You’re lying.”

He paused for a moment.

“Instead, you think that you might need me to have these memories, one day. Isn’t that right, Lady Cassia?”

She smiled.

“Is there a difference?”

He laughed bitterly.

“I guess not. Ah, it’s peculiar…”

There was a long stretch of silence, but eventually, he said:

“I feel like I will regret taking you up on your offer. But at the same time, I know that I will regret it forever if I refuse it… in the end, all I will be left with is regret.”

Cassie lowered her head.

“Still. It’s better to regret something that you did than something that you could have done, but didn’t. Believe me… I know that kind of torment well.”

The part of Mordret imprisoned in the mirror sighed heavily and fell silent.

After a while, he asked:

“So, what do I do?”

Cassie leaned closer to the mirror until her face was almost pressed against it.

“It’s easy.”

She took a deep breath.

“Just look me in the eye…”