Beyond the Mirror

For a moment I just stared at the glassy surface of the mirror, wondering what just happened. I just saw a boy in MY mirror, supposedly from another world, who can do magic? I laughed out loud with the absurdity of it all. By the time I went to bed later that night, I had convinced myself that it had all been in my imagination. Closing my eyes, I pushed the thoughts of Tristan's icy blue ones out of my mind, I had enough to worry about tomorrow anyway...

BRING BRING!! BRING BRING!! My eyes snapped open and I rolled to the edge of the bed, slapping the alarm clock silly until the insistent ringing ceased. After snuggling under the covers for a few more minutes, I hauled my tired body out of bed and immediately headed for my bathroom to take a shower. I showered quickly, nervous about facing my mother this morning.

After our fight, I hadn't left my room, and I wasn't looking forward to sitting across from a very angry mother during breakfast. She had had all afternoon and all night to stew about it, and dad was definitely already gone for the day. That leaves me and her all alone, oh joy. I still refused to believe what happened last night, and I avoided my vanity like the plague, choosing instead to get ready in the bathroom. I dressed in some dark blue skinny jeans, my checkered canvas shoes, and a my favorite band tee, Sick Puppies. After a quick brush of eyeliner and lip gloss I secured my bangs to the side with a clip and I was ready to go. Taking a quick glance at the vanity, I shook my head and stepped lightly into the hallway.

Breakfast was served in complete and utter silence. Every time I looked up from my plate of eggs and bacon she was glaring at me. I tried to finish as quickly as possible. As soon as I was finished I stood up to put the plate in the sink, but she stopped me.

"So your not even going to apologize for the way you acted yesterday?" I remained stoically silent and simply walked around her to place the dish on the counter.

"You know that giving me the silent treatment will not change my mind right? You have to go to school."

"Like hell I'm going back to that school. But she doesn't need to know that..." I thought to myself. I didn't respond to her comment and I walked into the living room to retrieve my bag where I had left it yesterday, mom following at my heels. I leaned down to pick it up, taking care to brush some hardened frosting off the strap.

"Fine! Be sulky! I don't care. But at least you have the sense not to be a high-school dropout like MY sister." Without so much as a backward glance, I stepped out the door and set off for the high school. She watched me like a hawk until I was out of sight, but as soon as she had disappeared into the distance I took a left into a patch of woodlands that bordered the road. I hadn't really had the nerve or the time to begin exploring my new hometown yet, so I figured today was a good day to start. I know I know, ditching school isn't cool, but what choice did I have? I followed a windy path through the trees until the world opened up into a meadow. The early morning sun shone brightly on the dew laden grass, giving the meadow a magical appearance. There was a small pond to the right, almost at the tree line with a large boulder perfect for sitting resting on its banks. I preferred not to get my butt all wet sitting in the grass, so I headed towards the boulder. It was still early morning, so the sun was barely up, but the birds in the trees had already begun to sing. It was a perfect little place, MY place now.

Whenever I left for school in the morning, instead of going to class I'd go to the meadow. There was a large maple tree in the center of the meadow, and I spent the majority of the first week exploring the patch of woodlands for fallen branches I could use to build a tree house. I managed to smuggle out some of my fathers tools from the garage, he never had the time to use them. I had a handsaw, a hammer, a box of nails, and a roll of twine. Using these tools I fashioned myself an amazing tree house in one of the tallest trees that overlooked the meadow.It even had a ladder I could let down or pull up made out of thick branches and twine. It quickly became my favorite place to go. It had only taken me about a week to build the treehouse, and mom hadn't caught on that I was ditching yet. Well, I was only on their roster for half a day, maybe they just figured I had dropped out.

By this time I had forgotten all about Tristan and the mirror, and I had started getting ready in front of it again. It happened when I was out of bed early on a beautiful Monday morning, getting ready for "school". I had sat down in front of my vanity, and started to sing along to the radio. I grabbed my hair brush and sang into it like a microphone, wiggling my eyebrows and making funny faces at myself in the mirror. It was all in good fun until the song changed to one I'd rather not hear since I was so homesick. It was mine and Anthony's song, by The Beatles, In My Life. Whenever I heard it it brought tears to my eyes, but I sang along anyway.

There are places I remember,
All my life, though some have changed,
Some forever, not for better,
Some have gone, and some remain,
All these places have their moments,
With lovers and friends, I still can recall,
Some are dead and some are living,
In my life, I've loved them all,

But of all these friends and lovers,
There is no one, compares with you,
And these memories lose their meaning,
When I think of love as something new,
Though I know I'll never lose affection,
For people and things that went before,
I know I'll often stop and think about them,
In my life, I've loved you more....

So sue me I have a soft spot for oldies. ^_^ But as I neared the end of the final verse, I shut my eyes. When I opened them again, there he was. Startled, I screamed and fell over backwards out of my chair. I heard a light chuckle come from out of the mirror and I quickly regained my composure.

"Would you stop doing that!? It gives me the creeps." He grinned impishly at me and I took in his appearance once more. The same long brown hair, but today he had it tied back away from his face and secured at the nape of his neck. He also wasn't wearing armor anymore, but instead a cloth tunic dyed royal blue, with an undershirt of sorts underneath. I couldn't see his bottom half.

"You sing rather beautifully, if I may say so. Even if I don't recognize Earth songs." I blushed red in embarassment. I had hoped that he hadn't heard my off-key rendition of a Beatles classic. Singing is something I NEVER do in public. If you can catch me warbling out a few notes, kudos to you, because you must be some kind of secret agent or something. I forced my embarassment aside and asked him the question that had been plaguing my mind since he left me last week.

"Why did you leave in such a hurry last time? Are you a prisoner or something? That man didn't sound very nice." At the mention of "the man" Tristan's eyes darkened several shades. Kind of creepy to see if you're not used to it. "That was my uncle. And well... I guess you could say that I'm a prisoner." Tristan heaved a massive sigh.I know it seems impossible, but it seemed like the wieght of the world was on his chest.

"That's too bad. Anything I can do to help?" Stupid stupid stupid Eimelee! What if he wants me to help him escape to Earth? Where would I hide a magic using medieval looking boy?! In my closet? Heh. That's a laugh.

"Unfortunately I don't think there is much you can do." he replied. "That man was my Uncle." he whispered to me, looking around his room as if at any moment the fires of hell would rain down on him.

"That jerk is your Uncle?!" I shouted.

"Please!" he begged, his eyes combing the room in a panic, "Not so loud!" he whispered.

"That jerk is your Uncle?!" I repeated, this time more softly.

"Yes. He is the Emperor of Avalar. He's. . . not a very nice person."

His brow knitted together and he seemed to be wrestling with himself on some internal level, not sure if he should be talking about such things to a stranger. I waited patiently for him to decide if I was trustworthy. I had a feeling that whatever he was about to tell me could get him into some deep deep doodie.

"Cassius, my uncle I mean. . . stole the throne from my parents. I was only three years old at the time. That is why I said I could be considered a prisoner."

"So what happened to your parents?" I asked.

"He killed them."

I was so horrified that for a moment I couldn't even speak at all.

"What?! That's insane!" I whispered into the mirror, "So why didn't he kill you too instead of taking you prisoner? Is it because you were a child?"

Tristan laughed darkly and my stomach turned to ice. This Cassius guy was sounding more and more evil by the second. Obviously he didn't care about murdering a child if Tristan can laugh about it in such a sinister manner.

"No, he spared me because I can use magic remember? I'm still human after all. Humans that can use magic are very rare. I am one of the most powerful human mages in Avalar. He keeps me alive only to exert his power over the rest of the Empire."

Dude, and I thought I had it tough dealing with jerks who dump frosting on people. Tristan must think I'm such a wuss.

"Well, couldn't you just, I don't know, stop using magic? Then your uncle wouldn't be able to use you anymore."

"And then I would be no use at all and he would kill me too!" Tristan nearly shouted. "And it's almost time for my 18th birthday. Once I'm a legal adult, Cassius will send me to the front lines in his campaign against the rest of the Empire. Then he will be able to use me to my full potential. I don't have all of my powers yet. Mirdalas tells me I should receive the last of them by my 18th birthday."

"Who's Mirdalas?" I interupted.

"Mirdalas is my trainer. He's the only Elf left in Summervale. He's a prisoner just like me. Cassius keeps him alive just so that he can train me in the ways of elven fighting so that I will have the advantage when I actually get deployed."

"So there are other magical people in Avalar too?" I asked, stunned.

"Of course there are. There aren't any elves, or vampires or nymphs on Earth?" he asked, equally stunned.

"I guess not. At least, I've never seen them. People used to believe in them a long time ago, but now they are mostly in stories. Maybe you took them all with you?"

"I don't know. That's sad. Your world is so unmagical." he observed. "It must be so hard to do anything."

"It is not!" I cried indignantly. "We have technology for that. Machines that can drive fast, fly in the air, even cook food for us. We manage okay."

"How fascinating. I can see it now. . ."

As Tristan imagined a world entirely without magic, I was reeling at the thought of this poor boy trapped in a horrible conflict that through no fault of his own he could never escape. He must be dreading his birthday.

"Eimelee! You're going to be late!"

"Oh gosh!" I glanced at the clock, then back to Tristan who was startled out of his daydream when my mothers sharp voice penetrated into the room.

"I have to go. I forgot about school!" I ran around the room like a chicken with it's head cut off for a few minutes as I gathered my stuff together and Tristan watched with renewed interest.

"When can I see you again?" he asked.

I turned to look at him and he seemed so sincere that if he wasn't in a different world I would have thought he was asking me out.

"I am just so lonely here." he explained. "My uncle never lets me out of the castle unsupervised. It's nice to forget about my awful life, even for just a minute."

"Well I don't really know how this communication thing works." I admitted.

"I've been trying to find you for months now. We both have to be at the mirror at the same time. Did I frighten you?" He asked, a hint of amusement in his voice.

"No." I lied. "I just rarely sit here at this spot, wait a minute! The last time I saw you was a week ago! You said you've been searching for months?"

"I guess time passes differently here." he said.

"Okay. Well I get home from school in 8 hours. I don't know how long that figures in Avalar, but I'll check in as soon as I get home, okay?"

"Eimelee!" My mother shouted again.

"I'm so sorry. I'll see you as soon as I can." Then without a backward glance I turned from the mirror and headed for the door.

"Goodbye." I heard Tristan call, and I'd never heard someone sound so sad before.