Chapter Thirty-Three: Jasmine’s Mirror
761 Words
Chapter Thirty-Three: Jasmine’s Mirror
Jasmine had never feared mirrors.
Not in the quiet, half-lit hours when she polished the frost-etched panels in the Glass Garden.
Not even when she used water’s surface to slip between reflections, stepping through worlds no one else dared touch.
Mirrors had always been doors to her—
but doors she could open, close, command.
Until tonight.
The mirror in her tower room had turned black.
Not from dust, not from shadow.
From intent.
The glass didn’t reflect the candles burning steadily along the windowsill, or the storm clouds tightening over the northern peaks.
It swallowed light—devoured it—until it showed nothing but a deep, endless wrongness.
Jasmine stood before it, one hand hovering inches from the surface, feeling the way the air chilled against her skin.
The mirror was alive.
It was waiting.
She didn’t touch it.
Not yet.
Nicole arrived without knocking, her cloak still damp from the storm, her expression unreadable.
She stood beside Jasmine, her presence anchoring without suffocating.
"It’s a reflection portal," Nicole said quietly, eyes studying the blackened glass.
"Old. From before Moonstone tried to forget what memory could make."
She paused.
"It responds to broken intentions."
Inside the mirror, something stirred.
Not a creature.
Not an echo.
Herself.
But not the girl she was now.
The version of herself that had failed:
Who had burned too much, too recklessly, leaving scars not only on the world but in the hearts she tried to protect.
Who had reached too fast, too desperate, and in doing so—
lost Maverick.
The Jasmine in the mirror wore no frost in her hair.
Only smoke and ruin clinging to her like a second skin.
The mirror whispered—not in words, but in feeling:
"You will become this... unless you bind yourself."
Jasmine’s throat closed around a thousand denials.
But denial was not enough anymore.
She lifted her hand.
Steady.
Cold as the first breath of winter.
Alive.
She whispered the old spell—one only those trained in mirror-walking dared to speak:
Spell: Specularum Veritas (Truth of the Mirror)
· Casting Words: "Speculum, revelare. Verum ostende."
· Purpose: To force a mirror to reveal not fear, but truth—shattering false futures woven from guilt and broken will.
Her voice didn’t waver.
"Speculum, revelare.
Verum ostende."
The blackness recoiled.
The mirror didn’t simply c***k—it blossomed, shattering into a thousand petals of silver light that scattered like fireflies across the tower.
The false Jasmine faded.
The dark path burned away in the soft falling ash.
When Jasmine opened her eyes, all that remained was herself.
Whole.
Breathing.
Nicole smiled faintly, the kind of smile she rarely allowed anymore.
"You chose truth over fear," she said.
Jasmine let out a slow breath she hadn’t realized she was holding, feeling the tight knot at the center of her chest loosen, just slightly.
"No," she said softly, reaching down to brush a shard of silver glass with the tips of her fingers.
"I chose myself."
And deep within the reflection pooled in the broken shard,
the fire settled—
for now.
Reflection Portals: Lore Note
Reflection Portals are among the oldest surviving remnants of pre-Moonstone magic.
Created not for travel, but for confrontation.
Where most mirrors show only surface truth,
a Reflection Portal reveals the paths not taken—
the futures born from fear, ambition, grief, or betrayal.
Origins:
Woven from elemental light, shadow, and memory at the height of the First Convergence.
Used by early magical Orders as tests of soul-alignment: to see whether an apprentice could withstand the temptation of darker selves.
Most Reflection Portals were sealed or destroyed after the Collapse, when too many casters lost themselves chasing false reflections.
Properties:
A Reflection Portal adapts to the individual standing before it, crafting visions from their deepest fractures.
It magnifies guilt, hidden ambition, and fear—offering a mirror not of what is, but of what could become if fractures are left untended.
The longer one stares into a portal, the more the false future solidifies, eventually overwriting memory and identity if unchallenged.
Defeating a Reflection Portal:
Strength of will alone is insufficient.
The caster must acknowledge their potential darkness, claim it, and choose their own path forward—without running or denying.
Specialized spells like Specularum Veritas force the portal to reveal truth rather than illusion, shattering its influence.
Warning:
Those who fail a Reflection Portal’s trial may become echoes themselves—wandering mirrors, half-lost and half-alive.
Moonstone Doctrine:
"Reflection is a choice.
Not a prison."
"Not yet."
- Writer
