“Yes, I did,” Axel waved his hands and walked away from her toward the purple light. “So what?”
“So if we’re not going to be able to help them anymore, why can’t you just tell me?” Fable said.
“I guess I have to get it off of my chest,” Axel said. “But you’re not going to like it.”
“It’s been a very unlikable day,” Fable said. “I can live with one more letdown.”
“In order to break free from a locked dream,” Axel turned to face his sister. “The Dreamer or the Dreamhunter has to kill the other to break the spell. Only one of them can wake up alive.”
28
A Splintered Clue
“Are you crazy?” Shew snapped. It wasn’t as if killing the Huntsman was easy, but the thought of even trying to hurt Loki was unacceptable.
“I know it’s hard, but you will stay trapped in this dream forever if you don’t do it,” Alice tried to pat her on the shoulder but Shew pushed her away. “Carmilla has locked this dream with a spell, which means the Dreamworld’s connection is too strong for the Waker to wake Loki up. Even Carmilla can’t do anything about it—she probably didn’t know that, or else she didn’t care.”
“I don’t care either,” Shew brushed Alice away and walked closer to a window, longing to breathe some air of logic.
“Alright, Shew,” Alice lowered her voice to ease the tension. “I need to tell you a little story, if you don’t mind.”
“I thought you didn’t even have much time,” Shew said. “Now you want to tell me a story?”
“It’s the only way to explain the consequences of you staying trapped in this dream,” Alice said. “And what Cerené’s real role is.”
“Cerené?” Shew considered. Even in her darkest hour, she couldn’t resist knowing more about her enigmatic childhood friend. “You have my attention,” she nodded.
“It’s a simple story, just like any other fairy tale,” Alice said, “only much darker.”
“Loki likes those,” Shew mused. “I’m all ears.”
“Since the beginning of time, a mysterious artifact called the Anderson Mirror has been of interest to the forces of the so called good and evil sides,” Alice said.
“Why are you calling them ‘so called’?”
“Because there is no absolute good and evil,” Alice said.
“Also, mirror and glass hadn’t been invented until recently, Alice” Shew interrupted again.
“In our world, yes,” Alice said. “But not in the cosmic world. The Anderson Mirror has existed since long ago. It’s even rumored that Justus Von Liebig, presumably the first man to invent a shiny silvered mirror, was actually trying to replicate the Anderson Mirror,” Alice stopped for a breath. She started walking back and forth in the bathhouse like a teacher in a lecture, lacing her hands together. “No one ever knew who created the mirror or what its purpose was. All we know is that it reflected the worst in people.”
“The worst? You mean the way the mirrors in my room show my mother’s true ugly nature?” Shew asked.
“Not exactly,” Alice said. “Ordinary mirrors show the Queen’s nature because that’s what mirrors are supposed to do. The Anderson Mirror shows a person’s darker side whether he is good or bad. It just shows the worst in people. Period.”
“Why would the world fight over such a mirror, then?” Shew wondered.
“The quest for the mirror wasn’t as bloody in the beginning as it is now, before it fell into the hands of the devil,” Alice explained.
“Oh, there’s even a devil in this story,” Shew didn’t know what to believe anymore.
“He’s an ugly troll. Long story short, the devil broke the mirror accidentally and its splinters spread all over the world,” Alice explained.
“So?” Shew shook her shoulders, disinterested.
How could this have anything to do with me?
“The splinters, tinier than a grain of sand, entered people’s eyes and hearts,” Alice said. “Each person with a splinter carried part of the darkness of the mirror within him, and so an army of darkness spread all over the world,” Alice continued.
“This really sounds like a dark fairy tale,” Shew said. “Why does it sound so incredibly familiar?”
“Because, the story was briefly hinted at in Hans Christian Anderson’s The Snow Queen,” Alice said. “Hans was another famous fairy tale writer like the Brothers Grimm,” Alice said.
“So the Anderson Mirror is named after him, and its creator isn’t necessarily called Anderson?”
“True,” Alice said.
“I thought our world was only related to the Brothers Grimm?” Shew speculated.
“Our world is related to everything, trust me,” Alice said. “But that’s beside the point. Anderson could have hinted to the story, or even forged it like the Brothers Grimm. My version is the accurate and real one, if you‘ll stop interrupting me.”