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Mirror, Mirror...

The End

I poked a hole in the top of the TV dinner with a fork and put it in the microwave. It wasn't really a TV dinner. I didn't have to eat at all, being what I was. Keeping up certain habits was important though. It made the quick shifts from normal things to completely insane new things that much easier.

It was such a short time really, but already I was getting very comfortable as a druid. Shifting, teleporting, and all other kinds of magical contrivances were no longer the challenge they were even a day or two ago. After helping the gryphon yesterday, the alpha druids of my new fold gave Shadow the lowdown on things that I absolutely needed to know as soon as possible. Shad took this as a challenge and made good on it. The only thing still nagging at me on occasion was my old, human mindset and my lack of experience.

“It takes centuries to get centuries of experience," Shad - my black feline famulus - said softly from where she was grooming her flank on my kitchen counter.

“You've given me a huge head start," I pointed out. “You even admitted that some things I would spend years or decades learning to do if you didn't know them already and guide me. You're a great teacher."

Her ear flicked. “I'm just a famulus," she demurred shyly. “In my own world, we are not really even self-aware a lot of the time. So much to think on, so much time to do it, why bother counting the time or anything? Even though so many masters here are such asshats, I admit it's interesting to be here. I don't know if it'll be a drop in the bucket of the universe of time I'd have spent back home, or if I'll ever get back home," she said, then she fluffed at the thought, her fur frizzing. “Or even if I want to go back home now."

The frizzled fur was tickling her nose, so she groomed more avidly. Then promptly changed into a black jaguar so she'd have more tongue. Of course that was more fur too, so all it did was make the space on the counter tighter.

I turned and smoothed down her fur with my hand, stroking her side and eliciting a purr that sounded like the rumble of a subwoofer from her. “If you were free of me, because I was gone or released you to another, would you want to go home?"

She flopped on the counter and grabbed my hand with massive paws, rubbing her cheek against it. “I don't want to be free of you," she said. “You see me as a person and you're such a nice druid. I don't know what happened with your soul before either, but it doesn't seem to be bad for us."

I still had to figure that out from an existential standpoint. I was a sorcerer. I didn't learn magic or find sudden magical skills. I was made of magic. Did I have a soul? Was I a soul? I knew I had a sense of self, and that I could be multilocational to a degree. If I shapeshifted a shirt onto myself, it was a part of me. If I became two bricks, I was both of them at the same time and aware of being both in both places. I could stop being one and just be the other and the one would not go away unless I chose it to. When I cast spells and manipulated the world, it was with and from my own energy.

Yet the energy was “me" only as much as a glass of water became part of a person and then left later as urine. I could be a fly and still be me, the rest of my energy gone until I gathered it back to become larger once more. So I really didn't know. What constituted me?

“All this time and nobody really knows," Shad admitted. “But I like you anyway." She perked and looked at the front door upside down, since she was laying on her back. “Elara just arrived outside."

The Shadow Kitsune I knew. I'd just gotten over the sads from helping her put a young women into a coma and shatter the life of one of my friends.

'I know,' she communicated silently from outside. 'May I come in?'

My apartment was warded. It was my domain, so magical things required permission to enter, lest they potentially fall afoul of the magic. As a kitsune, she maybe didn't. So many different rules for different people and places and things. But I was willing to have her visit. There was something about her mental touch that felt sad. Even with all the things that happened recently, she'd felt… stoic… before. But never sad.

The pepper-haired human woman slipped in silently through the door as I went to meet her, smiling as I offered my hand. Without a word, she was suddenly a vixen, her mass of tails hanging limply behind her. She grabbed me into a hug and clung tightly.

“I'm glad you're still here," she said softly. “This place is in a knot it doesn't come out of."

Knot?

Each Kitsune worked with the tapestry of fate and existence, I was reminded as we took a seat on the couch. Threads for everything, woven in a complex, hyperdimensional dance of interactions, touching and leaving other things. The past, the present, and the future, all laid out in a way, with the extra added complexity of fate not being pre-defined. Each moment of spark along the timeline of the threads stabilized one of infinite possibilities into an infinite subset of new infinite possibilities. But the probabilities… that was what mattered to a Kitsune.

Amongst the infinite possibilities, there was a very finite subset that was probable. A much narrower fuzzing of what could be based on the defined thread behind it. Just like a hurricane had a wide possible swath of direction, knowing how it worked allowed one to reduce the forecast paths to a much narrower band.

“For example," she explained softly, then suddenly leaned forward and licked my lips gently before kissing me. When she pulled back a few seconds later, her eyes still carried her worry. “When I kissed you, it was a possibility that you'd explode and destroy the whole galaxy."

My eyes widened and she let out a barking laugh.

“But the likelihood of that was very slim. Infinitesimally slim." She grinned. “The chance of you blushing a little was much greater. But you didn't blush, even though I expected you might. So I'm not perfect, as you can see." Her ears wilted. “But the chance that nothing bad would happen was pretty solid. Even though little details like blushing or tongue or boners were not as set…"

She paused and peered at me, then grinned. “Okay, with the mention of boners you're blushing some," she said cheerily. “Anyway, even though the little details were not set, the overall chances for positive were high, and nearly perfect."

That made sense and I started to smile and acknowledge such, but her ears went down so hard and fast that my words caught in my throat.

“With you yourself warded against it, I can't track your thread. Or mess with it, mind you. Yeah. But I can see other threads. People. Places. Things." She gestured at the surrounding apartment. “A knot… a knot is such a mess that even a Kitsune would have to tease out the details and spend a long time trying to figure out what's going on and what the potentials are. There isn't always time though. The sparks all move, time stops for no vixen. A knot means that something is super-complicated."

Her gaze found mine and her golden eyes drew my attention instantly. “Or that there's tampering."

Shadow was alert and attentive in a heartbeat, duplicated a dozen times and inspecting every corner of the apartment. “How soon?"

“I don't know," Elara admitted. “I thought I might be too late already. I can't safely stay, either, that I know. But… I..." Her ears twisted about furiously and she gave a sudden shimmy-shake. “I want to give you something."

“Is this the best time for this?" Shadow asked worriedly, hackles up at the news alone.

“It is," Elara insisted. “Maybe it will help a lot. Maybe it will only help a little. But it's better than doing nothing." She stood suddenly and offered her hand, the tinge of magic showing that she intended to take us somewhere.

I got to my feet and looked at the nearest Shadow cat. “You said trust Kitsunes that aren't Dark ones, Shad. Let's go." Shad left all the duplicates to vanish and hopped onto my shoulder just before I took the vixen's hand and the world went dark.

* * *

I had no idea where we were. I knew I still existed. I could feel the other two nearby. I could sense the immense energy of the place. But that was all.

“Soooo… sooooo much energy," Shadow murmured in awe. Her voice was everywhere at once, and yet seemed to be coming from inside my head. Then in the darkness, a black cat appeared, standing on nothingness.

“More than I can work with," Elara said softly.

I felt my famulus's loving touch in my mind and suddenly I was no longer just a disembodied point of view. Shad nudged me into forming my normal human body out of the nothing.

The black cat looked around. “What is this place? I've never encountered anything like it."

“It's a sovereign dream," Elara said. “A very old, very powerful one. The energy connections to it are too powerful for me to even sense until I get more tails. Probably all nine even. I found it. I was able to ward it and hide it. And that was all I could do. Then I would keep it until I earned my eighth tail and maybe be able to do something with it. Might not be able to even then."

Well, if she couldn't with eight, there was always the ninth.

She coughed lightly. Or choked. Maybe it was a giggle? I wasn't sure. “I'm giving this to you. You can make it into your realm."

“REALLY?!" Shadow demanded, shocked. “I knew that Kitsune were good at finding dreams, and some dream weavers would make temporary ones, but very few wizards have permanent dreams for their realms."

I held my hands up. This was too much. She went to all the effort to find this and claim it. It was far too valuable for somebody like me.

“Why hold onto something like this unused for a possibility in a possible future? You can use it now while I will never…" she coughed again. “...never… know how long it would be before I have just a chance to maybe be able to use it. I want to see it go to somebody nice who I like. Somebody who deserves it and can make the most of it. Not just be forgotten and lost."

I didn't know what to say. This was… this was amazing. Even as she was speaking, she was weaving the energy to pass control to me. Accepting the offer was more natural with each time I did it. As my mind… my very existence… took the sovereign dream as mine, I could sense the power it was linked to. It felt… interesting. Something about it.

“It's very old," Shadow said. “It has to be linked and feeding from energy close to the source. Close to the origin of the ages."

There was an added layer of offer now and with Shadow's approval, I accepted it. The flash of energy was blindingly brilliant. Literally. My eyes didn't mean anything here but my magical senses were numbed and tingling now. But what was this? Oh… my… god...

“Just be nice," Shadow told me. “And remember, it's not actually as cool as it sounds."

What???

“You're the god of this dream now," Elara said, finally able to form her own lovely vixen fluff now that I had a handle and control over the power here. “Sure, it's just a tiny infinite pocket in a more-infinite universe in an infinitely-infinitely-infinite set of universes or whatever, but it's yours."

A god?! What the fuck?!

“Energy rules still apply," Shadow said. “Magical rules still apply. You just control the rules of a lot of other things. Like reality. But if you bring somebody here and squish them under your thumb for a net negative, you're still being negative and that will be bad for you. Bring somebody here who violently disbelieves and that still applies too. Dreamers make these all the time and have a lot of practice in them. You'll need to get used to it. Everything from outside this dream still has its own power. You only have pure control over things created in here."

Still… This was mindboggling. That was serious business when taking a sorcerer's 'mind' into account. There was nothingness around us, but it was all my nothingness. Almost like it was all me, like all of me was me. I was … well, I guess omniscient here.

“Kind of," Shad said with a grin, becoming a sleek, black humanoid cat. She turned me away from Elara and moved me as if she was getting me to stand on a mark. “Close your eyes and pay attention to where I am," she said.

Then she took off on all fours, running faster away than a cat could move in real space. Tail high helped encourage me to pay attention to her indeed despite my eyes being firmly shut.

“Ah, here it is…" she said, stopping suddenly, very far away. She grinned. “Yes, the whole realm is you. You can sense me even this far away. And since it's you, I can lick this spot here, and see?" She leaned forward and licked the nothing in front of her and I let out a squeak of surprise as the sensation of a soft tongue drifted up my thigh. Several more licks groomed my skin and felt quite nice.

I was surprised that there was such a “place" in this dream that was… well… me… that way. But something was nagging at me as she remotely treated me to a very nice set of licks and grooming. Something didn't seem quite right. Then Shadow stopped and grinned.

“So, yeah, you can and do know anything in this place. But not all at once."

Without her moving, another lick graced my belly and Shadow nudged my attention back to where my physical representation was. I promptly felt absolutely silly for not having realized that it was Elara who was doing the licking here. In retrospect, I knew it, but I didn't specifically pay attention to it, so it didn't come to mind.

Shadow didn't even run, she just reappeared beside me. “It's like the mind. You know a lot of things, but you don't know them all at once. You always know that two doubled is four and that a blue sky is blue and rain is wet. But it's not always something you think about. You know the words to that song, but it doesn't come out your mouth all the time or sit on the forefront of your thoughts."

All the things I knew. And I knew them all the time. But my attention wasn't on most of them most of the time. Yet if I thought about anything, it was like thinking actively of something I already knew. It was complicated.

“Yep," Elara said brightly. “Here you thought you'd be all powerful, all knowing, super-duper? Reality is a bitch, even when you control a chunk of it."

All this power and reality still sucked sometimes. Ahh well. New things to not worry about, new things to worry about in exchange.

“Speaking of worries, we should head back now," Elara said sullenly. “I don't want to keep you here so long that you become distracted away from the danger. Time doesn't have to run the same here after all. More than even a normal wizard's domain." She grabbed me and hugged me tightly again, then gave me a quick kiss. “I'm going to let you two go back, and I'm going to go somewhere else so I'm not a distraction. Call to me when you are safe." Then she vanished.

Shadow turned into a small cat again and leaped up onto my shoulder. “Let's go home. Forewarned is forearmed. We'll be ready for whatever happens."

* * *

Something felt off the moment I got back to my apartment and Shad knew it too. Shadow peeked from reflective places and I extended my senses. Not in the apartment. No… The building though. There was nobody else home and only a bunch of bugs alive. No sense of other magical beings either. Then I noticed it.

“What…?" Shadow took a look at the spell through my senses. “That is a super-powerful warding spell, like somebody trying to protect something. But it's… it's so completely broken it's not even useful. I mean, it blaring out its presence, so obvious that everything nearby will…"

My phone rang. It was the emergency ringtone I'd assigned to my work. I rushed to answer it, distracted by the current situation but knowing that I needed to maintain a show of normalcy. “Hello?"

Her eyes widened and I expanded what I was sensing for even as she started looking more. The useless ward was no protection against the spells that reached into the apartment it was in, across the breezeway from mine. A magically-incited gas leak was just the cover for the small sphere that appeared in mid-air and dropped toward the ground.

“Hey, hope I caught you at an okay time. We know you've had a rough time since that patient who was related to your friend. We feel your pain. We're part of your team, so you know we're here for you. We'd like to all take you to dinner tonight and we have a little…"

I started to reach out to catch it with my power, but Shadow yowled and exerted her control over me to yank my energies back and into my own wards. They were all that protected us from the explosion and flames that ripped through the building, and even they were strained as the flames licked through the structure, the magical fire having engulfed the entire building in an instant. My phone hit the ground and shattered, quickly rendered inoperative.

“No, no, NO!!" Shadow exclaimed, suddenly in a panic. “Oh spirits, NO!!" The fact that the wards I had created were starting to fail under the assault of the flame didn't bode well at all.

I went into emergency mode, just like all my work. “We'll teleport out to a safe place," I said, wincing as the structure started to give way.

“No, we can't!" Shadow exclaimed in misery. “You can't! This is assassin flame! It consumes even magic itself and can't be extinguished. It'll burn everything in this building completely! If you try to teleport out, it'll light your probe and burn along it to get you."

She was frantic now and I had to admit, even though my physical body didn't actually have to hurt anymore, the heat from the flames even through the wards was painful.

“I can get out because I'm a mirror famulus, but that doesn't help you. Oh spirits, no, this is the worst thing that could ever happen to a famulus. Even worse than their master getting disconnected by disbelief. The agony as they lose their master and nothing they can do about it. Why would anybody use this assassin flame against us?!"

I cried out. This was starting to hurt a lot. I desperately tried to shore up the wards without actually connecting to them, but I couldn't even figure out a way to try. Shad took my pain and gritted her teeth, whimpering.

Then the wall burst through with flame as the wards gave way. I dodged with unnatural speed to get to an area that was still warded, but the flame licked at my fingertip.

The agony was incomprehensible. Even with Shadow taking as much as she could, it ripped through my very existence. Even with just the tip of my finger alight and every smidgen of power within me fighting the consuming flames, it was nearly more than I could bear.

I literally shook my hand off. I could be not-me, I didn't need that. But it was no good. I… Me… I was alight. The flame was going to consume me and fuck me for anything I tried to do against it.

Shadow screamed, a bloodcurdling sound that seemed enough to wake the dead. I was dizzy, delirious. All this was new… and now it was over. Over the roar of the flames, I could hear frantic shouts outside and sirens responding. I stumbled toward the last of the ward that was holding, just inside my bedroom door. The flame was relentless as it burnt up my wrist. Any shape, anything I did would amount to nothing. And when the wards failed, nothing would keep the fire from taking all of me.

“My mirror!" Shadow wailed.

The wards were long gone from there, but the mirror itself held power. A mere fall, a normal fire would not even scratch it. But this… this was too much even for such an artifact. The reflection of reality in it crazed rapidly and then the glass exploded out from it. The shards hitting me were not even a blip on the worry scale at the moment. With the fire and my impending, agonising demise, I had only one thing that I thought of.

What would happen to Shadow?

I did not see my beloved famulus anywhere. It was over. We were both destroyed.

The wards collapsing seemed to be in slow motion as the agony swept over me. There was nothing but the burning. If there was really such a thing as hell, it probably couldn't even be this bad.

Something suddenly clung to me. Something soothing. Something that quenched the pain. Then an offer. It felt familiar somehow. Like it was something I'd done before. With the last tiny core of myself intact, I focused. I accepted it.

* * *

The world was twisted. Bent. Far away. It was impossible to focus on. Dark, with the amber illumination of outdoor lights. I felt like I was floating in a soothing mist. There was a dull ache, and I felt drained, but I was still… somewhere? I couldn't sense outside the mist and the mist was not going to let me go, but it seemed unaware.

“There… the ash of a magical being," a voice said.

“What was it anyway?" another voice asked.

“I don't know. I don't think even the master knows. But you saw how powerful the ward was. Really broken, so it had to have been a new entity. But with a ward that powerful, it probably was best to use The Flame on it."

“Everybody knows about The Flame though. Nobody else with half a bit of sense was even around because of it. The only other potential target was some teenage dream master and they're not even worth tracking. Would've been such a sad Flaming."

“Yeah. Not even much of a fight for The Flame this time. A few two-shoes and the master. That wasn't a glorious battle."

“Well, let's pretend it was some kind of grave threat to the master here and not a lack of any other possible targets. It makes better stories that way. But whoever this was, they're definitely gone now."

“Let's go grab a bite to eat."

“Oh, how about that one fast food place? You can taste the misery of their employees in the sandwiches."

“Sure."

The voices faded away and I was left… here. Wherever here was. I floated in the nothingness for a long while, and eventually the bent world started to brighten. It was like somebody liquified a picture and stirred it lightly.

I finally pushed gently against the mist. Then a little more firmly. That got a response.

*What? Where…?* It was not hearing, it was just knowing. There was a sadness. *I… my mirror… My… my master… Gone.* The twisted world changed suddenly to a greener place.

Shadow?! Shadow! I'm here! I'm not gone!

*I'm… I'm free…? I'm not bound to the mirror! I can go home.*

No, Shadow, don't leave me!

*Home to my realm. Home to what I was… to nothing… No emotion, no feeling…* There was a sadness again. *But I loved him. He loved me. I don't want to lose that. Sad, yes, but… but so happy.* A little rush of a thrill of remembering me and a spike of happiness. “But without the mirror to anchor me, I'm going to fall back home. I'm… The mirror is long gone. Why aren't I home?*

Shadow? I'm here? Am I here? Am I anything at all anymore? Shadow? I love you!

*I love me too, master.* Then a pause. *Wait… Me…? No… What is this…?*

I felt like the mist was moving around me. It seemed more solid, though there was nothing at all to me or it. Then something touched me.

*SQUEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!*

If anybody had been in the forest there to see a naked druid tumble out of a morning dewdrop and promptly be tackled by a misty, ghost-like black panther, likely something bad would have happened due to disbelief. Thankfully the squirrel just scampered out of the way and ran up a tree scolding noisily.

“I thought I'd lost you!" Shadow exclaimed, almost not able to touch me with her misty form as she nuzzled frantically. “I thought I'd end up falling out of this reality and back to my home. I didn't want to give up loving you, even if you were gone forever."

I felt tremendously weak and exhausted, but one thing was worrying me greatly. Why was she so fuzzy?

“Because I have fur! Sill… Wait…" She did a double-take as she examined herself. “Oh… nononono… I can't form? Unless…"

She made an epic effort against her own lack of self and reached into my energy, then reached out with it to start gathering more. I started to feel better immediately as the power flowed back into me. I'd been reduced to nearly nothing by the burning fire. And as I recovered, Shadow did as well. She went from looking like an out of focus photo to slowly becoming a solid feline.

When I felt back to normal - well, as normal as I could feel anymore - she nuzzled me warmly. “I'm bound to you now, not a mirror," she murmured. Then she took a deep breath. “Before I met you, I always just hoped that I would get okay masters and some day my mirror would be broken and I could go home. Now home is the last place I ever want to go. I shouldn't be able to feel like this. Or like anything. But I wouldn't give it up. Thank you."

I had to ask about this assassin flame thing though.

“Once every thousand years of world time, The Flame appears. Magical creatures fight over it and one wins to control it, then must instantly send it to where they like. One chance to utterly destroy nearly any magical thing. A mirror famulus might be the only thing that just gets… well… freed instead of destroyed. With everything that happened, I didn't realize it was the time of The Flame, or I would have had us do a time jump to just after it like pretty much every capable magical creature does."

“Thank you for surviving," a quiet, monotone voice said from all around us, making us jump. “I shouldn't tell you, but I respect both of you far too much. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all the pain I put you through. I'm sorry for the possibility that you would have been killed. There's too much at stake. It was the only option I had."

Elara?

“The Light and Dark Kitsunes have it easy. Everything is simple for them. I don't have it as easy. I can both love and hate. I can bring joy, or devastation. All to bring balance." There was a pause. Her voice was stoic, but I could sense the sorrow and pain behind it.

“It hurts me too. I had such high hopes for…" She stopped talking again with a sigh. “The Light and Dark Kitsunes all have their joys and their hatred. I only have the fleeting touch with those I must use and deceive. But your part is done now. I swear I shall not damagingly deceive you or intentionally put you in harm's way ever again." There was the tingle of a geis that I now owned. The absolute magic promise that I was safe from dangerous machinations by her.

“You can hate me. You will never see me again. I'm desperately sorry if this news just hurt you more." She was trying so hard to be stoic and emotionless, but now even her voice had a quiver. “I couldn't bear to leave you without the truth and wondering what became of me."

Maybe I was naive, but I trusted Shadow, and she said to trust Shadow Kitsunes, that the end result was a net positive. Not seeing the vixen again would be a great loss. I don't hate her. She was a wonderful person and had to do what she had to do. She did things that were bigger than just me. I wished her nothing but the best and would miss her dearly.

Shadow nudged my abilities and dropped my personal wards just enough to let a flash of the genuine sadness and concern over the Kitsune's situation out before restoring them.

Both of us were promptly bowled over by the grey fox that appeared at full speed. There was desperate cheek rubbing and nuzzling before she burrowed into my arms and sobbed. I just stroked her back and head gently, wondering why she was staying in this form.

“I-I had to make the fake ward. That's not Kitsune magic and it took a lot of my power," she said with a sniffle. “Th-thank you for being so nice. I haven't been this much of a mess for thousands of years. I thought I could just get your help a little and spend time with you on occasion. But the threads said otherwise."

Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I've had to sacrifice so much and so many. Thank you for surviving. Now I only have one more who will be sacrificed in the future, and then my work will be done forever. She knows this already. She is willing and not deceived. She chooses this path, though if I could have it any other way, I would. But the Great Weave showed her what must be."

I leaned down and kissed her between her ears. It would be okay. When the work was done, I'd be there for her.

She lifted her nose and licked gently under my chin. “When my work is done, I will leave. I have no choice in the matter," she said softly. “Thank you for being here for me while I am."

I would be here.

Elara was beside herself when she asked me to do one more thing. I took the form of a black cat along with Shadow and together we waited by the burned remains of my old home. It was a pang of sadness as I saw Daniel. I stalked him silently as he knocked on a few doors to ask sullen residents, taking a few attempts to get answers about the fire.

I winced as he pulled out his phone and started making calls, inquiring about me. Some confusion and frustration from him before he finally got my work.

“He… gone?"

It tore at my heart as I watched a look of horror creep over his face.

“No… No, it's okay. I-I've got to go. Thanks."

I'd not seen such despair in all my time before. The gamut of emotions washing over him was painful to watch. He slumped to sit on the curb, his phone held loosely in his limp hand as he held his head in the other.

Shadow and I approached him. I wanted to talk. I wanted to tell him it would be okay. I wanted to tell him I was okay and I was going to do new and exciting things now. I couldn't though.

I was damn lucky that he didn't notice my error. Rather than meowing like a proper cat should, I actually voice the word “Meow?" He was oblivious though. I rubbed against him and Shadow did too, even better at it than I with all her practice. I purred and she made a really nifty, adorable trill sound that I would have to learn sometime.

It would be okay, I thought at Daniel. You'll get through this. Everything will be much better. It's dark, but there is a light at the end of this. You have to move forward. You have to move on.

I wasn't sure if he was crying at first, but when he lifted his head from his arm, he was giggling a little. He reached out and rubbed under my chin. I put my front paws on his knee and stared at him intently and he just gazed back. But it worked.

Something inside him clicked. A dawning of understanding. A glimmer of light and determination. I rubbed my cheek against his chest and dashed out of his reach as he tried to scoop me up. Shadow fell in behind me as we ducked into the bushes. Then we both vanished and watched, invisible as the young man gathered himself up.

He had a sense of purpose now. It hurt that he looked like he'd just aged twenty years in those few minutes. But he had his reason now. I hoped my bright golden eyes I had just graced his gaze with would stay with him and help him move forward.

My home was destroyed. Nothing left of it. Shadow's mirror was shattered. To everything and everybody, who I once was was gone. Burned to death in the fire so hot that not even a charred corpse remained. The form I spent the last twenty-three years in was now useless to me, never to be taken again. My fold was exceptionally supportive. They were shocked by how sudden this was for me and all so very kind.

Watching my own funeral. When I made my list so long ago, that was something that never ever would have occurred to me.

Harv and Robin were there and were genuinely shocked when I jumped down as a cat to make my presence known. They both knew well about the nature of the fire and the ashes of my burnt essence. Harv was distracted as he tried to piece together what happened, while Robin seemed unsure whether she wanted to scoop me up and kiss me or kick me for making her worry. But they kept their decorum during the funeral and Robin sent me a look that demanded explanation later.

“You had a huge impact on a lot of people," Elara said as I sat in the tree looking down on my coworkers and others who were standing a candle vigil below. Weaving her hands she brought forth an overview of the tapestry she worked with so closely. Not a flat weave. A massive webwork that flowed in many more dimensions than just three. Yet now I could comprehend them.

My thread glowed, little sparkles of light flashing at the intersections with others, and the other threads taking brighter, more vivid colors as a result. Not all the others became brighter. Not all stayed brighter. But the path I took through the history of the tapestry was there in all its colorful splendor.

“I pieced together the rest of your known travels here," she said softly, pointing to area between when I learned magic and now. “And this is the end." She pointed to the last of the colorful section of the thread.

I couldn't help but notice the thin filament that continued, nor the ghostly sparkles that split off in a different direction.

“That? Ahh." She smiled. “Your impact doesn't end when you die. Your memory touches many places, many people, and many hearts." She touched my furry chest. “Dying, whether it be like this, or for real, is not the end."

The sparkles?

“Those? Oh… yes… the little bits that I could discern around the wards of your future." She smiled and tugged up the start of the shimmery thread with a clawtip, making it easier for me to follow its amazing squiggles off into the distance. “This right here. This is just after the end… of the beginning."

The End.

...Of the beginning...

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Author's Note:

This is not The End of The End. There will be more stories in Mirror, Mirror... However this is the end of the beginning. All the things that went in order are done and all the little (and big) loose ends that connect to other stories are tied up. So don't worry. You will see more of the druid.