Into the Villain's Mirror

Chapter 8 - Accumulation of Decisions

In quiet minutes before sleep claimed her, Lucy often wondered how she had ended up here in this world. She wasn't sure if there actually was an answer that would have satisfied her, but something just felt so off about it.

Lucy had never been 'special' in the way heroes of stories often were - she didn't have prophetic dreams, secret uncontrollable urges, a hidden heritage or unknown parents. No strange birthmarks, no feeling like she was meant for something greater, no unexplained affinity for animals or fire or whatever else could be translated into a power.

She was just her. A reckless, tomboyish child who grew up into that strange phase between being a teen and an adult, social enough to have friends but not enough to become truly popular and trying to figure out what she wanted to do with her life.

It was so common Lucy couldn't have spun it into an exciting tale if she wanted to. And now her life ... was anything but common.

Strangely it was often the mirror she found herself talking to, for the simple fact that it was the only being who was aware of her true identity. And though its presence should have instilled her with caution and she really shouldn't be bonding with a sentient, magical artifact, exposure brewed familiarity like a sickly-sweet potion that lulled her worries to rest.

And so one day she found herself asking: "Mirror, you're all-knowing, right?"

"A phrase used in my crafting, and so it is now part of me."

Lucy nodded absently, her fingers slowly stroking over the parchment unfurled in front of her. Its surface looked smooth but felt strangely rough against her skin. "So tell me - why me?"

There was a miniscule pause, as slight as the beat of a dragonfly's wing, but Lucy had been waiting for it. And with that pause a certainty bloomed inside her: the mirror knows.

"The truth holds no peace for you, My Queen."

Lucy shrugged, strangely uncaring. "I want to know it nonetheless."

The folds of the mirror's figure rustled and dispersed like grains of magnetic sand only to reform in the next second, a steady, hypnotic wave. "Chance."

Lucy was so surprised that the mirror hadn't used any flowery words that the answer took a second to penetrate her brain. And then she blinked. "Chance? You mean ... it was a coincidence?"

"An accumulation of circumstances. Some humans call it coincidence, some call it fate."

"You called it chance."

"As My Queen would view it that way. In your world, there is no set narrative that all life clings to, only untouched potential and constant flux. One decision might alter everything."

"And which of my decisions led me here?" Lucy felt the first simmers of annoyance and did her best to stamp them out. "I certainly didn't decide to wake up in this body."

"You certainly did not."

For a second Lucy was tempted to find something heavy to shatter the mirror with. Instead she took a deep breath. "So, what was it?"

"An untold variation of small decisions, growing and branching into circumstances that My Queen had no thought of shaping but which manifested despite her intentions."

In other, less-cryptic words - coincidence. Lucy was here, in this strange world, faced with a horrible ending, by chance, just like the mirror had first said. "Why does it feel as if the universe just took a big dump on me?"

"My Queen ..."

Lucy waved the false compassion aside. "I should get back to this."

'This' was the long parchment she had been studying for hours, listing different ranks and members of the kingdom's nobility. Lucy was determined to learn them all, trying to channel the same determination that had gotten her through midterms (in what felt like a different life with vastly different worries).