Magic Meets Might

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

Mirror Mirror on the wall, show me an angel who cannot fall

I've torn off my wings, I've set them ablaze

My power is gone, my life in shreds.

Standing on the edge of a cliff, I can see myself as I once was. No wings. No tail. Here at the very edge, I'd have no way to save myself from the rocks below. The slightest breeze could send me over. Wind tickled at my ankles, then pushed my back, then blew me off.

My hair flew out around me and the pure white dress I wore in this dream fluttered slowly, as if I were falling through molasses. Hands reaching out to the cliff, but so far away, I closed my eyes as the rocks grew closer.

Time sped up to a normal rate and I found myself inches from the jagged spires before everything turned black. I never hit the ground. 

You look into me.

You see yourself instead of me

I am true to the fact

I cannot lie

I will be beautiful if you want me to.

My hair was burnt on the edges. In the mirror shone a face I did not know. My once grey eyes were now violet but dull. No life glittered in them, nor did happiness sing from their depths. My cheeks were scared and bloody. My lip was split and blood was gathering in my mouth, metallic and warm. Behind me were the walls of a cold stone cell.

"You don't care. You have enough power to stop but you want me dead..."

"You're right," a man chuckled, "I just want your power. And of course, I want to erase the image of the once fair sorceress that helped people. You will become a beast that brings fear and destruction."

"What can you do to me that erases the history of Cassandra River Ambrose?"

"Ooh so official. I liked 'Cass' more, much more relaxed. Where's my little Cass?"

"You killed her. You took her heart and drove a spire of ice into it.That part of me that cared about you died a very long time ago."

He snarled and launched himself at the bars, causing me to jolt back. " And Notch took my own and made me watch it burn before my eyes. You think our older brother is such an angel, you refuse to look at what he's done. You refuse the truth!"

"Monsters only tell lies and do not help the living," I hissed. "Nothing you say will make me believe you."

"I'll let Seto live if you side with me in the coming war."

"Never," I spat. "I'd rather die than side against my family!"

"We are family, Cass, you and I!" His white eyes shone brighter than the torch lights, bright with anger. "Can't you see that we're still family?"

"I will be the one to end you, mark my words!"

"You don't have the guts!"

"Try me." I spat in his face.

"Suit yourself." He shot a red ball of magic at me. I flew back against the wall. A cold feeling crept through me. Like being slowly covered in ice. Very cold. I closed my eyes and felt my magic leaving me. Draining me. Changing me.

Then the weakness left me. I was stronger, more, then I had been. He awoke the beast within me, the beast within all of us. Every human, every person, everyone has a vicious creature that they hide from the world. The reason battles are so dangerous is because men release the beast and become savage, for what they believe is a right cause.

I felt...darker. Something in me passed into the shadows, like a sun blocked by a cloud. 

He smiled. Maybe he was done with me and didn't need me as a pet project anymore. Maybe I could leave. But he would never do that. He is smiling because he got what he wanted from me. I looked behind me and a sob caught in my throat. He was right. A beast that could erase the history and image of Cassandra River Ambrose.

I was an Ender. I was the terrible beast, broken in the wake of him.

I pulled my hand away from the mirror. That. How can that be me? How can it? What happened? I felt a hand on my shoulder. Not gentle either. The hand wrenched me up from the floor and was staring into the face of Seto.

"I think you ought to tell us everything you know."

"I know nothing," I growled, glaring up at him. 

"I don't think so. I think you should come with me before you make things worse for yourself."