“Tell me how I can win him. I will do anything to have him as my Destiny.”
“Why do you want him?” the Mage asked. “Do you love him?”
“Not yet. We have not met. But I will if that’s what it takes. He and his knights are expected to arrive at my father’s keep on the morrow.”
“You can’t just plan to love someone. True love doesn’t work that way.”
“I don’t care for so-called true love,” the maiden practically sneered, distorting her perfect beauty until it became almost ugly.
“I only care that if the appearance of love is what is required to win him, then I will give him the best performance he’s ever seen.”
The Mage shook her head regretfully.
“Then hear me well…”
At this point, the voices in the Mirror Pond faded away, the images blurring again until the water became a reflective surface once more.
“What did you tell her?” Rui asked, her curiosity piqued.
She hated leaving stones unturned, mysteries unsolved. It went against the grain of her treasure-hunting nature.
“Enough that she got what she wanted. But that’s not why the Mirror showed you this scene.”
“The Mirror?” Rui blinked. “You are the one who showed me.”
Miss Seventh shook her head and smiled mysteriously.
“You should know by now that the Mirror chooses what to show the one who gazes into it. I merely offered an excuse to draw you here.”
Rui was outright frowning with confusion now.
“Draw me here? But I came upon you. I was too early and…”
“Everything happens for a reason, dear,” the Jade Emperor’s daughter said gently, patiently.
“Remember this scene. Remember this maiden. And remember what we talked about. She will reappear in the quest you are about to embark upon. More importantly, there are those connected to her who will…matter.”
What a strange way to put it.
“Just remember not to judge a book by its cover. Have an open mind. And do what you do best.”
Rui asked the question with her eyes.
And her friend answered with the loveliest grin:
“Find your treasure.”
~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~
On the other side of the Mirror Pond, in a faraway mortal realm and a distant time, a warrior tossed and turned in the throes of a familiar dream…
He was the only one left.
His band of bounty hunters and assassins, no matter their skill, no matter the number of kills on their belts, was no match for the monsters of this lost isle.
There had been twenty at the start of the journey.
The stormy seas had tossed three from their ship. One was lost beneath the churning waves. Two were snatched and eaten by a giant serpent with thorny, vertical scales on its back.