Chapter 114: Beyond the Mirror

Rose had no intention of letting go of my hand.

I followed her as we left the brightly lit streets of the city center and turned into the side streets. Shop windows gave way to closed shutters, and the hum of the crowds faded until only our footsteps remained. Rose took each turn without hesitation.

Eventually, she stopped in front of a bar wedged between two old buildings.

The paint on its sign was peeling, and its windows were so dark it was hard to see inside. Dead insects had collected inside the lamp beside the door.

"We’re here."

I looked at the bar, then at her.

"We’re here? Where? This is just an old bar."

Rose’s lips curved.

"You’ll see in a moment."

She gave my hand a gentle tug and opened the door.

As I stepped inside, a heavy smell of old wood and alcohol hit me. Two men sat quietly in a corner, while a woman at a table near the window swirled the drink in her glass. Muffled music came from the back.

At first glance, the only strange thing about the place was that Rose had brought us here.

Then a chill ran down the back of my neck.

I felt someone watching me.

My eyes moved over the customers. None of them had looked up. Yet as I took a few more steps, I couldn’t shake the feeling that those gazes were following me. It was as though people stood just outside my field of vision, waiting for me to turn around.

I instinctively moved a little closer to Rose.

The bartender was drying a wineglass behind the counter.

His white hair was carefully combed back. Not a single wrinkle marked his dark vest, and his shirt cuffs fit neatly around his wrists. When he raised his head, his yellow eyes briefly met mine.

I felt something cold slide down my throat.

All he held was a wineglass and a cloth. Even so, I didn’t want to see him step out from behind that counter.

Rose rested her elbow on the wood.

"I’d like some of the Blind Moon’s Last Harvest."

Of course. I’d have been surprised if she’d given him a normal wine name...

She took a coin from her pocket and placed it on the counter. The dark metal had an uneven rim, with thin crimson lines running through the hole in its center.

The bartender glanced at the coin. Then his eyes shifted from Rose to me.

"And your companion?"

He didn’t need to point.

Rose’s voice lost a little of its cheer as she answered.

"We’re together."

The man studied my face for a few more seconds. I couldn’t tell whether he recognized me or was looking for a reason to refuse me entry.

Finally, he held the coin back out to Rose.

He also took two pieces of paper from beneath the counter and placed them beside it. Symbols in an unfamiliar language were etched into their thick gray surfaces. Some looked more like interlocking semicircles than letters.

The bartender nodded toward the door at the back.

Rose picked up the papers and turned to me.

"Let’s go."

I opened the door.

Inside was a storeroom.

Crates, boxes of bottles, and a few stacked barrels...

I waited a moment. Maybe there was a staircase or another door I’d overlooked.

There wasn’t.

Rose stepped in beside me and closed the door.

"Hey, are you sure we’re in the right place?"

Instead of answering, she walked over to a covered object at the far end of the room. She grabbed one corner of the cloth and pulled, sending a thin cloud of dust into the air.

Beneath it stood a full-length mirror.

Symbols like the ones on the papers marked the edges of its darkened frame. In the glass, I saw my blue hair and the doubtful expression on my face.

"We didn’t come here to look at ourselves, did we?"

Rose threw both pieces of paper at the mirror.

They stopped the instant they touched the glass. Their symbols glowed blue, and the light spread across the mirror’s surface in thin lines.

Before I could even squint, the entire storeroom was engulfed in blue.

"Rose—!"

I shut my eyes.

For an instant, I couldn’t feel the floor beneath my feet. My stomach clenched as though I were in an elevator dropping rapidly.

Then warm air brushed my face.

"Hey, what was that?"

As I opened my eyes, the irritation in my voice faded before I finished the sentence.

We weren’t in the storeroom.

People were passing around us.

Actual people... And plenty of things that weren’t human.

I stood in the middle of a wide, stone-paved street. A few steps away, a long-eared man disappeared into the crowd with packages tucked under his arm. As a horned woman passed us, the small creature perched on her shoulder bared its teeth at me.

I looked up.

It was daytime.

We’d been walking beneath streetlights only moments ago. Here, the rooftops rose toward a bright sky.

And in that sky...

"Oh my God!"

A pale purple sphere rose above the rooftops. Farther away was a crimson celestial body surrounded by a thin ring. Their different colors mingled along the edges of the clouds, casting strange reflections over the tall towers.

For a while, I couldn’t lower my head.

When I’d heard "underground city," I’d imagined a wide tunnel with a few smugglers’ stalls.

Instead, streets stretched before me farther than I could see.

The buildings grew denser toward a hill rising in the city’s center. At its peak stood an enormous castle with tall towers and dark walls. Even from here, I could make out the activity in front of its gate.

The sound of hammering from a nearby shop drew my attention back down.

A blacksmith was hammering a glowing piece of metal. Bottles filled with colorful liquids lined the display window across from him. Farther along, a merchant waved his hands excitedly as he showed a customer the scaly creature moving inside his cage.

Then I saw another cage.

The woman inside had long, pointed ears. Her cuffed wrists rested on her knees, and she wasn’t looking at the people passing by.

A sign beside her listed a price.

My gaze moved to the next compartment. Someone was inside that one too.

The excitement in my stomach turned into an unpleasant heaviness.

They weren’t just selling monsters here.

I was about to turn to Rose when something hard struck my shoulder.

"Watch where you’re going!"

The large man shot me an angry look and kept walking. I even forgot to answer.

Rose touched my arm and pulled me to the side of the street.

"Welcome to Ashenfall."

I looked at her.

"What is this place?"

Rose tilted her head slightly. Then her lips parted as though she’d just remembered something.

"Oh, right. I forgot to mention."

With a small smile, she added:

"We’re inside an Overlap."

At first, I didn’t understand what she’d said.

Or rather, I heard the word, but couldn’t connect it to the city in front of me.

Then something clicked.

Overlap.

The sounds of the crowd grew distant.

Despite the warm air brushing my face a moment ago, I felt cold sweat trickle down my back. I opened my mouth to breathe. My chest wouldn’t expand enough.

I looked at the stone-paved street.

Another stone road...

The frozen river. Ruined walls. Screams rising from the darkness.

That thing wearing a dead man’s face.

My fingers began to tremble.

I’d chosen a card.

I’d touched a card that caught my eye. That was all.

And then people had died.

"Noctis?"

I heard Rose’s voice, but I couldn’t turn my head.

My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. As I watched the faces passing by, I realized I was waiting for one of their mouths to open farther than it should.

There were shops here. People were shopping.

I could see that.

But I couldn’t breathe.

"Hey, what’s wrong?"

Rose’s hand closed around my arm.

I wanted to tell her something. To ask her to wait, to give me just a minute...

My stomach clenched, and I bent forward.

Instead of words, vomit came out of my mouth, leaving me doubled over at the edge of the sidewalk.

---

Fifteen minutes later, I was sitting on a stone ledge a little way from the main street.

The water bottle in my hand trembled slightly. Rose stood beside me, slowly rubbing my back.

"Are you feeling better now?"

I nodded. Taking a small sip, I waited for the foul taste in my mouth to fade.

My breathing had settled. Even so, every sharp noise in the distance made my shoulders tense.

I sat up a little straighter.

"I’m sorry."

Rose’s hand stopped on my back.

"Why are you apologizing to me?"

"I don’t have very good memories of Overlaps."

That was all I could get out.

Because I was the reason that Overlap had appeared.

Sometimes, it was easier to think about the people I’d saved.

Whenever I remembered the ones I couldn’t save, though, the same thought always came back: if I hadn’t chosen that card, they would still be alive.

I felt Rose’s hand move again.

"I should have told you beforehand."

I looked up.

There was no trace of her playful expression. Her brows were slightly drawn together, and her gaze rested on the bottle in my hand.

"It’s my fault," she said. "I only wanted to surprise you."

For a moment, I couldn’t answer.

It felt strange to see her avoiding my eyes. The girl who’d taken every opportunity to embarrass me a few minutes ago was now hesitating over whether to keep her hand on my back.

"Rose."

Her eyes returned to my face.

"You didn’t know."

"Even so—"

"It’s okay."

I wasn’t completely fine. But I didn’t want her to blame herself either.

I screwed the cap back onto the bottle and added with a small smile:

"Next time, you could give me a little hint about what the surprise is."

Rose’s lips curved faintly.

"I’ll keep that in mind."

After sitting for a few more seconds, I braced my hands on my knees and stood. Rose immediately straightened too. She must have thought I might stumble.

Once I found my balance, I turned to her.

"So, what do we do now?"

"We can just buy the potions and head back, if you’d like."

"Did you have something else planned?"

Her gaze shifted toward the main street.

"Actually, I wanted to walk around with you for a bit. It’s been a few years since I last came here."

Then she looked back at me.

"But you don’t have to push yourself. We can get what we came for and leave."

I watched the crowd passing at the end of the street.

The unease inside me hadn’t gone away. My stomach still tightened a little when I thought about how we’d arrived. I didn’t think I could immediately feel as comfortable as I had in front of the mirror.

Still, my eyes drifted toward the distant shops.

Things I couldn’t get outside were sitting in display windows here. Perhaps I’d find more than potions. I might learn something that would help me later, or at least know where to go if I ever needed to come back.

I raised my head and looked at the purple sphere above the rooftops.

My curiosity hadn’t completely disappeared.

"We can walk around for a bit," I said.

Rose studied my face.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. But I’ll tell you if I want to take a break."

"Okay."

She held out her hand. When I took it, she gave my hand a gentle squeeze.

I drew a deep breath.

Then Rose and I began walking toward Ashenfall’s crowded main street.