After spending the late night in Sorens's room, I make sure to wake up on time in order to be ready for the day. I fetched a jelly tart from Barius and left it on his side table as a thank you. Following getting changed in my own room, I heard someone frantically knocking at my door right as I was putting my boots on.

"It's unlocked!" I shouted, hoping no one formal was at the door - however there hasn't been anyone truly terrifying or formal in Katolis.

"(Y/N)!" Callum's voice and heavy footsteps fill the room. "It came!! The book finally came!!" I jump up, just finished with my shoes and dart over to him.

"Are we going right now!?" I inquire and his frantic nodding and walking towards my doorway tells me yes duh. "I love books," I sigh as we make our way up into his office.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I dont like this book," I complain, lying dejected on the floor, tossing and catching one of this many objects

"I dont get it," the High Mage moans as he continues to read every page slowly. It has been 2 hours of sitting at his desk and looking through that book. And nothing. "This tome seems like it has just about every rune and symbol in history..." Bait groans and comes to lay next to my torso. "But nothing matches the writing on the mirror."

My feet find their way to the floor. "Hand over the book," I request. He places it gently in my hands and a gust of chilling breeze turns the pages. "Wait." I hesitate, stopping the madness of flipping paper. "Callum," I groan.

He looks mortified, "they're blank!?!" He exclaims.

I flick through to the end cover, "seems to be half of the fricking book," I state.

"This," he pokes the emptiness furiously, "this is not a Tome of Translation! It's barely a Pamphlet of Pathetic!"

I sigh, placing the useless thing back onto the desk. Then it clicks. "Wait," he glances at me, frowning, "can I actually see the mirror?" I remark, staring at the still hidden object.

"Oh!" He swirls and quickly pulls off the cloth. I stroll over to regard the mirror with its's golden frame, covered in runes. "Do you recognise anything?" He pleads, still carrying a trickle of hope.

I trace my finger over the many runes. "I do," I mutter, the self surprise laced through my tone.

He comes over to my side in a hurry and looks eagerly between me and the symbols. "Well?"

I stand back from the relic before getting into specifics. "Runaan," I voice, turning to face Callum, the sad look in his eyes let's me know he remembers the Moonshadow Elf. "He once told me of the time he came across a Startouch Elf," I explain, "well, a fallen one, he said, seeing as he fought Runaan with dark power," I pause. "His name was Aaravos." I'm well aware this doesn't make sense to the Prince so I get to the point. "I believe these are High Elf Runes. I've seen them before in books Runaan's husband had in the village."

His eyes are wide as a smile of confusion creeps into his features. "Do you remember their meanings?" I can see the impatience wafting off of him.

"This one," I begin, touching the rune in my direct line of sight, "is called Thalui," it's embarrassing how off my pronunciation must be. "It's meaning is hatred or vengeance," I explain, slightly unnerved by its presence.

Callum rushes to grab a notepad and jots down a sketch before writing my words underneath, "okay okay," he utters, "any others?"

"And this," I trace a line down three markings, "Lecai," I attempt, "it's something like light... it's to do with the nobility of the soul," I remember.

"Wow," he chuckles, "this is good, (Y/n)," he looks up and smiles brightly at me, "thank you."

The genuineness in his voice causes me to return the gesture. "Okay," I lower my arm to perceive everything. "I only recognise three more," I admit, although very proud of what I can recall.

"That's perfect!" Callum beams like a small child. He gets ink ready on the page.

"Oriour," I point at the next rune. "Blood, or birth." I take one step to my right so I'm in-front if the other side. "Saroir," I wince as I surely fucked that one up, I look to my friend and he just shakes his head, clearly he cannot do better. "Anyways, it's important, it means eternity and passion." As I glance as the final one, I find myself placing my palm on it, feeling the power it admits although all it is, is a rune in a peculiar mirror.

A mirror that Viren had, I remind myself.

"You okay?" Callum inquires, concern on his tongue.

"Yeah," my response is not reassuring as this whole mirror becomes more and more unsettling by the minute. "Senthoi," I tell him, "unity... loyalty..." I pause, "and on the contrary, broken promises."

Callum puffs out a heavy breath, just finishing his notes, "okay wow," he pronounces, then out of nowhere, he hugs me. "Thank you, (Y/n)," he mumbles over my shoulder.

"My pleasure," I ensure as we break apart. "But, Callum, runes like these, aren't just their individual meanings," I note, "they connect together in some who knows what language,
to mean something overall.."

"That's what I was thinking, too," he informs and I nod, glad we have the same mindset.

"However we still know nothing about this bloody book," I sigh, leaning against the table. I hear a thud and turn quickly to catch the ink from totally ruining the paper, "ah shit! Sorry," I swear as I see the ink make it's mark on the page.

"Don't worry," I glance at Callum who isn't even looking at me, "it's useless anyways."

Bait whimpers which makes me swirl once again and that's when I see the ink on the other side. I lift up the jar to make sure it's not leaking, "what the?" I mutter in realisation that there's no way it got onto that second page. "Hey, Callum?" The High Mage focuses his attention to me from where he stands at the window. "Come over here," I insist.

"Mhm," he sits down at his chair, looking at the perfectly reflected pattern, "huh." Bait groans again and nudges the ink towards Callum, who currently holds the brush.

"Maybe," I suggest, "the blank pages are to write on?"

Callum immediately pushes his chair back to lean over the table, "and then it- it magically translates it onto the other side!"

I stare at him, slight perplexed myself, "only one way to find out?" I pick up the Glowtoad and make my way around the desk to stand next to my friend.

He flips to a blank page and halts before touching his quill to the paper. "Am I about to vandalise an ancient book?"

"It wouldn't be the first time you accidentally, on purpose, ruined a super rare magical artefact," I remind him.

Callum chuckles sheepishly, "okay! Here it goes." As he begins to draw the runes from the mirror onto the left-hand side, Bait and I watch eagerly as the ink translates onto the next page.

"Holy shit," I chuckle and he smiles up at me.

I'm excited to see where this goes.

Unless it decides to go South.

Then I fear what may come.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Soren arrived about 20 minutes into the drawings and I caught him up on what we were up to. He was slightly confused about what we were doing. We had put the blanket back over the mirror because it made me feel uneasy, and my friend didn't object to the request. After the painstakingly slow and careful hour of scribing, Callum is ready to put down the last rune. As he hesitates, I place my free hand on his shoulder, "we are still here," I say as a comfort, and my Captain gives a genuine mhm mhm in agreement.

As the oval of runes is complete, the markings on the second page morph into a swirl of black ink. The High Mage and I share a gasp of excitement as Soren bends closer, "what the?" He comments as Callum frantically moves his head out of his line of vision. That's when I see a sentence appear. However he picks up the book and so we are forced to follow him closely to the mirror.

"In Darkness, Gaze Upon a Fallen Star," Callum announces.

"What did you say?" I murmur and he hands me the open book, going closer to touch the mirror.

Fallen.

Star.

Coincidence?

"Something click in your head?" Soren inquires and I glance up to meet his anxious eyes.

"Just," I let out a breath. "Nothing," I smile, closing the tome. It is a coincidence.

Bait growls and the three of us turn, "what is it?" Callum questions and I see how the Glowtoad has changed from yellow, to red.

Uh oh.

I set the book down carefully as we inspect what he's staring at. It's Callum's primal cube. And the Stars source is glowing. "Is it meant to be all bright like that?" Soren mumbles.

"No," I utter and dart my gaze around the room to try and find anything out of place.

"I wonder-" Callum's inquiry is interrupted by a small monkey-like creature with purple eyes who chitters playfully at us as it grabs the object.

I go to pick it up, but it makes a run for it. Crashing into things and causing items to fall off the table. Then it climbs the Prince's arm and as I go to grab it once more, it's gone.

That's when I see her.

"Oh my god," my hand comes to cover my mouth and Soren takes a step to my side. Callum follows my glazed over eyes and gasps when he, too, sees her.

The small creature sits patiently on her shoulder with the cube in hand. Her hair is into a braided updo, and she wears a new, very mystical looking cloak.

But everything else is the same.

Rayla stands before us.

~~~~~