Mirrors Dawn Chapter 2: Piety

Nox looked upon himself in the mirror ans sighed deeply, both at himself and the information displayed on the mirror. He leaned onto the basin, moving a little closer to gaze at his own eyes, disregarding the charts of his vital statistics for now. It was not like he would need anything more than an ordinary mirror to tell that his last few days had been quite stressful. An extraordinarily detailed image of a branched lightning was displayed on his chest, something all members of his species showed when they had a stressful time behind them.

This smart-mirror in front of him merely aided him to determine the physiological causes for his stress, and which effects they had. But Nox did not see anything new for a couple of days. He already knew that his body had produced malicious compounds usually found in spellcasters, when using low-profile magicka for a long, consistent period, which was all too common for cursebreakers. In addition, his signature magicka, while powerful, had a habbit of producing significant and unhealthy amounts of ozone.

Nox groaned a little as he remembered a light joke Cel made about his magics smelling like early 2000-copyshops, a joke noone really understood, given the unicorn was the only one around being old enough to actually having lived in that era. Maefin had also made this joke, when they had talked his magic. He even enquired how she could know, since she was never around in that era to begin with. She had explained to him that people usually expect dragons to be old enough to have memories of the early 2000s, so she gathered enough knowledge to mimic this behaviour. And despite all that, the first thing that had come to his mind now was Cel, not Maefin, even though the AI had been with him the entire evening.

As he walked into his shower, it dawned to him what Maefin was attempting. Even though she had not admitted it to him, as he did not asked, he was quite certain that she was testing his ability to learn faster when stressed. For him though, it had never really worked that way, except for one sole case, so he did not expect Maefin to succeed that way. Nonetheless, he had to admit she was brilliant in what she was doing so far, he still was puzzling how she managed to have him dismiss the fact she was an AI of epic scale so easily, even though she constantly reminding him of that.

He was too tired to question her methods now, for a couple of minutes he simply stood in his shower and allowed the water to pour down on him. Sometimes a shower was able to emulate rain well enough for mirror-foxes to gain a rush of endorphin, but right now, the shower was just a relaxing experience, nothing more or less. It only cemented the fact that he needed sleep, especially now, his mind being stuffed by Maefin.

A few minutes later he already laid down on his bed, almost collapsing there. He took a deep breath, and wondered what kind of dreams he would have after such a day, but his thoughts quickly scattered away, forming a diffuse caleidoscope of memories of recent events. Some of them were interesting in its own regard, but his half-hearted attempt to hold onto them for a bit longer now was hindered by his sleepiness as he drifted further into a dream-state.

The last thought he registered was something he had been told by a fellow mirror-fox some time ago. Something about falling asleep too quickly after a both inspiring and exhausting day. Something about dashing too fast into the realm of dreams, but missing the turn towards the personal space everyone had in there and instead ending up.... well somewhere only mirror-foxes had a permanent entry-ticket to. Nox always found this particular way of expressing it funny, but that was about it as far conscious thoughts would go for the night.

Not that he was minding that. He really wanted to just sleep and let his poor Brain process all that, without having him dream something all too weird.

Petrichor, the smell of rain crept into his nose. The scent alone was enough to make him smile, and soon enough he could feel the first drops of warm rain fall onto his pelt. Soon he also scented moss and old stones, and felt soft grass on his cheek. That was a dream he could enjoy.

Except, this was not a dream.

He opened his eyes and sat up, finding himself on the edge of a forest-clearing. Even though he did not recognise the place, he knew where he was. His mind took the wrong turn when falling asleep, and instead of dreaming, he was now in a pocket-dimension of sorts, which in turn was part of a much bigger pocket-dimension.

Nox wanted to sigh audible, but he could not. Words were not allowed here, the concept of spoken languages non-existent in this place. Even though this was his private entrance, the rules were still made by the goddess this place belonged to. And an ephemeral weather-deity like her had no use for such things like spoken languages. There were not necessary here either. If things had to be said, then it would simply be passed along in a silent way. It would simply appear in their minds as a thought tagged with a foreign owner, much like a conversation without wasting time using vocal cords. It had the added bonus of being unable to lie to someone willingly, you could only chose to not answer, but not to alter your thoughts in a way to deceive someone.

In fact, Nox knew all this, because this knowledge was placed in his mind this way by the Rain-Goddess herself.

The mirror-fox was confused. And anxious. He did not mean to intrude. He was not even pious, and he did not mean to offend her. He wanted to leave, after all he just wanted to rest. He was terribly embarrassed and nervous. And he realised that she heard all of what he just thought, because he was nervous and terribly sorry.

In a most patient and assuring way, she made him understand that it was fine, she welcomed him here, he could come and go as he wished, as all mirror-foxes were allowed to.

He was back on his paws by now, and it appeared he was dressed on his suit again, though he lacked his jacket. Despite the rain, he was not soaked at all, and even though he could still feel the rain, it was more like it was falling through him, leaving an oddly refreshing feeling.

Yet he remained mentally exhausted, and he knew he would not have the mental capacity right now to explore her realm, and as much as he enjoyed being here, this place basically being built to please his genetically engineered preference for rain, he was afraid he could not afford to have a busy restless night.

She made him aware that he could rest here, that it would vitalise him more than an ordinary dream, that this entrance was his to change as he desired, within her code of conduct for her realm.

He wondered why this place looked like it was now, he did not remember having it chosen this way, a forest-clearing and a few remainders of a ruin within it, covered it moss, the original structure eroded beyond any recognition.

Forerunner magick could be found in place like this, she explained to him. He probably learned it in one of these place, even if he did not knew how.

He knew that, though it wasn't in this particular ruin. Nox also did not want to think about it right now, which she accepted. He sat down again, resting against the trunk of a tree, and closed his eyes, just enjoying the ethereal rain.

She noted that he just recently talked to Majestic Infinity, an entity that was not mortal, not immortal, but a an almost omnipresent being nonetheless. She knew about androids, but Majestic Infinity was something else. Not a deity either, something they called artificial intelligence, spanned across all the Seven Worlds, almost like herself. She was curious. She requested an audience with him. She noted that it did not need to happen right now, but later for sure. She also noted that he did not choose his boon yet.

Nox could not choose anything right now. He was tired, and while he meant no offense, conversing with two entities who were completely different, yet both of them much more powerful than him, was too much for one night.

She understood. She apologised. She would let him rest now. And she would give him a boon of her own choosing, fit for the challenges he had ahead of him. He was allowed to choose a different one, later, when they had a proper audience. And that would be all.

The mirror-fox was not able to argue with her. For once because he did not have the stamina left, but also, there was not use arguing with a deity, favoured species or not. A he began to doze off, he wondered what kind of boon she had just given him.

He would see soon, she assured him. She bid him a good night.

---

"Factory Reset", was the first thing Nox thought when he opened his eyes after waking up from his ephemeral dream.

In a way it felt like that, especially physically. Nothing ached, nothing felt sore, the exhaustion of the previous days, weeks even was completely gone. Moreso, he felt invigorated even, enabled to deliver peak-performance for days.

Long-lasting sorrows were gone, anxieties silenced, replaced with a sense of determination, a confidence of exactly knowing how to tackle the upcoming challenges.

Nox had read about this kind of blessings, and he was aware that his species, being the favourites of one of the still remaining deities, had the best chance of receiving such thing, still he never expected to witness it by himself.

As he gazed down his bare chest, he found an elaborate root-pattern on it, something he had not seen since his extended recovery leave half a year ago. Generally, it took days, sometimes weeks for a mirror-fox chest-pattern to change, but at this point, he would not argue how a blessing like this would work.

He decided to turn around and bask a little more in this rejuvenated state. Still, a moment later he found himself in his bathroom, gazing into the smart-mirror. It did not came as a surprise that all the charts, all the statistics were within the optimal range. A small sigh escaped sigh escaped his muzzle nonetheless, as he wondered how long he would able to enjoy this state.

And something else was amiss. He just wanted to curl up in his bed a little longer, yet he found himself standing his bathroom. In fact, he did not recall getting up at all.

He opened his eyes and found himself to be still curled up as he desired. To be precise, he found the other copy of his body still curled up on his bed.

He rushed out of his bed and bedroom, while at the same time rushing out of the bathroom, almost running into himself in his living room.

"Bold.", he said with the copy that came from the bedroom.

"Cliche.", he said with the other copy, finding it to be effortless to control each of his bodies.

After touching his nose with each of his copies and snorting accordingly, he came to realize what exactly the rain goddess had given him.

There were a couple of mirror-image-spells in the Seven Worlds, which for mirror-foxes always had a cliche meaning when they used them. But this was special. Unlike other spells of his kind, this would create an almost identical if temporary copy of his body, not just an image or projection. For most spellcasters, this would require an enormous amount of focus to maintain and control two bodies.

Mirror-Foxes however had double-ended perceptrons, so they were used to process twofold signals. And this spell, which now had been embedded in his mind, would create two bodies, which only featured single-ended perceptrons each. It would require quite some extensive knowledge about arcana, neurology and mirror-fox physiology specifically to even design such a spell, and months, if not even years to train it to this level of mastery.

Or, it would just take a deities blessing.

With a mere thought, Nox released one of the copies of his body, turning the other into his original one again. The copy simple vanished into thin air, and the cursebreaker came to understand that he did not even scratch all the possibilities this would open up for him. Though this was not the time to explore them, setting aside his curiosity.

In fact, given his line of work, he usually refused to use magic to do his personal chores, given he already had to use his arcana extensively otherwise.

As he went about to get ready for the day, he pondered about this gift. He never was a worshipper of the rain-goddess, in fact, he was far from pious. All the more it surprised him that the rain-goddess was apparently serious about the entire favourite-species thing.

He wondered whether the choose something else, something less powerful, not considering himself fit for this boon, but then he also wondered why she chose this one to begin with.

A simple "Pling" rose him from his musings, telling him that he received an instant message on his business account. his apartment ready to display it to him whenever he wanted.

With a simple gesture he ordered his smart-systems to display the message in front of his window-front.

Aurora Celeste Estelle Havenknight: I am sorry, but i do think you need to know this.

"Seven Sigils" - Talismongers released from custody

The Court of Elbrin decides that evidence is not conclusive to justify custody for talismongers who are suspected to be associated with "Seven Sigils". The investigations will into cursed talisman-trade continue, now broadening the search for suspects.
Aurora Celeste Estelle Havenknight: If you want to discuss this, please do not hesitate to contact me. I am on the 'Feyyar and Daughters'-Case already, but i can make time on the the afternoon.

"Thanks Cel", Nox replied absent-mindedly, not really caring whether or not his smart-systems would type in his verbal reply.

Nox had contributed to gather arcane forensic evidence to help bring "Seven Sigils" to fall. And now it seemed like it would be all for nothing. But there was more to it.

It was not like his newfound confidence had already been diminished, but there was more to this blessing he had received: A moment of clarity, a sense of insight of the things to come. It did not encompass details at all, but for a tiny moment, it was like all the most probable future events had been laid in front of him.

And he did not like where this was going. There was more behind the "Seven Sigils" than it would show right now. All in all, what he took away from this was a warning. He needed to prepare, he indeed would need all the boons he could get for the challenges to come.

Another "pling" rose him from his premonition, directing his gaze to the new calendar-notification. Maefin was going to show up in an hour, another challenge to master, even though he knew she was trying to help, in her own unique way.

---

A bit of an experiment this one. For once, i misplaced my original files for creating those icons, so this was a splendid opportunity to try to something diffrent, given the nature of this chapter. And this time it had to be a PDF, since i applied some formatting tricks, which i hopefully could replicated here. Also, i am not completely happy with the pacing here, but i failed to alter it to my liking, so it stayed that way.