The garden was gone in an instant.
Lady Seraphina gasped, her hand flying to her chest as she looked around this place. We were no longer standing on gravel under the moon. We were standing on a floor of glass that seemed to go on forever. There were thousands of mirrors around us floating in the air showing us from every angle.
"What kind of trick is this?" Seraphina whispered, her light flashing up in a desperate attempt to push back the darkness.
Her light did not go far. In this place the Hall of Mirrors light was something that the environment ate up.
"This is not a trick, Seraphina " I said, my voice echoing back from all the mirrors. "This is a reflection of your soul. What do you see when you look at yourself?"
I walked towards her. My figure appeared in the mirrors around us. In some I looked like the Prince Alaric. In others I looked like a shadow with cold eyes. Seraphina turned to look at a mirror to her left. She froze.
In the mirror she was not the mage she usually was. She was wearing clothes her hands were tied up and she looked ashamed and desperate.
"That is not me!" she. A blast of golden energy shot out of her hands.
The energy hit the mirror. It did not break. Instead the mirror absorbed the energy. The reflection in the mirror changed. The mirror Seraphina leaned forward. Her lips curved into a dark smile.
"Is that not you?" the reflection whispered, sounding like it was talking directly to Seraphinas mind. "Are you not tired of being perfect? Tired of the armor the expectations, the cold purity of the Light? Do you not want to feel something "
I stepped closer to her and the smell of her fear mixed with the smell of her fading magic. "The Light is a prison, Seraphina. It demands that you be perfect. It demands that you deny your body.. Here in my world the only thing that matters is your surrender."
I put my hand on the small of her back. My touch did not burn her this time. It felt like a icy caress that touched her nerves. She. Her knees buckled.
"Alaric stop " she breathed, but her hand did not push me away. Instead her fingers curled into my clothes.
"Your father is busy with Elena " I whispered, my lips touching her ear. "Time has slowed down outside. We have all the time we need here."
I used my hand to touch her throat. Her pulse was fast like a trapped bird. The mirrors around us began to glow with a violet light.
"Let go of the light Seraphina " I said, my voice low and hypnotic. "Let the darkness in. Show me the woman behind the mage."
With a crack the golden aura around her broke. The gardens warmth was gone, replaced by the heat of the Hall of Mirrors. Seraphina let out a broken sob and her head fell onto my shoulder.
She was no longer a mage. She was a woman standing on the edge of a cliff. I was the one about to push her off.
I did not give her time to recover. I grabbed the front of her robes. Pulled her towards me. The fabric was stiff. My touch was stronger. With a tug the silver clasps popped open.
"No please " Seraphina whimpered,. Her body was doing the opposite of her words.
Her skin was hot. The Light inside her was fighting back.. My touch was a perfect filter. As my hands slid under her robes touching her skin she let out a sound that was half-scream and half-moan.
"Your magic is fighting me Seraphina " I whispered, my lips touching her collarbone. ". Your body is welcoming me. Which one of you is lying?"
I pushed her back against a mirror. The glass was cold. It created a sharp contrast against her burning skin. I did not move to the act immediately. I wanted her to feel every second of her fall.
The mirrors around us began to change. They no longer showed her future or past. They showed the present from every angle. Every touch of my fingers every shudder of her breath was. Reflected back at her.
"Look at yourself Seraphina " I commanded, my hand moving to the fastening of her undergarments. "Look at the woman you were taught to hate."
"I hate you " she gasped, her fingers digging into my shoulders.
"Good " I smirked, my eyes glowing with a blue light. "Hate is passion without a home. Let it settle here."
As I finally stripped away the last of her defenses the Hall of Mirrors flared with a gold. It was her defense, a reflexive attempt to incinerate any threat.. In the Hall of Mirrors I was the law. I opened my mouth. Drank the light pulling it into my lungs as if it were air.
The sudden loss of her mana left her weak. Her legs gave way. I caught her lifting her onto the edge of the mirror. The ritual began in earnest then a collision of two opposing forces.
The moment of union was like a explosion in a room.
The pleasure was different this time. With Isabella it had been a conquest. With Seraphina it was a battle. Her mana was fighting back trying to scorch my pathways. The System acted as a filter turning her light into raw fuel for my recovery.
"Ah Alaric it burns!" she cried out her back arching as the light began to leave her eyes.
"It does not burn, Seraphina " I growled, my pace relentless. "It is the feeling of your cage breaking. Embrace it. Become the shadow you were meant to be."
Her golden aura began to turn dark gray. The mirrors around us cracked, revealing a beneath. This was the Hall of Mirrors a place where the old self is shattered to make room for the new.
Every thrust was a nail in the coffin of her life. Every moan she let out was a prayer to her God. I could feel her core beginning to crack the light leaking out and being replaced by the chill of my void.
The final stage of the ritual felt like a sun exploding within the glass dimension.
Seraphinas body was a wire her muscles locked in the final throes of a pleasure that bordered on spiritual execution. Her golden mana was now a violet lightning that danced across the surface of the mirrors shattering them one, by one.
In the end Seraphina was no longer the mage she once was. She was a woman, broken and remade in the image of the Hall of Mirrors.. I was the one who had pushed her off the edge of the cliff into the darkness below.
As Seraphinas last bit of resistance faded away a big wave of energy went out from her turning all the mirrors into black glass. Seraphina fell against me her forehead on my chest her skin feeling as cold as the marble on a tomb.
The warm golden light in her eyes was gone, replaced by a purple color that swirled around. She looked up at me. I did not see any fear in her eyes. I did not see any hate either. All I saw was an empty space where her good heart used to be.
"My Light..." she whispered, her voice sounding like ice cracking. "It is cold. It feels good."
"That is what freedom feels like Seraphina " I said, my hand on her back. "The Light was weighing you down. The Void is what makes you strong."
[Target Status: Lady Seraphina]
[Loyalty: 'Devoted Shadow' (Stage 2: Soul Bond).]
[New Passive: 'Void-Sight' (The Host can see through any magical concealment).]
I stood up lifting Seraphina with a strength that no human has. My body, Alaric was changing. My hair was darker like the night sky and my presence was so strong that the air in the room seemed to be scared of me.
[Closing Portal: Returning to the Mortal Plane...]
The Hall of Mirrors. The winter garden was back. The moon was still high in the sky. The frost was still on the plants. To the Duke and his guards a few minutes had passed since I took Seraphinas hand.
Isabella came out of the shadows her eyes wide with surprise when she saw Seraphina. The Dukes daughter was not the person anymore. She stood behind me her head her hand on my arm. The change in her was clear.
"Master " Isabella said, kneeling down her voice shaking. "The Duke is still with Elena in the East Wing."
"Good " I said, smiling in a way. "Isabella take Seraphina back to the Dukes carriage. She will pretend to be his daughter for now.. Tonight when they leave I want to know all the Dukes secrets. I want to know where his soldiers are and what the King is planning."
Seraphina looked at me a spark in her eyes. "My father is a man, Master. He likes people who're strong. I will show him a strength he has never seen. I will make him do what I want just like I do what you want."
"Go " I told her.
As they walked away I felt connected to my three main followers. Isabella, Elena and now Seraphina. The Valmont-Valerius alliance was not a threat, to me anymore. It was what would help me become powerful.
I looked up at the stars the stars I helped create when I was the God of Sanctuary.
Solus, Lyra I thought, my eyes glowing with a mean spirit. Your special person is now my Daughter of the Void. This is what you get for betraying me.. This is just the beginning.