I snapped back to myself; I was curled up on the floor beneath the mirror, lying on my side. My throat was so tight that it hurt to breathe.

I sucked in a lungful of air, and it rattled into me. I noticed a message floating in my periphery:

You completed the Trial of Pain.

3/3 Trials Completed.

I looked into the mirror again, then flinched back as I realized what I was doing. But nothing happened.

I stared at myself for a while then. Maybe I hadn’t ever been the person I thought I was. Maybe I’d never been invaluable; maybe I’d never been a part of the family.

Maybe I was just the kind of person that got left behind.

Ezzie said.

I shrugged.

Ezzie said.

was real. That was them. Everything about them, the way they interacted, their tics, their way of speaking. It was all real.>

I said.

Ezzie said, frustrated now.

I said.

Ezzie hesitated.

I punched the mirror dead-center, and the pane shattered, fragments of glass tinkling across the floor. I punched it again, and my hand went straight through the backing. Again and again and again.

Ezzie said.

I said. The words just popped out.

I said. I sighed. The truth was already out, so.

Ezzie said.

I sank back to the floor, my head in my hands.

I held up a hand to cut her off. Then my hand slapped back down onto my thigh. Which stung.

Ezzie said.

I opened my mouth. Snapped it shut.

twice trying to reunite Faye with her family, and now you’re working your ass off to save as many people as possible.>

Ezzie said. Her tone put me in mind of a bear trap snapping shut. able to do something good for a change.>

Ezzie silenced me by clamping my hand over my mouth.

when—you don’t have to go back to being that person. And the Silas I know hasn’t ever been that person. Your call. Who do you wanna be?>

I bit my lip.

I stood up.

I said.

Ezzie said.

Ezzie said.

A silver staircase dropped out of the ceiling and slammed down in front of me.

I said, laughing.

Ezzie said.

I climbed the staircase—which was steep, straight, and narrow—and soon found myself atop the tower itself. The glass beneath my feet was smooth and slick, and the wind was howling and the mirrored ground was hundreds of feet below and I very, very much wanted to leave.

But a hilt was sticking out of the center of the tower. So I made my way over, ducking low against the wind.

I had Ezzie deprint my sword and shield, then knelt and gripped the hilt with both hands. The blade slid free easily, the metal shrieking as I dragged it from the top of the tower. And as soon as the tip slid from the tower, the prompts began to fly.

Ding!

Congratulations, you finished your Tier I class change!

You are now a {Mirror Knight}!

Your stats have increased!

Your abilities have evolved!

You learned 2 new abilities!

Your Class Modifiers have evolved!

Your Stat Modifier has evolved!

Your abilities now consume Mana rather than Stamina!

Reach level 20 to begin your Tier II class change!

Ding!

You found a rare weapon!

{Shard of the Broken Mirror} has been added to your Constructor.

Ding!

Congratulations, you earned a World-first!

You are the first Avatar to be assigned the Tier I class: {Mirror Knight}

Days {Mirror Knight} has been active: 22

Awarding title: {The First Mirror}

{The First Mirror} (Epic title) (Unique title)

Effect: Rare drop rate increased by 3%. Party members may benefit from 50% of this effect.

You lack the proficiency to equip {Witchflame Hammer}.

{Witchflame Hammer} has been deprinted.

Ezzie said.

I said. The flood of prompts had been a little overwhelming, but there was one aspect to them that set a stone to sinking into the pit of my stomach.

Ezzie said.

I grinned and pulled up my character sheet.

{Silas}

Level: 10

Tier I Class: Mirror Knight

Gear level: 163 > 148

Grade: F

Role: Off-Tank

Strength: 46 > 62

Dexterity: 20 > 28

Constitution: 39 > 46

Intelligence: 8 > 16

Wisdom: 7 > 11

Charisma: 8 > 10

Physical Attack: 22 > 2

Magical Attack: 13 > 0

Health: 490 > 560

Stamina: 390 > 460

Mana: 80 > 160

Armor: 145 (57% physical mitigation)

Magical Resistance: 37 (24% magical mitigation)

Frost Resistance: 104 (52% frost mitigation)

I said.

Ezzie said.

I said.

Ezzie said.

I nodded and brought up the info, causing a second wall of prompts.

{Frost Reflect I} has evolved into {Magic Reflect I}!

{Magic Reflect I}

Description: Grants the user a prismatic shield that lasts 10 seconds. This shield grants 30 Magical Resistance and will reflect one spell of any type. Only projectile spells may be reflected, and reflecting a spell will instantly consume the shield.

Cost: 3% of base Mana

Cooldown: 30 seconds

Next level: Prismatic shield is no longer consumed after reflecting a spell (but shield will not reflect subsequent spells).

{Lecherous Strike I} has evolved into {Refraction Strike I}!

{Refraction Strike I}

Description: Your next melee attack or melee-based skill deals an additional 25% weapon damage. This ability applies the {Refracted} debuff. This ability causes a high amount of threat.

Cost: 2% of base Mana

Cooldown: 2.5 seconds

Next level: {Refracted} may stack up to 4 times (up from 3)

{Refracted}

Description: Targets afflicted with {Refracted} deal 1% less damage with all attacks, and take 1% more damage from all sources. Max stacks 3.

Ezzie said.

I wasn’t so sure, because losing the healing component of Lecherous Strike—especially when combo’d with Witchflame Burst—felt like a pretty huge loss.

Ezzie said.

I nodded at that.

{Magnetic Block I} has evolved into {Mirror Block I}

{Mirror Block I} (requires shield)

Description: Upon activation, your shield automatically blocks the next incoming attack, reducing its damage to zero. However, if this skill blocks an attack that would have otherwise taken more than 75% of your maximum hit points, your shield’s durability will be reduced to 1. In addition, for 3 seconds after the block occurs, you reflect 33% of all damage taken prior to mitigation. This effect is additive with other reflect bonuses.

Cooldown: 15 seconds.

Cost: 5 Stamina

Next level: Cooldown reduced to 12 seconds.

Ezzie said.

Ezzie said.

{Bladed Armor I} has evolved into {Mirror Plating 1}

{Mirror Plating I}

Description: 20% of your highest mitigation rate (between armor, magical resistance, and individual elemental resistances) is converted into a damage reflect that occurs prior to mitigation. This damage reflect applies to physical and magical attacks regardless of which mitigation rate is used to calculate its strength.

*For example, at 30% physical mitigation, 40% magical mitigation, and 50% fire mitigation, this passive will reflect (50)x.2=10% of all damage taken prior to mitigation.

Next level: 23% of your highest mitigation rate is converted into a damage reflect that occurs prior to mitigation.

Ezzie said.

Ezzie said.

{Smooth Operator I} has evolved into {Smooth as glass I}

{Smooth as Glass I}

Effect: 33% of all damage you take is converted into {Mirrorburn}, a damage over time (DoT) that deals 10% of the converted damage every 1 second for 10 seconds. Additional attacks will increase the strength of the DoT; this passive may affect any number of strikes simultaneously.

Next level: Adds a 5% chance per tick to reflect the next tick of damage onto the nearest enemy.

I said.

Ezzie said.

{Flarebright Aura}

Description: While active, all damage you reflect causes 300% increased threat. This ability may be toggled at will.

Cost: On activation, this ability consumes 25% of your base Mana. Mana consumed by this ability will not regenerate while {Flarebright Aura} is active (upkeep cost).

Cooldown: none.

Next level: Upon being struck by a melee attack, you have a 1% chance of blinding your attacker, causing them to wander aimlessly within a 3 foot radius for 2 seconds. Damage taken may break this effect.

Ezzie said.

Ezzie said,

{Mirror Bomb}

Description: You purge 50% of your {Mirrorburn} DoT and reflect that amount onto every enemy within 15 yards of you.

Cost: 15% of base Mana

Cooldown: 25 seconds

Next level: For 5 seconds after using {Mirror Bomb}, {Mirrorburn} will convert an additional 20% of the damage you take (for a total conversion rate of 53%).

I said.

Ezzie said. Ezzie said.

{Shard of the Broken Mirror} (One-handed Sword)

Grade: F

Item level: 17

Quality: Rare

Damage type: Slashing

Physical Attack: 32

Magical Attack: 0

Speed: Fast

Primaries: +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, +2 Charisma

Secondaries: +10 Magical Resistance

Durability: 50/50

The blade was wide—maybe six inches across—but deceptively light, single-edged with a basket grip hilt. Both sides of the weapon were covered in mirror plating, though the cutting edge was pitch black, colored in a wavy pattern that gave the blade a serrated look.

I cut the blade back and forth through the air. It felt surprisingly natural, and incredibly light after using my hammer for so long. Oh right, the hammer.

Ezzie said.

I shrugged.

Congratulations, you have been assigned a rare Role: Off-Tank!

Your sensitivity to pain has been significantly decreased. This effect also applies to your Pilot.

You are now much less likely to be staggered by an attack.

I said, grinning a bit.

Ezzie said.

{Mirror Knight}

Description: Damage reflecting Off-Tank.

Stat Modifier: +1 Strength, + 1 Dexterity, +1 Constitution, +1 Intelligence, +1 Wisdom, +1 Charisma per level.

I said.

Ezzie said.

I said, as I paged through my new skills, still trying to get a handle on everything.