"This is getting annoying," I said, rubbing my forehead, which felt as though the point of a knife was grinding against my skull.

"It is necessary. I need to give you more information without you dying," replied my reflection from the giant mirror that was anchored to the wall.

After Raven hadn't returned that evening, I'd decided to return to the Fort and spend another night there. It was risky, but That Which Is Reflected had confirmed that it would take at least three days for the Shadow Demon to "reform" and track us once more.

"I just don't get why it has to hurt like that."

"Those are the limits of your mind."

With that sentence, another spike of pain came, this one harder than all the others. It seemed that information pertaining to the effect itself was the worst in terms of pain, possibly indicating sentience. Another flare.

"This is really conditioning my mind not to question statements. I don't like it."

"I don't either, but this is really the only way we can make some progress here. We can't remove it entirely, but it'll be weakened, and you'll be hardened against it."

Some slight pounding inside my mind, as if whatever it was that did this wasn't quite sure how to interpret it.

***

Raven finally returned at dawn, completely covered in dust and cobwebs.

I decided not to question it after seeing the murderous look in response to my barely held-back grin, and decided to fill her in on that fact that the shadow demon wasn't dead after all, which was both good and bad news. I also decided to show my reflection to her, and when she saw my mirror image wave when I hadn't moved my arms, she jumped back in fright. I laughed, not at her, but at the ridiculousness of an actual living and sapient reflection.

That Which Is Reflected sat down cross-legged inside the mirror and spoke.

"You must be the bird I've heard so much about. Sic, you seem to be more intelligent than the corvids I know."

Raven took a few steps forward, and cawed once, then poked her beak into the mirror glass. Nothing happened.

"You've got intelligent eyes, you do. I like you already."

That seemed to appease Raven enough to stop trying to break the mirror, and she fluttered up a nearby wardrobe, eyeing the mirror all the way.

I sat down on the armchair and began relaying the happenings of the previous day.

***

"And so, she's offered to help us."

It had been a tedious endeavor, trying to explain to the sapient bird without triggering the same response that had been created in me, but with our combined knowledge of the limits our minds were apparently allowed to know, we managed to just about skirt the line with details, while allowing Raven to understand.

"We should start now, actually. Sooner rather than later. It'll be here in about a day or two, and I don't think we want to be around when it gets here."

"Agreed. Where do we go?"

"Oh, that's easy. We just need to go..."

"Yes?"

"I just realized that I have no idea where we even are. It just struck me that the box may have been moved. Do you have a map?"

I did have one, which I had packed with the rest of our stuff in the car.

When I returned from downstairs, Raven was apparently chatting with my reflection. It appears that my mirror image had discovered a similar way to communicate, though her yes was a clack with Raven's beak and her no was two clacks.

"So you became self aware the exact same time every human disappeared?"

clack

"That's wild. I never would have guessed, two failsafes so close to each other..."

At the word failsafe, my attention was piqued. When i put the map on a nearby table, I noticed that it had apparently been dropped to the floor inside the mirror. It tripped me up for a moment, but I soon regained my train of thought. Was a Failsafe someone like us, those left behind during a major disappearance? But why was there a word for this?

I took the spike of pain directly behind my right ear as confirmation, which earned me another one right behind the eyes.

"Hey, wait a second, how did you guys just communicate? I thought if I left the view of the mirror, you did so as well?"

"Ah, Amelia! I didn't notice you there. This is the most curious thing. Do you see the glass shard on the table?"

I did indeed see a shard of what looked like glass on the table. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a shard from a mirror. But that meant...

"Is this from the same mirror this one is from?" I said, and pulled out my makeshift scabbard.

"Yes! Isn't that interesting? When you went out the door, I noticed several reflections in your surroundings, windows and framed pictures and the like, but also one other - a shard from the mirror you so rudely smashed was lying on the stairs, facing outside! When you were reflected in it, I could feel all the other shards from that same mirror, and could even appear there. Raven and I were just testing if it would be possible for me to reflect myself into this mirror if the shard on the table was turned toward it, which is seems to have worked! Isn't that amazing?"

All this was said very quickly, and my head spun at the end of her explanation. Still, I got the gist. And something else sprung to mind.

"Wait a second, are you telling me that the mirror shards from that smashed piece of antiquity up there are still, what is it, "connected" to each other? How the hell does that work?"

"I haven't a clue! I've never been a mirror image before! But this has some fascinating implications on the field of mirror science, doesn't it?"

"I don't know about 'Mirror Science', but this could prove to be very useful. Did you say you could 'climb' from one reflection into the other? how does that work?"

"Oh, that was easy. Let me show you."

With that, she went over to where the mirrored mirror shard was standing upright on the coffee table, and touched it.

For a moment, I saw nothing. No, not nothing. It was as if I'd forgotten I had eyes, or even what eyes are. When I was roused from this state a few seconds later, I briefly panicked at my newfound understanding of light, before I noticed that my mirror image was now inside the mirror - in the mirror. Trippy.

"Yeah, maybe you shouldn't look while I do that. Sorry, slipped my mind."

Like so many things apparently had these last few days.

***

"...an entire continent!? How the hell...fucking humans, I swear"

My reflection was currently brooding over the world map I'd brought from our car. At first, she was confused, asked where we were, and then entered an exceptionally grouchy state.

"Girl, just tell me what the hell is going on! two days to the arrival of hell-spawn, remember?"

"Hell-spawn ...yeah, maybe it would be better ...'oh it's just america you silly mirror projection, tee hee'..."

"Alright, sure, if you want to brood, be my guest. I'll be in the car. Hey Raven! come on."

Raven fluttered down from where she'd been dozing on the armchair's backrest, and settled on my shoulder. Her grip wasn't as hard as it had been previously, though. I noticed that Raven's mirror image had landed on my mirror image's shoulder, but aside from that, mirrored the real Raven perfectly.

However, the sudden touch made my mirror image wince, and glance wide-eyed at raven's reflection for a second, before she turned to me.

"Sic, we have to make haste. Get down to the car, I'll keep this map."

With that, she rolled up the map and shoved it into her back pocket, before turning and walking out the door. I stared at the empty mirror for a moment before going to the car myself.

***

"I noticed you're not using as much latin anymore," I asked into the silence of the car, which was only broken by the occasional pebble or insect crashing against the windshield. I felt sorry, but at least they'd inherit the earth with humans gone.

"I've assimilated enough of your language. Ideas learn fast. Don't worry though, I learned it for myself, from these," I looked into the back-view mirror, angled so i could see the driver's side seat, to see my reflection hold up one of the textbooks I'd taken with me. “I didn’t rip it from your language center or anything ...not that I can actually do that, I just don’t want you to think...”

“Just stop, you’re digging an even deeper hole.”

We were currently on the road east. After some deliberation, my reflection had told me that 'the place' was to the east. But not on the east coast, that would have been too easy. No, it was further. Across the atlantic. She could only give a vague point with her finger at the map, but I was only aware of one structure in the southern part of the UK that she could be pointing to.

"That reminds me. We need some materials."

"Materials?"

"Grab something to write on."

"That's gonna be hard, seeing as I'm driving."

"Oh, right, sorry. I'll write it down myself and tell you later."

She grabbed my notebook from her own pocket, and set the pen on a random page somewhere in the middle.

"We'll need paint. Red or black, preferably both. Something containing silver. Three lenses, and something to hold them. The purest and largest diamond you can muster."

"That's an odd list of stuff. You sure we need all this?"

"Positive."

"Alright. The paint isn't a problem, neither is the silver. We can find those somewhere on the way ...The lenses might become a problem, and the diamond? Jesus. Can it be many small ones or does it need to be big?"

"It has to be one big, it won't work otherwise."

"Damn. I have no idea where to find a giant diamond. Unless..."

"What are you thinking?"

"There is one ridiculously large diamond, right here in the US. It's even on the way, though we'd need to go southeast for a bit."

"Wait a second, you don't mean... I mean I've seen it in your memories, but the security? how the hell will we break in there."

"You're forgetting that there aren't any more humans to trigger security. This will be a cakewalk."

"From what I remember about you humans, you're not above traps which prevent movement until dealt with by one of you! You're not risking it. There has to be some other diamond."

"Not this close."

When it came to diamonds, I only knew of one large, named one, and it was right on the way. We'd only have to find a way to navigate the burned city, locate the museum, break in, and then steal it. Easy as pie.

"Hell, we might even find those lenses on the way."

"I still don't like it. Your species is exceptionally cruel when it comes to property."

There was no talking me out of it. We needed a diamond, and we needed a large one. The internet wasn't an option, and neither were any of the books I'd taken with me when I fled.

There was no way around it. We were going to have to get into Washington DC, locate the Smithsonian, and then steal the Hope Diamond.