Chapter 25 – Mirrors of traps

Silk dropped a thread on the ground and measured its speed, while also counting identical random numbers with Sarah.

"That is freaky," she noted.

"I know, right."

"So, what are you going to do?" she asked.

"This is disturbing," he sighed exasperatedly. "I only just told you the plan and you forgot. How am I supposed to put faith into you?"

"I'll be fine, you have the most important job," she said while handing Silk a weird roughly crafted hexagon. "I hope it works."

"If it doesn't we are dead meat," Silk bluntly stated.

He kicked down the door while leaving Sarah in a circle of enchantment which should protect her. The next step was exiting through the hallway and making his way to the dining room which was easy enough even if there was structural damage from the fight with Charles.

Silk took out the hexagon and put it into the space storage. He sat down and started tapping the table eerily on the second every time, there was no clock in the room.

A screeching could be heard in the bedroom Sarah was in, it was her voice. Silk kept tapping the table undeterred.

Slow footsteps could be heard approaching Silk's direction threateningly. Silk kept tapping his finger to the beat of a second.

Sarah walked in slouched. "What…have you done?" she struggled to ask.

Silk didn't answer and kept tapping his finger.

"What did you do to me?" She roared and smashing down her hand broke the table Silk was tapping.

Silk muttered something under his breath.

"Tell me what you are saying," she demanded.

"I said, you have no right to ask me what I have done," he exploded while getting up from his seat and smashed it against the wall.

"You've linked me to this body, I have a right," Sarah argued.

"Who are you working for. I've seen the mirrors, they are hollow. There is space where there shouldn't be any, you are not smart enough to construct something like this so show me the people in charge of this or get out of here," he shouted angrily.

"You shout needlessly," an old man stated. The old man was being projected in a mirror in front of Silk like a TV.

"I do not, you killed innocent people," he roared clicking his fingers. The clicking of his fingers was amplified and when the sound resonated with the glass the mirrors shattered.

"Be patient," the old man's voice sighed. The glass reconstructed itself in mid-air fixing the mirror, it was true time magic used to do this unlike Silk's fake version.

The extreme amount of magical energy needed to do this scared Silk but he tried to mask it like he did in tricky situations.

"You can still stand after my show of strength, you are decent," the old man laughed.

"You are a scary old man but I have to ask what side you stand on?" Silk asked trying to stay calm out of respect for the old man's power.

"The demons are the future so I stand on their side," the old man answered not thinking that Silk would understand what he meant.

"I will give you one chance to retreat or you will face the wrath of Silk," he warned.

"Young man, is that a threat."

"A statement."

"No young man should threaten me."

"It is only a threat if you go on with your plan."

Silk conjured a knife of wind in his hand and holding it up slit his own throat quickly.

"Dammit," the old man scowled. "Get him before he escapes," he ordered the reflection now anchored in Sarah.

"I can't, he anchored me in the illusion," she bowed while saying this respectively.

"I will just undo it," the old man said waving his hand. Nothing happened.

"Master, why didn't it work?"

"It didn't work, let me see that spell."

"Yes, master," Sarah said picking up the mirror and taking it to the bedroom that the enchanted circle was in. She pointed it at the floor.

The old man turned ghostly pale because the enchantment was very complicated and he couldn't understand it. The reason for this was that Silk had taken parts from the time machine and his knowledge of space to construct a bonding enchantment to trap the reflection in Sarah's body permanently.

This wouldn't normally turn someone as experienced as the old man white, it was the second part of the enchantment which started glowing, it was made specially to trap him inside the mirror he was hiding in.

"No," the old man screeched and retreated from his viewing point in the mirror to his original world. He was sweating badly. "How did someone like him outsmart someone like me," the old man was trembling because he knew it took an extreme amount of skill to enchant something to that level as he was someone with literal worlds of resources but still couldn't compare with quality and skill of Silk.

Silk stood up from the doorway of the house, only Sarah's body was lying there with him, all the rest were gone.

He took out the hexagon from the like three-dimensional construction and lifted a lid open to reveal an interior full of mirror. He had managed to trick the reflection into making this for him in the illusion which Silk managed to deduce was a slightly different world from the slight inconsistencies in his magic. Basically, he was never in an illusion but instead another world.

A shadow caught the corner of Silk's eye. Reacting quickly, he jumped out of the way of the approaching shadow.

The shadow turned out to be the right hand. The fact that she had been killed in the other world signalled that she was now possessed by one of the scouts.

The right hand charged at Silk with her knife drawn. Ignoring the knife Silk swiftly kicked her leaving her on the ground. The possessor had not controlled the body properly.

Kneeling down Silk grabbed the neck of the right hand and snapped it quickly. Clicking his fingers, he created a fireball and burned the body, he swiftly moved on and started looking for tracks. The first ones he found were from Charles which was evident from the depth of tracks. Heavier people have deeper tracks, Charles' was deep because of his suit of armour.

His anger hadn't died out yet, the whole house had been a trap and he didn't like it one bit, it smelled like a conspiracy. He didn't like conspiracies one bit but this whole thing seemed to anger Silk more than usual, for some reason it gave him a sense of déjà vu.

The forest started thinning out until he saw a towering wall around a small village. The tracks led into the village so Silk went in following the tracks.

"Stop," a loud voice called after Silk. He turned to see a guard running to him from the guard house.

"Hello, I supposed I am to be welcomed aren't I," Silk grumbled annoyed.

"Yes sir, this way sir." The guard didn't know why Silk was so important to the king but no one else had made the king smile before.

The village was nice and peaceful with no drama, that in itself was disconcerting because the streets didn't look particularly nice and you would expect people walking on the streets.

The guard seemed to notice Silk was on edge from the lack of activity. "Don't worry," the guard said. "Everyone is just scared of you."

"Makes things easier," Silk muttered.

They stopped outside a giant white castle. The architecture was not like a normal old-fashioned medieval castle but instead had a modern sleek design like you would expect from modern architecture of Earth.

There was a tower of glass which had a striking resemblance to the shard, the rest was smaller than that tower but a striking white which reflected onto the ground making it very hot. The castle was too big to be practical in such a small village which showed that the ruler was eccentric or had more power than the small town showed.

The guard stopped. "I can't take you any further."

Silk turned to look at him, "why?"

"The butler will escort you," he answered.

Silk turned back to face the building to see a butler now standing there. He had not been there before. The butler looked old but healthy for his age with an obvious interest in keeping himself looking stylish.

"This way sir," the butler bowed and showed Silk around to a backdoor. "I hope you understand that opening and shutting a drawbridge takes time and planning for something this size so please excuse me as I show you the back entrance."

"Isn't showing the back entrance to a stranger dangerous?" Silk probed.

"The king seems to trust you so it is okay." The butler answered.

Silk didn't ask any further questions.

They travelled through a maze of corridors and servant quarters until Silk lost his bearings. After what seemed like miles of walking along corridors they reached a giant room with exquisite design.

"Silk the spider is here as you requested," the butler bowed and left closing the door behind him.

A man sat with a throne turned the opposite way of the guests, the king sat at it.

"Do you know what I liked about you Silk," a voice came from the throne. "You didn't care, you did what you wanted and your ideas were always great. I hope we can be on better terms this time around as I know you still can't remember everything but this was all thanks to you."

"What are you on about?" Silk burst out still angry.

"The swivel throne of course." As the throne swung around Silk saw the face of the man sitting on it. "I would rather you remember who I am though so introductions are necessary. I wasn't exactly serious about us working together at this exact moment."

Silk's legs gave out on him, memories suddenly burst out from his head. The memories were awful, each one scarring. Battlefields planets large were left with only small groups led by the two people in the room, immeasurable tortures committed by both sides in the name of justice.

Silk leapt forwards ready to tear out the other man's throat.

"I can't let you do that, I need you." Silk blacked out instantly after those words were spoken.