The girl pauses and nibbles on the end of her pen. She reads back over what she’s written and smiles. Then she picks up a fresh sheet and begins again.

“They had not returned to Mysteria. They had instead reached a mirror world, where each of them might find themselves in a might have been, an alternate version of each Clan member.

“This next story interests me a great deal because in a way my parent’s visit to the mirror world is what led to my birth. Of course I don’t enter the picture until many years later, but had they never gone to that other world, never met Saint Drago, they never would have returned to it.

“After the trials of Spectoria coming to the mirror Mysteria at first was a relief, but they weren’t there long before things took a turn for the worse. Drago held their friends hostage, along with several of the crystal shards. Both Clan members and shards had to be retrieved. And my parents were about to get some surprising news that would change the way the felt about their adventuring forever.”

They made their way through the trees, around the corner of the castle, and into the middle of a battle. All seven of them simply gaped for a moment. Standing opposite the familiar spire of the queen’s tower was a craggy castle of dark stone. Out of its gates poured a veritable army of zombies and vampire, with the familiar form of Lord Drago at their head. But defending the gates of the tower was a second minor army of guardsmen, and leading the squads were some very familiar faces. Wearing the white armor of a paladin and leading a squad of royal guards was an exact carbon copy of Lavasida, with a duplicate Lon who seemed to be a warrior rather than a cleric by his side. An unfamiliar black man seemed to be in charge of the defenders. But the duplicate Clan members weren’t the most surprising thing. The real shocker was the man in white cleric’s robes who was fighting alongside the defenders. His skin wasn’t as pale, and the white robes were far different from the dark cape favored by his opposite, but the tall, slender man was also Drago.

“Right, this is weird,” said Flame. “Drago and Drago and us and us… well, some of us. I don’t see myself or Aidan out there.”

“This is some kind of alternate reality,” said Aidan.

“No time to talk, the battle’s coming this way!” said Brianna.

The Drago they knew had spotted them and was directing his troops after them. The Clan drew weapons and dived into the fight. Flame Song leaped in with enthusiasm, literally; blurring into her firecat form in mid-jump. Aidan took to the air, as usual, picking his targets from above. He watched with interest as the cleric Drago dropped undead in their tracks simply by touching them. Huh, thought Aidan. He must be as good of a cleric as our Drago is bad. I do wonder how Drago keeps getting ahead of us when he’s supposed to have to follow us.

With a shrug he picked out a zombie and executed his favorite diving attack. With both daggers leading the way he slammed into the creature and it went down. Unfortunately it didn’t stay down. He’d wounded the thing severely, but being undead it didn’t die easily. It moved slowly and Aidan was easily able to dodge the clumsy attacks, but though he cut it a dozen times, nothing seemed to slow it down. Then there was a puff of smoke and the Vampire Lord himself was standing next to the startled aerian.

Drago grinned at Aidan, who instantly spread his wings to take to the air and escape. Before he could even get off the ground the vampire’s hand touched his shoulder. He felt an instant chill, so cold it almost burned. The cold crept through him, numbing as it went and he dropped to the ground. The chill crept up his spine and as it reached the top everything faded away.

He awoke in pitch darkness. “Ugh,” he groaned. He had a splitting headache and felt generally achy all over. He sat up and looked around. There was a very dim glow coming from somewhere and gradually his eyes adjusted to the dark. He was in a cell. The solid door had a tiny barred window and a very heavy lock.

Heh… no trouble there. Just a few minutes with my lock picks. Aidan checked his pockets, and sure enough the set he kept there was gone. But the hidden ones in his boots were still there. He was working on the lock when a noise behind him made him jump. He spun around, pulling out a hidden dagger from the small of his back and crouching. A shadowy form on the irregular floor of the cell rose up. Aidan breathed a sigh of relief. It was the goblin Seymore.

“Seymore. You just about scared the life out of me. Where are we?”

“We caught by Drago. In shadow castle.”

“What about the others?”

“People Drago already caught still here. He no catch any more this time, just you and me.”

“Well, let’s us get out of here and see what we can do about the others, eh?”

“You get us out?”

“Yep!” And with a click the lock opened.

The pair moved cautiously out into the dark hall. There were cells all along the hall, but they all were open and empty. At the end of the corridor was a little room, with a second corridor on the other side and a set of stairs leading up. “There,” said Aidan. “The other prisoners must be in the other hall.”

“Perhaps they are,” said a voice from the top of the stairs, “and perhaps I’ve already killed them all.”

“Drago!” snarled Aidan, drawing his little dagger.

“Yes, it’s me. And now you need to go back to sleep.” And with a leap the vampire knocked Aidan down again. Aidan felt his dagger hit solid flesh, but the vampire didn’t even flinch and yet again the chill of his touch spread through Aidan’s body, sending him back into the dark.