“Yeah, and we found Nemesis.”
“You did? Fantastic!” I perked up. “Is she working on breaking the curse? Why are we still in here?”
“That's the thing.” He grimaced “She can't break the curse.”
“Whatchu talkin' bout, Willis?” I growled.
“Aunty Nem created that curse to make sure Narcissus never got out,” he said. “She can't break it. At least not from outside the mirror.”
“What does that mean?”
“Nemesis says she can't break it, but she put a safety clause in the curse in case anyone else was sucked in by mistake.”
“Wonderful!” My hopes lifted again. “What is it?”
“It won't be easy,” he warned me. “You'll need to find the Mirror's weak spot. Nemesis says there's a tiny imperfection in the glass and that's the only place where the anti-curse will have an effect.”
“How do I find the weak spot? Is it in the portal's glass?”
“No; not the portal. It's in the curse itself; in the one place the Mirror can alter,” he said. “Look for a mirror within the Mirror, one with an imperfection. It will be a black spot like those that appear on antique mirrors. That shadow is its vulnerability. You must stand before it and say the word; diakopi.”
“Diakopi,” I repeated. “Got it. But Morph, the Mirror has ways of forcing me through it or keeping me where it wants me. I don't think it will let me anywhere near its weak point.”
“Nemesis said that it can't block you from it.” He shook his head. “It's a fail-safe she worked into the curse. As soon as you set your intention to seek the weakness, it must open the way.”
“She thought of everything,” I murmured.
“She does this a lot.” Morpheus grimaced. “It's kind of her thing, and she's been caught in her own curses enough times to have learned how to cast them properly.”
“I suppose if you're a goddess of vengeance, your curses should be perfect,” I huffed.
“Odin told her what you said about the Mirror feeding on humans,” Morpheus went on. “Aunty Nem said if it's been taking energy, it's probably grown beyond what she originally created but no matter how strong it gets, it can't go against its own nature. It can build upon its foundation, but it can't change it. She said it shouldn't have been able to kill those humans because one of the first laws she wove into it was that it couldn't kill. She wanted Narcissus to suffer for eternity so she made sure the Mirror couldn't kill him or anyone else.”
“It didn't kill the humans,” I explained. “They died from starvation. There's no real food in here.”
“Oh, that makes more sense,” he said with relief. “And it also means that the Mirror hasn't altered itself too much. That's a good thing.”
“I had suspected that it wasn't able to kill,” I said. “It keeps trying to make us kill ourselves or Narcissus.”
“Oh! Don't kill Narcissus!” Morpheus said urgently. “If he dies, the whole curse will implode and take you with it.”
“It's fortunate that he's been playing nice then,” I muttered. “So, it can't kill us and it can't bar the way to its weakness. Anything else?”
“It can't release Narcissus,” he added. “But that's obvious.
“It's been trying to get us to kill Narcissus,” I said. “We think it's because Narcissus refused to kill us and told the Mirror that we were getting him out.”
“I suppose that would create an aggressive response in a curse,” Morpheus mused. “But I wouldn't think it would turn suicidal. If you killed Narcissus, you'd kill the Mirror too.”
“Is it possible that the Mirror doesn't know what killing Narcissus will do?”
Morpheus blinked. “I suppose. That condition is merely a part of the curse. It would be similar to the way a pancreas works in the human body; it's something you don't notice until it malfunctions.”
“No one has tried to kill Narcissus before so it's never had that clause threatened,” I concluded.
“Just so.”
“I think I'll keep this information to myself,” I announced. “For now, it may be best to keep the Mirror at odds with Narcissus.”
“Oh, and I asked Nem about your magic; why it wasn't functioning right and if you should try to use it,” Morph said.
“And?”
“She said that when you pass through the glass, the Mirror collects it. Sort of like a coat check for magic. You'll get it back if you pass through the glass again or if the Mirror is destroyed. Since you can't pass through the glass, the only way to get your magic back is to destroy the Mirror.”
“The Mirror has my magic?” I growled.
“Your god magic,” he clarified. “That's what it's made to do; entrap god magic. Nem said Narcissus shouldn't be able to use his magic at all. If he can, it's because the Mirror is allowing it.”
“So, maybe they did become allies of a sort,” I murmured. “And that would explain why I could start to feel my star but then it just fizzled out.”
“Yeah; in there, all you are is a witch.”
“And a dragon-sidhe,” I reminded him. “But without my star, I can't shift. If I do, I risk hurting my other beasts.”
“Not if they're in the glass,” Morph pointed out.
“I can still feel them.” I shook my head. “The Mirror may have taken my magic, but their links are inside me.”
“Like a claim ticket,” he said thoughtfully. “You're right; don't risk using the Dragon. Her magic might travel down the line and hurt the others wherever the Mirror is holding them.”
“I'll have to give this some thought.”
“Whatever you do, be careful, V,” Morpheus said. “We're all waiting at Pride Palace for you. Well, except for me. I've been waiting in the Dream Realm for you to go to sleep. But I'll be heading back now.”
“Thank you, Morpheus.” I hugged him. “We wouldn't have a chance of escaping without you.”
“Just get out safely.” He kissed my cheek and faded into the mists.
“Sure, no problem,” I muttered. “All I have to do is find
