The situation was worse than they thought. All over the hillside, people whom Noble did not recognize roamed the avenues between the buildings of the palace. If Noble hadn't known better, she would have thought that Lyra had secretly arrived with her people and had begun inhabiting their new home.
But those she did not recognize were not people at all. They were the Others. And they had spread like an infestation to occupy Bastion.
"How are there so many of them?" Aether could not fathom how their number had grown so large. Even that morning, there had not been nearly so many.
"It's my fault." Syrce hung her head. "I wished for all those who had been lost to return and see our new home. When Maelys—that monster said she had a surprise for me, I had no idea that she had that in mind."
"They must have come out while you left the mirror unattended. Just like the Other of Flint." Noble pressed her hand to her cheek.
The population boom was truly daunting. The hundreds of warriors were now thousands of people. How had no one noticed? At least most of the people seemed mundane, even if they were soldiers.
It also seemed they hadn't pulled on Syrce's reserves. Whatever was happening did not need her active participation like it had in the beginning, and so the Saint hadn't even been aware that more Others were spilling from the mirror while she was away.
Syrce hung her head. "I should have known. I should never have believed the voice of the Advisor, even when he let me talk to Maelys any time I wanted. I am sorry for bringing you all into this mess."
"You were deceived. The necklace was affecting you. Whoever gave it to Mirage wanted her to believe something very badly as well. It is no wonder that you fell prey to its persuasion." Noble comforted her friend.
The Saint sighed. "What I cannot understand is why Maelys—the real Maelys—sent it to me at all."
"Is that not obvious?" Aether asked.
From anyone else, Noble would have thought they were being sarcastic, but if it had been allowed to escape the man's lip, he had meant it genuinely and without malice.
"I think what Aether means is that you never would have found the completed palace without the necklace. If the Advisor promised her as much as he promised you, then of course she would have sent it to her beloved sisters." Roan nodded slowly.
"Beloved…if only she could have returned with the messenger instead of carving the path for the ship to get through. Maybe then I wouldn't have released all these... Others into our world." The words were bitter in Syrce's mouth.
"You found a place for your people, just like you both wanted. I know she would love to be here if she could. As for our Other problem, we will fix this. We have to. We just need to figure out how." Noble began to pace silently in the air.
"There is only one way I can think of. We have to return the image in the mirror to the Hall of Imagination." Syrce rubbed her head.
"Will that get rid of the Others?" Helie chewed her lip. "There are quite a lot of them..."
"I am not sure, but at the very least, it will prevent more from coming into this copy of Mirage's world. We need to stem the tide if we ever hope to stop them. The number of reflections in the mirror world must be nearly infinite!" The Saint frowned.
"Not infinite, we think they only have copies of people who have been in the city, which is still a far larger number than I am comfortable with trying to conquer." Noble imagined trying to kill an Other of every person who had ever lived near Imagination's palace.
The floating Master would be buried in the sheer number of bodies in a matter of minutes–until the bodies dissipated into that eerie black mist.
What was that mist anyway? It looked like nothing at all, yet was clearly visible. The thought of it made her shiver.
"Are you suggesting we go back through the Maze?" Helie's worry welled up in her. "The entrance to that place was welded shut by our dragon friend."
"I know a shortcut." Syrce hesitated. "But we will have to hurry. I need to get my people to safety. I have left them alone too long as it is."
"We will follow your lead." Roan climbed back on his waiting griffin.
Helie and Aether steeled their nerves for another flight.
The biggest disadvantage of following Syrce in her Transcendant form was her inability to communicate by normal means. Yet the Saint did not seem to mind this limitation. Rather than ask Noble to carry her, Syrce leapt from the tower and turned into a glowing ball.
The Saint was like a lighthouse beacon in the night, contending with the full moon for dominance as it came over the horizon. The latter would be high in the sky soon enough, but for now, it conceded victory to the incandescent Transcendant.
That was a problem. The Others could clearly see their location and, more importantly, where they were heading. Their only chance was to get there first.
And Noble had a decent idea of where that place might be.
Sure enough, the Saint ducked into one of the windows near the top of the main structure where the tower met the building. Turning back into her human form, she began to run through the halls of white stone.
"How are you holding up?" she called over her shoulder to her friend.
"I'm fine. Nothing has come out of the mirror since I covered it. The cloth is doing the trick." Noble thought about releasing the mirror for Syrce to carry, but decided against it.
If Syrce had wanted the looking glass after the necklace had been broken, she would have asked for it. As long as the mirror was safe, there was no reason to alter the arrangement.
They raced through the halls, heading to the very heart of the building. Noble heard a quiet crash echo through the halls. The Others had breached the front door. Hurried footsteps and hushed whispers began to grow closer.
How were they moving so quickly?
It didn't matter, the Masters and the commander were quicker. They would reach the destination first.
The Palace of False Bastion finally opened into an immense chamber, one that should have been too big for the space, but was still small in comparison to its counterpart in the true version of this world.
The Great Mirror—or the copy of the Great Mirror–proudly stood in the center of the room like a single, perfect pane of glass. The only thing breaking up the image on its flawless surface was the edge of the voluminous curtain tied off to one side.
"Through here we should be able to reach the Hall of Imagination..." Syrce stopped.
In the glass, forms of people appeared that did not belong to the five humans facing it. In a blink, reflections of hundreds of ancient warriors were running at them from the mirror world.
And Noble had no doubt that they would be able to break through the glass.
The footsteps behind them were growing louder as well.
The Others had them surrounded. They were closing in. And they wanted revenge.