"There!" Syrce pointed, and Noble spotted the location in question almost instantly.
The floating Master moved up the mirror with abandon, pulling at the massive cord situated there. The rope was nearly as big around as Noble's waist, but that did not stop her from releasing it from its knotted state.
The curtain unfurled from its sash, moving across the mirror with a sound like rustling leaves. The glass seemed to be slowly covered, but that was merely an illusion. The curtain's heavy fabric dropped at the speed of a guillotine.
The warriors in the mirror disappeared behind the veil, and Noble held her breath.
Surely such a small barrier was not enough to hold them back. The only reason that her cloak had worked on the hand mirror was that it had been made of enchanted fabric.
As far as Noble could tell, this was just thickly woven mundane cloth.
But a second passed, and then another. A hand poked through where the curtain had caught on itself, but Aether cut it off before it could tug at the barrier. Black mist dissipated into the air. No more attempts were made to break through the fabric wall.
The humans were not about to question how it worked as long as it did. There were too many other problems to consider. The Others in the mirror had cut off their escape.
And more Others were almost upon them as they spilled into the palace to block them in the underground chamber. There were no windows in the room except the skylight overhead, and Noble guessed that it wouldn't be the easiest glass to break if it were made by the Daemon of Imagination. Divine beings usually made things to last.
"What do we do?" Noble aimed the question at Syrce, but she also wanted input from her cohort members.
Syrce looked regretfully at the mirror. "I wish..."
Noble felt the hand mirror wriggle under her arm. She covered her friend's mouth. "Don't wish anything! The necklace may be gone, but you are still connected to this place. I can feel the mirror trying to do your will.
"Oh, oh!" the Saint nodded in understanding. She closed her eyes for a moment.
Noble tensed as she heard the sound of footsteps grow into a thunderous roar. They needed to decide now if they wanted to barricade themselves in here to force the Others to crash against them as they funneled through the entrance or if they wanted to flee. In another second, the decision would be made for them.
"If I still have some control, then that means..." Syrce trailed off as she muttered to herself.
Roan frowned. "I don't trust that cloth to hold forever. I think the lack of light might be what is keeping them contained. If the moon plays tricks when it's overhead, then we could be in real trouble. I think we should–"
Syrce's face lit up as she grabbed Noble's arm. She smiled at the group. "Hold on tight!"
The same dizzying feeling Noble had had once before overtook her, causing her to momentarily lose her distinction between up and down.
When things righted themselves, the opulent palace was gone, replaced by ruins. The footsteps were gone too, replaced with the night wind whistling softly up the hillside.
"We are back in the real Bastion?!" Helie exclaimed too loudly.
Noble covered her mouth and pushed her against one of the partially erected walls. Aether and Roan looked at each other nervously.
Only Syrce seemed unworried about their predicament. "Yes," she whispered excitedly. "Isn't it wonderful! I thought the necklace was what brought us to Fake Bastion, but I found that when I concentrated that I could still get us between the two existences. So, although we couldn't get to the Mirror Maze like I would prefer, we still have a chance!"
"Pardon me, but wasnt the entrance sealed by the Prince? How do you plan to get below?" Aether asked softly.
The Saint waved off his concern with a lazy smile. "We will just have to make a new entrance. Either way, I think my men are safer here than with the Others. At least here, they know who their foe is. If only I could have placed them across the water instead of..."
"Wait, you brought your men here?" Roan blinked.
Surely she was joking!
"I couldn't leave them to the Others. Plus, we will need their manpower to carve out the new opening." Syrce nodded.
"And the Prince?!" Aether's panic leaked through his usually neutral expression.
"We will dig the hole after killing him, of course. We always knew we would have to. That time has come." Syrce said it so matter-of-factly that it was hard to argue.
There wasn't much choice in what to do. The options lay in how to do it.
Noble felt for the Dragon. He was curled up over the former entrance to the mirror maze. His body was still, and he was breathing softly for the moment, either asleep or pretending to be so until some unsuspecting human came too close.
Fortunately, no one seemed to be close enough to stumble on him at the moment. They had a little time yet to coordinate their movement.
"I will find a way to get the soldiers to the other side of the water." Noble offered.
"Good. It will be easier to take on the Prince if we aren't worrying about him setting fire to my soldiers. Not even my Awakened men would last a minute with that Remnant, no matter how brave they are." The commander did not want to use her men as fodder.
Though tempting from a tactical standpoint, it would realistically bring her people to the brink of extinction, which she very much wanted to avoid.
"The rest of us will look for an alternate way into the mirror maze and discuss a plan for our Prince friend." Roan paused. "I don't suppose you can pull the Remant into the false Bastion and let the Others and him duke it out?"
Syrce closed her eyes. A half second later, she shook her head.
"He is too powerful. I only seem to be able to affect those equal to or weaker than myself. My initial plan was to send all the Others here, but that didn't work either."
Noble shook her head.
Here they were: stuck between a Remnant, ruins, and a maze of mirrors inhabited by creatures that none of them understood.
There was nothing left to do but move forward. So the group parted ways as broken moon finished peeking over the horizon.
Noble rose into the air, finally getting a visual on the men under Syrce's command. Most of them were situated close to where the appointed barracks had been in false Bastion. Having had a long day of hard work, many of them were more than ready to turn in for the night.
So the message that they were under attack and then being pulled suddenly into the ancient ruins was understandably disorienting.
Noble silently dove toward them, giving them a few words about where the Prince was and how to avoid him.
She circled the hill, pointing to every soldier so they knew which way to head.
But as she lifted to go back to her cohort, she noticed something on the far edge of the lake.
Her heart sank.