Once again, the Mirror did not allow him long to dwell on the garden.
The scene dissolved, and Arin found himself standing within a corridor he did not recognize.
The walls here were older than the rest of the castle. The stone was darker, carved with patterns that seemed less ornamental and more deliberate, as though each line had been placed with purpose rather than beauty in mind. Torches burned in iron brackets, their flames unnaturally steady.
Rin stood between his parents.
He was also taller now.
About twelve, if Arin had to guess.
Twelve…
He was wearing heavy ceremonial robes. They fit him well, though the boy kept smoothing the sleeves occasionally, as though uncertain what to do with his hands.
No attendants had followed them in. Even the guards had left them at the turn of the previous corridor.
The Emperor walked ahead, his expression unreadable. The Empress walked beside him, though. Her hand was resting lightly against his back, perhaps just as a reassurance she felt the need to silently offer.
The trio stopped before a pair of towering doors fashioned from some kind of dark wood veined with silver.
Rin looked up at them silently.
His father turned around at last. He looked at his eldest son, and offered him a small smile. It didn't quite reach his eyes. Even the rest of his handsome face was drawn tight with some worry only he knew.
Perhaps he, too, was trying to offer some reassurance.
'It is time,' he said simply.
At his words, that echoed slightly in the empty corridor, the towering doors suddenly jolted. After a moment, they slowly opened inwards without being touched. A breath of air slipped out from within the chambers they hid, cool and… ancient, somehow. It smelled lightly of incense.
Rin licked his lips, his eyes running along the length of the gap that was widening before him. He drew himself up and stepped forward. He didn't look at his parents again as he walked past them, nor did they make any move to follow after him. All alone, he finally entered the room, within the depths of which was…
Nothing?
...Wait, what!?
The world, already strangely hazy, went white.
Arin held his breath and waited.
Nope. Nothing.
It wasn't the bright kind of white, as though from some large light source. It was just disconcertingly blank, with nowhere for his roving eyes to rest.
It was... empty…
Arin suddenly realized that he couldn't feel Rin's steps against the stone floor anymore, nor sense the weight of those ceremonial robes on his body. He couldn't feel Rin at all. It was as though all of the senses that had connected him to the boy had been cut off abruptly.
He felt himself suspended, and tried to move, but there was nothing to move through, or against, or towards.
...
Hey, uh, mirror?
Mirror of Record?
…Was it out of power? No, the white-haired man had said that that wouldn't happen. But then, what the hell was going on!?