For the first month after the shattering, Vesper ordered all the mirrors in her bedroom to be covered. She couldn't look at them. Every time she walked past a shiny vase or a window at night, she expected to see the cold, perfect face of the Usurper staring back at her.
She washed her face in a ceramic bowl, not a silver one. She brushed her hair without looking. She was safe, but she was still haunted.
One evening, Vesper was walking down the long hallway to the library. The walls were lined with old portraits protected by glass. As she passed a portrait of her grandfather, she felt a strange sensation. It was a buzzing in her ears, like a fly trapped in a jar.
She stopped. She looked at the glass covering the painting.
The glass rippled.
Vesper gasped and stepped back. "No," she whispered. "You are gone. You are dead."
But the face in the glass wasn't the Usurper. It was... a room.
Vesper leaned closer. The glass wasn't reflecting the hallway. It was showing her a different room in the castle. It looked like the guards' mess hall. She could see soldiers eating and laughing. She could see the steam rising from their stew.
She blinked, and the image vanished. The glass just showed her own frightened face again.
Vesper's heart pounded. I am not crazy, she told herself. I lived inside the mirrors for months. I was part of the Silver Network.
She realized then that a part of the magic had stayed with her. She had crossed the line between the worlds, and when she came back, she had brought a piece of the "Silver" with her. She wasn't just Vesper anymore. She was a walker of both worlds.
She ran to the library. Kieran was there, reading a map.
"Kieran," Vesper said, out of breath. "I saw something."
Kieran stood up immediately. His hand went to his sword. "Is it her? Is she back?"
"No," Vesper said. "It's me. I looked at the glass in the hallway, and I saw the mess hall. I saw the guards eating."
Kieran looked confused. "You... saw through the mirror?"
"I think I still have the connection," Vesper said. She sat down, her hands shaking. "When I was a ghost, I could jump from mirror to mirror to spy on people. I think I can still do it. I can see things."
Kieran sat down next to her. He looked worried. "Is it hurting you?"
"No," Vesper said. "It just feels... loud. Like the glass is whispering to me."
"We can take down every mirror in the castle," Kieran offered. "We can smash them all."
Vesper thought about it. She wanted to say yes. She wanted to destroy every piece of glass in the world. But then she remembered the Reflection. The Reflection had used power to control people. The Reflection had been blind to everything except herself.
Vesper had a gift now. A dangerous, scary gift. But maybe she could use it for something good.
"No," Vesper said slowly. "Don't break them. Not yet. I need to know what I can do."