Shine #2 (solo)

[Shine]

A figure in stood atop one of the many lighted buildings of Jewel Junction, silhouetted against the night sky, by the many lights shining up from the streets below, and down from the skyscrapers around her. It was a woman standing there, looking out over the cityscape, and thinking. Assessing. Was this what she wanted?

She was fairskinned and redhaired, wearing a tightfitting silvery approximation of one of the old comic book hero's outfits she'd always heard about. A golden wavelike pattern rolled down the sides of her legs until they disappeared into a sturdy but light pair knee high of boots made for running. A bared midriff with the silvery material resuming over the rest of her upper body. A golden sash, bodice, and set of bracers accented the design, alongside a yellow-gold cape stopping above her knees. And then there was the domino mask. She looked down at the mask, still in her hand. This, all of this was far beyond what she'd imagined her life would be. She'd wanted to be a hero, but not this kind. Growing up, she'd had alot of support from her mom, as well as friends and a good group of mentor figures. She hadn't always appreciated it, but by the time she'd moved out of the house, she'd realized just what kind of an impact these others had had on her. She wouldn't be who she was today if not for the action of some of them, and she'd just wanted to give back some of the help that she'd gotten. Instead, she'd become embroiled in the schemes of figures thousands of years older than she, and now carried one of their artifacts. She'd been quiet at first, and tried to avoid getting into trouble, but things had seemed to find her anyways. Now she came to the choice though. Keep on running and hide when she can, or be that hero she wanted to grow up and be for whoever and whatever need her.... Those were her options.

She looked down again, at the mask in her hands and thought back....

[Shine]

Barely a week had passed since the frightening encounter that had occurred at Snappy's Carryout. It'd been featured in the news, but the Tabolids had the story covered. They told how Tom Pemberton had been unruly and threatened the staff serving at Snappy's when manager Misty and good friend of "Carla" had refused to tell the trouble maker where his estranged girlfriend was hiding. When refused, he'd pulled a gun, and ordered the employees into the back room before stealing the cash from the registers and making a clean get away. Tom had previously served as a delivery driver for Snappy's until quitting his job over disagreements with his manager. Tom has a criminal record, and has spent time in jail over the past few years. He is still at large, and the police have warned that he is to be considered armed and very dangerous.

Ashling sat at the kitchen table, of her mom and stepdad's house, and grimaced up at the headline's title again as she spit the words out.

"Pepperoni Punk Purloins Pizzeria's Prized Premuim! Ugh... I think I'm going to hurl. Who writes this stuff?"

She'd been trying to make a point to spend more time with her family over the past week. Part of a determined plan she'd made to not take them for granted anymore. To her surprise and pleasure, she was actually turning out to like Reese Andersen, her step father. Of course, it was a pretty low bar to beat compared to her own dad.

"Hah... well, tabloids get paid to be sensational. Not accurate." Reese walked into the room, and grabbed up an apple from the bowl on the kitchen table before rinsing it off, and taking a loud crunch of a bite. "Still, even they have to slip up once in awhile." She agreed in this case. No way was this winning writing. It made her head eyes hurt to look at the poor paper that the story had been printed on.

"That's not really what happened, you know. I told you about it before. Tom was just a nobody, but there was some other guy.... a Zolity, or something."

"Zolotoy. I know. Somebody doesn't want that story to get out though, and so this is what was printed." Reese said, pulling the magazine out of her loose grip, and tossing it down on the table again. He spun it around to look at the picture on the front. It had one of the mug shots of Tom plastered across the front. It wasnt the cover picture, but it ranked high enough to get on the front, apparently. "Even the regular papers printed it this way." He seemed to be looking deep into his own mind as Ashling looked up to his face.

He was a handsome man, with a strong and well defined, if small jaw covered by a thick and well trimmed goatee around his mouth and upper lip. His eyes could be as piercing as they were kind. He had short cropped dark hair that never quite seemed ready to lie down. It always seemed just shy of messy, but never neat. It was hard to imagine a better fit for her beautiful mother, somehow.

He took another crunchy bite of apple, and the splash of apple juice forced her to look away, as it rained down on her face.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I get you?" He spoke up, looking a little embarrassed, and nervous. She laughed and shook he head, as he backed away with his vicious piece of fruit.

"Just a little.... Don't worry about it." She dabbed up the mess, and tried to set him at ease. It'd taken her a little bit to realize it, but he was just as nervous about getting to know her, as she was about learning about him. That had been a strange realization. He seemed to have everything together. He was the Sheriff here in Jewel County. He'd spent time in the army, on the police force, and then been elected in as the county's Sheriff. All this, and he was still just as nervous around her as he made her feel. Just went to show that neither of them wanted to face rejection from the other....

"Zolotoy is dangerous, and I'm glad that you made it through that without getting hurt." He spoke up. "JJPD says that he's too big to go after without some solidly damning evidence. Honestly, they're right, and we don't have that.... Right now. In the meantime, I was thinking about what we could do to keep you safe.

"Reese, I'm fine. really. That's the first time I've ever had any problems from anything like a gang, and I doubt that I'll run into anything like it again." Ashling tried to reassure him, but she could tell it only half took as he listened.

He laced his fingers together, setting the apple aside, and sat down across from her, before looking up and meeting her eyes. "How would you feel about carrying a gun. I already have the information to get you a concealed carry license, and I think it'd make your mother feel better."

Ashling sighed. She... wasn't really sure she wanted to carry a gun. In her mind, she couldn't find a reason not to carry one with her, other than the fact that she was on a school most of the time anyways. They wouldn't like it.

"I... will think about it." Her eyes lit up and a small smile graced her features as she thought of something else. She cracked a smirk over to him as he watched her, then offered a counter option. "Or, you could teach me some of those tricks you taught Nate. How did he learn to do that? He took that man's gun away like it was nothing, and I thought... I thought he was just a kid that played videogames."

"I AM!" Ash and Reese looked towards the living room, where Nate had overheard them while playing on his console.

"He is, but I made sure to teach him a few tricks, for handling guns. And I made sure he knew what to do when in a situation like that. I just didn't expect him to have to use those tricks so young."

"So how about it, Reese? Teach me what you taught him?"

The redhead's stepdad looked at the young woman before him, measuring. After a pause, he answered. "Yeah. I'll teach you. But it'll mean that you might have to make the same choices that Nate made that day. I just want you to make sure that your ready for that."

"I will be."

[Shine]

Ashling had been running for the day already. She was supposed to drive out to Mom and Reese's place later, where her Step dad would start working with her on hand to hand defense techniques with her. She'd have to leave some time for the drive. For now though, she was left with some time to herself.... And in front of her yawned an abyss of questions about what was going on all around her. Recently, she'd found that she could step through mirrors and into a strange place that seemed to connect them. She'd nearly died the first time, and had barely given it any thought since then, but now she wanted answers. She knew it had something to do with a mirror, but she didn't have any idea where she fit into all of this. The Tuatha De Denann hadn't been much help, but she'd been studying up on them and reading some of the old irish mythologies. They seemed a fickle bunch. She knew to expect trickery and manipulation from them, but they were good and virtuous towards their champions as well. She didn't know what to expect from them, in truth. So expect nothing, and be prepared for everything.

It was hard to imagine all of those as truly happening the way she read. If that was the case, some guy named Diarmuid had killed a few thousand warriors in the span of a day, if that long. That was pretty awesome. Also unbelievable. She didn't want to be labeled a doubting Thomas if it was all true, but... surely, some of the stories had been stretched over the centuries. Plus, wasn't celtic myth hard to track down and find? There was one place she could go though....

She pulled out the silver worked hand mirror from where she carried it. It was curious in that it never seemed to dull in its brilliant shine. Dirt never seemed to stick to it. Actually, she couldn't see any wear marks at all on it, as she unwrapped it. That was incredible, since it was supposedly a couple of thousand years old. Score one for the gods. Now if only they'd make her a set of kitchen knives of the same stuff.

She took a deep breath. This was the part she was nervous of. The "Keeper" of the mirror was inside there. It looked like he'd tried to kill her before, when she'd first entered the mirror. Since then, he'd been... subservient was the best way to describe it. It really was. She held the mirror now, and that made her the boss. That's what it seemed like, but she wanted the fine print. Best way she could do that would probably be to just ask.

She closed her eyes, and held her breath for a second, while she composed herself, then looked into the mirror and reached out to touch it with her hand. Instantly she felt a chilling sensation, and the strange feeling of being pulled and stretched into the small reflection. When she opened her eyes, she stood amidst a bright white space with many windows all around. Some large enough for her to step or climb through. Others barely large enough to even see the other side of. They were all the reflective surfaces around where she'd entered this world. Once again, she found her bathroom mirror, and looked out it to see where the mirror had dropped from her hand as she'd been pulled in. It just lay there on her bed, faceup, and shining in the daylight streaming through the windows. She was several floors up in an appartment building, so she wasn't worried about anyone looking in and seeing odd things like redheads getting sucked into worked silver hand mirrors.

"Welcome back Master. How can I assist you?" Ashling jumped at the sound of Keeper's voice ringing in her head. It was never outloud. She turned to look at the strange figure. Almost human in shape, but with strange angles, and flat planes making up his body instead of true a true set of arms or a head. He just kinda floated there. He actually reminded her a little bit of Andross from Starfox on the NES. Hmm... That's a little creepy.

"Hold on. Stop." She put a hand out in front of him, in the ever popular "talk to the hand" gesture, except she really did want him to talk to her. "Are you going to greet me like that every time I come here? That's like all you ever say."

The Keeper's eyes (if that what they were) blinked at her, calmly as he floated there. He seemed a little lost, as though she'd confused him.... Great.

"Does it displease you? The instruction from the last bearer of this mirror was to greet in this manner."

"Well,... yeah! A little!"

He looked as thoughtful as his alien looks could let him appear. At least that was what Ashling decided. Then she heard his odd voice warbling in her head again. "...How would you prefer me to speak?"

Ohh..... Now that he asked, how did she explain. "I don't know. More normal?" She said, knowing even as she said it that this Keeper wouldn't know what that meant.... Not by her standards, anyways. As she'd guessed, he seemed to take a moment to consider, and then "spoke" again.

"...I will endeavor to assume the norm of cultural standards for your people. Please provide additional guidance as you see fit."

He seemed... content with leaving it at what he'd said, and just remained silent as he continued to stare at her. Ashling found herself feeling a little uncomfortable with the silence after a few moments, and realized that this was going to be up to her to fix.

"Uhh... Ok. My name is Ashling. Do you have a name?" She tried again.

"I am the Keeper of this space. You are the Bearer of this Mirror. I exist to to serve the Bearer of this Mirror."

More and more, she was realizing that this Keeper figure lacked a personality. It wasn't that he was bland, or standoffish. He simply didn't have one. He was like a computer, or a tool of some kind. He served a function, but she'd have to find out the right questions to ask. It would be like pulling teeth for some people, but while frustrating, she was thinking of it almost as a game now.

"Ok. First of all, shouldn't "Master" be "Mistress"? Second of all, stop calling me that. Call me Ashling. Lastly, I'm going to start calling you Keeper."

Predictably, he seemed to pause for a moment, assess her words, and then spoke directly into her mind as he did. "Understood, Ashling."

She grimaced a little. That was still really mechanical, but it was better than "Master". Blech. He didn't say anything again, and she realized that he wouldn't. Not if what he said was true. He was just like another part of the mirror. Not that she truly knew what that was, but it was starting to make sense now that she'd have to be the one to initiate any communications beyond his stock "how may I assist you".

"So... there were other Mirror Bearers?" She asked, then thought better of it and rephrased what she'd said. She'd have to start thinking in terms of telling what she wanted of him instead of asking, but so far. "How many Bearers carried this mirror before me?"

"There have been only two champions before you, Ashling."

"Can you tell me how they had you serve them?" She thought she was starting to get the hang of this now.

"Yes." Keeper answered in his strange voice. There was little in the way of inflection to his words. He didn't answer beyond that, and Ash realized her mistake.

"Ohh Gods... This is going to be harder than I thought.... Tell me how you served the previous bearers."

"Mirrors were crafted by the Tuatha De Danann to serve as weapons, support, and primary warcamps in the defense against the Sons of Krylich."

Ashling listened, but her mind kinda turned to mush when he said that. A warcamp? This? Well, it was pretty spacious, but how did it work?

"To this end, I keep and maintain this space. I have equal skills capacity to a fully trained healer, and I am trained in parts of the druidic healing lore. I am well versed in druidic bindings, and can fabricate supplies or weapons and armor to your warriors or healers, should they bring enough raw materials. I am capable of searching for and manipulating the gateways into and out of this space to any point on this plane, as you should desire."

A list of what he could do continued to spill forth from the Keeper and into her mind, and Ashling was starting to realize that what she had received wasn't merely some nifty trinket, but rather a weapon made for waging wars. It had been intended to destroy her. Or had it? If Aengus had sent this to her, what did he get out of it if she died? What did he get if she lived? Ugh... it was too difficult to think about without more context.

"I remember and can demonstrate the lore and abilities of those from the past. Training the new Mirror Bearer is a primary function of mine. When would you like to begin?"

"I... I can't right now. I have to go and... my family is waiting for me." She checked her phone for messages as she pulled it out of her pocket, and noticed that it showed a large NO SIGNAL across the front when it powered up from sleep mode. The time was still functioning at least. She still had a little time before she had to go, but right then she just really felt like she needed to get away and try to absorb everything she'd learned. It was alot more than Keeper had told her, that was for sure.

"Very well, Ashling. I advise for you to keep the Mirror with you at all times from now on. It is yours, and your responsibility to keep."

Right right.... "I just... How do I get out of here?" A window seemed to materialize at Keeper's side as he gestured to it, and she stepped through quickly, just wanting to get away. She found herself standing on her bed in her own bedroom when she could see clearly again, and promptly climbed down and seated herself. Had he seemed a little more normal at the end there, when speaking to her? She wasn't sure, but something might have seemed a little less mechanical in his patterns....

She looked at the mirror laying on her bed, but was afraid to touch it. What was it? And what was she supposed to do with it?! She thought of just pitching it out the window, but something in her refused.... She reflected on it for a few minutes: she was afraid. With good reason, she knew. Power like the Mirror's came at a cost, but she couldn't shy from power because she was afraid. Her first encounter with it had already shown she had things to fear, whether she carried it or not, and the trouble she'd run into at Snappy's was just another argument to keep it.... So eventually, she picked it up, and slipped it into a pocket in her jacket.

She would be the Bearer of this Mirror.

[Shine]

It was dark outside. The world had fallen asleep, and many of its inhabitants had followed hours ago. With the time it was now, only the most determined students and avid gamers had the excuse to still be wakeful. It could be said that Ashling had a little of both in her, but tonight she was studying. Not for an upcoming project for her college courses, but for herself. The bluish white wash of her laptop's screen coated the wall of her room in an eerie light, as headphones carried anything from celtic themed music ranging from the fantasy selections to folk directly to her ears. She saw pictures, and read Arthurian legends.She read ancient histories, and saw collections of different legends from different authors. Much of the history and knowledge surrounding the celtic myths had been lost or buried, but they still existed to be found. People were still finding them today....

She was immersing herself in everything about it, and she was riveted to these things. Realizing that all, or at least some of the legends of an ancient people's culture were true had the effect of changing the way she looked at the world. It could change some of her perspective and now she couldn't stop herself from looking at it.... It brought her alot of questions, such as, if these stories were true... what else might also be real?

She looked at the clock and mournfully noted the time.... Almost four-thirty in the morning. It'd been awhile since she'd let herself binge something all night like this. Running tomorrow would take a hit for this.... She stopped and mentally corrected herself: Running later. The part of her that was still trying to be responsible took advantage of the part of her that was too tired and stupid to react, and simply closed the top of her laptop before anything more could transpire. She stared mutely at where the screen used to be for a moment more and contemplated just leaning forward and putting her head down on the desk. Eventually, she clicked the light off and managed to reason her way into getting up and heading to her bed. It was only about five steps from her seat to her bed... but then she'd have to make herself lift the covers up and climb into bed. Ugh... was it worth it?

It was, she decided, as she slipped into bed and pulled the coveres over her. She was so overcome by weariness that she didn't even manage to set an alarm before she fell asleep. Once she did though, she started to dream....