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Jaylin turned around, Nithel following his gaze.

A man was rising, tears on his cheeks. Nithel’s chest twisted at the man’s pain. It took much to make man cry. At least, it had been that way with Gabrel, and every other I’ve met so far.

He went to ‘mirror’, and began speaking to it. Nithel cocked his head, glancing back to the mirror beside him. Nothing. Just a copied image of himself. Everything was just like he seemed. Then a spark lit in his chest. It was was bright, and it flamed. The fire licking, and burning, across his whole body until he glowed, and there were no more flames.

Nithel’s chest raced, feeling colder than before in the dankness. Wishing for the suns… Wishing he was back home. Wishing he was in his brother’s place. Wishing he could feel the Star Breather touch him again. But the first was ungrateful, and the second was selfish. The corners of his eyes crinkled in pain.

In any case, it was not to be. I am man now. Man. And it was a blessing. He would get eternal life now.

There was a shout behind him, and Nithel spun around, all his hair standing on end.

The weeping man. A large stick, sharp, ramming into a ‘mirror’. The ‘mirror’ breaking, cracking like a vase into a million pieces on the stone floor.

Nithel’s lips parted, eyes looking like he’d been wounded. His first impulse was to approach the man. Do something, he’d figure it out after arriving. Perhaps get stabbed, but try none-the-less. But Jaylin was already there. Already comforting.

Nithel stayed where he was, sucking on the inside of his lips.

The man swung around, and froze. As if seeing for the first time that others were watching him.

He put his weapon into a strange sleeve. His chest breathing like one who had almost drowned, his hair dripping like it too.

Water, yick. Nithel’s shoulders shivered the slightest bit, even though he knew it was sweat, not the life-giving liquid on the stranger’s brow.

Then, the man smiled? The smile was a lie, and that just made Nithel’s heart ache for the man more. Hopefully Jaylin knew how to help him, comfort him. They seemed to know each other.

“Apologies. The mirror angered me.”

Nithel’s brows lifted. His head straightening, then tilting the smallest bit again.

The man darted between two columns of the strange squares, not looking back.

Jaylin glanced around once, then followed after.

Nithel blinked twice, staring at the place they’d left. The shards of burned ‘sand’.

Then he looked back to the shadow who had spoken to him about the mirror. He was nearly invisible. One corner of Nithel’s lip lifted the smallest bit, trying to ‘smile’. Any could have missed it, and then it vanished as he looked to the floor. None who were looking could not see the wrinkle of his brow, but the serious tone that filled his eyes, perhaps.

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@this-is-not-an-alien