If Mirror was speechless because of the strange being's appearance, Alice wasn't.
In fact, she almost expected something like that to happen.
"What are you ? What do you want ?"
The weird-looking monster walked... crawled ? towards the two defensless little girls. The three mouths of the creature opened again, making human-like sound. The creature was capable of speech.
"My name is Nikoletta, First Blade of the Fourth Ring. As for what I am, most humans refer to us as Heart Eater, for obvious reasons. Now, tell me, Lightbringer. Who are you ? What are you doing here ?"
Alice looked at Nikoletta more closely.
A mix of horse and worm, but white and black with a visible hearth. That's how one would have described the Heart Eater if they had to do it quick.
But there was so much more to that.
A descriptionlike that couldn't quite show the sheer beauty that Nikoletta had. It couldn't quite capture this feeling of... wrongness that Alice got while looking at her tail.
All of this couldn't be put into words.
"My name is Alice. The person here is a clone of me created by the weird mirror, so I like to call her Mirror."
Nikoletta whole body suddenly moved in all directions. It was probably the same thing as a human having a facial expression, but Alice had now clue on how to decipher a Heart Eater's body language.
However, when she heard Nikoletta's voice again, she was sure of what feeling she had.
It was disgust.
"Lightbringer, do you want me to get rid of this vile being for you. I am sure I could kill her quite easily."
When Mirror heard Nikoletta's voice, she immediatly got out of her stupor, and asked:
"Wait ! How can you be sure of who is the clone and who is the original ?"
"Simple, vile creature. I can clearly see the Blessing in Alice's soul, while yours doesn't have it."
"You can see... souls ? What does that even mean ?"
"You're annoying, with all of these dumb questions... Alice, can I kill her ?"
Alice didn't need to think much to anwer no. She had no grudge against Mirror, except that it would be better if she revealed her secrets.
"Nobody is going to kill someone Nikoletta, relax. Mirror is on my side."
Nikoletta's tone was skeptical when she talked again:
"Are you sure about that, Lightbringer ? These beings can be really dangerous."
"I'l sure of it. Now, could you explain ?"
"Explain what ?"
Alice took a step back and sat on a nearby root. Staying standing for too long was kind of tiring, and Alice was tired already.
"Explain everything. Where we are, what Lightbringers are and what make me one, why I am here... everything."
At this point, Nikoletta seemed to realize something.
She seemed surprised.
"Wait... did you spawn here ? Is this island the first place you woke up in ?" Alice nodded. "How... unfortunate."
"Why ?" asked Alice.
"When a new Lightbringer is transported to the Sky, he or she usally seek the current Lightbringer, wich will teach him the basics. I'm not in touch with the rest of the Sky, so I could be wrong, but the current Lightbringer is probably very, very far from here. Reaching him, or her, will be an arduous journey. I wish you luck."
Alice stayed silent for a moment. So, according to Nikoletta, there was an another person considered to be a Lightbringer somewhere around here ?
"I have other questions. Could you please answer them ?"
"I'll try, Lightbringer."
"What even are Lightbringers ?"
"I am afraid that I'm not qualified to answer this question accurately. People coming from Earth, is an answer, but a rather incomplete one."
"What are Heart Eaters ? What is the Fourth Ring ?"
"We are a very old species, capable of absorbing the power of the fores we overcame by eating their hearths. There isn't many of us left, sadly. The Fourth Ring was an empire that tragically fell two or three centuries ago."
Alice noticed that, if what Nikoletta was saying was true, she was probably a very old being.
"What is this place ?"
"This island...it once was a one-of-a-kind paradise, created by a good friend of mine. It was a happy place. Now, it's a cursed one. Don't be fooled by the looks of this side of the mirror. You're quite litteraly inside a monster's stomach."
Alice already knew most of what Nikoletta just said thanks to the message of the woman that turned into glass, except for the mean mirror having a stomach part.
Come to think of it, the mirror's powers made absolutly no sense to Alice. It was able to create somewhat imperfect copy of people, it acted as a portal, it was capable of self-repair, it apparently had a will, a stomach...
This had to be the most overpowered mirror ever.
"Is there even a world outside of this island ? Or was the rest... destroyed ?" asked Alice, choosing to avoid talking about the mirror again.
Nikoletta laughed.
"Of course there is, you silly girl ! We call this the Sky. The Sky is constitued of a myriad of micro-dimension named Rooms. You can travel though Rooms using the Golden Doors."
Alice thought for a bit. Apparently, the world she was in was much larger than what she could see...
The Forest of Glass was just one Room among the many constituing what Nikoletta called the Sky. That realization hit Alice hard, but she didn't show it.
"What's the danger of staying here ? The first thing you said to us was a warning regarding that, after all."
"You might not feel it, but the Mirror is slowly eating your soul, Lightbringer. You'd be fine staying just a day or two, but it would be unwise to stay here for more time. I hope you have a mean of escaping."
Alice suddenly lost her cool.
"What ? There is no exit here ?"
Was Mirror's foresight wrong ?
"There is one, but you need a key from the other side to open it. And I fear that going back outside the mirror's maw is going to be way harder than going inside it."
Mirror laughed triumphantly :
"There is no need to go back there. Because we have the key already."