Since the armory was pretty far from the tower, it took Alice and her friend quite a bit of time to get there.
In that time, Mirror and Alice talked. Not about anything important, mind you, but rather they exchanged jokes and little stories made up on the fly.
Alice, at this point, begun to understand how important Mirror was to her.
Killer was right.
Mirror was her friend... as weird as that sounded.
In her whole life, Alice had never made any friend. Nobody ever really cared about her, loved her
Nobody except for Mirror.
At first, she was extremly suspicious of her, because she was unable to understand why she worried about her so much.
Why would she go as far as hitting her to prevent her from killing herself ? Why was she so worried after the white haired clone almost killed her ?
Alice thought there was a complicated reason, linked to the fact that she knew things about the future.
But she was wrong.
The reason Mirror had been so worried for her back then... was because she already considered Alice as one of her friend.
Having a friend... was something very new and exciting to Alice.
But she had to make sure of something before that.
"Alice ? Why did you stop ?"
"Mirror."
"Yes, Alice ?"
"We're friends, right ?"
When she said that, it was as if time just stopped.
At this moment, Nikoletta, Isa, Stranger... None of them mattered.
The Sky, the Forest of Glass, the City of Flowers, the Temple of Light... None of that mattered.
The strange power Killer used to kill the Two Mouths back then, her own ability of having visions as Seer.... None of that mattered.
The only thing, that mattered to Alice at this point, was Mirror. And her reply.
And Mirror's reply was...
"Huh ? Why do you ask such a stupid question ? Of course we're friends, Alice ! Besties forever !"
Alice smiled.
Was she feeling... happiness ?
Killer was smiling too, Alice was sure of it. Was she happy too ?
"You swear you'll never betray me ?"
Mirror made a serious face, as of she was pledging loyalty to a lord, and not just promising something to a friend.
"Never. No matter what kind of crap you do, I will stay by your side until one of us die. I can promise you that."
Mirror's choice of words immediatly alarmed Alice's unreasonably good instinct.
"No matter what kind of crap I do ? I don't intend on doing anything bad, you know."
"Let's get back on track. We should head towards..."
"Mirror."
"Yeah ?"
"If you're really my friend... then don't hide something important from me."
Mirror seemed to hasitate, and then sighed.
"You're sure you want to know about it ?"
"Whatever it is, I want to know." said Alice in a confident voice."Mirror, I'm very grateful of the fact that you want to protect me, but please don't keep big secrets away from me. It makes it harder for me to trust you."
"Ok. You remember that I can somewhat see the future thanks to a copy of your Name ?"
"I know that."
"Well... One of the first vision I ever had was you... killing people..."
"How much people ?"
"A whole city was burning was burning at your feets. People were screaming, burning, running, trying to find a shelter... It was a terrifying sight."
"Continue."
"You were standing on a hill, not far from the city, wearing a mask made of gold. You looked three or four years older than you are. You were holding a red spear, pointing it in the direction of the city. That spear... it wasn't a normal spear, I'm sure of it. It looked... like it was a powerful object, not a mere weapon."
"Continue."
"Besides you... besides you was a little girl, around eleven years old. There was something... very wrong about her. I can't quite tell what it was, though. For some reason, I'm sure she wasn't human. "
"What colors were her eyes and hairs ?"
"She was blond-haired and blue-eyed."
"It's Isa." realized Alice.
"Who ?"
"Don't worry about that."
Mirror laughed.
"What did you said not even five minutes ago ? I think it was: If you're really my friend...then don't hide something important from me."
Alice was embarrassed. She didn't expect Mirror to use her own words against her, but now, she didn't really had a choice.
Not telling Mirror about the dream she had moments before meeting her again would be... very disrespectfull.
"I had a dream, once, said Alice. A vision of the past, I think."
"What happened in that vision ?" asked Mirror, curious.
"It happened somewhere in the red tower we're about to enter. There was Stranger, the woman that turned in a glass statue back in the Forest of Glass. She was training her... son, I think, a man named Brandon. She easily deafeated her, and he left."
"Is that all ?"
"No... after that... Stranger talked with a girl that looked exactly like the one you described. The girl said a bunch of mysterious stuff, and then, a bird carrying a message transmitted the fact that her older son, the one that's not Brandon, had just died. And at the end, Isa just smirked."
Mirror thought for a little.
"It's not the same girl."
"Why do you think that ?"
"Firstly, there is a lot of young girl with blue eyes and blond hairs. It's not like it means it's the same person."
Alice was about to protest, but Mirror continued.
"Secondly, my vision was one of a future that will happen in a couple of years. Yours is a vision of a past that may be extremly distant. People age, Alice. Isa can't possibly look like a child if she was alive at the time were Stranger was still defending the City of Flowers."
"Maybe she doesn't age. She's probably immortal, or something. In my vision, Stranger adressed her as Venerable Isa at some point, so she might be quite old already."
Mirror didn't look particularly convinced, but Alice had no more argument.
"We should hurry. If we stay here for too long, night might fall again."
Alice shivered. She remembered her last night in the City of Flower quite well.
She losed an eye that night, so it was pretty hard to forget, actually.
"Let's go, Mirror."
Alice and her friend begun running towards the red tower, afraid of the light becoming darkness.