The street was chaos. Smoke billowed skyward, choking the crisp winter air with an acrid haze. Red engines screamed up to the curb as firefighters leapt into action, calling orders and spraying jets of water onto the smoldering remains of the Specular home.
Ethan stood shivering on the sidewalk across the street, pulling his sister Ava's coat tighter around her shoulders. He felt numb, his body on autopilot as his mind replayed the shattering mirror, the haunting voice from the shards, the ghostly pull of the mirror's swirling vortex...
This is because of me. My awakening - my "birthright" - did this...
"Hey kiddo, you alright?"
Ethan startled at the deep voice. A burly firefighter in soot-smeared bunker gear knelt before them, his expression creased with concern.
"I'm...yeah. Yeah I'm okay," Ethan lied reflexively. This man had no idea what Ethan had unleashed. No idea of the cosmic forces now in motion.
The firefighter seemed to study them a moment before giving a solemn nod, as if able to see past the lie. Thankfully he didn't pry further.
"Let's get you two somewhere warm. Family services is on the way."
Family services. The two words struck like a hammer blow, the cruel reality sinking in. Their parents were gone, lost in the inferno two months ago. Now they had been rendered homeless by the very fire that had taken their family. Ethan felt unmoored, adrift in a sea of anguish and disbelief.
As the firefighters tended to the fading blaze, a sleek black limousine pulled up across the street, so out of place among the firetrucks and gawking neighbors. The rear door swung open and a severe-looking man in an obsidian black suit emerged with a sharp, hawkish air.
"Excuse me, son," the man approached Ethan, barely sparing a glance at the smoking husk of a home behind them. "Ethan Specular, I presume?"
Ethan met the man's gaze with guarded confusion. How did this stranger know his name? "Who are you?"
The man pursed his thin lips, perhaps unused to being questioned. "My name is Obsidian, headmaster of the Vitreous Academy." He took in the destruction and chaos around them with evident distaste. "Though it seems I've arrived in the aftermath of...unsavory events."
Obsidian...Vitreous?
The foreign words struck a chord in Ethan's memory, echoes of Nahte's warnings about realms and destiny dancing at the edges of his consciousness. His bones felt chilled, despite the heat of the dying fire across the street.
Obsidian continued, speaking in a low and measured cadence. "Events which, I suspect, have already set you on a path toward answers. Answers you cannot find amid the doldrums of this..." He waved a hand disdainfully at their surroundings, "...mundane existence."
A flicker of something indescribable flickered in the headmaster's eyes.
"You have glimpsed the truth of our worlds, Ethan. Seen beyond the veil of illusions that shroud the sight of lesser men. And unlocked the dormant powers gifted to a scant few like us - the Reflectors." His tone carried the weight of utter conviction.
Ethan's mouth felt dry, his tongue like lead. He had no idea what to make of this man or his cryptic words...but the spark of recognition in Nahte's reflected visage made his heart race.
"You know about the realms," he ventured hesitantly. "About the other side of the mirror..."
Obsidian's face betrayed the ghost of a smile. "I am the headmaster of Vitreous Academy. Master of the darkest Mysteries. I know everything of the realms, young Reflector. And I have come to offer you sanctuary."
The man extended one pale hand in a gesture of deepest sincerity. "Come with me, and learn to wield your birthright. Master the infinite power of the mirrors...and have your vengeance on those who have wronged you."
Vengeance... On the smoldering ruins across the street? On the blaze that stole his parents and his childhood? Ethan felt that righteous anger burning within, tempting him toward bitter retribution.
But then he felt Ava's small hand slip into his own, anchoring him to the present. His little sister - the only family he had left. Could he truly entrust her future to this strange man, no matter how seductive his promises of power?
Ethan's gaze hardened with resolve as he stared Obsidian in the eye.
"I need to know more before I can decide anything. Tell me everything."
The briefest flicker of irritation passed over the headmaster's severe features. But then he nodded once, smoothing his obsidian vest with gloved hands.
"Very well, Ethan. Let us step into mycarriage - your sister is welcome as well. There we shall discuss your...rebirth into the Mirror Realm, and all that it shall entail."
Obsidian swept a hand toward the idling limousine, dark eyes glittering with something like triumph. Ethan hesitated only briefly before guiding a wide-eyed Ava toward the sleek vehicle, her only remaining sanctuary from the chaos and death that now defined their existence.
As he ducked into the plush interior, Ethan caught sight of his own reflection in the tinted glass -weathered and haunted, but burning with the first kindlings of resolve.
This was only the beginning. A birth of cosmic significance, kicking the Veil asunder...