After the mindbending immensities of the Obsidian Cathedral, Ethan was grateful when their path finally led to a more mundane setting. They passed through an arched doorway into a long, vault-ceilinged hall lined with row upon row of gleaming mirrors.
Unlike the bizarre, kaleidoscopic surfaces and vistas they'd just beheld, these were ordinary looking glasses - if massive in scale. Some easily twice Ethan's height and surrounded by ornate frames of polished obsidian.
"This is the Gallery of Soulsight," Obsidian stated without preamble, striding between the mirror rows. "Where our Apprentices undergo their preliminary studies in the art of self-reflection."
Ava peered up at the towering mirrors curiously. "Why do you need so many? Isn't one mirror enough to see your reflection?"
"An insightful query," Cerulean chimed in, falling into step beside them. "These sacred mirrors allow us to perceive far more than mere physical appearances." She ran one hand reverently along a mirror's gleaming surface as they passed.
"Each acts as a lens, refracting the innermost essence of any who dare meet their soulgaze." The blue-haired apprentice smiled faintly. "Thus one may study both their outward form and the intrinsic resonance of their soul simultaneously."
Ethan frowned, shooting his sister a look. "You mean these are like...magic mirrors?"
"Nothing so fanciful, boy." Obsidian cut in from ahead, his tone flat. "These mirrors channel cosmic wavelengths most acute, untrained eyes cannot perceive. Wavelengths of pure potentiality that echo across infinite dimensions. The primordial waters from which all matter and spirit were originally shaped."
Cerulean nodded excitedly. "Precisely. The liquid planes we see reflected hold the imprint of both one's corporeal matrix and their psychic imago - shadow and light, made manifest!"
Ethan felt supremely out of his depth, but got the general gist. These mirrors somehow allowed the viewer to perceive things far beyond a basic physical reflection, whatever that might entail. He shot Ava another perplexed look, and his sister just shrugged back helplessly.
Obsidian led them to a mirrored alcove at the far end of the hall. This looking glass seemed to angle inward slightly, as if guiding the eye inward rather than merely reflecting back one's image. Something about its peculiar curvature put Ethan's nerves on edge.
"Gaze inward now, Ethan Specular," Obsidian commanded flatly. "Allow the mirror's unblinking soulgaze to lay you bare in all your flawed truth."
Ethan hesitated only briefly before leaning inward, catching his pale, wary reflection bracketed by his disheveled mop of dark hair and the rings under his eyes - souvenirs from the harrowing last hours. He almost laughed at how ordinary and unassuming his reflection seemed.
Then his breath caught in his throat.
Ethan stared in shock as his reflection's eyes flickered with inner light, pupils dilating rapidly until they became twin vortices of swirling kaleidoscope patterns. He dimly heard Ava suck in a sharp breath beside him, but couldn't tear his gaze away.
Soon, it was no longer his own image reflected in the mirror's liquid curve, but something entirely alien. A churning, prismatic vortex spiraled inward, drawing Ethan's perception ever deeper along chaotic whorls of pulsing geometry and light.
The surrounding world slipped away as he sank fully into the soulgaze, unravelling into a maelstrom of impossible fractals, strobing prisms and bizarre Escherian angles all flowing outward from some infinite source beyond the mirror.
Deeper. Deeper still. He fell endlessly into the vortex, thoughts and sensations ripped away until all that remained was the profound awareness of infinite iteration unspooling, a cosmic liturgy of sacred geometry transcribed in the language of raw essence-
He dimly registered a hand grasping his shoulder, shattering his mesmerized reverie. Ethan blinked rapidly as the hazy confines of the Gallery swam back into focus around him.
Cerulean stood directly before him, eyes intent beneath her furrowed brow. She held one palm raised toward the mirror as if warding off its cosmic gravity.
"Easy now, Reflector," the apprentice murmured in a low, coaxing voice. "You glimpsed further than intended on your first attempt."
Ethan drew a ragged breath, suddenly aware of sweat trickling down his temples. His legs shook like rubber, the grand immensities he'd witnessed rattling his very sanity.
"What...what was all that?" His voice sounded far away and foreign to his own ears.
"The mirror allowed you to perceive the innate frequencies that define your soul's unique resonance across planes both seen and unseen," Cerulean replied simply, still gauging his reaction. "Unguarded minds are often...overwhelmed by the primordial geometries revealed therein."
Obsidian watched the exchange flatly before speaking. "You bear great potential within your mortal vessel, Ethan Specular. But it is a molten, untempered power, volatile and utterly disordered."
He gestured dismissively to the mirror that had nearly swallowed Ethan whole. "As your reflection revealed - your inner self writhes amid chaos. Your entire essence could well collapse inward without proper focus and training to shape it."
Ethan felt a pang of despair grip him. After all he'd seen, he believed Obsidian's dire assessment completely. His awakened abilities had upended his life with devastating force already. Without mastering them, would he risk fracturing completely into oblivion?
A small hand slipped into his, jolting his mind back to the present. Ava stepped up alongside him, offering a reassuring squeeze. Though her eyes shone with residual awe, her expression was steady and supportive.
Ethan drew strength from his little sister's presence, his one unshakable tether in this insane new reality he'd been thrust into. He returned her look with a resolute nod.
Whatever mind-bending mysticism lay ahead, he wouldn't face it alone. And he swore inwardly that he would grow strong enough to shield Ava from the darker cosmic tides now lapping at the edges of their lives.
"Alright then, Headmaster," Ethan spoke up gruffly. "Show me what comes next in your trials. I'm listening."
Obsidian stared at him appraisingly for a long beat before giving a crisp nod. Beside him, Cerulean's measured gaze flicked briefly toward the dormant mirrors rimming the hall, a secret smile playing across her lips.
As if she could already glimpse the resonant forces converging within Ethan's fragile soul. Forces with cosmic weight enough to shatter not only his sanity, but entire realms before the unravelling was complete...