Chapter Text
“Melissa… MELISSA!!”
Melissa Morretti jerked up from her workbench, squinting toward the voice that had broken her concentration. Standing in front of her was her senior, Susan.
“I’ve been calling you for the past five minutes,” Susan said, smiling indulgently.
Melissa blushed. “I’m so sorry,” she murmured, her brown eyes darting nervously. Her face flushed with embarrassment.“I just got so…”
“Caught up in your project that you forgot the rest of us exist?” Susan finished with a teasing grin.
Melissa gave a sheepish nod, her eyes dropping back to the cluttered surface of her table.
“It’s all right,” Susan said cheerfully. “I just came to let you know that Mr. Portland wants to see you in his office.”
A flicker of trepidation shot through Melissa. Ever since the war, being summoned individually had carried an ominous weight,it usually meant bad news. Even now, although the war was over, that old fear still clung to her.
“Is something wrong?” she asked, her voice tight.
“No, no, nothing like that,” Susan said quickly, her tone softening. “Don’t worry,it’s actually the opposite. He has an offer he wants to discuss with you.” As Susan spoke, a curious smile crept across her face. “Come on,” she said, beckoning with a hand. “Best not to keep him waiting.”
Melissa took one last look at her work table and watched as the small turtle-like puppet took a few last wobbly steps before collapsing, as if going to sleep after a long day. She then turned and followed her senior out the door.
Melissa walked back home, her mind a daze of information. Beyonders, gods, mystical powers. The whole thing sounded fantastical and unscientific, but apparently it was true. And she, Melissa Morretti, was being offered a chance to become one of them.
She silently unlocked the door to the house she shared with Benson. “I’m home!” she called out to the empty house. After much effort, she had finally managed to convince Benson to go have dinner with his “acquaintance” Lucy Brookes, meaning it would be late before he came back. Melissa smiled slightly to herself as she remembered Benson’s expression when he finally agreed, sheepish and indulgent so very like him.
After scarfing down some leftovers, Melissa walked up to her room and sat at her desk to write down her thoughts. As she wrote, the picture propped on her desk caught her attention. It was of her, Benson, and Klein, taken right after they had gotten that new house in Tingen. As she stared at her brother’s face, curved upwards in that somewhat unfamiliar but joyous smile that had become so regular in those few precious months before it all went to hell, she couldn’t help the small seed of doubt that began to grow in her mind. Melissa did not get much sleep that night.
(A few weeks later)
Melissa hurried to Mr. Portland’s office, her steps sharp and purposeful. Since becoming a Beyonder of the Savant pathway a few weeks back, she had experienced a noticeable increase in knowledge, pertaining not just to the mystic world but also to her projects and machines. Though she had not been able to indulge much in experimentation after consuming the potion, being busy trying to learn everything she could, she now found herself in a much better mood than before, more purposeful. Even Benson had remarked on her improved demeanor.
Today, Mr. Portland had managed to procure a certain grade sealed artifact from the remnants of the Church of Steam and Machinery for further study and had invited her to help him. Melissa didn’t know exactly what grade artifact it was or what it did, but she was very excited. Standing in front of his office door, she knocked.
“Come in!” her mentor’s voice called.
The moment he saw her, his entire face brightened. Mr. Portland was standing in the middle of his office, in front of an ornate long mirror. It had an extremely beautiful frame and looked like it would belong in the house of an exceedingly wealthy family like the Halls, if not for the fact that the reflective part of the mirror depicted a dense, swirling grey fog. Melissa noticed that the fog seemed to shift in random patterns.
Next to him stood Susan, who also smiled warmly at Melissa. Seeing that her eyes were firmly fixed on the mirror, Portland beckoned her closer.
“This,” he said, waving a hand toward the mirror, his tone reminiscent of his lectures “is a Grade 1 sealed artifact called ‘The Evil Queen’s Mirror’. It was procured by Emperor Roselle for the Church of Steam and Machinery right before his ascension to Emperor of Intis. It is said that the mirror can show any request that the user makes.”
“Grade 1?” Melissa asked, puzzled. From what she remembered, Grade 1 artifacts were either extremely powerful, extremely dangerous, or both. “What side effects does it have?”
“It is said that prolonged usage of The Evil Queen’s Mirror induces a powerful sense of narcissism in the user. In fact, the first known user was an ancient queen who used it so much, and was so enthralled by it, that she murdered her only daughter when the mirror told her she was more beautiful than the queen,” Susan explained, grimacing slightly at the tale. Melissa couldn’t help a reflexive wince upon hearing that.
“But that only occurs with prolonged use,” Portland said lightly, waving his hand dismissively. “We’re only going to have it for today.” He turned to Melissa, eyes shining.“Tell me, do you have any person you’re particularly interested in? Anyone you’ve been dying to know more about? This mirror can certainly help you with such a pursuit.”
Upon hearing this, Melissa could no longer suppress the urge that had been building within her since she’d first learned what the mirror could do.It was a wish born from long hours of replaying every moment of her brother’s behavior in the months before his death. With her beyonder enhanced memory and newfound understanding of a world previously unknown to her, the doubts she had surrounding Klein’s seemingly wonderful new job, his strange new habits, and his sudden, unexplained death (Benson had tried to stop her from seeing the body, but she would never forget the gaping hole in her brother’s chest where his heart used to be) had grown into a wildfire that consumed her thoughts.
“Yes,” she said, smiling faintly at her senior and professor. “There is someone I want to know more about.”
Upon Mr. Portland’s encouragement and instruction, she walked up to the mirror and looked into the swirling grey fog. Seemingly sensing her, it began to swirl faster.
“Mirror, mirror on the wall,” Melissa said, as instructed, “show me Leonard Mitchell.”