to the edge

--

Black ooze leaks across stone floor, out from the tipped-over, shattered mirror. I pull myself up out of the ooze. It's the first thing I do. It's the first thing I've ever done. Hands first, then knees, finally boots, which leave the goop with a shluck, as the darkness, wanting to cling, must let me go.

The second thing I do, now that I'm free from the black ooze and the darkened mirror, is rub at my throbbing head. I don't know much, but I know that something's - broken. Wrong? Maybe just different.

From my fresh pick of doing literally anything I want, I choose my third action. I look around.

The mirror draws the eye, of course. It wants you to look at it. I know that better than I know my own name. I also know there isn't any magic left in the mirror. The shards glitter, but they're clear. The golden frame is eye-catching, but I'm not being compelled to look at it. There is the ruby at the top, fractured into several pieces; the largest chunk glows with magic, but the light is stuttering, and the ruby struggles to draw enough power. Between the broken shards, and the broken ruby, there's no magic left in the mirror to make anything else.

Not after it made me.

The top of the mirror is by my feet. That's handy. I reach out with inky black fingers, and pry the still-glowing chunk of ruby out of its setting. Fingers aren't enough. I manifest a blackened dagger from the same ooze that made me, and use its blade to pop the ruby loose. The ruby goes in my pocket. The dagger vanishes. It will be there again, when I need it.

I go still, once the ruby is secure in my pouch. Why did I do that? I'm not going to put it back, of course. I like having trophies. And I'm pretty good at only taking what I'm sure won't be missed. Huh? Why do I... No, wait, I remember. I'm the treasure-hunter, Link. If you want a magical artifact recovered, and you want it done without having your whole ancient temple stripped of the very gold in its walls, then I'm the guy you call.

Except, that isn't true, either.

I can't be Link.

Link is the guy sprawled on the floor behind me, blood dripping from his forehead.

---

It's not what it looks like.

Okay, maybe it is what it looks like. I can't say whether or not I'm the first copy the mirror made of this guy, or the third, or the hundredth. The memory isn't there - or rather, the knowledge isn't. I don't have Link's memories, I just know the things he knows. Which should include how many of me he fought. But that knowledge? Gone.

I should know what the mirror knows, too. Or, what the mirror knew, anyway. But I don't have that, either. Not all of it.

I do have context clues, though. And context tells me he probably fought at least one copy, maybe two. We know how to defeat monsters of all sorts. If it's magically animated, you look for the power source. Breaking the ruby should've done it... But what if it didn't? Then, it was obviously the mirror making the copies. I would've smashed that thing, too.

Well, actually, I would have been trying to kill him. That's what the mirror is for. Best defense system there is. But he's on the floor, and the mirror is broken, and there's nothing compelling me to attack. Huh. I wonder if I was supposed to have individual thought?

Either way, I'm a free agent, now. I can do whatever I want!

But I have no clue what I want.

Link groans, then. It's more of a whimper. And suddenly, I can think of one thing I want. I want him to live.

Nothing compels me to kill him. So why should I? I don't even know what the mirror was guarding. A mirror is a tool, not a person. I don't know if I'm a person, but I know for sure I'm not that mirror.

And I want Link to live.

I approach him proper, to take in the damage. Head wound, bleeding, eugh, he's lost kind of a lot. Is that just from the head wound? His tunic is damp, but I can't tell if that's from the blood, or the mirror's ooze. He doesn't respond to being man-handled, but his breathing is good, and so is his pulse. He should make it, with some healing.

Instinctively, I reach for my belt pouch, where I should have a bottle. My fingers find glass and the weight is right, so it isn't until I've uncorked it that I realize the problem.

I don't have Link's bottle with a fairy in it. I don't have any of Link's equipment; I can manifest copies of it out of the darkness that makes me. This isn't a problem for weapons, which work fine as long as they have mass or a sharp blade. And I have no problem mimicking a bottle... but I can't conjure a fairy from nothing. I'm not even sure the mirror could conjure anything sentient from nothing. No clue what that makes me. And healing potions... why bother? If I got hurt, the mirror could just make another of me.

Well, not anymore. But that's why I don't have potions, either.

What does Link have? I reach over his body to where his bottles are. He's nearly unresponsive, for better or worse. Okay, he has a sip of red potion left, that's not nothing, but I don't know if that's enough on it's own, and I don't know how I'd make him drink it. What else? Empty. Empty... here we go! He does have a fairy.

She looks at me. I look at her. She jangles in the bottle. I uncork it.

"Aren't you supposed to come out if Link is hurt?" I ask. I know what Link knows. Fairies: great for healing when you're knocked out.

She gestures wildly. "I didn't feel his mindspark go out! But you were - ugh, nevermind! I hate magic mirrors..."

She flies over to Link and gets to work. I let her at it. Nothing to do but sit here as I wait.

My eyes are drawn to the ruby red of blood on Link's forehead, and how that blood pools beneath him. It's barely a pool at all, before the angle of the stones and the cracks between them funnel Link's blood towards...

The mirror, bleeding, the same as Link is. But instead of ruby red, the mirror bleeds out inky black, and... hey. Is that the puddle I came out of? If Link's blood mixed with the mirror's ooze... Yikes. Not sure I wanted to stick around to see the magical consequences of that.

...unless.

Maybe I'm the magical consequence of that?

-

---

-

anyway the prose ends there.

further ideas:

1) fairy voice well okay so i stopped the bleeding but wow his ribs are pretty bad off! and i'm not powerful enough to handle infection! so, um, i think you're  gonna  have to take him to / the faerie spring in the west alcove? [ narration: i don't remember going there. but i know what link knows. so i know where it is. ] / yes! that! i'm sure my sisters can help, but i'm almost out of juice. do you need me to show you- / i'll be fine / ok, then i'll go ahead and let them know you're coming!

2) dark pockets teh red potion. he can't make it, but that doesn't mean he can't STORE it. into his pouch it goes.

3) link has cleared out all the monsters, so it's a pretty clear path back to the fairy fountain

3.9) the fairies at the fountain make a lot of talk about dark's appearance, or at least enough that we can establish he is in fact still shadow taken form, he does NOT look like a human, he looks like dark link, or anti sora, the closet he might be getting is the tp dark links. even if they don't ask him directly (they could ask him directly), he definitely can overhear as he walks in them going oh okay you MEANT link but made out of shadows or oh is that the shadowy link you were talking about or... etc etc etc

4) dark after he's got link at the spring and the fairies tell him that link is healing but he's probably going to be asleep for a while. dark like okay . well i don't want to sit here and do nothing, and i'm full of energy. did we get what we came here for? the princess' ring, did we find her ring,

link doesn't answer. dark manhandles him a little - he knows where link should have put it. okay, empty. so dark will go back to the temple and get it, then.

--