Labyrinth Through The Mirror of Time Chapter 30

 Chapter 30: The Mirrors of Time

Shehrazade’s painful confession seemed to find its echo in the mosaic fountain—the Mirror of Time that she kept in her own inner courtyard.

The fact that Remi and Samir were forbidden from travelling through the Ether Wall did not sever them entirely from the past. Kaleidoscopic images drifted across the glossy surface of the water.

‘Jaddati!’ cried Samir, who had been lingering by the fountain. ‘Come and see! This mirror isn't just showing scenes from Ancient Egypt! Come quickly!’

The three sitting at the black marble table rose at once. Led by Remi, they hurried to the Mirror of Time, flanking the boy between them.

Upon the water’s surface, the images flashed past at a dizzying speed, yet they formed a repeating sequence, like a coded message. Gazing into the depths, the four of them realised their fountain was not alone. It pulsed in harmony with a vast network of mirrors of time scattered across the globe, which were now reconnecting and repairing themselves through the magical flow of the water.

Violent flashes of light and shadow began to bridge the eras. In a frantic whirl, the mosaic reflected a sequence from the ancient past at the court of Pharaoh Akhenaten, followed instantly by snapshots of Shehrazade’s present life—and their own. There were even glimpses of the House of the Winds, complete with Anemo’s furry companions, and scenes of Remi and Anemo as high school students... Then, for one painful second, the aquatic screen froze upon the trauma that had rewritten Shehrazade’s destiny: the devastating bomb blast in which she had lost her family. It was a global signal; at that very instant, every mirror on Earth was projecting the exact same images, like a collective echo of grief, while the fountain in Shehrazade’s courtyard frantically mirrored them all.

None of the onlookers knew how to react. They stared at the sequence of scenes, frozen and spellbound, until the phone in Anemo’s pocket began to ring: “Soy un hombre muy honrado, que me gusta lo mejor…”.

‘That must be Arbalest…’ Anemo said, reaching for his phone, though he corrected himself immediately; after all, the Antonio Banderas ringtone did not belong exclusively to Archibald Peter Stone. ‘It’s Dad… Hello, Dad!’

The professor’s voice, slightly hoarse from the other end of the line in Ireland, brimmed with urgency:

‘Anemo, my boy, where are you all right now?’

‘We—we’re right by the Mirror of Time at Shehrazade’s house, Dad. You should be here… you should see what we’re seeing.’

‘I presume you have a laptop to hand…’

‘We do!’ Shehrazade answered in Anemo’s stead. ‘What is it you want to show us?’

‘Do you remember your digital map?’

***

Seated once more around the black marble table, all four were now on a video call with Professor Simoon, who was at Anemo’s house in Dublin, surrounded by the furry creatures. Unfortunately, as it was late at night, Fleur was at her own home and could not translate the creatures' language for the professor.

The professor, two kittens, and a little mouse in Dublin, alongside Shehrazade, Anemo, Samir, and the white cat in Cairo, watched Shehrazade’s digital map unfold across their laptop screens.

‘Look, Simoon!’ Shehrazade said, pointing at the screen with a finger that trembled with emotion. ‘It’s not just the fountain in our courtyard. The mirrors can sense that El-Beyda has activated the link within the Ether Wall. The entire global network is beginning to mend!’

As the mosaic fountain transmitted those images whilst filling with water, faint, crystalline chiming sounds echoed from the screen, like live signals. Green and blue dots began to light up across the entire globe.

‘Look here! Ireland, Scandinavia, Japan and Korea, China, Italy, Greece, Central America… even Australia is pulsing. There are hundreds, thousands of mirrors… I must take a screenshot to keep on my display, one never knows when it might come in handy.’

‘I strongly advise you to print it out as well!’ Shehrazade added. ‘We have all seen how quickly technology can vanish in the blink of an eye.’

‘The common thread is the memory of water and feline energy, Shehrazade! This network is the true Ether Drive, not our little street in Clonee!’ Professor Simoon muttered, largely to himself.

Yet no sooner had he given voice to his revelation than Samir and Remi collapsed, dropping like stones onto the black marble table right in front of the laptop screen.