A ghost story (The Mistress and Aigilas)

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Alvin stepped beside the mirror. "This is it." He tried to seem cool, but he was aware that he was flushed with excitement; that was all right though as long as his father could ascribe it to an interest in experiments.
"Quite the big one," Mr. Winter said. "And rather fancy. But I suppose you like that sort of thing, huh?"
There was no reason to deny it, so Alvin nodded. He indeed liked that sort of thing. After a few words of planning his father stood behind the mirror, putting his hands against the back at the top, and Alvin himself started lifting the bottom. Soon between the two of them they held the two ends of it and could very, very carefully walk down the stairs. They arrived and set it up without incident, though George Winter did mention that Alvin had better turn out to like optics, because he wasn't looking forward to taking it back up on that narrow staircase and breaking some part of his body.
Alvin's room was quite big and tastefully, extravagantly furnished, as the house itself. In that, it completely matched the mirror. Not only did it have a separate bathroom, it also opened to one of the small balconies, and under the balcony spread the garden where the white and pink roses were just starting to bloom. They set the mirror opposite to the glassen door of the balcony, looking at the garden and away from the entrance of the room; that way not only did it have a wonderful view, it was also out of sight of whoever entered, in case someone came unexpectedly and Elizabeth needed to hide.
"I believe that should do it," Mr. Winter said. "I'm ready to drop, I'm going to bed."
Alvin thanked his father for his help; he didn't have to fake the gratitude in his voice. And as soon as he was left alone, he turned towards the mirror.
"Elizabeth," he whispered. "You can come out now."
 
The girl listens quietly to the exchange between the two before she hears the heavier footsteps of his father and then the attentive whisper of Alvin. She fades into view and smiles brightly looking over his shoulder slightly as she stands on her tiptoes before her eyes widen, "Is that the garden? It's so pretty!"
 
"Yes," Alvin answered in a dreamful, musing voice, looking out into the garden as the moonlight shone over it and painted the leaves silver. "I think maybe what you see may be similar to what I see, in a way. I lived in a city until today. An ugly home in an ugly city. There is no way out, you know. You grow up in a place like that, trapped in school every day while you are young, and then you take a job instead... one is always trapped, it's only the name of the trap that changes, but it's always the same. And it swallows everyone around you, so you can't make friends with them, because they become just as ugly and soulless as the city... I feared it would swallow me too. Make me like them. We had no garden there. But now we do." Suddenly, as if waking up from a dream, he stopped talking, shook his head and smiled once again. "I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me. I have no real problems, I'm not poor or sick, I have no right to complain. I didn't mean to burden you with these thoughts."
 
Elizabeth blinks looking at the boy in front of the mirror as he speaks. Curiousity filled her once more as he talks. She snaps out of it, realizing he had stopped and she smiles, "It's fine, I don't mind, I like hearing you talk about it." She moves her eyes back to the garden. Oh how she wished she could touch the leaves...she hadn't felt the touch of anything in so long, not even a breeze. The mirror was like a prison that kept her senses bound and gagged far away. When she was alone, she couldn't hear anything, feel anything or see anything. It made her feel like she wasn't there at all.
 
Alvin turned to Elizabeth once more. He finally gathered the courage to ask the most pressing question on his mind.
"Oh, it's nothing interesting; I'm much more interested in you. How did you... I mean, if you don't mind, of course, may I ask why you are in a mirror?" He felt the need to explain himself, he was sure that simply everyone asked the same question all the time, and he didn't want to seem impolite. "I mean if there was a way to go in, there has to be a way to come out, and maybe... but of course I wouldn't know, I have never seen anything like this."
 
Elizabeth looks at him again quietly, her cheerfulness replaced with a sad look and she looks down slightly, holding her hands folded in front of her, "Well...I was from a very successful family. We were widely loved and respected, I guess." She shuts her eyes as she goes quiet for a second before opening the green orbs once more, " But one night at one of our balls, we unintentionally insulted someone you'd never want to insult. A very powerful witch at that..." her gloved fingers fiddled with a ribbon on her dress a bit nervous at the very thought. " She showed her anger at us and we tried to apologize. Eventually, she seemed to accept the apology. She sent this mirror as a gift, apologizing for her own actions. We gave her one in return as well but this one was hardly what it seemed. She gifted it to me, the youngest and most prided daughter." She bites her lip, "My parents put it in my room and one night on the full moon, I woke up and walked over to it. It had a sort of unexplainable magnetism to it. And suddenly I found myself in here. My parents tried long and hard to find a way to get me out but eventually they realized it was impossible. My parents got old and died, and my siblings kept the family reputation up for a long time but eventually we faded out of the social view and they built this house. Before they died, they had my mirror moved into the attic to protect me. They knew no one would understand and most likely would destroy this mirror if someone found me. So they hid the door to the attic and I was there since. One other person found the attic before you, but they didn't stay long." She shakes her head a bit. "I don't know how to get out, my parents never figured it out nor my siblings or even the other before you."
 
Alvin didn't think to doubt her words even for a moment. And why should he have? After meeting a girl who seemed to live in a mirror, the existence of witchcraft was not only possible, it was positively to be expected. But that, of course, meant he couldn't help her, since his entire knowledge of magic was limited to tales. Unless... "I wonder if I can find a witch to help you escape. Or possibly we need to convince the same one to undo what she did? Do witches live this long?"
But even as his newfound hope lit up his face, he knew that finding a real, true, competent witch, especially nowadays, wouldn't be as simple as asking around in the marketplace or posting a wanted ad in a paper.
 
Elizabeth pauses as she considers it. "Well, yes, I think she would be. She was one who was quite obsessed with vanity and youth. She was a bit jealous of me and she knew how I was one of the main players in my family's reputation and that's why she targeted me." She shrugs, "But that's beside the point," she blushes slightly. "I don't know if you'd be able to find her, much less anywhere close to here...Wouldn't you think she'd moved on?" She hesitates as she thinks about it for a moment more, "But...it wouldn't hurt to look around. Her name was Anna-Claire Bethian. Perhaps, by the smallest stroke of luck, she's still around." She looks up slightly, meeting the others eyes, "Are you sure you want to though? Considering what she stuck me in..."
 
Alvin considered this for a moment. Angering a witch didn't seem like a pleasant or safe pursuit, and if he gets stuck in another mirror, or worse, in a spittoon or a toilet or somesuch, they will not only not have gained anything, Elizabeth will also be much worse off, since in that case the only person who knows she is in there - at least other than the witch who probably isn't trying to get her out herself - will be just as trapped as her.
But looking couldn't hurt. Surely even the worst-tempered witch wouldn't be angry with him just for wanting to talk to her for a little while. And maybe he could see and go from there. It was definitely more constructive than sitting around doing nothing.
And even if there were dangers to face, he didn't want to be careful and miss out on his own story. He had a chance to be a hero of his own tale now, and to somebody of his disposition that was very tempting. Every hero faces dangers, that's what makes them heroes, and no hero would turn his back on a maiden in distress just because of that.
"Pretty sure, yes. But how does one go about finding a witch?... Wait, I have an idea. Aren't there witches' Sabbaths where they meet?"
 
Elizabeth lets out a sigh as she thinks about it, "Ummmm... She was a very solitary witch, not one for covens. She was too powerful to need a coven on top of it. I don't think she'd do sabbaths..." she frowns. "But she was one of habit. She might still be in this town. She followed my siblings when they built this house. But she was very discreet. They didn't really notice."
 
The town was a small one, but it was a discouraging prospect to try to knock on every door and ask if they knew someone who might or might not still live here and call herself Anna-Claire Bethian. Still, it was a start.
"What does this witch look like? I don't know if she changed her name, but if she prides herself in her appearance so much, that at least can't have changed muaaaa- sorry, much." Alvin swallowed a yawn. He hadn't realized how tired he was. Small wonder; not only did they move today, it was very late. And next day he was enrolling in a new school. It wasn't a good prospect to start by arriving late. He would have to go to bed soon.
 
She smiles at him, seeing the yawn. "She wouldn't have changed. She loved her appearance. How about you get some sleep alright?" she giggles softly tilting her head. "Goodnight, Alvin, and sweet dreams." Her expression softens slightly and she fades away leaving a normal mirror.
 
He didn't have time to answer before she disappeared, but nevertheless he answered, hoping she would still hear. "All right. Goodnight, Elizabeth." And with a smile and a light stroke of the frame of the mirror, he left for the bathroom to wash and put on his pajamas.
He slept well, much better than ever before; part of it was surely the tiredness, but part of it was that he felt much better now than ever before. He was already excited to see what tomorrow will bring, and he had colourful dreams full of unlikely adventures they would have; but in these dreams Elizabeth wasn't in the mirror, instead they went on the adventures together.
He awoke just in time and well-rested. He quickly got dressed in the bathroom before saying good morning to Elizabeth, then scarfed down an omelette, grabbed his schoolbag and set off towards the school.
It wasn't far away; nothing in this town was far away, he could be there in fifteen minutes by foot, if he walked fast. So he had only fifteen minutes to wonder what the new school would be like, and how he would fit in; the previous day much more important things occupied his thoughts, and even now this seemed the least of his worries. He didn't usually have any trouble with schoolwork, and he and his classmates will just have to tolerate each other. It didn't matter.
The school was, of course, smaller than his previous one. He had to go to the principal's office first, to get through the hated paperwork of his enrollment; he asked a sleepy-looking girl where that was, got there and got it out of the way just in time to get to his first class on time. So punctually in fact that he almost ran into the teacher at the door of the classroom.
 
The teacher lets out a slight squeak dropping some papers in her arms as they scatter across the floor. "Oh dear..." she kneels down quickly starting to gather them up, "Young man you should watch where you're going," she says with a light, sweet voice. No anger in it however, more amusement then anything.

The woman stands up. She's tall in a beautiful way with a perfectly curvy figure, dressed in a black midlength pencil skirt with a white blouse. Her platinum blonde hair is pulled up in a pretty messy bun, a few locks hanging down on the side of her perfect features and light blue eyes. She pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose slightly and smiles, "You must be the new student."
 
Alvin immediately snapped out of his thoughts. The striking-looking woman could only have been his new teacher. He was quick to apologize.
"Excuse me, I'm sorry, I didn't see..."
He bent down to help pick up the papers, but she was faster. He found her beautiful and dignified the way a bird of prey is, with her fast, fluid, graceful movements. He found himself somewhat intimidated by her very presence, excusing himself, even though he wasn't really late.
"Yes, I just finished enrolling, that's why I'm almost late... I'm sorry about that, I didn't know it would take so long."
 
The teacher smiles at him and nods, "Well, welcome to the school. To the town too right? I heard your family bought the old Mirian family household? That place has a very long history, if you didn't already know." She shifts the papers in her grip glancing at them as she does before looking at him once more.
 
What was the right answer to this? He couldn't reveal what he heard from Elizabeth, that much was for certain. However, the teacher had such piercing eyes that he didn't quite dare lie.
"I heard a little bit about it," he said carefully. That was both true and safe, since according to his father the real estate agent had also mentioned something on that. However, the lady sounded like she knew much, and would maybe willing to educate him on it; since his source, Elizabeth was already in a mirror by the time she arrived here, it wouldn't hurt to hear more, in case something had escaped her. This might even help find the witch. "But I was going to look it up in some more detail," he hinted. "The history of the house seems interesting."
 
The teacher tilts her head slightly, studying him, gaze slightly cool for a moment before she smiles cheerfully again, "I'd be more then happy to talk with you about it! I know quite a lot about that particular family. I find their family quite interesting! They were a very prominent family in their time. Did you know they had a daughter named Elizabeth?" she says happily before it fades, "Although, she disappeared early in her life...no one really knew where she went."
 
"I see," Alvin said cautiously. He was in something of a bind now. It was more and more difficult to not lie and at the same time not give his - their - secret away. And yet he needed to get closer to that topic instead of further away, so as to hear about the witch. The teacher seemed to have an uncanny ability to corner him. She seemed nice; so why was he afraid of her? He pulled himself together quickly. "Do you know what became of her?"
 
"...Mmm...Some speculate she was killed, others say she simply decided to vanish and stay away from the responsibilities of nobility. But a few believe something happened with a witch," she smiles at him. "Odd to say but it could've happened. Well, the bells about to ring, why don't you come in and take a seat." She steps away from the door so he can enter the small classfroom.
 
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