"So..."
Standing before the arch-shaped water mirror adorned with a circle of golden talismans on its edge, as the image within it dimmed and no expression could be discerned, Vitya turned her gaze back towards Ammosta, who was scrutinizing her with a complex look, gave a slight nod.
"I am waiting for you at the temple in the center of the island, Mr. Bren."
After speaking, without waiting for a response from Ammosta, Vitya stepped into the rippling water mirror, completely disappearing from Ammosta's magic sensing.
Huff—
The cool night breeze swept over the plain at midnight. Disordered gray hair fluttered in front of Ammosta, bathed in starlight, but he didn't move an inch. His eyes were fixed on the still surface of the mirror with a sinister look, and his heart began to waver over his decision.
The troubles the woman carries are greater than Ammosta had imagined. He was unsure whether his determination to unravel the prophecy and his association with it was driving him to wade into this muddy water, and whether that action was right or wrong.
But inexplicably, there seemed to be a voice constantly urging him to enter the world behind the mirror, otherwise, he would regret it for life. This almost prophetic intuition was so irresistible that it prevented Ammosta from having the thought of turning back.
Hum—
After hesitating for a long time, Ammosta still stood before this unknown mirror of Eris. With a hum, the clear water mirror gradually became blurred, and after a few seconds, an image appeared before Ammosta's eyes, causing his brows to furrow dramatically.
In the icy world, the slowly falling snowflakes from the darkening sky and the chilling wind formed by them seem to be the only moving things on the earth. London is frozen in this unprecedentedly cold winter in decades.
A woman in her late twenties, with disheveled hair frozen into blocks, emaciated and ragged, clutches a swaddled infant and stumbles through one street after another in the city. Her expressionless eyes betray a lack of purpose.
The newborn baby, less than two days old, in the cradle struggles to open its eyes and gaze at the sky, its cries sounding more like the moans of someone near death.
Ammosta stood in front of the Eris Mirror, silently gazing at the flickering shadows in the mirror, and in his heart, he thought that the past he had long forgotten, like molten lava, surged up. In a moment, he seemed to have returned to the earliest and most powerless moment of his arrival in this world.
"Sad—"
With a soft murmur that faded into the wind, Ammosta's voice also vanished over this starlit plain...
...
Unlike the sensation of being stuffed into a soft rubber tube with the Disapparition Charm, it felt more like crossing over, losing the sensation of his body and as if only a bundle of thoughts wrapped in bubbles were hurtling through the sea of the universe at an unimaginable speed.
In this state, time could not be perceived or measured; Ammosta could only drift along with the flow. His 'visual field' was locked onto that seemingly ever-unreachable white light blob in the distance, and his consciousness gradually got lost in the monotonous howling sounds.
Tink—
As if awakening from a dream, the ethereal and crisp wind bell rang abruptly by his ear, stirring up ripples in Ammosta's consciousness.
Ammosta's gaze swept around, instinctively searching for the source of the sound. However, apart from the door behind him, he could find no human-made objects in this boundless space.
Suddenly, Ammosta seemed to have a revelation. He suddenly lowered his head and looked down at his feet. Only then did he realize that the ground beneath him was not solid earth, but an endless and boundless lake like the sea, except that this lake had no ripples at all, as if it was a mirror.
Ammosta frowned, he raised his toes and tapped the water surface, making the water ripple in circles, reflecting his shadow perfectly. But it was just a few breaths later that it returned to its original state. He continued to press down on the water with his toes, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not break through the surface.
This is truly a strange thing; to stand steadily on the lake surface without using any magic, just this alone makes him feel the extraordinary nature of this ancient relic site.
Ammosta lowered his head and quietly gazed at the lake, attempting to unravel its mysteries. But suddenly, a subtle change appeared in his expression. What caused this reaction was not the smooth surface of the lake, but his own reflection in it.
No color?!
Ammosta's gaze abruptly shifted to his right hand, which was tightly gripping the wand, and upon looking, his brow furrowed even tighter.
This was not an illusion or an error of vision. The reflection in the water surface was indeed a true reflection, and the sight of himself within his 'visual field' was indeed devoid of color. Whether it was his old wizard robe, his fair hand, or his black wand, everything had turned into lifeless gray, as if there were some mysterious and powerful force that had deprived all things of their colors!
Instantly, the whirlpool in Ammosta's eyes began to spin frantically. A powerful and fierce magical energy surged out from his slender body. The whirlwind formed by the magic disturbed the reflection in the lake, but it did not change the tranquil and long-dormant secret realm in the slightest!
However, Ammosta, whose magical energy perception had been heightened to its limits, managed to make some discoveries.
He chose a direction at random and walked for a distance. Then, he stood still, his face serious and his eyes fixed on the ground.
"Exactly... the time flow in this secret realm is being disrupted by some evil magic. It's not uniform, very subtle changes..."
After muttering lowly, Ammosta looked at the world with empty spaces and tightly pursed lips.
The woman named Vitya said she would wait for him at the temple in the center of the island. However, there is really nothing here, neither an island nor a temple in sight.
"Hah, finally inside!"
Just as Ammosta was frowning in deep thought, a sudden hearty laugh coming from somewhere in front of him made Ammosta's hair stand on end and his face show surprise.
Someone else followed him into the secret realm, how is that possible?!
Ammosta tried to calm down and focused his gaze. He saw that suddenly, the space twenty feet above the lake began to twist. Then, a pair of strong hands emerged from the twisted space, seemingly trying to penetrate some kind of obstacle. The muscles in those arms were tensed and struggling, and the whole body was slowly pushing its way through!
To be honest, Ammosta had experienced a fair amount of odd and unusual events over the years. However, what he was currently going through was more bizarre than any other occurrence he had ever encountered. He had forgotten to remain vigilant and simply stood there, staring at the figure gradually becoming more complete in the half-air.
Boom!
Unlike the clear sound that Ammosta made when he landed on the lake, the resounding noise that the sturdy figure made when it touched the water's surface caused a heart-stopping impact. Even Amost
"How... how could this be possible? It's too ridiculous..."
Ammosta stared at the profile of the middle-aged wizard, who was fifty feet away, wearing an antique-style wizard's robe, with fiery red hair cut to shoulder length, and appeared not to be suppressed by the mysterious forces within the space. He looked dazed and comically so, letting out a disbelief-filled roar.
Amost
"Godric Gryffindor??"
Library Pavilion
