______“What the--?” the man in the mirror said. No, wait: she had said it. Or tried to, at any rate. She could not summon her own voice, and somehow the man in the mirror mimicked her speech exactly.
______“Are you all right?” the young man beside her asked, but she barely heard him. She saw him say it, however, in the mirror. The young man with blonde hair was propping up a tall, lean fellow with brown hair, and bright blue eyes.
______But...she was leaning against him. She looked to him quickly, and then again at the mirror. The man was staring back at her with an expression of pure bewilderment. What was happening?
______She turned her eyes away from the mirror. She needed a moment to think. There was something-something that she just wasn't understanding. She couldn't wrap her mind around the problem, and it felt like the room was spinning.
______Looking down, she saw herself, and the brown ornamental tunic that clothed her. It was identical to the one worn by the man in the mirror.
______She caught sight of one of her hands, and held it up for closer inspection. It was huge. She stared at fingers that were much longer and thicker than hers. An ornate ring adorned the middle finger. The ring had upon it a seal that she didn't recognize.
______Aeon looked in the mirror again, and the man staring back at her was flexing his hand in the exact same way.
______His eyes went wide the exact moment that realization struck her.
______It's me, she thought to herself. I'm him! _What in the--? How did this--? Her mind struggled to form a complete chain of thought. The face of the stranger in the mirror echoed her dismay.
______She walked slowly to the mirror, unable to tear her eyes from it. She ran her fingers lightly along the contours of her-his-face. He had high cheekbones, a straight, narrow nose, and a wide mouth, all accented by a finely shaped face, and strong jaw.
______“Vail, are you all right?” the young man asked again. She couldn't answer, absorbed by her new reflection.
______What was going on? She had no idea. A million possible scenarios ran through her mind as she stared at the face. Was it all a dream? It had to be-never mind the fact that she had never been self-aware in a dream before. But what else could it be?
______The face in the mirror was quite handsome, and yet to think of him in this way seemed unnatural, almost conceited.
______It was the eyes that tempered her fear. Those eyes were familiar, and somehow connected her to the person inside. The more she looked at the face the more it seemed like she had known it all along. He wasn't a stranger at all, more of a long lost friend.
______Suddenly, the reflection in the mirror was grinning back at her as she smiled.
______“My, you're even more conceited today than normal,” the other man said. Aeon pulled herself away from the mirror.
______“I'm fine,” she said, his voice sounding more natural all the time. She stood, growing into the shape of his form.
______“I can see that,” the young man answered sarcastically.
______“If you insist on calling me 'Prince', then what shall I call you?”
______The young man smiled. “Just plain old Morgan, same as always.” Aeon nodded. She looked around, taking stock in the room. She rested her hands on her hips, and smiled.
______Morgan laughed. “You're quite full of yourself today. Are you posing for another portrait?” Aeon returned the smile.
______She liked the way Morgan spoke to her, and she felt that Vail must have as well. She knew immediately that she could trust him. “Why I worry about you at all,” he said, and shook his head.
______“Wait until my father hears about this...” she said absentmindedly.
______“Oh," Morgan realized, “that's why I'm here. Your father asked me to retrieve you. He wants to talk to you.” Morgan's inflection of the word 'talk' was all too familiar. It meant that she/he was in trouble.
______“He knows you've been talking to the old witch again.”
______Why would she do such a thing as that? Morgan added: “He's waiting for you in the throne room.” Throne room? This was all becoming too much to handle. She needed a moment to collect herself.
______“Tell him I'll be there momentarily,” she said. Morgan nodded, and left the room.
______She walked back over to the desk, and stared at the mirror again. Wait until she told Tam and the others about all of this. What an odd dream, but if it wasn't the best one she ever had, she couldn't think of what topped it.
______Somewhere, deep within the recesses of her mind, a thought manifested itself: could the crystal have had anything to do with this?
______She pushed the thought out of her mind. The more time she spent analyzing this, the less time she would have to enjoy it. She had resolved to spend more time savoring the present, and less time living in the past.
______She started toward the door, and realized she was forgetting something. She retrieved the sword from the side of the desk, and wrapped the belt around her waist. Now she was ready.
______Aeon exited the room, and closed the door behind her. The corridor stretched out in both directions, and it dawned on her that she had no idea where the throne room was. She should have waited for Morgan. Oh well, she would find it eventually. She was a prince, and princes were allowed certain indulgences. At least that's how it was for the princes that she'd ever heard of.
______She walked confidently through the passage, her left hand resting on the handle of the sword with her arm bent behind her. She had never worn a sword before, and wondered if this was how Vail rested his hand on his sword, or how she did. His body seemed familiar to her now. Aeon wondered if, when she awoke, she would feel the same disorientation that she felt entering the dream.
______So she was a prince? Well, that was pretty cool. Although she was sure Tam and others would say she was delusional. Of course she would dream about herself as a prince, and not as a peasant or something.
______This corridor was familiar, and in a more concrete way than the other elements of the dream. She actually thought that she had been there before.
______She spotted a niche in the wall, and stopped. Crouched down, Aeon poked her head inside of the small gap. She could see the opening to a passage that continued behind the wall of the corridor.
______She had been here before! She recognized the entrance to one of their secret passages. Aeon sat still for a minute, cataloguing the different passages in her head. She had an uncanny memory for such things, and knew the layout of the temples' tunnel networks without aid of a map.
______She realized where she was: the third temple in the main complex. And moreover, she knew exactly where the throne room was.
______Aeon had only been to the third temple a few times, the most prominent being the celebration after the destruction of the Death Star just a few days ago. She still remembered the way to the cavernous, glass walled chamber where Princess Leia awarded Luke and the pirate Han Solo with the Alliance's highest honor.
______What more fitting place for a throne room?
______Sure enough, she saw Morgan standing in the corridor before the chamber's entrance.
______“They're waiting for you,” Morgan said. “Sahaar is there as well.”
______Who was Sahaar, she wondered? Morgan said the name like a warning.
______“Well, lets see what my father wants,” she said, impressed with the bravado in her voice.
______With her strong arms, she easily pushed open the double doors that led into the throne room. She walked ahead of Morgan, naturally, with a swagger that was missing from her normal gait. She liked Vail. She liked being Vail. She felt strong and confident.
______Even if this was a dream, she thought to herself, she endeavored to remember that feeling when she awoke.
______At the far end of the chamber sat Vail's parents-the king and queen-in ornate thrones elevated above the rest of the chamber. Aeon approached them, marching the same path that she had watched Luke Skywalker and Han Solo walk to receive their honors from Princess Leia.
______Aeon looked to her right, and could just about make out where she was standing during the celebration. Now, tapestries hung on the wall, and sentries stood every few meters or so. Well, she had nothing to fear from them. She was the king's son, after all. A smile tiptoed along the corner of her mouth, and she stifled the urge to giggle.
______The king's son!
______Aeon started to climb the steps to the top of the rostrum where the thrones sat.
______“That's far enough, son,” the King spoke. Aeon stopped. Vail's father looked at her sternly. He had a gaunt face, and was of much smaller build than Vail. “Don't think you can plant kisses upon your mother to get yourself out of trouble this time.”
______“Trouble?” Aeon asked innocently. Judging from the suppressed smile on the Queen's face, the 'kisses' plan would have undoubtedly worked. She seemed quite vulnerable to her son's charms.
______Aeon studied her for a moment. She was young, probably in her early forties, and still very beautiful. Her face beamed with pride as she smiled at Aeon. Her long blonde hair was braided around the sides, much like Princess Leia's. “Hello, mother,” Aeon said, speaking before she realized. She had just wondered what it would feel like to say again, and it slipped out. It had been so long.
______“Hello, darling,” the Queen answered. Aeon smiled. She knew that the Queen was talking to Vail, and not her, but she could imagine, couldn't she?
______She became aware of a void in her that she scarce knew existed. The depth of it frightened her. With any luck, that feeling was one memory that would be lost to her when she awoke. She could only hope.
______Movement caught her attention, and she saw a figure emerge from the shadows behind the thrones. His pale skin emphasized his gaunt features, and the shadows pooled in the wells of his sunken eyes were the last to retreat. His spindley long brown hair blended against the dark cloak that draped his form. He exuded menace, and for a moment Aeon feared for the lives of the King and Queen. But the sentries did nothing.
______The cloaked figure hunched his tall, gangly frame around the back of the throne, and leaned in close to the king.
______“He changes the subject, my liege.” And Aeon knew: this must be Sahaar. Morgan said his name like a warning, she remembered.
______“You're changing the subject,” the King said to Aeon. But his intonation was strange. He spoke as if he alone were privy to Sahaar's conversation-as if it had not been said aloud and in the open.
______No-even stranger than that: the King spoke as if, somehow, the very idea had been his in the first place.
______Sahaar's thin, colorless lips pulled into a crooked smile as his eyes fell upon Aeon. This man was dangerous. She could feel it in her bones-the bones of her new body. She wondered how much she was sensing on her own, and how much Vail had left for her. She felt as if she was in a dream, remembering past dreams.
______The King continued: “It has come to my attention that you've been seeking the counsel of Agdamaria again.”
______“Agdamaria?” Aeon asked.
______“Do you always answer questions with questions?” Sahaar asked venomously.
______“Sahaar, that's enough!” the Queen shot back. “We will handle this.” She met Sahaar's gaze, and he wilted beneath it.
______“Of course, milady,” he bowed, and then turned to Aeon. “My apologies, my Prince, I speak out of place.” It was Aeon's turn to smile, but it faded when she met Sahaar's gaze. He was staring right at her as he bowed, measuring her.
______She didn't trust him, and couldn't understand why they didn't see it. Clearly he was biding his time.
______But for what? she wondered.
______“Son, I don't want you seeing that old woman. She was counsel to my father, but that was a long time ago. Her powers are weak now, and her mind is addled. She's dangerous.”
______She's dangerous? Aeon thought to herself. The King went on: “Its no longer proper for you to be studying that magic anyway. You are a member of the royal family, not a seer. It's high time you learned how to rule this kingdom. Your mother and I won't be here forever, you know.”
______“Your father needs you by his side, now.” Sahaar said as he stood behind the king's throne. Aeon looked at the King questioningly.
______The King took the Queen's hand within his. “These are dangerous time for your mother and I,” he began. He seemed reluctant to continue. “There are are elements plotting against us,” the King informed her.
______“I have foreseen it,” Sahaar added grimly. Aeon just looked at him.
______“Who?”
______“We don't know,” the King answered. “Someone close to us...”
______“The images are not yet clear. I will divine the answer before its too late.”
______I'll bet, Aeon thought to herself cynically. She watched Sahaar, studying him. Was he the 'element' seeking to overthrow her father? He seemed so duplicitous, and yet her father-Vail's father, she corrected herself-seemed to trust him implicitly. And why alert them to the danger in the first place?
______“Promise me you won't see that old witch again,” her father asked. She could see the fear in his eyes.
______“I promise,” Aeon lied. She had to seek out this Agdamaria. She remembered something her own father had taught her. She once asked him why so many of the races that made up the Alliance didn't get along with each other, and yet fought together.
______“The enemy of an enemy is a friend,” he told her. A valuable lesson, one that she remembered to this day. This Agdamaria was clearly Sahaar's enemy. He even seemed afraid of her. She would make an ally of her, if she weren't one already.
______“Are we through, Father?” Aeon asked. The King granted her leave, content with the scolding he gave, and the promise he had elicited from her
______Aeon looked once more to the Queen. She was looking at Aeon with such understanding, such caring that it made her heart melt. If only it was for her. She smiled at Vail's mother, and turned to walk down the stairs.
______“Aeon--!” she heard. She looked around, trying to locate the source. It seemed to echo all through the chamber. She recognized the voice.
______“Cammie...?” she said.
______Dizziness came over her, and the stairs seemed to stretch into several meters. The floor of the chamber receded from her. She held her arms out to maintain her balance.
______Behind her, the Queen asked if she was all right, but she couldn't answer. Her vision was clouding, and she stopped mid step to try and collect herself.
______“Aeon, don't die! Please!” It was Cammie all right. She sounded as if she was crying.
______“Vail!” she heard from the Queen, and felt herself slipping gently through the air. Pain came to her in the dark as something hard hit her. It felt like the stairs.
______She rolled and came to a stop. Everything was dark, and she was only dimly aware of the pain. It existed to be acknowledged, but she didn't feel it. As if from another room, she heard the King calling in the distance for the guards.
______“Aeon!” She opened her eyes slowly. Cammie had her cradled in her arms. She could see tears streaming down her face. Behind her, the crystal pulsated, filling the chamber with bright blue light.
______“Cammie...what--?” She felt groggy.
______“Aeon, you're alive!” Cammie smiled. “I'm going to get help.” She started yelling for someone, anyone, to help.
______Aeon remembered the guards, and her father. Wait, Cammie, she said. They'll hear...
______But the words didn't come out. She tried to move her arm, but it was for naught. She was sinking again, and this time she didn't fight it. Cammie felt warm against her, and Aeon seemed to fall right into her.
______“Hold on, Aeon,” she heard Cammie say. Sure, Cammie. Whatever you say...
______For the second time, Aeon passed out at the base of the strange Massassi edifice.