Chapter 388: Chapter 387 Hidden
"Back then, Elsa and I took the chance to sneak out when our father led the nobles out of the city for a hunt. Elsa just has that kind of talent to slip past others’ surveillance; even the Intelligence Director and his spies couldn’t hope to find her.
We rode a small, short-legged pony, carried a Short Bow, and, laughing, arrived in the depths of the forest within the valley. We saw thorns, flower bushes, butterflies, streams, and a beam of white light falling from the sky.
The white light landed in the middle of the stream. It was a mirror—shining, luminous, and spotless, as if one could see all the world’s mysteries within it.
I felt a bit afraid and wanted to persuade Elsa to leave, but she was never afraid; she was always like that.
She waded through the shallow stream in her boots and touched the mirror. Instantly, a Gale swept through. The stream’s waters flowed backward. Birds in the forest took flight in panic, only to settle down peacefully moments later. The dry, yellow leaves on the ground were lifted by some force, floating in mid-air. They turned from yellow to green and reattached themselves to the branches.
Elsa was still touching the mirror, but her entire body floated up, as if about to fly into the sky. I mustered my courage, rushed over, and pulled her down. In the process, I accidentally touched the mirror too."
Li Ang frowned deeply. "That mirror..."
"The Magic Mirror."
Anna corrected, "That was the beginning of everything, just like Pandora’s Magic Box. Alerted by the commotion, our father arrived with his men. They had already discovered our disappearance by then; the Intelligence Director was frantic, almost wishing to draw his sword and take his own life. The unconscious Elsa and I were taken back to the Palace. The Magic Mirror was taken as well.
Elsa and I woke up soon after. We were examined and seemed normal, but I knew that something profound had changed deep within my sister’s heart. The Elsa I knew was gone forever.
The Court Wizards studied the mirror repeatedly, but they could never find anything suspicious. After that, Elsa began to gradually reveal her spellcasting abilities. When she spoke with me in private, her perspective on the world became increasingly extreme and bizarre. Was I jealous of her? Not at all. I feared her, hated her. I even sneaked into the royal warehouse where the Magic Mirror was stored, found it, and tried to smash it to bring my sister back. It was useless; the Magic Mirror was indestructible."
Anna let out a heavy sigh. "Things got worse after my parents died. Elsa naturally became queen. She took the Magic Mirror from the warehouse and placed it in her bedchamber, refusing to relinquish it no matter how much I pleaded.
"Her Magic Power grew stronger by the day, and her temperament became more twisted. She even froze a minister who openly opposed her into an ice sculpture.
"Fortunately, her feelings for me never changed. She allowed me to do anything. Even when I lost my temper with her or tried to steal and destroy the mirror, she never got angry.
"She did everything she could to gather physicians to treat my heart condition. After discovering my unique abilities, she didn’t publicize it, instead secretly seeking out death row inmates, using their lives to prolong mine.
"The Magic Mirror’s influence on her deepened. Eventually, she embarked on a path of war, freezing all enemies in her way with harsh, icy snows. She became the queen who ruled everything, and I became the Governor, deciding the fates of countless people."
"So, what’s going on here?" Li Ang asked, gesturing towards the entire Palace.
"Are you saying Elsa sealed herself up?"
Anna lowered her eyelids, speaking calmly. "She became the supreme queen, capable of carrying out all the wild fantasies she’d had over the years. But perhaps the growth of her power also led her to notice something strange. She told me she often felt a voice speaking to her, urging on the darkest and most venomous thoughts deep within her heart—thoughts of destroying humankind, freezing all things, even annihilating the world.
"The true ability of the Magic Mirror is to warp reality, to invert right and wrong. It turns beauty into ugliness, good into evil, peace into aggression, and humility and tolerance into stubbornness and obstinacy.
"Elsa was frightened by this. She tried to destroy or abandon the Magic Mirror, but she failed; the mirror was indestructible. No matter how remote a place she discarded it to, the mirror always found a way, through various coincidences, to return to her side.
"Out of helplessness, she began to deliberately distance herself from me. She worried that one day her love for me might turn into hatred under the Magic Mirror’s distortion.
"Just then, someone reported a meteorite falling from the sky, crashing onto the mountaintop. What fell this time wasn’t the Magic Mirror, but a stone that resembled the base of a fountain."
Anna’s gaze fell upon the stone fountain. "Where the stone crashed, clear spring water bubbled forth. This water had the ability to nourish and mend everything, bringing dead wood back to life and healing broken cups as if they were new.
"Elsa and I speculated that the Magic Mirror and the fountain might have originated from the same place and that the seemingly gentle and tranquil water could have some hard-to-detect side effects.
"So, Elsa built a palace on the mountaintop, sealing herself, the Magic Mirror, and the spring water within. She intended to research the true nature of the spring water, hoping to use it to solve the problems of the Magic Mirror, her own twisted mind, and my illness."
Li Ang glanced at the ice sculpture above the fountain. "It seems the outcome wasn’t very successful."
"She succeeded, yet she also failed." Anna sighed deeply. "Using the spring water and her Magic Power, she successfully shattered the Magic Mirror into several pieces. But she herself was gravely injured by something from within the Magic Mirror, rendering her unable to ever leave the spring water.
"She told me to place the Mirror Fragments in different churches, drawing upon the people’s faith in her goodness to counteract the malice within the Magic Mirror. This counteraction was only a reluctant, temporary measure because the power of faith would eventually interfere with her mind, turning her into a Personality God and causing her to forever lose her independent will.
"I placed five Mirror Fragments in different churches. Another piece, as she instructed, was discarded into the depths of the ocean. The Magic Mirror possesses an auto-recovery ability akin to weaving fate, and the pieces scattered in the sea ensured it could not reassemble quickly.
"However, it looks like you’ve already collected them all."
Li Ang was suddenly startled, narrowing his eyes at Anna.
Anna smiled. "You hid them very well, but I am far too familiar with that mirror. I can sense its unique scent on anyone who has touched the Magic Mirror."
"Perhaps we just happened to come into contact with it, right?"
"Heh." Anna chuckled. "My intelligence personnel might be somewhat incompetent, but at least they aren’t entirely useless. Finding the locations where you’ve been active is still within their capabilities—all of them places where Mirror Fragments were distributed. Still, I am a bit curious: where exactly have you hidden the Mirror Fragments?"