New mirror

"The cold is returning,” he told Freyalise. “What you and I dread most is happening: a new Ice Age begins. You know what will happen, what has to happen next. You know the scale of the World Spell you will inevitably cast. We both do.”

Freyalise’s face flushed red. “Do not speak to me as an equal.”

“To save Skyshroud you’ll have to destroy it,” Jodah said. “Unless you use this.” He pulled out a small hand mirror. The glass and the elegant silver handle had survived his rough journey without the slightest crack or scratch. The mirror gleamed brightly in the gloom, casting back more light than it received.

“Is that the original?” Freyalise said. “Or a decoy?” She opened her hand, and the mirror sprang from Jodah’s grasp to hers.

“It functions as it always has,” Jodah said. The mirror was his trump card, a powerful artifact that had been a crucial element in his previous dealings with Freyalise. It acted as both repository and filter for the highest forms of magic. Spells cast into it could be refracted back out with incredible precision and to more profound effect.

Freyalise inspected the mirror in the air. She called it to her hand, examined it up close, and tucked it into the sash of her elegant dress. “As always,” she said, “you presume too much. Were I willing to cast another World Spell, this trinket would be of no use at all.”

***

Planar Chaos, Chapter 16