After a long sleep full of wonderful but indescribable dreams, dreams that evaporated from her mind as soon as they ended, leaving only a residue of joy, Emily awoke. She rubbed her eyes and stretched her limbs, nuzzling against a soft bed of bck moss. Smiling serenely, she lifted herself to a seated position, feeling the most well-rested she had in ages.

  She was still in Shimmerwood, could still smell its cloying sweetness, but the spirits and the tea party denizens were gone, and so were the ropes that had bound her arms and legs. Night had fallen, and the moonlight shone through the trees, illuminating a path that sloped upwards ahead of her.

  Beside her low moss bed y a torn pair of jeans. Sabrina's, right where they had fallen. Emily looked around cautiously, but could see no sign of the crowd of taunting people, the strange tea-party denizens, or her doppelganger. She didn't see Talyndra either. It all felt like a dream.

  A stab of panic jolted through Emily's body as she felt the absence of the Stoneshell's weight against her chest. This confirmed that it had not been a dream. Her doppelganger was still out there, wearing her neckce! And her flower dress!

  Emily picked up the tattered and slightly burned jeans—more evidence of her recent ordeal—and squeezed herself into them. She was grateful for the coverage, but realized that she would just as soon trade it for the Stoneshell.

  After yanking both jean leg over her heels, Emily's hand brushed over the Bronzeband around her ankle. The nightmoss—nightmoss from the cave where she'd foiled the old goblin's ritual—had been hiding beneath it this whole time. She now realized the source of the fuzzy leotard that had appeared in Paja Abbey—it had had the same soft bristles as the nightmoss that had just... saved her? She still wasn't sure what had happened.

  "Hey nightmoss," she whispered, feeling slightly crazy. "Um, thanks for that. Do you think you could, uh, make me a top? And maybe some boots?"

  There was no response. Emily felt nothing against her ankle but the smooth metal of the Bronzeband, and her chest and feet remained unadorned. "Guess it doesn't work like that, huh?"

  Sighing, she stood up from the moss bed and shimmied her jeans up so that she could fasten the button. Sabrina preferred a low waistline, which made this an almost impossible task across Emily's wider hips.

  Her efforts were disrupted when a familiar voice called out from the shadows. "Emily? Is that you?"

  Relief washed over Emily as Talyndra emerged from the trees, her face etched with worry. Her skin was flecked with mud and a long scratch marred her cheek. She was covered only by a few scant leaves from her mostly devoured dress.

  "Talyndra!" Emily cried, rushing towards her friend. "What happened? Where did everyone go?"

  "They all vanished," Talyndra said, grimacing. "After you... after that bck stuff exploded everywhere, the whole party was thrown into disarray, with everyone screaming at each other. I'd managed to trick that stupid snake into chewing my bonds, and with everyone distracted I was able to wiggle free. I was down and ready to fight, but I'd only thrown two punches before everyone just disappeared. Humans, elves, even the dwarf dy and her weird friends."

  "You said yourself that they were spirits," Emily replied.

  Talyndra nodded sagely. "Yes. There's powerful magic in this pce. Some of those elves... they couldn't have been here. One of them, Fenhir, died three years ago."

  "The humans who tormented me were from my world," Emily added.

  "That expins their get-up," Talyndra said, casting a repulsed gaze at Emily's jeans. "Those look really uncomfortable."

  "Of course you would think so," Emily replied, chuckling softly. Though she did have to admit to herself that the jeans were awfully tight around her hips, now that she'd finally managed to get the button done.

  Talyndra's gaze traveled upwards. "I see you're still missing the Stoneshell. We're going to have to get it back."

  Emily's thoughts briefly drifted to the statues at Paja Abbey, who would now all be frozen, just as Aria had been during those times when Emily had been separated from her neckce. She nodded to Talyndra.

  Talyndra closed her eyes and whispered a few words in a nguage Emily didn't recognize, the sounds soft and melodic, like the rustling of leaves in the wind. A faint green light emanated from her hands, swirling and coalescing into a miniature, three-dimensional map of the forest, complete with shimmering trees, winding paths, and a small ke. Suspended above the ke, glowing with a silver light, was a tiny replica of the Stoneshell.

  Emily focused on the tiny symbol and attempted to summon it, just as she had done on board the pirate ship. But this time, something stopped her. She felt the same resistance that she had felt when trying to summon the Stoneshell away from her double. "It's still with her," Emily said. "I can't move it."

  "Then we'll have to go to it. Lead the way."

  Emily and Talyndra were represented on the map by two pulsing green dots. Talyndra held the map out in front of them as they walked through the misty, moonlit forest. Though the air was still thick with the sickly sweet smell of Shimmerwood, and though the trees still crowded around them, their branches reaching out like cws, Emily and Talyndra's newfound sense of purpose and direction made the pce feel somehow less oppressive.

  "Is she a spirit too?" Emily asked as they walked. "My double, I mean."

  "She must be," Talyndra said. "There's only one Emily Stoneshell Bearer."

  "That's a relief."

  Talyndra raised an eyebrow. "She's a powerful spirit, for sure. And she can use the Stoneshell just as you do."

  "Better, even," Emily muttered. "How is that even possible? Lady Era's a powerful mage, and she wasn't able to do anything with it."

  Talyndra shrugged. "Shimmerwood is a strange pce."

  As they approached the ke, the silver glow of the Stoneshell on the miniature map intensified, pulsing like a beating heart. Emily's own heart pounded in her chest. Her confrontation with the other Emily, the powerful and malevolent spirit who wielded her own magic better than she did, was fast approaching.

  When they were almost upon the water, Talyndra killed the map, fearing that its glow would give away their position. Just before the ke came into view, they stepped off the dirt path and into the trees, so as to maintain cover. Leaves and branches tickled their skin as they crept towards the ke.

  Finally, peering through the thick cover of leaves, they saw it. The silvery surface of the ke shimmered in the moonlight, its stillness broken only by the gentle pping of waves against the shore. Suspended above the water, bathed in an ethereal glow, Emily's doppelganger floated, her legs crossed beneath her and her arms up. Her eyes were closed, her expression serene, lost in deep meditation. She still wore the leaf dress and the Stoneshell glowed orange below her neck.

  "She's dead to the world," Talyndra said. "Approach quietly."

  Emily gave a firm nod and slowly, carefully crept forward between the trees. The double took no notice of her. Talyndra kept watch, giving Emily a reassuring smile every time she gnced back. Emily reached the ke, suppressing a gasp as she stepped into the cold water. As she moved further in, Emily felt the unfamiliar sensation of soaked denim against her legs. The water was smooth and still, disrupted only by Emily's slow progress, which it marked with rippling waves. Her double remained focused on her meditation.

  Each step was deliberate, the kebed soft and slick beneath her bare feet, the water rising almost to her hips as she came within spitting distance of her double.

  The air around them with faint energy, a hum that vibrated against Emily's skin, raising the fine hairs on her arms. She paused just ahead of her double, close enough to see the rise and fall of her chest, to hear her shallow breath. The other Emily hung in the air so that her head was slightly higher than Emily's own.

  Emily could feel the Stoneshell's presence now, a warmth that called out her, a pulse that seemed in time with her own heartbeat. With a start, she realized that she couldn't see it anymore—the pendant no longer rested on her double's chest. Behind the leaves of the girl's bodice, something glowed orange.

  She knew what had to be done.

  Hands trembling, heart resolute, Emily reached out and touched the leaves of the dress's neckline. Her double's breath caught, and she froze, adrenaline spiking in her veins. A tense moment passed before her double's breathing resumed, eyes still closed, and Emily allowed herself a tiny sigh of relief. She gripped the leaves of the bodice tightly, mentally preparing herself for what came next. Casting a backward gnce at Talyndra, who had now waded into the ke behind her, Emily communicated her pn without words.

  Talyndra grinned devilishly, and soon green tendrils of wood elf magic joined Emily's hands. Slowly and carefully, Emily pulled the leaves away as their bonds were weakened by Talyndra's magic.

  The outer leaves came apart with a soft, wet rustle, revealing more beneath—tighter, more intricate weaves consisting of smaller leaves that hugged her double's form. The leaves were smooth and slightly sticky, leaving a faint residue on Emily's fingertips, the scent of crushed foliage mingling with the ke's metallic tang. As she removed more of the leaves, Talyndra's magic grew stronger, and they worked faster together. Talyndra's magic masked any tearing sounds that might awaken the other Emily, and so the only sound of their work was the almost imperceptible plop of leaves dropping onto the surface of the ke.

  The double remained oblivious, her meditation unbroken, as the front of her dress came fully open, revealing her breasts. Emily's fingers brushed against the double's skin—cool and smooth, a mirror of her own—and she felt a jolt of unease at the intimacy of the act. It felt as much like undressing herself as it felt like undressing another.

  Emily pulled away more leaves, exposing the double's ribs, but the orange glow seemed to fall lower and lower the more she unpicked.

  The water pped higher now, soaking Emily up to her waist, the cold seeping into her bones as she pressed on. She tore at the midsection of the dress, revealing her own stomach on another body, the leaves falling away to drift on the ke's surface like tiny boats. Her hands worked faster and faster, moving below the double's navel and towards her hips.

  Working on the leaves of the skirt, Emily's fingers at st grazed a familiar silver chain. Excitement growing, she tore at the skirt, forcing the dress fully apart.

  The neckce, now visible, circled her double's waist like a belt, the orange-glowing Stoneshell pendant hanging in front of her smooth and hairless but otherwise very familiar crotch. Emily's fingers brushed the surface of the pendant and felt its warmth instantly fill her whole body.

  Talyndra's magic slowed the descent of what remained of the double's dress as it fell from her back and into the water, leaving her unadorned but for the Stoneshell. Talyndra appeared to suppress a grimace at the destruction of her hard work before giving Emily a reassuring nod. Somehow, the double had remained completely oblivious as they'd stripped her. But they still had to retrieve the Stoneshell.

  "Quickly," Talyndra mouthed.

  Emily sucked in her resolve and reached her arms around her double's waist, almost hugging her hips as she groped for the neckce's csp. She shivered as her fingers touched the skin of her double's back, trying to unhook the Stoneshell as lightly and delicately as she could, feeling her double's shallow breath against the top of her head all the while.

  The csp came undone, and Emily held the two parts of the chain firmly between the thumb and fingers of each hand.

  It was then that the double's eyes opened.

  Emily gasped. With the Stoneshell in her grasp once more, fire bsted inadvertantly from her hands and arms, but dissipated against her doppleganger's skin like mere smoke.

  Talyndra gave a startled yelp and stumbled backwards, tripping and nding in the water with a loud spsh.

  The other Emily smiled serenely and bent her head to kiss Emily's forehead. Ice spiked in Emily's veins at the touch of her lips, and she staggered back, away from their impromptu embrace, one end of the Stoneshell neckce still firmly csped in her right hand.

  Memories flooded her conscious mind, as if unlocked by the double's kiss. She found herself thinking of Stuart and of Caelum, allies she had been unable to help—had abandoned to their fates. "Well done, Emily," her double said in a mocking tone. "You've looked out for yourself, no matter what. Screw those people who helped you!"

  Emily's heart thudded in her chest, the icy kiss from her double lingering on her forehead like a brand, chilling her despite the warmth of the Stoneshell pulsing in her hand. The voices of Stuart and Caelum seemed to echo in her ears, bming her for their terrible fates. She stumbled backward through the ke, the water surging at her hips, its cold grip tightening around her. The silver surface rippled violently now.

  More memories came to her unbidden. She thought of her confrontation with Victus and the horrified look in his eyes as she'd destroyed his stone table. Her double scowled at her. "You've gotten the Stoneshell back every time, no matter what! Victus, Era, who cares about their decades of magical experience? Of course a twenty-one year old girl from Earth knows better!"

  The other Emily sat proud and defiant in the air. Her body, now free of the leafy dress, glowed a faint green, seemingly the mark of a forest spirit. Blue veins were visible beneath her pale, goosebumped skin.

  The Stoneshell's chain dangled from Emily's right hand, its pendant swinging gently, its orange light casting flickering reflections across the ke's surface.

  "You're the rightful bearer, aren't you?" Emily's double continued. "That entitles you to do whatever you want! Even strip a girl while she's sleeping!"

  Talyndra, soaked and scrambling to her feet, wiped water from her eyes and hissed, "Emily, move!"

  But Emily stood frozen to the spot, her gaze fixed on her double. The other Emily's eyes seemed to bore into her very soul. She felt the Stoneshell pendant tugging away from her.

  "Powerful magic is dangerous in the wrong hands," said the other Emily. "You're messing with forces you don't understand."

  Panic surged at the thought of letting the double retake her neckce, and Emily gripped it tighter, lifting it to her neck and clipping it behind her as quickly as her shivering hands could manage. Then she summoned two massive fireballs and each hand and threw them at her double.

  Like before, the fire burst into harmless smoke on contact, her double merely chuckling while maintaining fierce eye contact with Emily. "You should let me take over," she said. "Surely you've already seen how much I am at this."

  Emily stepped back, weighed down by the heavy fabric of her thoroughly soaked jeans.

  Her double, still maintaining the same posture, glided towards her across the air, never breaking eye contact. "If I'd been there, Caelum would be a free merman. I could have won that duel fully clothed. And I would never have entangled myself with nightmoss."

  With a loud pop, something small and metallic shot up in front of Emily's eyes, like a bullet. The other Emily's eyes widened as it raced towards her, hitting her right between the eyes. She cried out and lost her composure before dropping into the ke with a loud spsh.

  Emily gnced down, noting a strange sense of relief, as if she'd just released a breath she'd been holding. The projectile had been the top button of her too-tight jeans.

  Emily also saw her double, plunged below the surface, her features marred by the water's churning. From this angle, it seemed as though Emily was looking at her own reflection on the ke surface.

  A strange sound, like gss shattering in reverse, welled up in Emily's ears.

  Emily's double's eyes and mouth were wide open, as if she was screaming. Emily's blood ran cold as she saw the Stoneshell appear around her double's neck.

  She raised a hand to attack, and saw her double do the same. Fire burning around her fist, and she punched down with all her might. Her double punched up.

  Fire would of course be instantly extinguished by water, but Emily's fist did not reach the water. Instead, she felt a smooth, transparent barrier, like... gss. Like a mirror.

  The gss crunched against Emily's knuckles, sending a spiderwave of cracks along its surface. Her fire dissipated, and she locked eyes with her double for a moment before the mirror disintegrated.

  Suddenly, she was alone. Her knuckles throbbed, dripping blood from the shattered gss. She opened her fingers, revealing a single triangur shard of gss in her palm. A partial reflection of her face stared out at her.

  "I see you've found the Shard of True Reflection!" cried a voice from behind Emily's back.

  Startled, she turned to see a smiling old woman standing on the riverbank. Next to her stood a wet and shivering Talyndra.

  "This is Abbess Loren, Emily!" Talyndra yelled. "G Abbey is right behind these trees!"

  Emily looked back at the gss shard in her palm. So this was the Shard of True Reflection. It just looked like a piece of broken gss to her. But at least this meant that her strange and confusing time in Shimmerwood was close to an end. Taking one st mystified gnce, she slipped the shard into the pocket of her jeans and walked back to shore.

  "You're bleeding!" said Talyndra, taking Emily's hand in her own. With a glow of green magic, she sealed the small cuts on Emily's knuckles.

  "You must be very cold," said the Abbess, taking in Emily's bare torso and soaked jeans with a grandmotherly scrutiny that made Emily blush.

  "Come, you can warm up in my office," she said, turning and leading Emily and Talyndra away from the ke.

  Behind a line of trees y a squat straw hut, which Abbess Loren procimed, with no little fanfare, to be G Abbey. "Welcome, weary travelers!"

  Talyndra cast a confused gnce at Emily. "It doesn't much like an abbey..." she whispered.

  "Few things in Shimmerwood look like what they are!" procimed Abbess Loren, chuckling madly. She beckoned them into the hut, which had an entrance so small that even Talyndra had to duck to get through it.

  But if Talyndra had been surprised by the abbey's outside appearance, she was even more taken aback by what it looked like on the inside. For beyond the tiny entrance, a cavernous room unfolded before them, its walls lined with bookshelves that groaned under the weight of leather-bound tomes. Golden candebras flickered with warm light, casting dancing shadows across plush purple couches and ornate tables carved with swirling runes. The air smelled of aged parchment, beeswax, and a faint, floral undertone that reminded Emily of the forest's cloying sweetness, now softened into something comforting.

  While Talyndra and Emily marveled at the room's opulent and impossible proportions, Loren retrieved a pair of thick woolen bnkets from an oak cabinet. Both took the bnkets and wrapped them gratefully around their shivering bodies.

  Talyndra continued to marvel at the room around her, her bnket slipping slightly as she turned in a slow circle. "H-how is this possible?" she stammered, as Loren indicated a purple couch for them to sit on.

  Loren ughed. "Everything in Shimmerwood is as real as you want it to be. Or as real as you don't want it to be, sometimes."

  "That would expin some things," Emily said, thinking back over everything that had happened in this strange pce. "I think."

  "I'm sorry I couldn't meet you as soon as you arrived," said Loren. "Althea did send me a premonition about your visit, but I couldn't recall the exact time she said you'd arrive. The forest's influence, no doubt. Nevertheless, you seem to have been successful in your endeavors."

  "Only just," Emily said. "That spirit was far more powerful than me."

  Loren quirked an eyebrow. "If you really believed that, you never would have beaten her. But come, let's see that shard."

  Emily fished the triangur piece of gss from her pocket, its edges rough against her fingertips, and handed it to Loren. The Abbess took it reverently, turning it over in her hands, the orange light from the candebras catching its surface and throwing fractured reflections across the room.

  "The Shard of True Reflection," Loren murmured. "I always knew it was out there, just waiting for the right person to find it. You seem to have been the right person, Emily Stoneshell Bearer, and not just for this. Let us now see our true reflections!"

  Cpping her hands together with glee, Loren skipped to a table a few feet away, her movements disconcertingly spry for one of such advanced age. Then, taking the gss shard between both her hands, she pulled.

  Emily's jaw dropped as the shard stretched out to the size of a full-length mirror, expanding between Loren's hands as though it were made of putty rather than gss. Once Loren was happy that she'd made it rge enough, she propped it up against the edge of the table and took a few steps back.

  The three women observed their true reflections.

  Loren's was rgely unchanged. She stood up slightly taller than her hunched, wizen figure, and her rge, intelligent eyes were rger and seemed to sparkle even more than in real life. "Hmm, about what I expected," Loren commented.

  Talyndra's reflection was muscle-bound and heavily scarred with a cocky grin, dressed in a sleek green leaf outfit. She brandished her beloved and much-missed twin swords. "Hark!" Talyndra cried. "A true warrior!"

  Emily's reflection was, as her double had been, completely naked, but for the Stoneshell. She wore a serene expression, and held the real Emily's gaze with total equanimity, even as the real Emily felt a blush rise to her cheeks. Her reflection's hair hung behind her in a thick braid, and her skin was criss-crossed by faint blue lines.

  After about a minute, Loren nodded curtly and pressed the top of the shard down so that it once again shrank to a size that could fit in a hand or pocket. She handed it back to Emily.

  "What does... what does a true reflection mean?" Emily asked, turning the shard over in her palm.

  "That's up to each of us to decide." Loren winked. "Yours is beautiful, Emily."

  Talyndra nodded her agreement.

  "Now, let us dress for dinner," Loren said, indicating a couple of screens for Emily and Talyndra to change behind, each with a sparkling array of fabric and leaf dresses. "I am very interested in news from Paja Abbey."

  Emily followed Talyndra to the screens. Both selected complementary dresses of deep green leaves woven with golden threads. Emily's felt smooth against her skin as she slipped it on, comfortably hugging her form. They joined Loren in a dining room that seemed to perch atop an impossible tower, its windows offering a breathtaking view of Shimmerwood's moonlit canopy. The meal was vish—roasted fruits, spiced breads, and a rich stew served by courteous monks eager to hear their tales.

  But as the evening wore on, Emily’s mind drifted back to her double's taunts—Stuart, Caelum, Victus, the nightmoss. Even as she ughed with Talyndra and answered Loren’s questions, a cloud lingered over her mind. Later, in a well-appointed guest room—a cozy nook with a feather bed piled high with quilts—she undressed, peeling off the leaf dress and setting it aside. Before going to bed, she slid the Bronzeband from her ankle, its metal warm to the touch, and examined the skin beneath, half-expecting to see the dark tendrils of nightmoss she had felt earlier. But both her skin and the band's inner surface were unblemished, though the band seemed to possess a new, subtle heat. This was evidence enough of the nightmoss's continued presence.

  She traced the band's contours, remembering how the nightmoss had clothed her, shielded her, saved her. If her double was right about one thing, it was that she hadn't fully understood it. Yet. That warmth, that connection, hinted at untapped power. If she could master it, it might rival the Stoneshell itself.

  Emily slipped the Bronzeband back onto her ankle, its weight a quiet promise, and climbed into bed, pulling the bnkets over her. As she drifted toward sleep, she resolved to ask Abbess Loren about nightmoss in the morning.