Meera changed her class once again before stepping out of the mirror's darkness. She didn't know how the Varshans would take to meeting a sorceress. For all she knew, they hated the Sorceresses of Akhessai as much as the dragons.

[The Mirrorborn Slayer – Level 465]

It just felt right to keep her actual tag. She figured level 400 would still be pretty strong in the empire, and if it wasn't, she could always raise it a little.

As she stepped out of the mirror, the sunlight assaulted her eyes. She shielded her eyes with her arm as they adjusted to the light. She had expected to be cold, but it was quite the opposite.

A hot afternoon sun shone down on her from above. She figured it was midday here. She had come out in what seemed like an open bazaar. Hawkers shouted as they sold their wares. Many stalls sold all sorts of things, from garments to dresses to woolen shawls. Then, there was a section of the bazaar to her right that sold fresh produce, and further down the road, they sold fish and meat and had butcher shops.

The best part about it all was the people. They all looked like her, or, well, their features were like hers. Now, she finally understood why they called her Varshan everywhere she went. However, Gethys was less racist than Rhione. But then Rhione wasn't being scorched to cinders by a horde of dragons. Who knew what the people of Drurith would've been like if there hadn't been a dragon invasion?

"Where are you coming from?" grumbled a thickset guard.

He had a thick beard and wore a green turban that matched his uniform. He wore light plate mail but doubted he needed it. His bulk would've been enough to scare any citizen. He carried a long spear made entirely of wood. The shaft carried on to take the form of a sharp spearhead.

On a whim, she used Identify.

[Willow Spearman – Level 171]

Meera smirked. So, the guards here might not be so different from Azeria.

"You deaf?" the guard barked.

She shook her head.

"Then answer the damn question." He had an accent that was eerily similar to her people's back home. "And move aside from there. There might be other people coming through the mirror."

"Doubtful," Meera responded. "Unless the Drurithians…Drurithi? I don't know. Anyways, Drurith is in pretty bad shape."

"We know," he drawled. "So, you're from Drurith?"

Well, not really, but if I told you where I'm from, you'd probably consider me mad. She thought. Instead, she just responded with a nod and a grunt.

"Your business in Varitsa?" He asked as he looked her up and down.

"I'm here to see Professor Hiral Raka at the University of Saranya."

He raised an eyebrow at that but then just shrugged his shoulders. "Good luck getting past the university guards."

"Oh, the university has its own guards?" Meera asked, genuinely intrigued.

"That place is more well-guarded than the royal palace," he huffed and shook his head. "Any weapons you carry?"

"Just these." Meera shook her arm, and the chakrams jangled.

The guard rolled his eyes. "Very funny. Let me Identify you, and you can be on your way."

He looked at her, and he squinted his eyes at first, and then they widened a little bit. Then they widened some more until he was gaping at her.

It wasn't like he was ogling her. He stared like he had seen a ghost, or better yet, like she was some demon walking among men. She shifted from foot to foot. She wanted to get out of there before he accused her of some witchcraft.

"Okay, you don't have to stare," Meera said, feeling sub-conscious of herself. "Can I go now?"

"Y-Yes…" He stammered.

"I know, I'm strong, but I'm not that strong," Meera muttered as she walked off.

She kept an eye on him, and he watched her unblinking until she joined the crowd. Then he called to the other guard, who was questioning the newcomers. He must've told him about Meera, but his friend just laughed and shook his head.

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Maybe I should've lowered my level even more. She mused. If she were going to get these sorts of reactions, it was best to hide herself even more. She quickly activated Misidentify and lowered her level to 285. Hoping that this would not be as eye-catching as her previous level.

The guard would've been shivering if I showed him my real level.

She snorted and moved on, mixing with the crowd and exploring the streets. For once, she didn't stand out—that was if you didn't count her black and gold armor. Well, it was good that her armor could take on any shape and color. She willed her armor to take on the shape of the long shirts and loose pants that the women were wearing, though she kept the black and gold coloring.

A girl noticed Meera's armor changing clothes and gasped. Meera put a finger to her lips as she winked at the girl and ruffled her hair as she walked past her. For a while, she wandered through the streets. After such a long time of walking through a devastated city and being hunted by everyone in sight, it felt nice to be just another face in the crowd.

She walked a little longer, turned into a small empty lane, and used Mirror Bolt to fly to the top of the two-story building. The city was expansive and seemed to go on forever. There were brick buildings and those made of dried mud. A hot wind ruffled her clothes, and she wanted to get out of the sun immediately. It was like summer was in full swing here.

In the distance, she could see a massive building with gold domes, which could only be the royal palace. But that wasn't what caught her immediate attention.

It was the ring around Mirithia.

The rings and the planet they encircled were so close. She zoomed in with her Mirrorbound Sight as much as possible and nearly stumbled off the roof. Either her eyes had stopped working, or the rings actually had scales—beautiful white scales like those she had seen on Zerodra.

This cannot be...

This meant that everything she had heard about Aetheron being locked up in the heavens was true. All this time, she had imagined these were nothing but rings made of ice and dust. But no, she was looking at the great destroyer of the worlds. Her heart thumped. She wanted to look away, but couldn't tear her eyes away from the sheer majesty of the great dragon's body.

Mirithia was equally marvelous, though she didn't see any palaces of the gods from here. It miffed her, as what was the point of having telescopic eyes if she couldn't even spy on the gods' home? The giant planet, hung in the sky like the world's greatest disco ball, was covered in a haze of multicolored clouds. It was like seeing Jupiter if Jupiter had more than a dozen colored clouds.

Finally, she zoomed out and shut her eyes. When she opened them, something else caught her attention. Far in the distance, she saw white mountains. She frowned and zoomed in once again. She couldn't believe what her eyes were showing her...again.

It was an impossibly high ice wall that must've risen thousands of feet into the air. It wasn't like there was a mountain range with peaks and valleys. No, this was a solid wall that ended abruptly and went on forever, and even more amazing, it was made completely of ice.

Meera remembered that this moon or planet was covered entirely in ice, save for a thin green line around the equator. She figured that the ice wall was where the ice began. She turned and looked in the opposite direction, and as expected, the ice wall was there as well.

She nodded. And I'm standing in a dusty marketplace in an almost frozen world. Well, I've definitely seen it all now.

But then maybe not. Two columns of smoke rose into the sky like snakes coiling around each other. She took off at once. Running over the rooftops at top speed. She wanted to fly, but didn't want to draw that much attention to herself.

"Hey, get down from there," came a shout from below.

She didn't bother. After all, it was just an old man who shook her head and muttered something about youngsters.

It didn't take her long to arrive at the cause of the smoke, and once again, she was quite surprised. It was a massive clearing, which must've been the city square, and it was filled with people. They were packed in so tight that it was like a pickpocket's wet dream.

People of all ages were present—from the old to young children, and all of them cheered as they burned two men at the stake.

The two men were tied to the stake while piles of logs were scattered under their feet. A fire had been set in the logs, but it wasn't nearly big enough to engulf them fully.

An older man in pristine white clothes spoke in a voice loud enough to dwarf the people's cheering and the pleas of mercy from the condemned.

"By order of Prince Sekaramal, these two spies of the wretched Cervi kingdom shall be burned to death for the crime of spying, threatening to incite rebellion, and being a blight to our God."

"We're not Cervi," cried the thinner man. "Ah!" He flinched as the flames licked at his feet. "We're just servants of…" He screamed as the fire caught onto his pants.

"There, the heathen finally burns!" Cried the older man. "Cheer and rejoice, so our Prince knows his will has been carried out."

The crowd went manic as flames climbed up the two men's bodies. They burned and writhed in pain as the crowd just relished their pain, and then they hushed almost as one. The speaker smiled smugly as if his words were a prophecy that had come true.

The two burning men began to change. They jerked violently as their forms changed. Their upper bodies shot up, their faces extended into snouts, and horns erupted out of their heads. Then, they both laughed as one.

The taller of the two snapped his head to the crowd. "You may laugh and cheer at our deaths, but soon, this city will be nothing but a graveyard decorated by your corpses…"

Then he couldn't hold back his screams any longer. The flames climbed higher and higher until they were both engulfed by them.

Meera could watch no longer. She jumped off the roof and flew over the people's heads. They were all so busy shouting and cheering that no one noticed her. She hurled one chakram before dropping into the crowd. The ones closest to her gave her weird looks, but no one raised an alarm or ran to the guards.

Her chakram sliced the two half-man, half-stag's throats, and their suffering seized almost immediately, as did the crowd's cheers. A silence fell on the group. Then everyone started murmuring amongst themselves.

The man in white robes, who had to be a priest, walked closer to the post and squinted at the chakram wedged in it. He snapped his head to a lithe, demur woman who snapped her fingers, and the flames extinguished almost immediately.

The priest reached out and pulled out the chakram, which he held up to the crowd. "Who threw this…this weapon?" he shouted. "Who dares impede His Highness's justice?"

No one said anything for a long moment. There were many whispers, and people talked amongst themselves, but no one spoke up. The guards eyeballed the crowd, trying to find the culprit, but Meera was towards the back of the crowd. There was no way they would be able to find her out.

"Found her!" yelled the girl beside her as she thrust Meera's hand up in the air.

Her mirror chakrams jangled on her arms, shining brightly for all to see.

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