Lawrence held a small handheld mirror, and within it, the image of Martha materialized, surrounded by a swirling abyss of dense black fog. “Can you see the lights in the distance?” Her ethereal voice reached his ears.
“I can,” Lawrence replied, looking up. The vast expanse of dark shadows over the sea resembled a city skyline, though its details were obscured. The water below reflected bright lights from the docks and buildings at the city’s edge. The White Oak moved steadily toward this mysterious scene, with no visible crew guiding its course. Ghostly ship apparitions floated on the distant sea, frozen as if in a fierce naval battle. Amid this blend of light and shadow, reality and illusion, Lawrence felt an eerie sense of becoming spectral himself. “Such a strange sight… So this is how the world looks from within the mirror…”
“In your view, the light and shadow are inverted, but to me, it looks normal. However, this will change soon,” Martha said with a soft smile. “Get ready. We’re docking soon at an abandoned pier on the southern edge of the east dock. I’ll guide the ship close to an entry point for sewer maintenance. Bring your mirror. I’ll lead you to the Second Waterway.”
“Once we arrive… the other entities will react, won’t they?” Lawrence couldn’t hide his anxiety. “If we can’t fend them off, you must retreat with the White Oak and Black Oak. At this pace, those constructs won’t be able to stop us.”
Martha rolled her eyes. “Obviously, I’m not an idiot. My job is to get you here and buy us some time. I don’t plan to destroy the entire counterfeit fleet with just our phantom twin ships. They’re indestructible; they can’t be fully defeated.”
Lawrence nodded, then looked behind him.
Anomaly 077 was crouched on the deck, playing with a rope he’d found. Occasionally, he glanced up at the White Oak’s chimney and flagpole, looking puzzled.
“Do people in your time no longer hang wayward sailors from the mast?” the mummy asked doubtfully.
“Are you still obsessed with your hangman’s knot?” Lawrence responded brusquely. “Put down that rope, find the first mate for a cutlass and some ammo. We’re preparing to disembark.”
“I used to just slip on the noose and doze off. Why doesn’t it work now…” Anomaly 077 grumbled, then realized, “Disembarking?! Are you taking me along again?”
“It seems fitting to use a supernatural anomaly to tackle an eccentric city-state,” Lawrence said sternly. “We’re infiltrating the core of Frost through the Second Waterway. Go arm yourself.”
Caught off guard, the Sailor froze for a moment before standing up. “Aye, Captain!”
The White Oak was slowly approaching the reverse darkness, nearing the shimmering lights on the sea’s surface. A formidable landing team had gathered on deck, standing resolute behind Lawrence.
First Mate Gus was notably absent because Lawrence had assigned him to stay aboard the ship.
With a somber air, the seasoned captain gave his orders. “A fierce battle looms. The forged warships near the port will attack the White Oak and Black Oak. You need to stay on the ship, guiding our defense. Prolong the engagement as long as possible. If it gets too dangerous, retreat with Martha.”
“I understand,” Gus replied with a nod, though he couldn’t help but glance worriedly at the “Sailor” who was trying to familiarize himself with his new weapon. “But… is he reliable?”
Lawrence turned to look back, and Anomaly 077 – Sailor – also raised his gaze to meet the old captain’s. The mummy had a cutlass at his waist but tossed the rifle and ammo bag he was holding onto a nearby barrel, grumbling, “I’m fine with just the cutlass. I don’t know how to use this contraption.”
“Suit yourself, if you’re confident a cutlass is all you need to navigate the mirrored city’s Second Waterway,” Lawrence said nonchalantly. “Someone who doesn’t know how to use a firearm could indeed cause more harm than good.”
The Sailor pondered for a moment, decided against the rifle, but retrieved another cutlass from a nearby crate to strap onto his belt.
Lawrence refrained from commenting, merely lowering his gaze to study his own hand as he opened and closed them. With some difficulty, while regulating his breath, he visualized a blazing phantom ship, recalling the sensation of being engulfed in flames and the transformation that followed.
After a moment, he noticed a faint green glow weaving through the lines on his palm, as though small flames were gently flowing along those routes.
The deck beneath him started to vibrate subtly as the White Oak began its braking procedure. The nebulous darkness outside the hull was now within reach, and Martha’s voice echoed from the small mirror fastened to his chest: “Attention, we are about to dock. Once we have, I will reverse the images again and dispel the twin projection. Disembark from the left and proceed straight ahead. I will guide your path.”
“I’m ready.” Lawrence exhaled softly, making his way towards the ship’s edge.
“I’m ready too!” Anomaly 077 declared, following closely behind the captain. His hoarse and solemn voice was laced with excitement and anticipation, “Land ahoy! Prepare for combat! The pirates are coming!”
“We’re not pirates,” Lawrence retorted, glancing back at the mummy, “We are honorable sailors.”
“Docking imminent,” Martha’s voice resonated almost instantaneously from the mirror, “Three, two, one… Invert!”
Suddenly, the world around Lawrence seemed to convulse, light and shadow oscillating wildly, reality and illusion switching places.
The environment around Lawrence seemed to flicker and waver. Then, in a split second, the reflections in the sea ascended, and the darkness confronting him receded as though he had passed through an unseen mirror in an instant. The frost-bitten docks and piers surfaced before him, and the damp, chilly sensations that clung to him as if he were drenched in seawater evaporated instantly!
The following second, he spotted a shadow taking form on the sea’s surface adjacent to the White Oak, the silhouette of the Black Oak emerging from the shadow rapidly.
Following the inversion of light and shadow, the Black Oak simultaneously discarded its mirrored state along with the White Oak, appearing on the sea’s surface as a twin ship ready to battle alongside its counterpart.
Columns of light pierced the sky from the dock instantaneously, sirens blared from distant streets and alleys, frenzied gusts of wind whirled in the port, and the thunderous sounds of ship cannons reverberated from afar, creating an atmosphere of tumultuous chaos.
Had the reaction been this instantaneous?!
A surge of surprise flashed through Lawrence’s mind, but he responded rapidly. He thrust the rope ladder down and was the first to charge forth: “Advance!”
The landing party, a contingent of a dozen or so proficient sailors, surged onto the dock and adhered to the path marked out by Martha, moving towards a distant junction. As was only fitting, Lawrence spearheaded the group.
The biting wind howled in his ears, and the distant sirens and gunfire echoed with a distorted, sporadic rhythm. Beneath the tumultuous, dim-lit sky, Lawrence sprinted fervently through this ghostly city distorted by mirrors, a revolver clutched in one hand and a sword in the other.
Martha’s voice continued to guide him: “Turn left at the upcoming intersection, circumvent the guard post… press forward, take the alley to the right, the entrance lies at the end…”
Behind him was the chaotic cadence of the sailors’ hasty footsteps. In his hands, reliable armaments. In his ears, the seamless voice of his beloved.
As Lawrence ran, his speed increased as if the fatigue and exhaustion amassed over decades had evaporated from his body. He could feel his heart pounding with the vivacity of his youth, blood pulsating through his veins with the vigor of his prime years.
He had returned to his glorious heydays!
He strode forward, swinging his arms, and a ghostly green flame flickered into existence behind him. As he moved, green flames began to adorn each sailor around and behind him, casting spectral illusions onto their tangible bodies.
Anomaly 077’s voice heightened into a cry: “Captain! I’m terrified!”
“Stay with the team if you’re scared!” Lawrence retorted, grinning widely, his voice brimming with an indescribable sense of delight, “This city can’t hold us back!”
As Anomaly 077 sprinted alongside Lawrence, he continued to cry out: “What frightens me is you all!”
“Well, then you’d better adjust, because neither I nor you are retiring anytime soon!”
Lawrence retorted boisterously, perhaps even joyfully, unperturbed by the fact that his loud voice might expose their location or that his gleeful run through the streets might attract the city’s “guards”. Because, from the very outset, this mission was never about “infiltration” or stealth – their presence was detected the instant they set foot in the mirror city.
“The streets are becoming increasingly foggy!” he shouted, observing the intensifying mist. “Martha, is this normal?”
“The fog signals a threshold. Continue moving forward and ignore the fog leaking in from the real world. The destination is just ahead.”
“Understood!” Lawrence responded with robust enthusiasm, directing the sailors towards the encroaching whiteness. As they ventured deeper into the mist, a multitude of grotesque figures began to rise. They possessed distorted bodies and an irregular number of eyes. They roared and mumbled incoherently within their viel, staggering forward ominously.
Lawrence prepared to raise his gun, but before he and the sailors could even pull the trigger, a flurry of rapid gunfire echoed from the other end.
Suddenly, a mechanical behemoth resembling a gargantuan spider emerged from the white cloak, and city soldiers, armed to the teeth, hastily constructed a line around the towering creature. The rifles in their hands and the formidable gun turret mounted on top of the mechanical beast spat out incandescent flames, immediately ripping the advancing monsters to pieces.
Lawrence sprinted past the periphery of this sudden combat zone, gazing in astonishment at the newly materialized city defenders. However, just as quickly as they had appeared, the soldiers and the mechanized behemoth vanished back into the dense whiteness, leaving only a pile of chaotic rubble in their wake.
“We’ve arrived, this is the sewer entrance. Follow it till the end, and you’ll find an elevator that leads straight to the Second Waterway!”
Quite hard to visualize how the mirrored view of the real world must look like, what I thought of was something similar to a picture with inverted colors…
Ps: Martha’s name is sometimes written as Marsha
I wonder if the cultists unexpectedly gave the city extra defenders with copies XD
i would really laugh if they had to fight 2500 sets of queens guards… over half century. just imagine if the queens ploy was to use their mechanism against them.