The Tale of Zefelle's Mirror
A long, long time ago, in the early days of Gelmorra, there lived a powerful mage named Zefelle. She was among the best and the brightest, a radiant star of our people. Zefelle was tasked to fortify the wards of Gelmorra against the Elder Water Elemental, for this element had proven to be a difficult one to overcome. Water is patient and ever in motion, wearing away even the greatest of mountains and shaping the deepest caverns.Zefelle spent many moons on the problem, working with her apprentices, trying all sorts of runes and spell constructs, arcane circles, glyphs, and calculations. The moons slowly became a turn, and then another, but she had little to show for it.The Elder Water Elemental’s rage sent floods and torrents of rain, the wards struggled, and frequently failed. Gelmorra itself was struggling to keep its head above water, its people suffering losses and disease, sub-surface crops failing. The Elders leaned ever harder on Zefelle to find a solution.Zefelle, thus weighed down with the desperation of her people, forced to see their sorrow, pain, and suffering, began to sink into despair as desperation drove her beyond the limits of mortal magics.Now, here the stories differ from place to place.During a terribly, stormy night, water oozing its way into the depths once more, the thunder roaring in the skies so loud it could be heard, nay, even felt in the depths, Zefelle dreamed.She dreamed of a dark world, with no light, everything in ruin and decay. In that darkness she heard a voice, a voice like great stones grinding against each other. At first she could not understand, nor could she tell from whence the voice came.Zefelle called and shouted, what could this mean ? Was this to be Gelmorra’s fate ? Was that what the voice was telling her ? …then it spoke again, as though it stood right beside her, speaking into her ear. It spoke to her of salvation, of old magic…and of mirrors.”It was all Zefelle could do not to weep in joy, “I will do anything, anything, what must I do to save my people !” She pleaded, even as the hairs rose on the back of her neck in primordial warning.“Bind your soul with mine, and I will grant you the knowledge and power you need to save your home from this fate.”Zefelle woke with a terrible start and for many suns after she pondered over the dream. Had it been a dream or had it been something else ? For she knew there were dark beings that lived in the void, twisted, foul things, but powerful. If it had been real, if it had been a creature of the void, if it was, could she use it somehow ? So she began to craft a plan.Zefelle returned to the Elders and asked them to build her a mirror of water. The stone masons of Gelmorra carved for her a chamber, in which a central structure held a shallow pool of the clearest, cleanest water, smooth, pale stones lining its form. When Zefelle dreamed again of the dark place and the voice of grinding stones, she was prepared.She called out to the voice, “I am returned, I would know your bargain before I agree to it.” The voice rumbled back to her, vibrating through her very bones. “I will grant you the knowledge and power to save your home, in return I ask that you bind your soul to mine that I may traverse the darkness into the light.”This was much as Zefelle had expected, and so she told the dark voice. “Then our souls shall be bound and our fates shared, to save my people and to traverse the darkness into the light. Tell me what I must do and three suns hence it shall be so.”Three suns hence, she stood in the mirror of water, barefoot with the ceiling of the structure covered in runes and glyphs that seemed to slither though they did not move…all perfectly reflected in the water. The light of a single lantern all that stayed the darkness from her.Zefelle did just as she had been bade, the lantern flickered as the shadows beyond grew deeper and deeper. In the centre of her runes and glyphs she could feel the being pulling through, traversing the darkness into the light. Pain as nothing she had known before coursed through her veins and stole the breath from her lungs.The voice of stone and darkness cried in delight, cackling over its victory, its soul entwined with Zefelle’s. Its spiteful laugher was soon cut short as it realised it could not move, the body was not under its control. Horror strangled its glee, “What is this ? What have you done to me ?” It wailed, from Zefelle’s own lips. Calmly Zefelle said, “I have done as you asked, your soul is bound to mine, you have traversed the darkness into the light and now you are bound to fulfill your oath, for it is written here in these very runes, our contract binding.”The being screeched, and realised only then that while their souls were bound, Zefelle had bound her body to the mirror and spoke through her own reflection. No ! No ! It wailed, how could it have been thus tricked ?Zefelle gained what she needed, and used the knowledge and power to create the ward runes we know today that hold back the Water Elements. She paid a terrible price however, for she had bound herself to darkness and knew she could never again walk among her people.The Elder’s, her apprentices, and the people rejoiced, but when they went to seek the Great Zefelle, in her mirror chamber, she was nowhere to be found. They searched and searched, seeking high and low over all Gelmorra, but she was never seen or heard from again. Her fate remains a mystery to this day. Some believe she disappeared into her mirror, and that on tumultuous, stormy nights, you could still hear her voice and maybe even catch a glimpse of her in the waters when the mirror was covered in darkness.