Adrian didn't touch the mirror again for four days. It sat locked in its fireproof box in the back of his closet, radiating a faint, persistent pressure through the steel. It wasn't aggressive like the sleeping horror beneath the manhole cover, but patient. It was waiting for him to want something badly enough to reach for it.
He brought Reyes and Sophia to a condemned lot two blocks from his training space—wide open, empty, and far from spectators. Reyes set up a borrowed DODC sensor array, while Sophia poured a careful salt circle around the stone where they placed the box.
"If this thing does something to you," Sophia said, "I want to be close enough to pull you back."
"I appreciate it," Adrian replied. "Though I'm less thrilled about the salt circle's scientific rigor."
"Folklore is just science that hasn't caught up with cursed spirits yet," she countered flatly.
Adrian opened the box with cursed energy coiled at his fingertips. The clouded smoke across the mirror's face immediately intensified, swirling with eager anticipation.
[WARNING: DIVINATORY CURSED OBJECT DETECTED]
[ORIGIN: COLLECTIVE LONGING FOR THE MISSING AND PRESUMED DEAD]
[EFFECT: GRANTS VISION OF DESIRED SUBJECT. SUSTAINED CONNECTION DRAINS VIEWER'S LIFE FORCE]
A scrying mirror, Adrian realized. Born from thousands of people desperately hoping their loved ones survived the invasion. The Collector had sent an artifact specifically designed to weaponize grief.
"It shows you someone you've lost," Adrian warned, keeping his voice level. "And the longer you look, the more life it drains."
Reyes's sensors spiked. "Energy signature is climbing."
The mirror's pull settled behind Adrian's sternum like a physical ache. He stared at the shifting glass, his mind racing. Would it show my old life? My parents? The version of me that died in a hospital bed back on Earth?
His hand hovered three inches from the glass before he consciously registered reaching out.
Then Sophia's hand locked around his wrist.
"Adrian," she said quietly. "Whatever you're looking for... is it going to help you? Or is it just going to hurt?"
Adrian swallowed hard and pulled his hand back. "It won't help," he admitted, his voice tight. "It'll just show me people I can't save, or comfort, or even properly grieve."
Sophia squeezed his hand, grounding him. "Whatever it shows isn't real. It's just a wound reopened by something that profits off the blood."
They dismantled the curse over the next hour. Guided by Reyes's readings, Adrian used his newly acquired Straw Doll technique—applying precise resonance pulses to sever the curse's core binding without looking into the glass.
The dark mist dissolved, leaving behind ordinary, tarnished silver.
[ +21 EXP ]
[SKILL PROGRESS: STRAW DOLL TECHNIQUE (PARTIAL) IMPROVED THROUGH APPLICATION]
"Your secret admirer sent a personalized grief-trap," Sophia said, packing away her salt. "That's calculated."
"It's a safe bet," Adrian said, staring at the inert glass. "Every person in this city lost someone during the invasion. They didn't need to know my specific past—just that I was carrying a ghost."
Reyes secured the mirror in a containment pouch. "Whoever sent this is playing a long game, Hayes."
"Let them," Adrian said, stepping into the cool evening air alongside Sophia. "They're going to find out I'm a lot harder to break than they think."