The moment you enter the next room, a green gas begins to seep through vents in the floor. Your snouts and lungs are choked by a foul odor unlike any your party has ever smelled before, even those who have encountered the dead. The entrance to the next chamber is near, but you’re beginning to feel faint.

✦•······················•✦•······················•✦

“Snap out of it!” Hiraeth called out suddenly, being the first to break free from the enchanting sights shown by the mirror. Seeing how the rest of her group were still engrossed in the fantasies, she decided to start dealing… ekhem, helping them out one by one. 

With R’yaženka, she was a bit more careful, gently tugging at her girlfriend’s ear with her teeth. Thankfully, since the white mare was shorter than her, it wasn’t such a hard task.

“That mirror… is truly a despicable artifact.” R’yaženka coughed, getting out of the daze, feeling the skin of her cheeks burn in embarrassment underneath her white coat, remembering what the mirror showed her.

“Good. You’re back to being yourself.” The piebald mare whinnied, nodding her head appreciatively. “Now to get these two out of it…” Hiraeth sighed in exasperation.

“Don’t count me.” Aelin’s voice rang out as the tall mare stood by the side of her companions, not a sight of the mirror’s influence on her. She truly had a strong, unwavering mind… But was anyone surprised at this point?

“Hey, snap out of it.” Hiraeth tugged on Phainon’s tail, grunting. The Courser was immovable. “They turned into a statue, or something?” She scoffed, and only after she bit them in the rear, was when Phainon returned to reality.

⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆

The group left a warning note for future adventurers that would stumble upon the mirror room. And while Hiraeth preferred to kick it and shatter it completely, everyone was aware about the superstitions regarding cracking mirrors… After their earlier fight with The Skull, they’d rather not risk it.

As soon as they entered the next room after a longer passage, an unexpected green gas started to seep through the vents in the floor, taking the party off-guard.

“What the…!?” Phainon groaned. The odour was nothing like they have ever felt before, and surely, they had experience with dead bodies - but even them didn’t smell that bad.

“Gah… Fuck.” While R’yaženka didn’t curse often, today was the day, as the foul smell went deeper into her nostrils, making her feel faint. The odour was choking, the white mare feeling as if it’s going to overwhelm her any second now. 

“There is… an entrance to another chamber in front of us!” Aelin coughed more, holding her breath, but even that wouldn’t help for long. They just had to make a run for it, and hope for the best… But they’ve gotten out of worse things in the past. Surely a bit of a foul smell, that was worse than the smell of 10 rotting Coursers, wasn’t anything that bad, right? Gah, they just wanted out of here!

The party quickened their pace, their eyes focused on the entrance to the next chamber, which was their only hope now, like an oasis in the middle of a desert, enticing them with the promise of fresh water - or in this case, fresh air.