No response. Which made her want to scream just a little. She wondered how many rocks it would take to break every mirror in this cursed place.

Aria moved to stand beside Allegro, slinking one long, slender arm over her shoulder. Rather than closing her eyes, however, she stared right at Bryony in the mirror, a small, mischievous smile curling her perfect lips. “We had a grand time, didn’t we?” she said.

“Not the word I would choose. Maybe next time you can enter the Vast Reaches of Despair while I watch.”

“I would like that very much,” Aria said, eyes still fixed on her. If there were ever a staring contest, Bryony suspected the creepy woman would win it easily. Bryony closed her own eyes, preferring the darkness to being assaulted by someone’s stare. Silence drew itself out for seconds that turned to minutes, the monotony finally ended when the echo of footsteps arose, coming closer.

As she opened her eyes, Ludo’s reflection appeared in the mirror with Crescendo behind him, and only then did Bryony allow herself a full breath, though she didn’t realize she’d been holding herself back until that very moment. Ludo flashed her a smile, but she could tell there was something different about it, an uneasiness that wasn’t usually there. What horrors had he experienced during his augury? Nothing good, that was for damn sure.

At last, Allegro moved, her eyes opening slowly, her body seeming to unlock itself from whatever frozen fugue it had been in. “Your auguries are now complete. You may leave,” she said.

“Wait,” Bryony said, hearing the disbelief in her own voice. “That’s it? You speak a bunch of cryptic words, march us down tunnels where we fight monsters and get chopped into pieces, and then give us the proverbial boot? Do I have that right?”

“You’re oversimplifying things, but that is the gist, yes. Did your augury not give you what you thought it would?”

“It gave me pain and horror, so no, sorry if I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Hmm, I find that hard to believe. For it’s not the Daughters of Ereniel who create your augury, nor our patroness goddess.”

“Then who do I have to thank for this wonderful experience? I’d love to convey my utmost gratitude.”

Allegro smiled a beautiful smile. “Yourself. For your augury was your own creation. And destruction. What you choose to do with it is also up to you.”

“Wonderful,” Bryony said, looking for something to hit. She had a feeling that shattering a bunch of glass mirrors wouldn’t provide the satisfaction she was looking for.

“Let’s just go,” Ludo said. “We did what we came here to do.”

It wasn’t the worst advice he’d ever given, and yet something held her back, memories of those winged terrors fluttering about in the shadows of her mind. “No,” she said.