For years it was so, the siblings frittering away their days in picnics, tournaments, and rambles in the coral woods. Always where the brother boldly led, the sister meekly followed.

In time, they matured, as hatchlings will, and the young man yearned for glory. Abiding by his sister’s sage counsel, he soon garnered great renown as a wanderer of worlds. How fervently the masses now vied for his favor. How fully his radiance eclipsed that of his reserved sister, whose prudent guidance had propelled him to this peak.

It was, perhaps, inevitable that he then no longer saw fit to acknowledge her.

Her brother’s disregard reduced the young woman to sheerest shadow, a never-ending new moon. Yet even the mildest of moons may in secret burn to swallow the arrogant sun.

One evening, while hunting for a misplaced trinket, the young woman chanced upon the looking glass in a drawer. Something shimmered up at her from its depths. Strange; should it not have misted over, as her brother had said? Gathering her caution, she grasped the serpentine handle.

The image gazing back from the glass wore the young woman’s face. Its hair and jewelry, too, were hers. Yet she did not recognize its diadem of multicolored roses, nor did she possess a choli the deep gray-green of a hurricane-tossed sea. And although she stood in her bedroom, the peculiar light of a gibbous moon glimmered behind her double—an invitation.

As the young woman watched, bitterness yielding to bewilderment, her reflection plucked a bunch of turquoise jewel-berries from a nearby bush and popped one into her merry mouth. She winked one kajal-lined eye.

I see you.

The young woman’s tail rippled in wonder. The looking glass had never been meant for her brother at all!

It soon became her sole source of pleasure. She drank in every detail as her double lingered with lovers, cavorted at carnivals, and dazzled crowds during storytelling duels. Such adventures her reflection had; such a luxuriant life she lived!

Always the young woman had slithered along in the grooves carved by her brother’s coils. Yet in the realm beyond the glass, she shone like a pearl at the center of a pendant.

If only she could climb into the mirror and claim that life.

When her brother returned from his voyage, he chanced upon her clutching the looking glass. His lip curled at the sight of his sister’s double. “What is this?”

Ever dutiful, the young woman shared her discovery with him.

“That is not you,” he declared with a frown, attempting to pry the mirror from her grip. “That is a bhootini, perhaps a demoness. Give up this foolishness at once!”

The young woman and her reflection exchanged smiles rich with meaning. “See for yourself, then,” the young woman challenged her brother.