But there was a shadow in the water, a slowly heaving movement that twisted sinuously behind and around the face and figure of the prince. It never fully surfaced, but its shifting flow gave glimpses of the powerful shape of a beast with a long body, half-folded wings, and a narrow, golden head with slender horns and elegant whiskers.

Stepping closer, she stared with both utter delight at its fluid movement and awe at its beauty. She breathed, wonderingly, “Is that a dragon?”

“Come. Another step forward,” he said coaxingly.

With the step, her own head and torso appeared in the mirror next to the prince’s reflection. Same old El in most ways: round face, green eyes, the wavy, finger’s-length scar that ran from beneath her left ear to curl up behind the lobe, out of sight. Of course she was older now than the little girl who had first seen her own reflection in a pure-water pool beneath a full moon so many years ago. She’d gotten tall, but not unusually so; lean from all the walking but with the healthy look of someone who now gets enough to eat every day. Her hair had grown out, black and so tumultuously curly that she kept it braided back to get it out of her face. As children, her and Ao’s heads had been shaved every full moon. Long hair meant freedom, even if it took a lot longer to care for. The same measuring gaze, scanning for danger, but a mouth ready to smile because life was too short not to smile.

But one thing was different, from then to now, from a child of about five to a woman in her early thirties. In the center of her torso twined the wispy outline of the viper, clearly visible. Back then, there had been no viper, only a pale egg-seed tucked next to her heart, like a Spore. She pressed a hand to her own chest as the viper stirred, for it could taste the emanation of the pure-water, which was both poison and cure.

The haunt gave a nod, inviting her to speak.

She said, “The only other time I saw it inside me, it was a seed like an egg nestled into my heart. I was just a little girl. I didn’t know what it was or that it would—that it could—hatch. How does the mirror make it visible?”

“The moon mirror shows us our essence. When did you see yourself before?”

The memory slipped free. “It was a long time ago. I had this scar then, too. I remember noticing it because it was so prominent even in the reflection, red and raw, but I don’t remember getting it. All I remember is standing on the shore of a pool, under the moon, and the pool became a mirror like this one, and I saw myself.”