Nobody summons me on purpose.
I live in the accidental spaces between correct rituals.
My forms are as different as there are ways for a mirror unlocking to go awry.
So why did such an experienced one as you seem so sure of yourself, drawing those lines on mirrored glass?
The mirror opens wide to let me in.
But you don’t flinch as I get closer.
No panic. No rushed attempt to seal and banish. Instead you extend your arms wide as if to embrace the end that I bring.
However, I am no mindless force. I have been known to answer curiosity’s call.
Your eyes drink me in. You know what I am. You know that when I feed upon some inept mage, they experience a horror beyond death.
You are waiting for exactly that. Why?
Tentrils of my mist flow into your mouth, nose, and eyes. My touch is agony, I know, but am not capable of greater gentleness than this.
Your heart is a wasteland of despair. Your mind filled with self-loathing. These are alien feelings to one so complete in itself as I.
You were among the most accomplished mirror mages in your lifetime. Even creatures like myself can feel respect for your mastery of the rules that govern my kind.
Maybe it is some sort of pity that moves me, but it feels like a waste to make just another meal of you.
Not that what I have to offer as an alternative would be considered kindness by your kind.
Though perhaps it is with something analogous to affection that I wrap around you, cradle you in coils of my half-dream fog, and pull you back to my unreal domain.
In my embrace you will lose your mind. You will lose your body. You will lose every drop of humanity you possessed. Your soul will be pulled apart and twisted and reshaped into something like we who were never born, who discover ourselves within the twists of conceptual space.
As my creation, you will be tied to me forever. You will be an inhuman specter of limitless form, a lesser knotting of my greater tangle.
You will never again know self-doubt, but you will join me in preying on those who were once your kind.
And I am still hungry.