Once upon a time, there was a kingdom ruled by a darkly reflective queen.
There are no maps to the Mirrorlands. Some people say that all crossroads can lead to the Mirrorlands, but they are wrong. Only the road that splits into two and both sides look the same, their paths identical, leads to the Mirrorlands. It does not matter which path you take. Both will lead you there. There is no road not taken.
Once you reach the Mirrorlands, you will start to notice certain things. The road will become sinuous, each bend curving around obsidian hills, their dark edges sharp like knives. Do not attempt to climb the hills -- they do not allow anyone except for the Queen of Glass on their dark slopes and peaks.
Across the jagged chasms, you can see an identical road with identical obsidian hills. If you look close enough, you can even see yourself walking along that path, looking across the chasm at you.
I would not recommend doing this.
Reaching the middle of the Mirrorlands is a difficult journey. There are many places to get lost, places of confusion and obfuscation and bifurcation. There are alleys of antipodes, corridors of counterpoles, and roads of reversals.
There are some who say that the Mirrorlands are merely an expanse of desert, that the Queen of Glass created a storm that ground all of her glass mountains into sand, but they are wrong.
If you do reach the center of the Mirrorlands, you will find a place where the sky mirrors the ground and a palace so tall that it connects the two. If you walk into this palace, its huge double doors darkly gleaming, you will find that you have already arrived. The other you from the other road has opened the opposite door and also walks inside.
In-between the doors, in-between both of you, is the Queen of Glass. She smiles at both of you. She has two faces. She has infinite faces. Looking at her is like looking at a mirror reflecting back at itself.
Her scales shine luminously.
You are all around her now. As you approach her, more and more of you appear. Every piece of you, every moment of your life is here. Here is you as a child. Here is you as an adult. Here is you right before death.
If you reach to touch her, you will feel a cold serpentine tendril wrap around your body. It lifts you up and you can see it doing the same for every single one of you. And you will realize: every single moment of your life now leads to this. Every moment is mirrored within the Queen of Glass.
She is you.
The light will leave your eyes. This is the way out of the Mirrorlands. This is the way forward. This is the way to leave a reflection. There is no light.
If you choose to go the Mirrorlands, you will find the only way out is to replace yourself. The only way out is to choose the dark mirror. There is no way out at all.
