I was halted before a tall, cracked mirror to my left, framed in tin. Even as I turned toward it I knew that it would not be me whom I regarded this time.

Nor was I mistaken. Coral was looking at me from out of the mirror. She had on a peach-colored blouse and was not wearing her eyepatch. The crack in the mirror divided her face down the middle. Her left eye was the green I remembered, her right was the Jewel of Judgment. Both seemed to be focused upon me.

“Merlin,” she said. “Help me. This is too strange. Give me back my eye.”

“I don’t know how,” I said. “I don’t understand what was done.”

“My eye,” she went on, as if she had not heard. “The world is all swarming forces in the Eye of Judgment, cold — so cold! — and not a friendly place. Help me!”

“I’ll find a way,” I said.

“My eye…” she continued.

I hurried by.

From a rectangular mirror in a wooden frame carved at its base in the form of a phoenix, Luke regarded me. “Hey, old buddy,” he said, looking slightly forlorn.

“I’d sure like to have my dad’s sword back. You haven’t come across it again, have you?”

“’Fraid not,” I muttered.

“It’s a shame to get to hold your present for such a short period of time. Watch for it, will you? I’ve a feeling it might come in handy.”

“I’ll do that,” I said.

“After all, you’re kind of responsible for what happened,” he continued.

“Right,” I agreed.

“…And I’d sure like to have it back.”

“Yeah,” I said, moving away.

A nasty chuckle emerged from a maroon-framed ellipse to my right. Turning, I beheld the face of Victor Melman, the shadow Earth sorcerer I had confronted back when my troubles were beginning.

“Son of perdition!” he hissed. “’Tis good to see you wander lost in Limbo. May my blood lie burning on your hands.”