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I ended up having to call a cab from the office of the Araby Motel, a cheesy place opposite the 1001 Knights Hotel

The driver was snotty about giving a dog a ride, so Quicksilver had a good run home Luckily, we’d been on the south end of the Strip and Hector Nightwine’s estate wasn’t that far away for Quicksilver

In fifteenbronze horseates loo along to my more modest entry area down Sunset Drive to let e the security syste polite He could scale the eight-foot wall, but didn’t like to alarm the main house

After our unexpected nocturnal adventure, I ie treats and left hi out of his awesoue-tip

Upstairs, on er light caughtmirror at the hall’s end

I nodded at myself and moved on, absorbed

Wait!

The self I’d nodded at was nude!

I ducked back into the hall

Yup, the nude "me" in the mirror was as ashed as le of black on s Sure, I’d seen myself nude in a mirror before, but always critically: pale skin that would burn but not tan, the fairly tall fralass That’s why vintage clothing looked cool on me I’d always loved the looks of female Silver Screen stars To paraphrase Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, "They had faces then" They also had busts and hips, S curves and sensuous thighs But this ie wasn’t me It was me in a separate semblance This was Lilith Maybe I could tell by her faint blue aura Or the tiny blue topaz stud in her nostril Look at her and see me, once removed

I blushed to viewa hoe, a Blue Fairy with a star to wish upon

I forced e

"Are you e didn’t answer, but herme

"Lilith?" I hadn’t meant to sound either tentative or desperate But I did, both

Seeing this double of as to put up with such things as Count Dracula as an alarm clock

Her mouth mimicked my word Lil-ith

"Are you dead?"

She winked at me Assumed a fashiontrade, Lil," I told her "Too busty"

She stuck her tongue out at ic mirror had ever interacted so boldly with ed, lifted her dark eyebrows Eloquently, she asked without words Why speak?

"I need to know I’m not alone" I sounded needy, even to myself

Honesty seemed too much for her She looked aside, flashed her profile, which duplicated mine, and vanished

"Wait! Lilith!"

I rushed the ertips retreated The surface was not only warers and their reflection

The Enchanted Cottage ic-act h I’d learned that any mirror bowed to my presence, front-surface mirror seemed more powerful That was a fact I could use and build on Madrigal, the ician at the Gehenna, would know h-the-looking-glass antics in his stage mirror I wanted to know more about how and why

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall," Iof Lilith "Who’s the fairest of them all?"