Magnolia’s Glittering Reflections (pt 2)

Holding Clarice in her hand, Miho wandered through the palace’s immaculate hallways, brooming up any specs of glitter she may encounter. With her broom’s delicate magical bristles, she got rid of any glitter in an instant. Hanna however, isn’t so lucky. Clearing out glitter like this with a regular soft-bristled broom is no fun. She looked at Miho with a frustrated gaze, her face slightly pouting.

“Can I borrow your broom for a bit…”

That might be an interesting experiment.

“Sure… here you go,” Miho says as she hands Clarice to Hanna.

The girl held the broom in the air.

“This is surprisingly light,” she said as she played with the broom like a one-handed weight.

She put Clarice to the floor and started gently brushing it…. to absolutely no effect.

Hanna looked at her with a questioning expression.

“Am I doing something wrong?”

Miho shook her head.

“Just try to focus and brush harder.”

Hanna frowned her face while intensely staring at Clarice. She then started brushing at the glitter as hard as she possibly could.

Deeply pawning, Hanna collapsed on the still glittery floor, Clarice falling out her hand. She looked at Miho all exhausted.

Meanwhile, Miho started laughing. She crouched and lifted Clarice from the ground.

“My country's magical brooms only work for one person sadly… but who knows… we might be able to get you one at some point,” she said after she started brushing the floor again.

“You knew… all along…” Hanna muttered after which she got up and softly bumped her fist against Miho’s side.

“Please don’t trick me like that again!” she said while crossing her arms.

“You better start working again, we have a whole palace worth of glitter to clear out,” Miho said with a glimpse.

Silently, Hanna grabbed her own broom and continued brooming the elaborate flooring.

X

After an entire afternoon of cleaning, the palace’s hallways seemed as glittery as before. It seemed like they were making no progress at all…

Haven’t we cleaned this hallway already?

Miho thought as she turned around the corner.

“Hanna, come take a look,” she yelled.

“Do all these hallways just look alike or does the glitter keep reappearing?”

Hanna sat down on the floor, looking at the sealing.

“My head is hurting… is this what they call deja vu?”

This job may be a lot more difficult than it seemed…

“It looks like the glitter keeps reappearing… almost everywhere…” Hanna says, after which she turns her head.

“Except for the mirrors,” she added, looking into a big round mirror hanging on the wall.

Around it, Miho noticed an almost perfect circle of clean, glitterless floor. Almost like the mirror had absorbed it into its reflective surface.

I have to inspect these later.

It seemed clear to Miho that this glitter wasn’t caused by a party thrown by the princess’s staff. There was no way a couple of confetti cannons could cause an entire palace to be covered in this glittery mess. There must be some kind of magic involved, that also makes the glitter reappear.

Miho sighed, looking around.

The mirrors… they are our only clue…. or aren’t they?

She remembered the upper floors where the princess's office was located being practically covered in glitter, while the lower basement floors were pretty much clear. It seemed like the closer you got to the palace’s heart, the more glitter appeared.

The closer to the princess, the more glitter.

Speaking of the Magnolia princess…

“Oh, my little broomlings, could one of you please assist me and make me and Silverbell some nutritious delight?” Magnolia’s voice resounded through the long hallways.

Hanna raised her hand, like before.

“She cannot see you… you know,” Miho whispered.

“You’d better visit her and ask her what she’d like to eat, while I’ll continue brooming,” she added.

While Hanna was busy preparing dinner for the princess, Miho wandered the hallways looking for any type of mirror. No matter the size or height, there was not a hint of glitter in a small radius surrounding it.

Hanna is quite an attentive girl, isn’t she?

Miho grabbed one of the smaller mirrors and lifted it off the wall. There seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary, just an antique mirror like one that would be sold in a secondhand shop in her old world.

She ascended the stairs, leading up to the upper floor where the princess’s now empty office was located. Miho wanders in, searching for clues to this glittering mystery.

She saw her own silhouette appearing in a big silver floor-to-ceiling mirror hanging on the wall. Miho put her stretched-out hand against the mirror and felt it slightly putting in. A little ledge had appeared on the side. She put her fingers in and pulled.

The mirror opened like a big glass door, revealing a secret passageway leading into the darkness. After doubting for a brief second, her curiosity led her inside.

I better be quick.

The small, narrow passage leads her to a shadowy unsettling room. Inside it stood an old chair with a red velvet fabric riveted upon it. The chair faced yet another mirror, which looked quite different from the other mirrors in the palace, however.

Its reflections seemed imperfect, somewhat distorted. At the edges were vague, filled with something that looked like television noise. A slight multi-colored gloom emanates from it, giving the room a spooky hue.

It’s magical… isn’t it…

Miho moved her head closer to the mirror trying to get a better look. As she turned her head and looked at the mirror from different angles, the distortions slowly changed. She picked Clarice off her belt and held her in front of the mirror. This caused the mirror to distort even further, like holding a magnet against an old tube television.

The princess must use this magical mirror… for something.

Sadly there was no more time to investigate the mirror, as Miho heard a furious voice coming from the other side of the passageway.

“Pardon, me!” the princess yelled.

“How dare you, sneak into my secret hideout,” she added.

As Miho turned around to answer the princess, she saw an image appearing in the mirror. A frozen noblewoman with silver hair, locked up in a dark cavern. She tried to get a better look, but the image had already disappeared…

Did I see that right?

"May I ask what is holding you back?” the princess exclaimed while tipping her feet.

Still baffled by the vision of the women, Miho left the passageway.

“My apologies, I found this space by accident and wanted to make sure it was free of glitters,” she said while bowing.

The princess frowned.

“That word is not to be spoken so casually” she mumbled.

"Kindly disregard this entirely and proceed with your tasks downstairs, for I hardly perceive a difference."

“Yes I will, Your Majesty,” Miho responded after which she left the princess's office and took the stairs to the lower floor.

That was a close call, Miho thought as she continued to brush the floors. Her head still pondered about the magical mirror and the woman she saw within it. Who could she be? And does she have anything to do with princesses? Even more questions, and still no answers.

But one thing was certain, the glitter-free areas around the mirrors were no accident. The princess must use these mirrors for something, using a type of magic. Being new in this world, Miho didn’t know anything about the workings of it, so she could only speculate with what little knowledge she had.

It is like these mirrors absorb the glitter… that is made by the princess.

As Miho continued freeing the main hallway from glitter, the third time today, Hanna exited the door leading to the service wing.

“I tried my best, but the glitter kept sticking to the plates,” she said to Miho while bowing.

“No need to apologize to me,” Miho said as she continued cleaning.

After a bit more cleaning, Miho heard a big sigh resounding through the hallway.

“I had such great hopes for the two of you,” the princess mumbled as she moved closer.

She walked toward Miho and snatched Clarice from her hands.

“Let me try this myself”

She started aggressively brushing Clarice against the floor, to no avail. Just like with Hanna earlier that day, the broom’s magical powers didn’t work on anyone but Miho.

“This is utterly preposterous…you are making me look quite foolish!”

The princess threw Clarice on the ground and put her hands on her sides.

“I am certain that you are tricking me, casually scattering glitter like a unicorn walking through a flowery field! You are no better than the staff members I just let go of,” she angrily proclaimed.

“Your Highness, please calm down… you are concerning me,” Miho responded, after which she picked up Clarice.

“We try our utmost best, but the glitter keeps reappearing after a while,” Hanna said in honesty.

"I don't mind, I simply want it to be sparkling…, I mean, impeccably clean when I check on it next time. Understood?"

Reluctantly Miho nodded her head, Hanna looked like she could burst into tears any minute now.

As soon as the princess had left them alone, Miho put Clarice against the wall and whispered into Hanna’s ear.

“Let’s head home.”

Hanna looked at her with a surprised face.

“The princess is a nutcase… this isn’t worth our time. Even with the big payout,” Miho added, trying to explain herself.

“We can’t leave her in total distress like this, she is one of our country's icons.”

Miho rolled her eyes.

“You are way too nice…”

But Hanna continued talking.

“Not only that Miho, It would be a bad look for our business. This is what you always talked about frying bigger fish to get bigger rewards…. you don’t want to go back to cleaning villager’s home, don’t you?”

Miho let out a sigh.

“Well, it might be worth another try, but let me explain…”

She told Hanna about the magical mirror she found and her suspicion that the princess’s bad mood itself was causing her home to get lined with glitter.

“No amount of cleaning will fix this issue… we won’t be able to satisfy the princess’s demands no matter how hard we try.”

Hanna shook her head.

“That’s because you’re approaching this the wrong way, Miho. You’ve been so focused on cleaning up the aftermath that you are missing the root cause. The princess clearly isn’t feeling well.”

“I wonder what we can do to help,” Hana added while looking at the ground.

“I don’t know, we are just her cleaners, not her therapists,” Miho responded.

If therapists even exist in this world, that is.

“You always tell everyone you could clean up everything. What if we could clean up her bad mood?” Hanna said with an optimistic smile.

Miho looked at Clarice, the crystal lighting up because of all the glitter she cleaned up that day.

“Mmm… we might be able to do that… at least temporarily,” Miho said while tapping Hanna’s shoulder.