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Noé followed Domi down an unfamiliar corridor of Teacher’s castle. It seemed that whenever Noé thought he had finally uncovered all the secrets his new home had to offer him, a new one popped right up underneath his nose. Domi led him down a corridor he had missed in the castle’s east wing – accessible through an exterior entrance close to the servant’s quarters – chattering as they walked.
“Have you heard of reflection mirrors?” Domi asked him, stopping at the end of the hall, looking between the left and right turns, as if trying to remember which way to go. After a moment, as Noé began to answer, she made up her mind and dragged him down the right hallway.
“Reflection mirrors?” Noé parroted, not completely sure what Domi was talking about. “Don’t all mirrors have reflections?” Domi laughed her wind-chime laugh, and shook her head.
“These aren’t like normal mirrors,” Domi corrected, peering at every door, a thoughtful look on her face. “They’re special mirrors – when you look in it, you see the reflection of the person who’s your soulmate! And in every reflection you see after that, you’ll always see your soulmate’s reflection as well, right up until the day you meet!”
“Oh!” Noé knew what Domi was talking about, now that she had described it. “Grandma and Grandpa told me about those. They called them ‘union mirrors’ though. You know, because they were supposed to bring about happy unions between people.”
“Really?” Domi stopped, looking back at Noé with a surprised look on her face, one hand pressed on a door. “I was always told that humans were too barbaric and uncivilized to have soulmates.”
“Of course not.” Noé denied, pushing down the feeling of upset rising in his chest. He had long since learned not to take too much hurt from Domi or Louis’ callous remarks about humans – it was just how they were raised. They weren’t like him, they hadn’t had upfront, constant contact with humans. All they knew were stories passed on from their parents and Teacher, and other vampires, all of whom Noé had learned looked down upon humans. “Everyone has a soulmate. Who would you be, without one? They’re supposed to make you whole – complete you.” That’s what Grandma and Grandpa had always said, anyways.
“Like Vanitas, that’s who you’d be,” Domi said with an assured confidence, pushing the door to the room open, and dragging Noé inside.
“Vanitas?” Noé questioned, confused. “As in, Vanitas of the Blue Moon?”
“Is there any other Vanitas I’d be talking about?” Domi replied, looking at Noé with a confused look of her own. “Everyone knows that one of the reasons Vanitas was exiled was due to the fact that upon looking in a reflection mirror, there was no reflection but his own.” She spoke it factually, as if she were reciting from a book.
“But everyone has a soulmate!” Noé blustered.
“Not Vanitas of the Blue Moon,” Domi insisted.
“If he didn’t have a reflection, that just means that whoever was supposed to be his soulmate died!” Noé argued. “It doesn’t mean that he never had a soulmate.”
“Wouldn’t the mirror still show who your soulmate was supposed to be then, even if they died already?” Domi challenged. “Until you found out they were dead?”
“Why would the mirror show you someone who was already dead?” Noé asked, less challenging and more of an honest question, less certain than he was before. “Wouldn’t it be sadder to get your hopes up of having a soulmate, and then finding out they were dead, rather than looking at the mirror and knowing right away they were already dead?”
Domi had no response to that, and in her silence, Noé chose to look around the room she had brought him to. It was dusty, like it had been used in a long time, and it was filled a bunch of seemingly random items. Whatever Domi’s reason for bringing them down here, it wasn’t immediately clear to Noé.
When Noé put a voice to his confusion, she pointed to a sheet covered item standing near the middle of the room.
“That’s Grandfather’s reflection mirror,” She explained, leading the way as she picked her way through the room with delicate precision.
“Ok…” Noé followed her footsteps, not using the same precision as her, accidentally bumping into several other objects precariously left around the room. He still wasn’t quite sure why the were down there. After all, “Isn’t looking in a union – I mean, reflection – mirror supposed to be an important coming of age thing?”
It was for humans, anyways. Even after almost two years, Noé was still navigating the cultural divide between humans and vampires, and he wasn’t sure if vampires held union mirrors to the same significance as humans did. From what Domi had said before, about Vanitas of the Blue Moon, it had sounded like they did.
“What no one knows won’t hurt them,” Domi pouted. “Come on, you can’t tell me that you aren’t curious about who your soulmate is. One little peek won’t hurt!”
Well, Domi had a point. One little peek wouldn’t hurt in the grand scheme of things… And Noé did want to know who his soulmate was…
“Okay,” Noé gave in, looking at the pleased smile on Domi’s face, and feeling a bubble of happiness swell a little in his chest. “One little peek.”
“Great!” She beamed, reaching for one corner of the sheet covering the mirror, gesturing for Noé to take the other corner. “On the count of three. Ready?” Noé nodded, and they started counting aloud together.
“Un, deux-”
“So you two are down here. I thought as much.”
Noé and Domi both yelped, falling backwards as Louis’ voice shattered the stillness of the room. They both looked towards the door, staring at Domi’s older brother, leaning against the doorframe, silhouetted in darkness by the dim light from the hall. Domi puffed out her cheeks, obviously unhappy that her brother had found them. Noé wasn’t too sure as to why – they could have very easily invited Louis on this adventure with them, and in fact he had suggested as much when they first embarked on the journey through the east wing, but Domi had stalwartly refused.
“What do you want Louis?” Domi asked, picking herself gracefully up off the floor, Noé scrambling to his feet as well. Louis jerked his head out to the hall.
“Grandfather’s looking for you.” Noé wasn’t sure who he was talking to, not exactly, as he couldn’t see where Louis was looking with how he was standing in shadow, until he clarified, “Both of you.”
“Why?” Domi asked suspiciously, like she thought Louis was lying, as she navigated her way back out of the room. Noé followed close behind on her heel, hoping that by stepping exactly in her footsteps, he wouldn’t knock anything over or out of place. At the door, Louis shrugged.
“He didn’t tell me.” He replied. “Why don’t you just go find out?” Domi huffed, stomping out of the room.
“Come on Noé.” Domi said, not quite huffy but very close, starting off angrily down the hall. Noé looked between her and Louis, not sure if he should say something, but Louis shook his head, giving one of his empty smiles, and gestured after his sister. Noé took the cue for what it was and hurried after Domi, while Louis remained behind, at the door.
Two things occurred when a member of nobility had their sixteenth birthday. The first thing was their official presentation to society. It was a grand festivity, with countless other noble families there to acknowledge the new socialite, and plenty of food and dancing to be had, and no end to the people willing to dance with them.
The second thing, that Dominique had both been looking forward to and dreading almost more than her presentation to society, was the reflection mirror. At sixteen, one was deemed old enough to gaze into their family’s reflection mirror and find out who was destined to be their soulmate. Only the person looking into the mirror could see their soulmate’s reflection, and it was up to them to announce to the family whether or not they already knew who their soulmate was.
If yes, for nobility, it was common to set up a meeting with the soulmate’s family and a handfasting date as soon as possible. A way of flaunting status, if one would.
If no, the reflection had to be described in as much detail as possible, so the family could start the search for their child’s soulmate.
Dominique, standing to the side of the sitting room her parents had set up the reflection mirror in, desperately wished she and Noé hadn’t been interrupted those years before, when she took them to look at Grandfather’s mirror. She wished Noé was here, but her father had expressly forbade it as he was not a member of the family. (Dominique had requested Noé to escort her to her presentation ceremony the week prior, but her father had forbade it then as he was not of age and thusly had not had his own presentation ceremony, but Dominique knew that Grandfather had never cared about those things. Noé’s status as the last Archiviste or not, she’d bet her shoes that Grandfather wouldn’t bother having a presentation ceremony for him next year.)
Dominique wished, instead of standing in her family’s stuffy sitting room, she was standing in her grandfather’s dusty old room in his unused east wing, standing in front of that reflection mirror, with only Noé there beside her, instead of here, flocked by her parents, maids, and Veronica.
Her father gestured for her to step in front of the mirror, and Dominique took a deep breath. She kept her gaze to her shoes as she took her place in front of the mirror. Taking another deep breath, Dominique closed her eyes and let it out slowly, as she lifted her head up. All she had to do was treat it like she was eight again and ripping a scab off. She clenched her hands tightly before letting them drop by her sides, and ripped the scab off, looking to the side of her own reflection.
Her heart leapt to her throat, and stayed there. If there were tears in her eyes, she did not acknowledge them, and did not see them. She had told herself that it would be foolish to get her hopes up, to think that her soulmate would be who she so desperately wanted it to be, but things were not in her favor. It seemed that, even so many years later, fate had one more cruel trick to play on her.
“Well?” Dominique thought she heard someone say, but she couldn’t be too sure, as there seemed to have been a wasp that took up residence in her ears. “Who is it?”
She couldn’t form words. She felt like she couldn’t do anything, but even as she thought that, her body found it could do one thing – it turned on her heel, and she raced out of the sitting room before anyone could say anything, before anyone could stop her.
Dominique flew down the halls of her family’s home, eyes drawing unbidden to the windows blurring by her. Her soulmate’s reflection followed her like a wraith, and she wondered, if this was how those afflicted by Vanitas’ curse felt like.
It was a bit of a surreal experience, truth be told, for Vanitas to be standing in The Shapeless One’s mansion. What made it an even more surreal experience was that for once, Vanitas had to begrudgingly admit, he was the one who was lost instead of Noé.
An odd series of events had led them to be at what could be loosely referred to as Noé’s childhood home in located the forest of Averoigne. If Vanitas had had any say in where they stayed the evening, he would have vastly preferred to stay in the village just outside the forest, or risk the creatures within it, rather than run the chance of meeting The Shapeless One. The stories Vanitas had heard of the vampire were widely varied, but he was in no distinct rush to separate fact from fiction.
While Noé had gone to greet the servants that maintained and kept up the mansion, Vanitas had chosen to stroll around the grounds a bit. No more than a half an hour had passed before the dark overcast clouds above opened up, and rain started pouring down. There had been a door to the mansion nearby, and Vanitas had ducked inside it, intent on finding his way and meeting up with Noé.
That had been nearly a quarter of an hour ago. Vanitas still hadn’t found his way to the main hall of the mansion, and he hadn’t run into any of the servants of the home. He had taken to opening the doors along the hall at random, trying to see if there was anyone in this wing. So far, Vanitas presumed that this was a scarcely used wing of the mansion, if at all, considering the amount dust he found covering most rooms.
One room seemed to be used as a storage space of some sort, filled with what appeared to Vanitas to be a random assortment of items. Curiosity got the better of him, and instead of shutting the door when he discovered it to be empty, Vanitas stepped further into the room, wondering what exactly The Shapeless One could be keeping in a room like this.
Books were stacked upon tables, and in the corner looked like there was an authentic suit of armor with a halberd standing at attention. There were three different globes and two maps along the far wall, and some very dusty instruments standing along a shelf top. And in the middle of the room, was what looked to be a mirror, covered with a sheet.
Around the frame of the mirror, what wasn’t covered by the sheet, was an inscription etched into it that looked to be a blessing or prayer. Vanitas couldn’t read all of it, as it was hidden, but what he could read said, ‘Que ton coeur soit ta clé’
Just from that line, Vanitas knew what type of mirror was hidden underneath the sheet.
A union mirror. Or, reflection mirror, if one desired to call it that. Said to show the reflection of one’s soulmate. Vanitas, in all his eighteen years of life, had not looked in one, for various reasons.
The Chasseurs, and the Church, in all their piety and chastity, took vows to not look in a union mirror and seek their soulmate. That was something Vanitas learned when he was first in training to be a Chasseur. Until Moreau picked him out for his project, that was, and, well, needless to say, after Moreau picked him out, the thought of soulmates was the last thing on his mind.
As for his time with the Vampire of the Blue Moon… Well, she was disdainful of many things, and soulmates were one thing that was included in the list. Her distaste of them went back to the origins of the Vampire of the Blue Moon, though Vanitas himself never cared to delve into why exactly that was.
Vanitas himself had never quite seen the purpose of union mirrors, though whether that was due to how he was raised or personal preference was something that he wasn’t keen on sharing even if anyone bothered to ask. Regardless, he had never been in this close proximity to a union mirror before, and there was something that drew him to it. A voice, almost, calling to him, asking him what the harm in looking was. After all, your soulmate was supposed to complete you, weren’t they? The other, mending, half to a shattered soul.
His fingers brushed against the edge of the sheet, temptation in his grasp. One peek wouldn’t hurt, would it? Even if he knew who his soulmate looked like didn’t mean he had to confess. After all, he had no desire in someone who –
“Oh, there you are Vanitas!” Noé’s voice lanced through the quiet patter of rain that had filled the room previously. “What are you doing in here? Oh, that’s Teacher’s union mirror.” The last statement was tacked on as and afterthought to the question, as if Noé had just noticed the covered mirror Vanitas had been standing in front of.
“I saw the inscription.” Vanitas replied, dodging the question while affirming the observation. He brushed past Noé into the hall, but faltered in front of one of the windows. Lightning flickered outside, illuminating the hall for a brief moment, and as it receded Vanitas caught the sight of his and Noé’s reflections in the window. Then, out of purely selfish curiosity, Vanitas allowed himself to ask,
“Have you met who you saw in the union mirror, Noé?” He didn’t look at him, instead watched Noé’s reaction through the reflection in the window. A look of confusion marred his face, as if he couldn’t understand why Vanitas was asking.
“Are you joking?” Noé asked, and there was an almost hurt tone to his voice that Vanitas wasn’t used to hearing.
“No?” It was Vanitas’ turn to be confused – why would Noé be hurt by his asking? Was it something he didn’t want to share? It was true that they both had their own fair amount of secrets withheld from the other – or, at least, Vanitas did. “I’ll admit, it’s purely selfish curiosity – I’ve never looked in one myself, but I figured you would have.”
“You’ve never looked in a union mirror before?” Understanding replaced the confusion on Noé’s face and the hurt dissipated as if that one statement answered Noé’s unasked question.
“It’s not that big of a deal,” Vanitas waved his question off. “Lots of people don’t – even more go their whole lifetimes without having met the person in their reflection.”
“Why haven’t you?” Noé ignored his statement in favor of asking another questions.
“Why should I?” Vanitas shrugged. “Why look in a mirror to see someone’s reflection who you aren’t guaranteed to meet?”
“I see,” Noé said, though Vanitas wasn’t sure which point of his Noé understood. “You’re afraid you’ll never meet your soulmate.” What? No, that wasn’t what Vanitas had meant at all – “Don’t worry Vanitas, I know your soulmate is out there waiting for you.”
There was such confidence, and open honesty, on Noé’s smiling face, that Vanitas couldn’t force himself to make a callous remark to dash his misguided hope.
The boy followed him along the windows of La Baleine. Seeing him in reflections had become so second-nature that at times he almost forgot he was there. Still, there was something reassuring about his presence walking just a step behind him, though Noé would very much rather they be walking in tandem, shoulder to shoulder, instead of one behind the other.
Maybe, he thought, that was why your soulmate’s reflection disappeared when you finally met them. Because you no longer were one step behind the other, but finally able to walk together, hand in hand. Going together in your journey.
Noé had never really spent any time wondering how and when he’d meet his soulmate. He knew it would happen when it happened, so why force it? He remembered, three years ago, Domi crying to him about how she was so embarrassed because she ran off after looking in the reflection mirror, not telling anyone who her soulmate was or what they looked like.
“Why should you?” Noé had asked her, bluntly and honestly – and, at the time, confused if this was another cultural thing he still hadn’t mastered. “If you don’t want to tell them what your soulmate looks like, or who they are, you shouldn’t have to. They’re your soulmate, not theirs. When you meet them is something no one can control, and no one should force you to meet or accept your soulmate until you’re ready to.”
That was how Noé truly felt. He knew that whenever he met his soulmate, it would be out of his control, and he was willing to wait until his soulmate was ready to accept him whenever they did meet.
Which is why, while unexpected, Noé was not alarmed that the man who burst through the windows to La Baleine bore a striking resemblance to the one who followed Noé’s reflection like a shadow. It was a bit disconcerting when he doggedly went after Mademoiselle Amelia, whom Noé had been chatting with, but he had always been good at adapting. When he fell off the airship, it was distressing but Noé went after, because he couldn’t just let the man fall to his death, and he was curious as to whether or not this man was the same as the one in his reflection or not.
And as he introduced himself as Vanitas of the Blue Moon, an average human being who succeeded the Vampire of the Blue Moon, Noé was intrigued, as this was the man his Teacher had indeed sent him to investigate here in Paris.
(And if, the next day in Count Orlok’s office, Noé noticed that the boy in his reflection was no longer there, well, Noé had always wanted to walk with his soulmate, and not have them be one step behind the other.)