Easrim felt heavier than he did the night before, and when he opened his eyes he saw a mirror that he did not own at the foot of his bed. The mirror was strange. It did not reflect the room at all, but Easrim could tell it was a mirror. There was also a book Easrim had never seen before let alone bought on his desk the title read, A Guide to being a Bane of Mars. The picture on the front cover was two blades... No, two shields the shields were made up of blades that fanned out to make a shield. There was also a thing of tweezers in the picture above the two swords.

Easrim looked around and saw two swords hanging on the back of the door. He unsheathed one. It looked odd, different from what a normal sword would look like it was mechanical. Easrim gave it a light flick with his hand and it bent between the handle and the blade ninety degrees. He spun the blade counterclockwise, to see what would happen. The blade multiplied, forming a circle around the handle until it made a complete shield. Easrim heard a click as it completed the circle. He spun the handle clockwise then flung his hand the other way. The blades retracted until there was only the one blade then the blade returned to its original straight position. Easrim put the blade back in the sheath. He looked around confused someone had broken in while he was asleep (which was hard to do because Easrim was a light sleeper), the only thing that was worth stealing was his laptop, but he can see it and it didn’t look damaged. So, instead of taking something the reverse thieves decided to leave a few things.

Easrim looked around the room again to see if there was anything else. He noticed something was on his bedside table a badge with a weird symbol on it on top of a navy blue box. Easrim pocketed the badge and opened the box it contained a beautiful thing of tweezers on a velvet cushion. Easrim could tell that these tweezers were used for different reasons, not for bodily uses. There was also a coin under the box half Lead and half Osmium and a piece of paper with the words for practice on it. Easrim knew what it meant strangely enough.

He grabbed the tweezers and bought it to the Lead side of the coin and to a proton from the Lead atom making it Thallium and bringing the proton to the Osmium side of the coin turning and attaching the proton to an Osmium which causes it to turn into Iridium. Easrim did it again turning the Thallium into Mercury and Iridium into Platinum and then turning the Mercury and Platinum into Gold. So the coin was now half Lead and half Osmium, but with two atoms of gold on the coin, Easrim could see the atoms of everything if he squinted a certain way. Easrim did this with the rest of the coin until it was made of completely of gold. It took him less than a second which surprised him because of how many atoms there were in the coin. Easrim put the coin down and the special tweezers back in its box and decided to look at the mirror again. On the floor on either side of the mirror were dragons climbing the mirror breathing fire on a bird … no, the bird was made up of fire. It was a phoenix, rising from the mouth of the dragon. On top of the frame was a unicorn resting. The mirror was the size of a door, and on the back was the was a picture of the tree of life and to the top left of the tree was a picture of,

“Fortola, the mythical bird creature said to be have created the universe,” Easrim said, to no one in particular. On the top right of the tree was a picture of “Lisfanta, the mythical beast creature is said to destroy the universe,” Easrim noticed the note under the picture of the tree of life. The note read.

Show the sign of recognition and say the name of where you need to go and pass through.

Easrim went around the mirror it continued to reflect nothing. Easrim took out the badge with the strange symbol and showed it to the mirror. The mirror surface started to ripple where the badge should have been reflected.

Easrim choose a location “Easrim’s Potions of The Great Plains.” The mirror showed the shop downstairs and then the mirror stopped rippling. Easrim tried to touch the mirror but his hand passed through. Easrim put his hand through and looked at the back of the mirror. Easrim’s hand wasn’t there, he then stuck his whole head through. It was his shop downstairs, Easrim took his head out of the mirror and ran down the stairs and into the shop. There was a second mirror with the image of Easrim’s bedroom on it. Easrim ran back up the stairs and went through the mirror. The mirror stopped reflecting Easrim’s bedroom. Easrim ran back upstairs to check what the mirror was doing, but it was gone. Easrim tested the mirror for a while and found out that it can travel any distance. He checked Tokyo Japan, St. Petersburg Russia, south pole Antarctica, and Orlando Florida. Next, he checked other worlds in different universes (because he thought why not) he said the location of his favorite places in books and movies most of them even when describing what the places are didn’t work which didn’t surprise Easrim at all, but when the mirror reacted, the locations were breathtaking. His imagination didn’t do these locations justice. Easrim also found out that unless he takes the badge with him the mirror door would stay open, possibly forever, though that didn’t seem to be the smartest thing to do. Additionally, time-traveling related things only worked in their own universes something must have happened in the universe to allow for time travel to work. Easrim was downstairs in his shop when noticed something was off with his mirror hanging on the wall. He looked at the mirror on the wall trying to find out what was wrong with what he was seeing when it hit him. His reflection was gone. Easrim recalled the hooded man had said: “Welcome to the Bane of Mars”. Didn’t the book he receives say- A Guide to being a Bane of Mars?

“So he was the culprit. That was so simple, how did I not realize it sooner?” Easrim said to himself. Easrim tried to touch his wall mirror, but his hand went through this mirror too. Easrim pulled his hand back and felt all around his neck for puncture wounds but found none. He then traveled to sunny places to test something, and he didn’t have any problems and his skin didn’t burn. He didn’t think he was an Upir either because he didn’t have puncture wounds. Easrim decided to think about it later, but he did buy a cloak with a hood. When Easrim got back he decided to read the book that was given to him. He got into a chair and began to read. It turns out it was a rule book telling Easrim what the rules where and why they have to follow that rule. Chapter 1 was all about staying secret and not drawing attention to yourself. But the strange thing about the book was that after Easrim finished a page, turn it to the next one, it fused with the page after he finished turning it. Easrim couldn’t turn the page back so he had to memorize the page, which wasn’t hard. Easrim stopped reading around six o’clock and got ready for the day, opened his shop at seven o’clock, and continued to read while he waited for customers that didn’t come. It wasn’t surprising, Easrim only got two customers the whole week and they both came yesterday. He closed up shop at nine pm, had dinner, then read the book again. Easrim went to bed late and woke up early. The days repeated like that for a few weeks with no changes and no customers. Easrim was on chapter three hundred fifteen and the pages continued to fuse with the first page. Easrim was just finishing his lunch of noodles, when the first customer in weeks came in the door. It was Luna Natille.

“Hello Luna, what will it be today?” Easrim asked.

“A charm potion,” Luna responded, reaching into her bag.

“Do you have the ingredients?” Easrim asked. She handed him the ingredients.

“So you get a discount.” Easrim said.

“How many customers did you usually have?” Luna asked, curious.

“There normally is a line. I think I could do six people an hour if they all want simple potions”

“If you don’t mind me asking how much money do you charge?” Luna questioned.

“If they give me the ingredients, I charge them five dollars, and let's say I have eighty-four customers a day so let's say I get four hundred twenty dollars a day.” Easrim responded.

“And how many customers have you had lately?” Luna asked.

“You’re the first customer I had in weeks. If this keeps up I might have to close down” Easrim answered.

Luna thought for a moment before she asked. “How are you with teaching children?”

“Teach them what exactly?” Easrim questioned.

“Potions,” Luna replied.

“How do you want me to teach potions?” Easrim asked curiously.

“Do you want me to teach cutting and stirring techniques or just potion recipes?” Easrim continued to ask.

“Potion recipes.” Luna answered.

“I can do that, but I don’t know all of the recipes. Why?” Easrim inquired.

“I am the headmistress of Buffleetoe’s school of Magical Exploration.” Luna replied.

“I get buff like buffalo because we are in the great plains, but what does leetoe come from?” Easrim asked with great interest.

“I didn’t come up with the name, I am just the headmistress there.” Luna answered in an amused voice.

Easrim handed over the completed weak charm potion and Luna handed over what she owed. “Anyway, I would like to hire you as the potions master,” Luna continued, “if you’d want to take up the job.”

“I would love to.” Easrim said.

“Great, I have been looking for a potions master for years, but nobody wanted to teach it. Potions have become a lost art.” Luna explained.

“I actually wanted to employ you earlier, but magical law prohibits it, but now Halforms know about witches and wizards, so I don’t see a reason why it should be a lost art any longer.”

“Halforms?” Easrim asked.

“It is what we call non-magic users, though you don’t seem surprised I am a witch.” Luna explained.

“After what we talked about last time you were here and you kept stiffening it wasn’t hard to figure out,” Easrim replied then asked, “is Tempty the rude way of saying non-magic user?”

“Very,” replied Luna, indignant.

“I can tell. Tem for temptation and pty for empty” Easrim said.

Luna looked impressed, then started listing off what he needed to do. “Well, term starts in two week's time so I would start preparing. You will be spending the nights at Buffleetoe’s Mansion so gather all your clothes. We will provide meals, you get paid in gold and jewels and you can cash it in a few different places for different currency the closest one is in Buffalo, New York.”

“Can you provide ingredients for me so I can make new potions?” Easrim asked when she was out of breath.

“Of course. Now be at the mansion at nine am sharp so we can get you settled …. ” Luna stopped talking she was looking at the mirror without Easrim in it. Easrim smiled showing his teeth (which he really shows when he smiles) and said “nine am sharp, got it. Will that be tomorrow?”

“Yes…!” Luna looked back at Easrim saw his teeth weren’t sharp and looked back at the mirror confused then back at Easrim’s teeth.

“Allow me to walk you out,” said Easrim.

Luna looked startled when she heard this, and looked outside. It was very sunny outside, she looked back at Easrim confused. Easrim came to the front of the counter. Luna was looking at Easrim with concern. It looked like she wanted to say something, but didn’t know how to say it.

“Wait a-,” Luna began, but it was already too late. Easrim was too fast, he was out the door in the sunlight and took down his hood. Luna shut her eyes and turned away. Waiting for something gruesome to happen, perhaps. Easrim waited for a few minutes. Then said to Luna

“Are you coming? The weather is lovely.”

Luna turned back and looked like she couldn’t believe her eyes. She ran out of the shop and looked up. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

“I thought you were a new vampire that didn’t know you can’t go into sunlight. You almost gave me a heart attack.”Luna said exasperatedly.

“Sorry Luna-,” Easrim began, but Luna cut him off.

“And now that you are an official employee, in public, you must call me Professor Natille and have the students address you as Professor Pax.”

“So you still want me as an employee?” Easrim asked curiously.

“As long as you don’t scare me like that again.” Luna said. Professor Natille left without another word.