Haha y'all picked the long option today :)
Amy stopped running. She put Irena on the ground and said, "Honey, stand behind me." She wrapped Irena's fragile little-girl arms around her waist and rested one hand atop them. The heat of the girl's face pressed into her lower back was strangely reassuring. Amy squared her shoulders and met the eyes of the Man in White.
He looked at her, but continued his incantation. Windows and floor blurred past, as though they were on a train watching the world fly by.
"STOP!!" She shouted with every ounce of her being and held out her hand in the universal gesture for 'halt', as though casting her own spell back at the magician.
The Man in White blinked twice, momentarily shocked, and then stopped speaking and slouched a bit in exhaustion. The world slowed and Amy found herself in a stable, unmoving hallway. Leaves on trees outside the windows danced merrily in a gentle sea breeze. Amy took a deep breath to slow her heart rate and continued to watch her foe.
He pulled off Irena's Papa's cap, revealing his white headdress underneath. Steely grey eyes never left Amy's gentle browns as he used the cap to wipe what remained of the painted illusion from his face. "There is no point in running. You are in my world. I will always find you." He spoke with the slightest of accents. He enunciated the t in point quite sharply, but almost slurred the vowels in each word. It gave his speech an odd cadence, half song but with strict counterpoints throughout.
"Then I won't run. I will hide, I will dance, I will do whatever it takes to get us out of here. Who are you? What have you done with Prince Leo? What do you want with us?" Amy said. Her heart quivered a bit, but her voice did not shake.
He laughed, "Us? Irena is nothing to me. A trifle. Only a child. A figment, really." He waved his hand and Irena's arms vanished from within Amy's grasp. Amy swung her hands behind her, searching for the child who had disappeared from behind her body. She was gone. "That's better, don't you think?" the Man in White said.
"What do you want from me?" Amy said through gritted teeth.
"What any man wants. Conquest. I have tired of this inconsequential territory. You have access to a world that I desire. I want it. You will give it to me. And then I will let you go. ..or not." He looked at Amy with a gleam in his eye that she chose to ignore.
"I don't have anything."
"Of course you do. You come from one of the richest lands in history. All I need is access. I was able to bring you here because you possess the germ of magic. You must be able to go back through. Take me to the other side of the mirror." He gestured to the side and Amy saw that the mirror had appeared to his right. In a blink, Amy found herself standing in front of it, gazing back into the shop she'd been stolen from. How simple life had been before... all this.
"Well?" he said. He put a heavy hand on Amy's shoulder and her entire upper body froze. "Shall we?"
THINK! There has to be something you can do or say!
Tell him a way to get through the mirror. Make something up.
Touch the mirror, gently. Hey, it worked last time!
Throw yourself at the mirror to break it. No way he's coming through with you.
