Evocation from the Mirror

Cost: 40m
Target: One creature

Some societies fear mirrors, and this spell could explain why. It magically evokes a duplicate of a targeted person from his mirror reflection, while imprisoning the original within the mirror. To cast the spell, the sorcerer must be within 100 yards of her target and have a mirror at least the size of her hand within 20 yards. The victim must be conscious and see the mirror, but he can be drugged, bewitched or otherwise restrained. The sorcerer incants a ritual palindrome while making the Mudra of Opposition, only one hand makes the gesture in reverse, while dozens of images of her flicker through her anima.

When the spell is released, the players of the sorcerer and her target make a resisted (Willpower + Essence) roll. If the sorcerer's player loses or ties the roll, the mirror shatters, and the spell fails. If the sorcerer's player rolls more successes, however, the target and the mirror both flash with iridescent Essence and. nothing seems to have happened. Close observation will show, however, that the person has been reflected left to right.

This mirror-person has the same traits and Charms as the original. He also has reversed versions of the victim's clothing and mundane possessions. Any magical possessions transfer from the original to the mirror-person. The duplicate is a complete moral opposite of the original. His Motivation and Intimacies are reversed, so what the original loved the duplicate hates, and vice versa. He will act as his reversed morals dictate, with one addition. He is also the sorcerer's devoted slave, ready to do almost anything she commands. (He might hesitate at working against his Motivation, as even the most loyal servant might.)

The spell traps the victim in an Elsewhere inhabited only by himself and anyone else trapped by this spell. Nothing else exists except when the duplicate's image appears in a reflective surface such as an actual mirror, a pool of water or a pane of glass. Then, the duplicate's surroundings appear (reversed) in the Elsewhere, and the original person can look out the mirror to the real world and be seen there as well. The original does not have to mimic the mirror-person's actions. He can mouth appeals for help, wave his hands and so on.

The mirror-person avoids reflections whenever possible because he doesn't want other people to see his original—and because his own reflection provides the original with a means of escape. If the mirror-person touches a reflection that includes the spell's target, the image and the original resume their proper places. Adamant Countermagic will also break the spell if cast on either the mirror-person or the reflection that contains his original.

Evocation of the Mirror is much less effective against spirits or any other entity that can dematerialize (including Exalts with suitable spells). The spirit just dematerializes and walks out the first reflective surface that holds his image, as if it were the door to his own sanctum. Then the original and the reflection both exist in Creation. A duplicate is also not destroyed by being forced back to the other side of the mirror. In zones of severely diminished reality such as a Middlemarch or Fair Folk freehold, the reflection can escape the mirror to bedevil the life of his original. On the other hand, if the mirror-person enters such a zone, his original can also escape from Elsewhere with a successful (Willpower + Essence) roll.