[Discontinued*] The Darling Princess [A Twisted Wonderland Fanfic]

🥀 Chapter 23

Despite having been in the Hall of Mirrors once before, Y/N was still shocked by the pure magnificence of the hall. From the outside, it seemed to just be a plain circular building with a dome on the top, but once the Heartslabyul students allowed her in, she was taken aback by just how beautiful the hall was. There were eight "walls" in the building, seven with beautiful, elegantly carved and constructed archways, each holding a mirror that students were pouring in and out of. Above each arch was a triangle mirror with criss-crossed gold patterns to allow natural light into the hall, adding to the candles that flickered whenever a student entered the hall.

"So where's your dorm," Y/N asked, looking around at the different crest plaques above each arch.

The almost silver-gold colour of the plaques was a stark contrast to the purple tones of the arches, making it easy to see the precision in the carvings on the plaques. One had an apple with a skull painted on it, with a dagger punctured straight through it, with a small banner overtop which held letters that Y/N was unable to determine. Next to it was a heart separated into what appeared to be four sections with a crown on top. Again, she was unable to read the words on the banner, and her eyes flickered to the next one. This one had a stalking dragon on a shield with two horns rising out of the back of the shield, and Y/N couldn't help but shiver as she met the eyes of one of the students who had just left the dorm. She quickly moved on from admiring that dorm and to the one with octopus tentacles wrapping around the crest with a nautilus shell as the main picture.

Unfortunately, she didn't have much time to admire the other crests, as Ace was already seizing her around the wrist and pulling her toward the archway underneath the heart crest. He and Deuce were muttering to each other about the dorm leader, and though Y/N wondered if she should be paying attention to what they were rambling on about, she couldn't help but have her attention enraptured by the mirror that they were pulling her toward. Similarly to the mirror that she had accidentally stepped through at the Welcome ceremony, this one seemed to be filled with smoke and fog, though it was purple rather than black and grey, and this one was surrounded by carvings of cards and roses. Mushrooms on red carpet framed the main stairway leading up to the mirror, and as Y/N approached, she realised that the last step was actually an open book with some random words on it that she couldn't quite understand. It seemed like pure gibberish to her. The last thing she saw before she entered the mirror was the heart crest above the mirror with two spade spears criss-crossed in the back, framing the crest. This time, she was able to see the word Heartslabyul written on the banner that stretched across the heart, answering her question of what the crest in the hall had said.

A strange light started to shine from within the mirror, and as it started to glow, Ace and Deuce pulled Grim, Yuu, and Y/N toward the mirror, pushing them through before following themselves.

Once the blinding light faded, Y/N found herself breathless by what she saw in front of her. It seemed that they had been transported into the centre of the dorm, which turned out to be a sort of courtyard leading up to a grand castle in front of them. The cobblestone path that they were standing on was lined by perfectly trimmed hedges and small stone platforms, most of which held potted rose plants, one on each side of the path which held a lamp decorated with a banner bearing the dorm crest. The path led to another larger courtyard with a large fountain, and beyond that, it led to the entrance of the castle, which seemed to lack doors, and instead was simply a large empty heart that had been carved out of the side of the castle. The rest of the castle was a mix of a deep purple, so dark that it was almost black, red, and ivory. The windows seemed to be either hearts or diamonds, save a few that seemed somewhat normal, and what looked like one extremely large window that was up a few levels. This window didn't hold the usual gold lining and instead it looked like thorns were holding the panes of glass in carefully.