The word is [i]wanting.[/i]

The mirror must be broken. That is, of [i]course[/i] it’s not right, obviously that’s not her, but more than that, it can’t be her. It just can’t. Do you see? Right there! There! When she folds her arms, and you can see, see! The muscles rippling across her frame. You could hit her with a train, and the train would shatter into a thousand thousand pieces. No timeline, no road not taken, no past gone a little better could ever turn her into that. Right? It wouldn’t be too hard to find out, just, just find a mirror here that [i]does [/i]work, estimate her proportions, come back here, trace the breadth of those shoulders, those proud, unbowed shoulders, strong, and brave, and, and, so strong…

This other mirror! It was broken too. And she’d get to that thought just as soon as the rest of her caught up, because how! How did it know? She hadn’t shown that stupid little sketch to [i]anyone.[/i] Not even Ailee! Yes, of course, it was the Heart, and rules were different here, but it shouldn’t! It couldn’t! It wasn’t fair! How dare it make her look so much better than her clumsy paws could ever draw? Where did it get off, making her eyes so pretty? They never looked that clear and bright, even when she wasn’t...squinting. And. And. That tail…

Jackdaw hugged her ragged robes tight around her. And beneath them, her scraggly, dusty, pathetic excuse for a tail wrapped around her even tighter. Recoiling from this image of fluffy perfection. Unfit to even show itself. Her paws patted at the sad lump beneath her cloak, on instinct.

What [i]was[/i] this place?

“W-wolf…?” Jackdaw called out uncertainly, backing away from the two mirrors. “I think we should, um, stay close…”

She blindly reached behind her, grasping for her friends’ paw...