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She remembered her fondly. What a beautiful creature Haroph was. She remembered curling up in the mirror's arms at night by the fire and falling asleep to the sound of her rattly breathing. She never let on just how much pain she was in, but Straff saw through it. She did the best she could for poor Haroph, until one day, she just... didn't wake up. Straff had been devastated. She blamed the healers.

"You could have helped her!" She still heard herself screeching. "She could have lived! You have a cure!"

But they wouldn't use the cures on the mirrors. They were strong enough to withstand it, they said. They would survive, they said. She would survive.

She didn't survive. So if Haroph couldn't have the cure, then nobody could.She would never tell any of them about it because that would mean facing the remnants of her clan again, that would mean seeing the grave again, and that would mean that they got something that Haroph deserved and was denied. So that means everyone else will get denied it too.

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"Haroph was a very special dragon to me. We were sort of like lovers. And it was nice that the clan was accepting of that." She paused. "I think I did love Haroph. But I think I relied on her too much." The Spiral pauses again to let out a yawn. "Haroph was my heart and soul for a long time. We practically grew up together. The only difference between us was that we came from different clutches. We were inseperable. But when the plague hit our clan, she was sent to help the sick, as one of the only mirrors. And she caught the disease. It was a fast thing, really, expecially for a mirror. But she was in so much pain, I... she asked me to."

"To kill her."

"She was afraid to do it herself but they were withholding the cure from her. They wouldn't give it to her. It was the only way to stop her suffering." Straff forced down the tears threatening to fall. "So I stopped it for her. She asked me to. If I hadn't she would have suffered longer." She looked up at the moon. "A lot longer. I didn't want to see her go through that."

Sacred looked up too. "You did right by her. She would be proud."

Straff shook her head. "Whatever." She hopped back up on Lunar's tail. "Get some sleep."

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