They pulled their head back up, waiting for any changes in mental state. No dizziness, no strange colors appearing in their vision, no new compulsions… The air felt a bit thick but otherwise, Rynn didn’t feel anything at all.
Seems safe enough, they concluded, gingerly taking a few steps forward into the smoke. As the cloud rose above their scarf-covered nose, they paused to try breathing a few more times. This continued to be unremarkable, so they crept forward just a little farther. The smoke rose a few inches higher, and as it engulfed their eyes, Rynn was startled to see their surroundings suddenly morph around them. They were still in a hallway, still facing a stairway down to the next level of the building, but everything else had changed.
The red carpet had transformed into a gray, stone floor with a long, deep blue rug running the length of it. The candelabras were now curious, floating lights, suspended in mid air. The many smaller classroom doors on the right side of the hall and the large, library door on the left had been replaced with four huge doors, almost tall enough for giants, and equidistant from each other on all sides. The whole place smelled… almost sterile, like the artificing lab a few days after a good cleaning, after the chemical smell had dissipated but before anyone had gotten a chance to run experiments in there.
They stepped back, pulling their eyes out of the smoke, and to their dismay, reality reverted back to normal. Oh my Gods… this is a portal, they marveled. No one has succeeded in creating a stable portal in thousands of years. Curiosity overrode Rynn’s already irresponsible sense of caution, and without a second thought, they plunged their entire head under the veil, beelining straight for the staircase.
They counted steps as they wound their way down and found themselves walking several dozen more than they would have expected. When they finally reached the bottom, the door opened into a massive antichamber, at least three or four stories tall. The gray stone of the stairway gave way to a dark, black marble floor with cracks of blue, purple, and green, carving through it like lightning frozen in time. Massive marble pillars lined a walkway of deep violet carpet, with the same curious magical lights floating along, illuminating the way.
Rynn traced the pillars up into apparent nothingness. The ceiling, if there was one, showed the clearest picture of the night sky that Rynn had ever seen. They paused for a moment to marvel at the number of stars they’d never even seen in Bastion. If there weren’t more important matters to attend to, Rynn would have liked to try and update their personal star map, though they quickly dismissed the idea, assuming there wouldn’t be time exploring this almost alien palace.
They lowered their gaze and looked down the path. The narrow violet carpet cut through the center of the massive, marble room, ending abruptly in front of what appeared to be the back of a large chair. The chair was facing a wall that looked rather different from the other three, which were cut from the same stone as the floor. This wall looked much more like the ceiling, but instead of a night sky, there was a large sphere on it. Mostly white, with a band of blue running across the middle.
Only one way to go, I guess. And they started down the path to the chair. As they approached, they noticed three additional details: firstly, the chair was quite large for a Humanoid, Goblinoid, or Dwarfkin, but it was too small for a Giant; secondly, there was a pair of feet dangling from the bottom of the chair; and thirdly, whatever sphere they were looking at seemed to actually be floating in an unfamiliar portion of space, but it was clearly the image of something Rynn had only seen in telescopes and astronomy books.
This was a planet.
They were staring at a planet.
At almost the exact moment they came to this startling realization, still about 60 feet from the chair, they noticed that the chair was now facing them. Whoever, or whatever, was in the chair hadn’t moved to turn around, yet both the chair and its occupant now sat, perfectly still and perfectly silent, facing in the opposite direction.
Rynn had never seen anything like this being. They sat tall and slender, completely motionless. Their fine clothing was inlaid with intricate, glowing patterns, completely foreign to Rynn. Yet despite all of this being’s peculiarities, the only feature Rynn could focus on was their face, or lack thereof. Instead of eyes, a mouth, or a nose, an expanse of stars, nebulas, and galaxies painted on a mannequin-like pallet stared back. They stared at each other for a few moments, until Zil’dir’s voice echoed into Rynn’s mind for the first time.
“Hello, Rynn. I’ve been waiting for you.”