The moment we stepped through the hidden portal inside the ancient tree trunk, I expected the familiar sensation of spatial displacement.
Instead, I found myself standing in the middle of a bustling marketplace.
For several seconds I simply stared.
Wooden stalls lined a wide stone street while people shouted from beneath colorful canopies. Children ran between crowds carrying baskets of fruits and wandered freely through the square. The air smelled of a marketplace full of spices and different type of foods.
It looked so normal that it immediately felt suspicious. Silver looked around before slowly turning toward me.
"Did we take the wrong portal?"
"I don't think so."
Knight crouched and pressed his fingers against the stone road beneath us.
Then he frowned.
"This isn't real."
Silver blinked.
"The city?"
"The space."
He stood back up.
"The city is real. The people are real. The ground is real. But the space containing it isn't."
