The two of them passed through the enormous doors of the hall and entered a corridor completely unlike the rest of the building. The transition was abrupt, as though they had crossed an invisible boundary between two different worlds.
The moment they stepped through the entrance, the intense noise of the auction seemed to vanish as if sliced away by an invisible blade. The lively voices of the guests, the murmur of conversations, the clinking of glasses, the occasional laughter, all of it became nothing more than a distant, muffled echo, as though it were coming from somewhere far away.
Only silence remained. An elegant silence, not oppressive, but welcoming, like a quiet embrace.
The corridor's walls were crafted from an extraordinarily rare black marble, polished so flawlessly that they reflected the golden light of the spiritual lanterns mounted at regular intervals along the passage like a deep, dark mirror.
