The silver light released them without warning.
Rin stumbled onto a stone floor, catching himself with both hands. Beside him, Eryndor landed on one knee, his free hand pressed against the black mark on his wrist.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
The silence felt different from the quiet beneath the forgotten city. There was no distant whisper, no ancient mechanism turning somewhere beyond their sight. This place was utterly still, as though sound itself had been forbidden to enter.
Rin slowly raised his head. They stood in the middle of a circular platform suspended above a bottomless expanse. Thin silver lines crossed the floor, forming a pattern of interlocking circles. At the center lay a shallow pool filled with perfectly clear water.
Above them hung a sky without stars. Eryndor rose and looked back. There was no door behind them. Only empty space.
"Wonderful," he muttered. "Another place with no obvious exit."
"Perhaps the exit is somewhere else."
