As soon as Emery entered the mirror-door, reality engulfed him.
Under her, the earth glowed like water, shattered like ice, and then came back together as luminous obsidian. Something ancient pumped through the air, not heat or cold. alive. The following step snapped back like elastic, the first one stretching into eternity. Here, the laws of distance did not apply. Or they had been rewritten if they did.
Under her feet, symbols glowed—runes that glowed silver, gold, and something darker, like ink derived from the stars. Every time her foot touched down, more of them woke up, igniting a route that changed the more she attempted to follow it. They pulsed with her heartbeat.
All at once, high-pitched, guttural, and musical voices murmured in the air. a language that she somehow grasped despite not knowing.
"Emery."
From all sides and none, her name was spoken. It's more like a remembrance than a hello. perhaps a cautionary tale.
She turned in slow circles. “Where am I?”
