My first attempt to grip the door was fruitless. I lost sight, and my hand grasped at nothing. I tried again, I felt my fingers slip inside, then air. I grumbled aloud, my companion noticed and nodded to continue. Each time I felt the grips I was encouraged; my doubt turned to determination.
The sky’s edges were just beginning to light when I felt my fingers take hold. “I’ve got it,” I whispered. I took a moment to be sure, naturally my Teacher had stopped paying attention and stared off. I realized I did not know what to do once I’d grabbed hold. “I’ve got it!” this time I shouted.
My Teacher sat up quickly, “Pull!” he yelled bending forward and pulling at the air before him. I found not that the door opened but that I was moved through it. The sensation was like sliding, but I could feel it in my core, and when the feeling ended I was in the black.
Ahead I could see a little golden robot hovered towards me. Despite the thing being yards away and, I thought, in darkness I could see with perfect clarity. It hovered lightly over the black, any motion affected golden plates all meticulously woven and layered to create a moving body. I jumped when my Teacher appeared beside me. “Forget about me, did you?” he started forwarded towards the robot.
“Wait,” I hesitated to follow, “that robot…”
“It’s not a robot. Come.” I moved then, but slowly.
“Not a robot?”
“That is a Golanu. It is very much alive, but we’ve no business with him for the moment.”
“Golanu?”
“Correct. Just move past him.” The Golanu payed no notice as we went by, he only hovered on. “See the door ahead?” I did not. “There are doors all around you, look as you did in the woods. The one we want is straight ahead.” I felt as if in a hall, but it was the same black everywhere. I still could not see the door, but followed anyway.
Suddenly it was there. The grips I’d seen before appeared in the black, lightly illuminated from within. My Teacher stepped aside and gestured, “You first.” I reached up and took hold.
I felt the black slide and give way to light. I squinted to see a glass walk stretched out before me. Looking down, I saw levels connected by spiraling glass stairs. The paths led to buildings, strange to me then, I realized they were trees. The trunks stretched down to roots caked in soil as if just plucked from the ground. The whole city lay over lush greenery and mountains miles below. People moved about, bustling along the glass. I noticed some looked like they were turning off path only to vanish. One woman vanished below me, a moment later I saw her return to sight ahead of me and step inside a tree.
The voice of my Teacher came from behind me, “Welcome to Krélaender.”