Not going to lie, that bed was absolutely heaven. Not sure what it was made out of, but it felt like sleeping on a cloud, and I was out the second that my head hit the pillow.

Which made me feel a little bad waking up having drooled all over it. I don't even think I rolled over the whole night. Just out out. So yeah, heaven!

The room itself was ornate as well. Lots of tiny wood carvings of incredibly intricate detail adorned different shelves. In one corner, what I am pretty sure was a living tree had books on its branches, which had been shaped by an unknown technique into shapes like a shelves. After this, it had normal leaves. Warm light that felt like sunlight percolated down from hidden sources around which fluffy, cloud like bundles of gauze were carefully arranged.

The whole thing had a vibe like living in a forest, and the plant boxes adoring different sections even had tendrils of fog and clear panes in the base where fish happily lived in perfectly clear water.

I did not want to know what a night here cost. Pretty sure the frugality that life (and Gran) had beat into my head would pop out and strangle me if it found out. So while I was definitely enjoying it, it almost made me itchy knowing it probably cost at least a full family's worth of arms and legs for a stay of such opulence.

Breakfast was similarly palatial, with the food both tasting and looking exquisite, a true 'feast for the eyes' as it were.

Finally, we took our leave. Walking out the door, we were greeted by an amazing sight.

"See? Isn't it cool?" Qīwù said, very excited about the whole thing.

I mean, she wasn't wrong. A massive crevasse yawned into the sky, and was thoroughly wreathed in fog. Perched on the cliffside were platforms and stone spurs, with narrow walkways linking clusters of dwellings that looked to be hewn directly into the face. The sun was just rising behind us, and at the very top, almost hidden in the haze, the sheer sides were adorned with pale pinks and oranges, a very dreamlike palate of colors that we could see creeping it's way down, the movement just on the edge of perception as the sun progressed higher into the sky.

"Fascinating," said István, quickly putting in the rough lines for sketch of one of the tea houses into his notebook. I hadn't seen him even take it out this time.

Ahead of us, there was a market square, which we'd evidently walked through. The pathway away from the Falcon's Eye had only one destination, under a gate we'd come through originally. They had prime real estate at the top of a small hill, with their stone-set walk meandering though a flower garden tended with care, small pebbles going right up to the base of each plant and nary a weed in sight.

Must take an eternity to do all of this, I thought.

Viktor was making a beeline for the market, and I was pretty sure he was after another half of a horse or whatever that was to munch on. A second breakfast. And probably a third and a forth if you weren't Viktor sized. I could likely live for several days on just one of those.

I headed down to where Viktor had indeed acquired another side of meat, this one if anything even bigger than the first. I hadn't cared to look around last night, but today I could see the whole market was arrayed in three-quarters of a circle facing a carved stone archway. On it were the words "Whispering Gate". Around it tendrils of fog curled, reaching over the stone as if to embrace it.

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A light breeze blew and I heard the familiar woooo that we'd heard the night prior. The bell behind us tolled again, a light sound, as if to match the deft touch of the breeze. Place definitely had a vibe, and I was here for it, both literally and figuratively.

Viktor walked up to me, waving his huge chunk of meat around in a way that made people almost dodge away from him. I thought to mention it, but realized he likely valued the meat over the safety of the people around him. Whatever glaze they used was thick, and staying attached while he waved it about, so at least there was that.

He jabbed a thumb behind him. "Thas the way to wheresh we needsh to go," he said around a mouthful of the mystery meat. "They shaid itsh eashy to get losht in there." He took an immense swallow before continuing, much to my relief. "If that happens, we can follow the bell back, it echoes throughout the cavern."

"Really… it doesn't seem loud enough to do that."

"It has a seal on it," István said. I glanced back at the bell, studying it closer this time, and shure… sure enough, the man was right. It was barely visible around the bottom rim of the cast bronze, but it was indeed there.

"Sharp eyes you have there," I said.

He nodded appreciatively. "I've been practicing." Having seen him fight at the spar, I didn't doubt that.

A group of people emerged from the Whispering Gate, looking thoroughly bewildered. Upon seeing the square, they bent down and kowtowed to the bell, looking very thankful. The whole thing seemed a bit foreboding. Qīwù recoiled a bit at the sight, but István had that look to him, and I could tell he was raring to go.

"Lead the way, good sir." I said, gesturing towards the gate with an outstretched palm.

"They really weren't joking about how dense this fog is," Qīwù said, referring to the words of warning we'd heard from the group who'd just exited as we entered.

"It has an almost living nature," István added.

"Indeed," I said. Viktor just grunted, still working on his snack. He'd somehow eaten most of it.

I reached out with my Nebula and took control of a vague spirituality I'd been sensing from the fog since we first entered. At once a large sphere around us cleared away, as the tendrils appeared to rewind themselves back towards the periphery.

"Neat trick," István said. "Wonder why it didn't work when I was trying it?"

"Were you treating it like smoke or steam?" I asked, and he nodded, notebook in hand, ready for notes.

"It's neither," I told him, "It's almost like the extension of something much larger." I said, looking meaningfully around us. "Not sure I want to meet anything big enough to have created all of this."

My attendant stiffened at hearing those words. I guess it hadn't occurred to her that I wasn't actually immortal and there were things that I'd be concerned by as well. Giant mysterious canyons definitely fell under that category.

And it was well and truly huge. Looking up, the walls seemed to slope away forever before just disappearing into the mist. I suspected if it were not for the sun coming in past the Whispering Gate behind us, that there probably wouldn't be any light to speak of down here.

"Think we'll find what we're looking for?" I asked Qīwù, trying to get her mind off of the dangers that lay ahead and onto an infodump she could lean into.

To my surprise, she just shrugged, "I dunno," she said, using some fairly laid back language for her. "These things have a way of either working out, or not. I couldn't tell you which pathway we are on if I wanted.

I think it'll work out, said Celistar, inside my head. I was glad she was back, I hadn't heard from her in a while. My anti-fog sphere was doing a good job of clearing out the tendrils for the most part, but in some places I could feel them pushing into it momentarily, as if probing for weakness. I doubled down on the effort I was putting into it, and the probes abruptly stopped.

"Speaking of things I don't want to see," I said, pointing in front of us. The sphere had revealed a sequence of footprints in the soft debris on top of the ground. I'd hesitate to call it sand, it was much more jagged, with larger grain sizes.

This combination meant that while it preserved markings better, they were less distinct in detail. This had both of those features, but it was still obvious it was something reptilian, I could see the scales.. It had three forward facing toes, and something that looked a lot like one from the back.

And it was absolutely huge.

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