The dais stood on the right side of the platform, a wide flat piece of black metal with railings and a row of control pylons rising like narrow columns.
The dark surface reflected the portal's light in a muted sheen. Veyra and the professors stepped onto it with steady movements.
None of them looked rushed. Their posture carried the kind of calm that belongs to people who had reviewed every detail long before arriving and had nothing left to question.
The portal spun behind them in slow, layered rings. Colors shifted through the structure like faint currents of water moving through glass.
When Veyra lifted her hand, the portal's motion changed. The rings slowed slightly, the light tightening into a smoother glow.
Nothing brightened. Nothing flared. The shift carried the quiet precision of a system aligning itself for work.
