The moment Lilian's whisper faded, the air in the throne chamber shifted.
Not a breeze nor a temperature drop, but instead a presence seemed to of awakened, as if something ancient and sleeping had exhaled for the first time in eons.
The trio stepped inside, and before they could react,
~BANG!~
The Throne Room door behind them slammed shut and locked itself.
"Guess we're leaving through that door," Elara muttered, pointing to another door across the room.
The trio looked around the Throne Room, which stretched wider than any hall they had seen thus far, easily large enough to host legions. The marble beneath their feet darkened to a deeper tone, streaked with gold and silver veins that flickered in rhythmic pulses.
The vaulted ceiling arched impossibly high, lost in layers of drifting violet mist. Suspended above were slow-turning rings of luminous crystals, rotating around each other like a broken orrery, humming with dormant power.
And then they saw them.
