The Winter Hall was, as its name suggested, winter captured and tamed and made beautiful enough for mortals to bear.
The chamber stretched vast and vaulted, its ceiling arching high enough that sound gathered and echoed in strange, musical ways.
Columns of what appeared to be solid ice, though they were actually enchanted stone, because actual ice would be both impractical and structurally unsound, rose like frozen trees, their surfaces carved with intricate patterns that caught and refracted the light from hundreds of floating orbs that drifted overhead like captive moons.
Long tables stretched the length of the hall, arranged in careful hierarchy. The high table sat elevated on a dais at the far end, positioned so that those seated there could observe the entire gathering. Below it, the lesser tables radiated outward in descending order of importance, each one draped in silver cloth and set with crystal that sang softly when the servers moved nearby.
