Disclaimer: based on characters owned by BBC, and situations created by Haruki Murakami. The narrator of this story, and the character Maen, are both mine.
Most of the corridors looked the same. Grey, with those circles on the walls. If there was any practical or aesthetic reason for it, it wasn't obvious. But eventually, I found a part that looked older. I knew it was old, because the walls were made of large stones, similar to what they used to built castles of. Not an unfair comparison either, since this part was lit up by torches.
"What is this? Did we enter Sauron's castle."
I had to hear that voice to be reminded that I wasn't alone. I was accompanied by Maen, whom the Doctor and I picked up on Coruscant. Which reminded me, did all this really happen today? Our adventure at the galaxy far away, the problem in Tel Aviv, the aliens in Saint-Tropez? It seemed like a lot more than a week had gone by. But it was all in one day?
"Are you alright?" Maen asked me.
I shook my head: "Sorry, I have the bad habit of letting my mind wander."
"Can you tell me why an advanced machine like this would have a castle inside of it?" she asked me.
"It's the first time I see this myself." I replied, "You should really ask the Doctor about this."
Maen shrugged: "Remind me to do that."
We followed these walls, until we reached a door. It was a large wooden double-door, almost exactly like one of those medieval castles. As soon as we were within five steps of it, the doors opened on their own.
"Automatic doors." I remarked, "A bit anachronistic, isn't it?"
"Bit what?" Maen asked.
I had to assume that either her galaxy has no word for anachronism, or she genuinely doesn't know what it means.
"Never mind." I said, and started toward those doors.
What we found behind the doors was incredible. The room itself looked like a church. I couldn't be sure, but I would swear I heard the squeaking of a bat as we stepped insider. In the middle of this room, there was what looked like a fountain, with one pole on all four of its corners. But instead of water, there was a large orb, made out of the same stones as the castle. And was that an "8" that was engraved on that orb, or was it my imagination?
"What do you suppose this is?" Maen asked me.
"Some kind of monument, maybe." I thought out loud.
Maen walked around it, trying to take a closer look. She stopped at one of the poles. I noticed that her eyes were fixed at the bottom of the pole.
"What's wrong?" I asked her.
"This one is loose." Maen replied, "Look."
To demonstrate her point, she grabbed hold of the pole, and pulled it out. What neither of us expected to see, was a light coming from the the very spot where it once stood. Slowly, I approached that same spot.
"I don't understand." Maen said, "Why would he cover light like this?"
"Every old house has its mysteries." I replied.
Even though I have always been told to never look into light directly, I couldn't help being curious about where that light came from. So I put my head over the hole, looking directly into the light. Though it was bright, it didn't cause any pain to my eyes. This became the least of my worries when I felt a quake. As soon as that happened, the stone orb began moving. It somehow split itself into two, the two bits moving apart from each other. In fact, it looked more like the orb was an eye, opening up.
Maen exclaimed, the panic audible in her voice: "I was joking about Sauron's castle."
The thought occurred to me that this was the second time she mentioned that name. I wanted to ask who or what Sauron was, but as soon as I looked at the "eye", I forgot all about that. A man was projected from the crack in the orb. He looked old, sharp-faced and white-haired, almost like a professor. He held the lapels of his jacket, giving him a somewhat smug appearance. The man disappeared, only to be replaced by another old man, who had darker hair, and a friendlier face, a typical grandfather look.
"Who are those guys?" Maen asked.
I sighed. What made her think I was an expert, when everything we saw was as new to me as it was her. I was about to ask her that, when this man was changed again. But before the image could change, it had already disappeared, when the quake from before returned. Only this time it was worse, as neither Maen or I could stay on our feet this time. As I fell, I saw myself getting closer to the edge of this monument. I could only just feel my face hitting the hard rock, and everything turned to black, just before my brain received the signal indicating I'm feeling pain.