Having now gotten to his feet he became curious and moved to the door to look out. Sure enough he saw the tunnel and was slightly confused for it appeared to be larger than the room in which they stood. The walls, floor and ceiling seemed to quiver and pulse like the inside of some giant artery and looked like they were composed of the decaying flesh of some diseased beast.

Strange creatures that could have been either very small or far away shambled across a bleak and barren landscape below his vantage and a rotting city slumped in ruin some distance down the tunnel disappearing into the darkness in the distance and climbing the walls without concern for the laws of nature. The city's beauty and mystery were marred by the disaster that befell its once great majesty.

His eyes widened in recognition, shock, and fear as he realized what he was seeing. For though he had never before seen it for himself he had heard of this place and knew he was looking at the result of directed malicious evil.

"By the Light! We shouldn't be here, no good can come from this place. Not now. He was right, how foolish I was to disbelieve. He was right and I should have listened. We need to get out of here now!" Kira came up to his side and wrapped her arm around his waist. "What's wrong? What is out there that has you so scared?"

In vague answer he waved his arm taking most of the scene in that gesture. When she still seemed confused he elaborated. "This is the Place Between Places. There climbing the walls is the lost city Kriis'Tal Tor. Beyond it is the Dark Path. It will take us anywhere any time we wish to go, but if we are caught by any of those creatures, we will be killed. Then there is the Path itself, it has the unfortunate habit of corrupting those who travel it."

She was intrigued and curious now. The way he had pronounced it had him rolling the first 'r' for a second and she could never remember him doing that before in any conversation. "How is it that you don't roll your r's while speaking except to say that one name?" "It is part of the power of this place, you cannot mispronounce the name no matter how hard you try. Give it a try yourself if you like."

"No thank you. What is with those glowing clouds out there?" As if to provide illustration to her question three of the clouds stopped their odd dance right outside the doorway. One was a bright amethyst, another was pure silver and the third was an unadorned white. "The amethyst is the Power of Creation, Silver is Pure Chaos, and the White is Wild Magic. This place flows with such powers though they are more common and plentifully seen within the city itself, from what I hear."

"That is truly interesting but I would like a way back to our friends." As they stood there watching a wall rotated into view a short distance away, where before there had been nothing. A series of hexagonal flagstones as large as hubcaps, free floating and with at least an inch of open space between them, spun into existence marking off a path from their room to the blank wall. A square section of the wall slid out toward them and then to the left, showing what was unmistakably the hallway they had left but further along past the curve they had seen beyond the pit. "Well, I'd say your 'path set in stone' has very obligingly made itself apparent. So lets go. Or would you like an engraved invitation as well?"

She spoke slightly indignantly. "Not funny Damien." With a tired sigh he answered. "You're right. I am sorry. This isn't the place you want to find yourself at the best of times and here we find ourselves at the worst possible time. And you are giving pure chaos, wild magic and the powers of creation something to do. In this case it turned out okay, but please don't make a habit of it. Such things won't always work in our favor, and I'd rather not be present when everything goes wrong."

Cautiously, because the strange colored mists were still swirling around the area, they started to make their way over to the hallway. Three of the smallest clouds of mist, one of each color, joined into one and embraced Kira and were absorbed into her body, but as they seemed to have no effect upon her aside from giving her a bit of a surprise they continued on without further incident.

They entered the hallway and the wall closed with an ominous click. To the left was the molten glow of liquid rock and to the right was the same curve in the hall they had seen before headed to the right this time as they were on the other side of it.

Here too the walls had that look to them that something unusual was happening just beneath the surface. And that was even under the layers of gears, pistons, and other less identifiable mechanical components that covered most of the finished stonework. Multiple pipes that obviously carried steam had reconnected to their pieces within the segment of the wall as did various gears and other unknown gizmos and continued whatever their function was.

Immediately to her right was a leaver sticking out of the wall but Kira didn't see it before leaning on it. The leaver moved easily and they heard a rumble from around the curve in the hall. Within moments they were rejoined by their friends and they were able to continue on to their goal of escape from their nightmare.