The wind picked up, moaning and blistering. The sky above opened into a swirling vortex, an unnatural light shining from its center, cold and detached.
"Ah ah ah, Kiara," came a new voice, and all turned to see Kyrin walking slowly to them. "That's against the rules." Kyrin's voice held a new timbre to it, reverberating on itself.
"You! I left you tied up in the burrow!" Chakira said. "What are you doing here?!"
His gaze never left Kiara. "Now you've gone and spoiled the fun. Oh well, nothing a little elbow grease can't fix."
"Kyrin, what are you doing?" Kiara asked. "Is that really you? What's happening?"
He lifted his hand and snapped his fingers.
His feet left the ground, body ascending.
A scorching wind swirled around Kiara. She was lifted off her feet as well, and she cried out, tumbling over, reaching back to the ground.
"Kiara!" Kady cried, grabbing her hand. He winced at the heat, but held on, using his other hands to hold onto her forearm as well.
"Hang on!" Basil yelled, joining Kady, and Ratigan behind him. All three grabbed and pulled, trying to hold Kiara down.
The wind only grew stronger as the light of the vortex became colder. Kyrin was already becoming a speck. Kiara's arm was slipping out of Kady's grasp, down to the wrist, to the palm, to the fingers.
"Time for some re-education," Kyrin's voice came, as loud and clear as if he were standing beside them all.
Kady's fingers slipped, and Kiara had an instant of seeing him and the others all shrink below her, of Ant Island's tree becoming a shrub, the river a trickle, until finally her vision was consumed by white.
Kiara opened her eyes. She was lying on cold tiles patterned in white and gray. White stone walls and stone columns held up a white ceiling, where some dark gray tiles were laid in a geometric pattern. The only trace of color was a dashed line of blue tiles at the very top of the walls, and two pairs of pale yellow doors, one at the top of a short flight of stairs and one at the bottom. It was a room of such magnitude that even if it were full of chattering people, a pin dropping would still echo.
Kiara picked herself up, adjusting her glasses. Her clothes had been changed in her sleep. She now wore a small white dress with a thick black stripe down the middle, and thin straps on her shoulders. Her shoes had been changed to black heeled sandals, and she was fairly certain she'd been bathed and her hair brushed. She shuddered, hugging herself, but there was no one around.
She approached the doors that led up. Pushing them open, she entered another hall identical to the one she just left. She walked a bit faster, and entered another pristine white hall. This one had one other door option to pass through. She took it, and found another replica of the first hall. She frowned, looking back and forth the way she'd come and the way forward. She kicked off her shoes and left them at the entrance of the new hallway before continuing forward.
She never saw those sandals again.