:: And as the water of the bay spills down towards you, as the crowded sun burns the land and turns the ocean to boiling, hissing steam, it all collapses upon you in a shriek of metal, earth, and water as you are dragged down screaming into the Void. ::

💠

:: You look up at the ground looming over your head, where the dusk of the evening sky had been a moment before. Your eyes pick out the rusty red metal of the twin points of the Gate, now folded into each other and aimed down at you like daggers. 13/

:: The City and the ocean before and the hills and forests behind are yanked up and around you in a sphere, like a net being drawn up from under your feet. The blue sky irises down to a pin point as the earth closes in above.

:: There is a pregnant pause. 12/

:: You watch in horror as the circle, the lovers, the tree, are pulled to shreds. But bound as they are to the land, they drag too at the hills, the Town, the bay around you. The sun lurches violently above and backwards against its setting path as it, too, is sucked towards this black hole. 11/

:: An enormous vortex of Aether, Material, and Void has opened beneath you in the circle. Your Material form is shuddering in and out of existence as bits of Self are stripped from you into this yawning, magical maw. 10/

:: You only realize it now, but the roar of a cacophonous rush of water has been building beneath your consciousness. Once you notice it, it instantly becomes deafening.
 
:: No, not beneath your consciousness. Beneath *you.* You look back down. 9/

:: You’d heard the call from outside the Gate. You’d been drawn into the City towards it many times now. Could this be it? Could this bridge between two places, this liminal structure of red metal and air, delineating bay from ocean, be the portal that the magic of this land warns you against? 8/

:: As you ponder the meaning of this warning, the “where” and “what” of this portal and its delirious waters, your gaze turns instinctively to the bay. From this bird’s eye view in the Aether, you can see the great golden Gate where the land circles back around the bay to meet the ocean. 7/

:: The glyphs resolve themselves into an urgent message. ::
 
Beware Wickedness,
And its power to make the familiar strange.
Take care, lest it claim your heart.
 
Once the portal opens,
Should you find yourself drawn into its delirious waters,
There is no turning back.
 
6/

:: Only in this plane outside of yourself can you see the runes glow and ring the edge of the circle, traced in light beneath and through the seated forms of the lovers under the tree. The language is ancient and unknown to you, but you aren’t reading it with your conscious mind. 5/

:: You feel the strength of your heart reach down through the circle, through the earth, into the roots of the tree. As your thoughts connect you to the power of this place, you are suddenly outside of your body, looking down at yourself in the center of the circle from above. 4/

:: You look up into the domed branches of the mighty oak before you, emblem of the strength and resilience of this place and its people. As your consciousness reaches up into the tree’s limbs, you are filled with gratitude. This land is hard but beautiful, and you’ve become strong here, too. 3/

:: You are quiet as you enter the stone circle behind them; you don’t want to disturb the peace and stillness of their conversation or this place. You pause for a moment to take in the view. The Town spills down the hillside to the bay below you, painted in the pink and orange glow of sunset. 2/