Despair settled in my soul as I pulled the doors back. A vortex swirled, a nebula of red mist, the crimson tendrils curving in massive plumes stretching far out of sight. Where were the evergreens whose shadows I had stalked—nay, even the courtyard I knew to be just beyond this entrance? What damned trick was this? I stretched out my hand beyond the threshold and knew the reality of what lay beyond.
Pain seized me; searing agony ran up my arm and threw me backward. I crashed into the floor as the doors swung shut of their own accord.
