The chamber beyond the bronze door was not another corridor. It was a vast, hexagonal space, a giant geode of crystalline growth. The walls, floor, and high ceiling were encrusted with pale, luminous crystals that emitted a soft, constant phosphorescence. It was beautiful, eerie, and after the crushing darkness, it was unbearably bright. The light revealed everything—the dust on our clothes, the blood on our bandages, and the new, unbridgeable chasm that had opened between me and everyone else.
We shuffled in, the group moving as a single, shell-shocked organism. The door swung shut behind the last person with a definitive, resonant thud, sealing us in the crystal tomb. There was no obvious exit.
The moment we stopped moving, the factions solidified around me, not with words, but with looks.
