A Pool of Stars

They stood before the door. The air was thin and silent.

Traveller looked at the round hole in the center of the stone. Their voice was full of a quiet awe. "I think... that is for you, Bob."

Bob looked at Traveller. Then he looked at the compass on his chest. It was his job.

He took the leather cord from around his neck. He walked to the giant stone door. He had to stand on his tiptoes to reach the hole.

With steady hands, he placed the silver compass into the opening.

It fit perfectly. Click.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then, a soft white light began to glow from the carvings on the door. The light spread, tracing every swirling line. The stone door did not open. It dissolved. It broke apart into a thousand tiny points of light, like a cloud of fireflies. The lights swirled to the side and vanished into the mountain wall, leaving a dark, open doorway.

As they stepped forward, the darkness inside retreated. Glowing lines, the same color as the door's carvings, lit up along the floor and walls of a long, straight corridor, showing them the way.

The corridor opened into a vast, dark space. It was a cavern so huge that the walls were lost in shadow.

As they walked inside, the cavern began to wake up.

High above, the ceiling was not rock. It was a single, massive cluster of shimmering crystals. One giant, sharp point aimed down towards the center of the room. Soft lights began to glow from deep within the crystals, filling the cavern with a gentle, twilight glow.

In the center of the room was a wide, circular pool. The water was perfectly black and still, like a mirror of glass. From the crystal point high above, a single drop of glowing water would fall every few moments, hitting the surface with a soft plink and sending out silent, shimmering ripples.

The pool was not empty. It was full of stars. Thousands of tiny, glittering lights danced in its dark depths, a perfect copy of the night sky.

Traveller stopped at the edge, their body frozen in reverence. This was a holy place, they thought.

Bob did not see a holy place. He saw the most beautiful puddle in the world.

He walked right to the edge and knelt down. He stared, fascinated, as the star-lights swirled in the black water. He could see his own reflection, a small boy with white hair, floating among the stars.

He had to touch it.

He reached out his hand. His curiosity was bigger than any feeling of awe. He dipped his fingers into the cool, dark water.

The moment he touched it, the entire cavern flashed with a soft, white light. The stars in the pool swirled faster, and the crystals on the ceiling glowed brighter.

A voice whispered, not in his ear, but inside his head. It was the voice from his dream. Veilon's voice.

"Look up, my little one."

Bob's head snapped up. He followed the voice's direction, his eyes tracing the path of the dripping water, up, up, up to the giant, sharp crystal point hanging from the ceiling.

He saw it then.

Deep inside the heart of the largest crystal, where the light was brightest, there was a shape.

A person.

Their eyes were closed. Their body was still. Trapped. Floating alone in a prison of silent, shimmering crystal.