It took quite some time for Jade to calm down, which meant that Ríváné had to glare at Kámír several times in order to stop him from doing something monumentally stupid, offensive, insulting, degrading or all of the former combined. The songweaver had made it clear to both of her subordinates that any sort of interruption would not be tolerated, because her guest needed the time to emotionally stabilise in order to be able to face Two-Stars-Weeks-Away. Therefore, any time that she took was an acceptable delay that Ríváné would inform the Ruler about the moment they arrived. She knew that the Ruler would understand it.
She would have lied if she said that Jade giving the go-ahead was not a moment of relief, though, so as soon as Kámír and Aranam gathered around her on her command, she started speaking ránei again. Expanded Boundaries recognised her command, which resulted in a section of the floor falling away from them, leaving the four people on a square-shaped platfrom that started to descend at a moderate speed. And it was then that Jade realised that they were quite far up in the air. The tips of skyscrapers were below them, at least a couple of hundred meters down. Fortunately, they would not have to descend all the way to the ground as there was a wide, metallic plateau below them, clearly made for landing spacecraft judging by the countless scorch marks that littered its surface.
Then, it became obvious that the landing pad was attached to a gigantic structure. Far wider and taller than any other building which Jade had seen before, the extremely robust, sectioned construction was composed of three towers tightly joined to what seemed like a rather large central column. Its purpose was probably to provide support for the entire building and while that might make sense, the lack of windows most certainly did not. Nor did the fact that upon closer inspection, the whole thing was made out of armour plating, some of which had seen better days. Hell, there were even turret emplacements on it along with weapons that Jade could not even hope to recognise, making it look as if it was a spaceship made for extremely long journeys.
Before Jade could even as much as contemplate as to what something like that was doing in the middle of a large city, a strange feeling hit her. Though she could not associate any of her senses with it except for the reaction that it made in her brain, she got the distinct feeling that this was more than just a simple machine. There was an identity to it, some sort of agency that she could only attribute to a living being that had the intelligence of a human or greater. Thus, she had to be facing something like that, right? She felt as if she was staring at something that eclipsed her by several orders of magnitude. It was a subtle feeling, almost intangible, but it was definitely there.
Her attention was turned away from that subtlety when at the moment of landing, a tall fence sprung up on the edge of the landing pad, thickly woven and high enough to prevent accidents or suicides. Judging by the lack of reaction from Ríváné along with her companions, this was completely normal, most likely a safety precaution added to it just in case.
"This way, please," said the songweaver as she stepped off from the landing gear along with her escort, then she headed towards an opening on the building's central column that had not been there before, or maybe Jade had been too far away to notice it. Speaking of things to be noticed, up this close, Jade would definitely see a very strange symbol on the structure, right above where the door had opened for them.
It was a simple symbol forged into the metal of the structure, but it seemed to be important. The design of the armour plating around it emphasized it quite intently, directing Jade's eyes towards it. For a second, it even felt as if her eyes were a compass driven astray by a magnet. That sensation disappeared quite quickly and was replaced by an instinct that told her something important was near by, felt the same way as she had felt the presence of a living being before. It was born within her mind instea of a sense she was familiar with, yet she could tell that it was definitely there. In fact, the two presences seemed to amplify each other and when the group stepped into the building, they became absolute certainty. And as if it was thinking on its own without her permission, Jade's brain realised the conclusion before the small woman herself.
She was standing within a soundmason. As a matter of fact, this entire building was the soundmason.
Unfortunately, her escorts did not allow her to contemplate the implications of this discovery and within second, she found herself in a rather spacious, silver-coloured chamber that seemed to go against every design principle she had seen so far. Angular, harsh, monochromatic and grandiose, it was the exact opposite of the house she had spent her time in before. That was unfamiliar, but soothing. This was both completely alien and oppressive. Jade's eyes could not find even an ounce of comfort within this place. Then, as her eyes wandered, they found the throne along the opposite wall. There was a man sitting on it, but before she could make out his features or the details of the throne, everything went to hell.
"||\\\\\\/=_|\_||\\\__/||//||\\|__|||\\|_||=_||_=\\//||||\\\/_||_\\_|\\_| _|\_\_|_\\//\\//=_||_=|||\|__|=\\___|\_|__|_\/_|_|_|_|||_||_||_|_|| |||\\\_|___||||\\\/|_||\\|__|=|\/||_||||||\/\/||\\\\_|\\\/|\/|\\__=||//\_|__|\__|\_=|_||\_\_ ||\\\\\/=||\\\\__||\\=\\//||||\\\/_|\_|_|_|__|_||_|_||=\/|_|||\\\_|___||||\|__| \\__||\\_\\||_|_\__/___||_\____||_|__|\__|\_=||\\_\\|/||\||\\___|=|_||||\\\\__=_||_ |__|\\\/||\\\\__|||\\__//||\=||\\\\__\\//||\\\\_|."
A symphony of harmonious cacophony which carried an incredible melody filled the entire room, only to explode into something beyond comprehension. Not one of the sounds were familiar to Jade, but they reminded her of when she had heard Ríváné speak ránei for the first time. Only that in this instance, it was completely overwhelming and it was not a sense of command conveyed to her, but something that she could not put into words. It was something utterly incomprehensible to her mind, something that she had never before felt in her life. It was as if her entire body had turned into an instrument to something that was much greater than her as every fibre of her being was forced to listen to the masterpiece which unfolded.
It was magnificent. Yet at the same time, it was unspeakably terrifying. The sounds reverberated through her, completely shattering her sense of self, then replacing it completely with something absolutely alien. Suddenly, her head felt completely empty while her spine gained an unusual emphasis as if it was the organ responsible for understanding what her senses told her, senses which have somehow multiplied manifold. Of course, she could not understand any of these new sensory inputs that flooded her body and yet she was completely in control of them. She knew what they meant. She knew how they conveyed their messages. She knew everything that she needed to know. At the same time, she was absolutely clueless as to what she was feeling.
Sound became smell became touch became taste became a sight to behold. A kaleidoscopic whirlwind bloomed in Jade's identity, sending ripples through all four parts of her being as described by Civitatem Lucis' Four Philosophies. Her self became aware of another self which belonged to something indescribably great and she soon realised that she was facing a soundmason. Surely, her existence was completely insignificant to such a strange being that existed far beyond her comprehension, but at the same time, she could not help but be faced with her own worth. She was a unique individual, a demi-human who had faced many challenges in her life. She was someone who kept on fighting despite her shortcomings. She was someone who had stared down horrors beyond horrors. She was someone who mattered.
What a strange duality. Jade felt that she was a speck of dust in the wind who was a giant amongst her own kind. This feeling created a subtle disharmony in her sense of self that was left ignored at first because it did not seem important. Naturally, that small fault of ignorance turned out to be her downfall as by the time she checked the infection again, it had became a cancer which devoured her body. At the exact moment of this realisation, Jade's senses suddenly overwhelmed the imagery she had been bombarded with and she found herself slammed back into reality.
She no longer felt áratidéfíl.
Instead, she felt a sense of emptiness and awe. Logically, she should have felt fear after the overwhelming experience that seemed to last hours despite it taking only a split second. It was definitely a memory which would last a lifetime and leave its mark upon Jade for as long as she lived, but it was not a traumatic experience. She could not find the words to describe it at all, as even though it should have chilled her to the bone, she had felt safe while it happened. There was definitely something protecting her from the unstoppable thunderstorm that had washed through her, something that was there to shield her from harm. Without that, she would have been traumatised for life, but that layer of protection turned an infinitely horrifying experience into a magnificent beauty.
Now if only her body and her senses would be so kind as to recover from the shock and no longer burden Ríváné's arms...