I wanted to turn back, leave this overstimulating place.
Too much. It was all too much.
Only the thought of Eleanor kept me going. I needed to survive this for her.
I rubbed my temples, trying to settle my mind and soothe my ears over the loud hum.
I shoved off the wall and kept going. Down and down. Until finally, the steps stopped, and I found myself in a circular room.
The white granite walls were beautifully carved and polished, surprisingly smooth against my palm. These walls were clear of the Gods’ symbols, stark white reflecting brightly against the flickering flame in my hand.
Stepping to the right, the curved wall was completely solid, and I followed it all the way around until I returned to the door I arrived through.
The lamp I needed must be within the room somewhere.
I raised the torch higher, allowing it to illuminate farther, but there was nothing other than darkness and white stone floor. I took a step forward, then another, until the edge of the torch’s glow reached another wall. It was inverted, curving in the opposite direction to the wall I’d just walked around.
I edged closer, and steps came into view, then I moved around them until it became clear a large pillar rose in the center of the room. Steps snaked around it, spiraling upward farther than the torch light could reach.
Nowhere to go but up.
A feeling in my chest tugged me upward, the humming vibration no longer at my feet but above me at the top of the large pillar.
I hesitantly began to climb, swallowing past the lump growing ever larger in my throat. After several minutes, I paused, using the torch to check the distance to the bottom. The ground was barely visible, and the steps had no rails; there would be no surviving a fall from such a height. It would end in certain death.
I counted each step, using the familiar rhythm to ground me as I climbed. The ground had long since disappeared, but the ceiling was nowhere in sight, nothing but expansive blackness and endless steps surrounded me.
One hundred, one hundred and one, one hundred and two.
The humming buzz was accompanied by a tingle along my skin, growing stronger and louder with every step I took.
Two hundred and twenty-three, two hundred and twenty-four, two hundred and twenty-five.
I went higher, and the noise and sensation became unbearable. An irrational part of my mind believed if I just made it to the top, it would all stop.
I had to make it stop.
Around the pillar, I climbed higher and higher.
Three hundred and forty-eight, three hundred and forty-nine, three hundred and fifty.
I could see the ceiling now, flat white granite encasing the tall room.
A surprising burst of energy filled me at the sight, and I sped forward.
I must be close.
I flew through the final few turns and finally reached the top.
I stopped on the last step, bent over with my hands on my knees, panting. When my breathing calmed enough for me to focus, I lifted a shaky arm to illuminate the space. Like the rest of the room, the top of the pillar was made of smooth white granite. Lightheadedness and the lack of railings had me sticking to the center where another, much smaller pillar rose.
There, atop the granite, was a black lamp.
It was smaller than I expected and would easily sit in my cupped hands. Intricate engravings covered the surface, a collection of senseless swirls and shapes gathering into the outline of a galloping horse.
My heart raced as I moved closer, but it wasn’t just thrumming in my chest, my entire body throbbed to its erratic beat. It was everything I had been feeling all morning, on the ride here, on the steps down and then up. It was so intense it took monumental effort to move at all.
Then there was the secondary pulse, not coming from me but vibrating in the air.
