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Malya went to sleep in her own bed.
This is not her own bed. For that matter, she doesn't remember waking up. Is she dreaming? This doesn't feel like a dream...
Sheltered Threefold Lacey is simplified gay stargated into Imbria
This is... a vast flat stretch of bare ground, swirling with grey-white fog. Patches of dark grey rock alternate with patches of paler grey-brown dirt. There are no signs of life, not so much as a single bug or bird or blade of grass.
The only landmark in sight is a distant tall round shadow, barely visible through the fog.
Well, if it is a dream, might as well engage with it. If not--well.
She heads for the shadow.
The shadow turns out to be...
...a huge stone ring, made up of three concentric rings, each of them divided into five sections. Each section is one of five colours, arranged in the same order on each of the rings: red, yellow, green, blue, purple. Each section has three symbols engraved in it, one large central one and two different smaller ones on either side: the central symbols on the outermost ring are stylized flowers, on the middle ring stylized birds, and on the innermost ring stylized gemstones. The symbol before the central one is always one of five things: a flame, a spiral, a rock, a wave, or a star. The symbol after the central one is always one of three things: a white circle filled with six smaller overlapping circles, a grey circle filled with a pinwheel of six half-circles, or an empty black circle. A set of white marble steps leads from the ground up to the middle of the ring, which is easily tall enough for her to walk through it, and an identical set of steps leads back down from the other side.
The rings are slowly turning; as she approaches, the outermost ring turns so that its yellow section (flame-sunflower-pinwheel) sits at the very top. The outermost ring stops as soon as it reaches that point; the newly-arrived yellow section begins to glow faintly, its symbols glow brighter, and faint yellow smoke begins aimlessly swirling through the empty space in the center.
It's pretty easy to get the innermost ring turning in the opposite direction, so that instead of the green section approaching the top, now it's the blue. It clicks into place a few seconds later; the innermost blue section glows, with its wave and faceted gem-outline and grey pinwheel, and threads of blue smoke join the yellow... along with puffy tendrils of grey, which chase each other through the central space and disrupt the coloured strands.
No answers are forthcoming.
The middle ring's blue section clicks into place, with the flame symbol on one side and the linked white circles on the other, and a silhouetted swallow in between. More blue smoke issues forth into the central space; it's now completely filled with intricate patterns of swirling smoke, two-thirds blue and one-third yellow, disrupted by those chaotic eddies of grey. With two sources of blue, the blue smoke now comes in a variety of shades.
When the outermost ring clicks to green (star, black circle), the yellow smoke is replaced by green and the grey smoke vanishes, leaving the patterns considerably more stable. When she turns it from there to blue (spiral, black circle), the green smoke is replaced by blue, adding even more depth and variety to the shades of blue available.
With three green sections lit, the smoke swirling inside the central space is all green, in just as many shades as there were of blue when it was three blue.
—a soft and sourceless voice says, "Gateway."
"Gateway," the voice repeats.
"Rings," it agrees.
"—magic."
"What do you do? I guess if you're a gateway you send people places, it doesn't look like there's much on the other side of you here."
"—send—"
"World."
"World? You send people to different places in the world? ...You send people to another world?"
"Another," it confirms.