"Oh, I dunno how to explain, just—"
He scoops her up and stands and—something happens in the air in front of them—and he steps through the something and they aren't in her depressing little room anymore.
They are instead standing on a balcony. The floor is an intricate pattern of polished granite tiles in swirling curved shapes, speckled black-and-grey; the railing is made of the same material, and gives the impression of spilling upward like a lacy wave. Behind them, an ornate double door leads into the polished stone face of the building attached to the balcony; the doors are made of stained glass set in a dark wooden frame, glittering red-gold in the soft silver light of the sky.
Speaking of which: the sky. A starry dome arches above them, threaded with faint white swirls; like someone took down the moon, stuck a paintbrush in it, and doodled glimmering curves between the stars.
And then at last we come to the view. The balcony is built into a mountainside, but a fairly gently sloped one, so from where they stand they can see the whole tilting spread of land that runs from their perch down to the wooded shore of a tranquil lake. The part with a—house? this is probably a house, or perhaps a castle—built into it is primarily rocky and vertical, with some surfaces cut and polished into the shape of outer walls while others remain craggy and rough. Below that, as the slope gets gentler, grass begins to appear; then shrubs, then trees, getting gradually denser until the flat ground between mountain and lake is entirely covered by forest.
Tias stares out at his new domain, speechless with wonder. He barely retains the presence of mind to avoid dropping her.
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