Olivia's projected senses cannot discern anything beyond the World Gate. The environment on the other side seems to be pitch black.

Pitch black, pitch silent, no magic. Alright then, time to step across. She whispers Glow, lighting the silver dragonfly holding up her hair. A magical light, this will not just illuminate but reveal anything invisible or hidden within its reach. 

The other side of the gate is a nondescript rectangular corridor. It appears to be made entirely from concrete. A plain square grid pattern covers the floor, walls, and ceiling. A couple hundred feet ahead of her, the corridor intersects with another corridor and ends. The second corridor continues perpendicular to this one.

It's very quiet.

Olivia pulls down the Gate, brushes away the lingering traces of magic with prestidigitation, and floats smoothly and silently to the junction, just barely above the floor.

The junction's right turn leads down an identical looking corridor. It goes further than her light can reach. The junction's left turn leads down a nearly identical looking corridor, but far off in the distance, past where her light can reach, there's another light. Behind her is the corridor she came from, which continues into darkness behind her.

She turns towards the light, and continues. Quietly, she chants and gestures for a Commune, to get a sense for the landscape. Unfortunately, she can't yet push this spell far enough to give her a map, but she can get an audiovisual feed and brief description for the most relevant details of each: terrain, permanent or residual magic, useful resources and/or shops, animals, ordinary people, and unusual people within a quarter mile of her location.

From her current location, within her commune range:

• The terrain is entirely part of what must be a huge building. It's full of tunnels and rooms and nonsensical constructions with no clear purpose. Everything is almost perfectly aligned at right angles. Human buildings usually have many more imperfections than this. Near the end of her range, the building gives way to open air. Strange pipes and cables extend out a couple dozen feet past the sheer wall of the building. She gets a flash of a metal grate where light streams in—the light at the end of this tunnel.
• There is no permanent or residual magic of any kind.
• In terms of resources, there's a lot of metal in the air, along with some other nonmetallic elements. It's unclear what they are. They aren't visible to her normal senses. They aren't visible to her audiovisual feed. They seem to fill the air quite evenly throughout her range.
• There is one human currently within her range, close to the end of her range, above her and near the edge of the building. He's a scruffy man with blonde hair and a short beard, dressed in traveler's clothes with lots of pockets. There are no other living creatures within her range.
• There are no usual creatures in the area, though with only one creature, there's no comparison point from which unusuality could be determined.

The complete lack of, say, insects is honestly more unnerving than the silence. She's not sure what to make of the airborne metal, besides being glad she's not exposed to breathing it (and concerned for the one person she caught in range). She speeds up, heading for the grate. When she gets there, she gestures a Forge Metal to let her slide the bars of the grate out of her way, and then back. She's tempted to gather up the airborne metal, but without knowing when or how it got there, she refrains. Instead, she pops open her pocketspace, pulls out a thin bar of steel, and shapes it into a ring around one of the bars of the grate, a delicate feather hanging downwards from it. A marker, so she can find her way back here should she need to.

Next: time to Navigate to the current location of the single (other) living creature anywhere around her. Instead of drawing down a charge, she casts the weaker version that is within her unassisted ability; the directions that fill her mind are, if not physically, then at least magically possible.

The grate is at the edge of the building. The other side is a dropoff into the abyss below.

In the distance, thousands of skyscrapers hang impossibly from the ceiling, which is a vast construction of concrete and metal and other unknown materials. The inverted sky is covered in a layer of white clouds. A perfectly uniform bright light streams through them from below. Up and to her left, in the distance, near where her spell points, is an outdoor stairwell, like the kind you would find in an apartment building, except it goes on for hundreds of levels.

A light breeze flows through the air. She can hear distant sounds but they are too far away and too quiet to be understandable.

Holding onto the grate, she flips Aspect of the Seagull into Aspect of the Goose, giving her more speed and height under her magical wings at the expense of being able to rescue someone else falling as quickly. Doesn't do her any good if she falls! After a moments thought she drops Aspect of the Chameleon in favor of restoring the Seagull; blending into the background is beyond useless with a bright glow stuck to the top of her head. 

She secures her marker, leaving no seam in the steel, and pushes off from the building. Up, up, and not very far away, nor very fast; she's protected from wind resistance like this but the same is not true of anyone near her. At the same time, she reduces the speed factor on her Haste to nearly nothing, matching her own timestream with the world to prepare for a face to face interaction. Last but not least, Tongues, targeted at the language the man speaks, or does he speak more than one?

The man is located in a corridor near the stairwell. It has open gaps in the walls. He speaks one language. He shouts when he sees her approach. 

"Ahhh!"

"Hello!" she calls. "I am a stranger here and I mean no harm." She slides through one of the gaps and lands lightly on the floor.

Turtle, grant me patience, she thinks, and patience settles into her. She shows nothing but calm and peacefulness as she waits for him to respond.

"Oh! Hello!" His shock seems momentary. "I am Kumoi. I'm traveling with Yaki. What's your name?"

"I am Olivia, traveling alone."

This is the barest, most superficial truth: she is alone, physically speaking. But Olivia's "alone" includes Nate, keeping watch from within her thoughts and behind her eyes. Includes the multiple friends only a mental motion away, ready with advice and company should she want any. Includes her magic, not exactly a person in its own right but very much alive, her support and her responsibility both. 

Olivia would rather not get into a description of all that with a stranger, actually, especially not as a matter of initial introduction. 

"Good to meet you. I've never met someone who can fly before! You should come with me. We found a place where the Builders don't come. It wasn't easy, this whole area's a growth sector, so the Builders are pretty active. That's what Yaki said, at least."

"Sure! Thank you for the invitation. What are the Builders, if you don't mind explaining?"

He starts walking down the hallway. "Ah, you've not had the misfortune of meeting them? You must be from far away indeed. The Builders build things. All these buildings were built by the Builders." He gestures out at the inverted skyline. "They're unpredictable and take many forms, large and small. If you're in their way when they're building something, you'll get crushed! Or smashed, or torn apart, or something like that. It's bad news to see one nearby. I think our camp should last a while, though. There's a large Builder in the distance, on the other side of this tower, but it moves slowly."

"Thanks for the warning. I'm not as easy to crush as I look, and I'll be careful. Is that why this building is so empty, because it's new?"

"These buildings are almost all empty, as far as I know. Not enough people around to fill 'em. I mean, look at how many there are! I was born in Akima, which is a long ways from here, and all of us together wouldn't be able to fill even this one tower. Though, it's been a long time since I've been there. Regardless, the Builders are active, which is more bad news. Yaki told me that there are other worse machines out here too. If there are other people out in this place, I don't know 'em. Well, except for you, now. We hoped to find many more people, but we haven't. The situation is unfortunate."

"That's too bad. Do you know why the Builders came here instead of staying where they were, or going somewhere else?"

"I don't know why the Builders do what they do. I don't think even Yaki knows that. They've been around since long before I was born, though. Long before Yaki was born, and she's extremely old. She's been alive since before the founding of Akima! But her body is breaking down. That's why we set out. To find something that can fix her. But she's only gotten worse on the journey and recently she completely stopped moving."

"Oh no! I'm so sorry to hear that. Depending on what the matter is, I might be able to help? Is she still alive?"

That's more hedging than Olivia would usually do, but "breaking down" and "stopped moving" aren't exactly clear descriptions of a biological injury or illness. Except maybe old age? If old age is the problem Olivia is qualified to deal with it, but if there's something weirder going on she doesn't want to make promises.

"I think the matter is just that she's old. Lots of stuff breaks down over time if you don't repair it. She's not injured. She's still alive, I talked to her earlier."

"Then I can likely heal her, yes. And I'm glad I met you in time to do so."