The great hall of Thornvale Palace silenced Anna more effectively than anything in her twenty-three years of life had managed to accomplish. Her eyes darted everywhere at once, trying to absorb the impossible architecture surrounding them.
The ceiling soared impossibly high, vaulted with living branches that seemed to breathe with the rhythm of some ancient heartbeat. The walls shimmered with a strange iridescence that changed colors when viewed from different angles—emerald from one position, sapphire from another, amethyst from yet another. Scattered throughout the hall were floating platforms of earth where attendants worked, moving between them with practiced ease.
'I've never seen anything so beautiful in my life,' Anna thought, her normally quick tongue temporarily stunned into silence.
