Zeus 25 - Praxis

12 - The fourth house

As they got closer, they could hear the pounding of the falls on the rocks of the river's jagged chasm and feel its mist in the air. There were, indeed, two cascades as Izador had said, and they picked a traverse that aimed for the base of the top falls, the largest of the two magnificent drops. For the first time in days, there were clouds to the west, but far off, and the day was cooler. It was ideal weather for climbing.

Eventually, their trek skirted an enormous talus slope and opened onto a high plateau with a beautiful oval lake at the base of the upper falls. The lake emptied to the right creating the second falls and a bit of danger for anyone who took a swim and didn't pay attention to where the the current led.

Two little valleys crept up from the lake to secondary plateaus that would overlook the stark beauty of the scene. "Those plateaus are where I'd build a House of Sea and Stars if I were Poseidon," Praxis said.

"Let's check out the bigger one," Eudora agreed.

Spyro was setting his satchel down when Praxis stopped him. "Let's take our gear with us," he said. "Even if there's no House of Sea and Stars it will be a lovely place to camp before we head back."

Spyro re-shouldered his satchel, and they all trudged up the bigger valley. There were fewer birds flocking here than down below, and their absence caused a silence that was truly lovely.

#

The first hint of the House of Sea and Stars was a mirror-like distortion above the gravelly meadow before them.

Then Praxis suddenly yelped and stepped back. He'd run into an invisible wall. "I don't believe it," he said, touching what seemed like unyielding air.

Eudora and Spyro dropped their satchels and joined him feeling the impossible hardness of the space in front of them which their eyes maintained was empty. Spyro probed left of where Praxis stopped, and Eudora went right. Eudora started climbing up into the empty air above the meadow like an Airman or a Punisher, but without fans. Praxis and Spyro whooped and followed after her. Soon they were all motionless twenty feet above the meadow standing on nothing. At least, it seemed like nothing.

The nothing had little invisible ledges that kept driving them upward until they realized it was a vast staircase of hidden steps. In a few more feet, the ledges ended and they came to a platform that ended with another invisible wall. In the center of this wall, Eudora seemed to have found something. She lifted her arms and a large rusted iron ring appeared below her hand, hinged at its top. Her lifting had exposed a matching ring of weathered wood floating four feet above the platform.

Eudora pushed, and they gasped as a rectangle of darkness opened before them. Beyond the opening, they glimpsed the lobby of an enormous building, no doubt the central chamber of the House of Sea and Stars. They had found Poseidon's fabled House precisely where Izador had said it would be.

At first, no one wanted to go inside because of the dark.

#

As their eyes adjusted, they could make out the outlines of giant statues in the middle of the room, and the light behind them stretched their own shadows across the inlaid floor to the very foot of the immense figures.

Praxis was first to enter. When nearly to the statues, he saw a rectangular rock near the open door begin to glow. It was a Hot Block that hadn't collected sunlight for probably a very long time. Such enhanced iron would be useful for storing the high mountain sunlight when the House of Sea and Stars wasn't invisible. Then he noticed other still glowing Hot Blocks positioned below openings in the roof that let in light.

"Those openings must be above the Sphere of Invisibility," Praxis called back to Spyro. "Come in and close the door. I'd rather no warrah or Punisher of Lord Jason's joined us while we're in here."