The door yielded under the light pressure of Victor's hand, opening with an unnatural smoothness for something of that size, as if the castle itself understood who he was… or, more precisely, to whom he was about to present himself.
The air that came from the other side was different, denser, laden with an aroma that was not merely incense, but something deeper, more ancient, almost as if each particle carried memory.
Victor didn't stop at the threshold… he wasn't the type of person to hesitate before the unknown, especially when the unknown seemed to promise something interesting.
Yet, as he fully crossed the threshold, his senses instinctively expanded, alert, absorbing every detail of that space like a predator assessing new territory.
The hall that revealed itself before him was not merely large… it was deliberately grand.
