Stan was about to say something, but the voice interrupted him gently before the words could leave his mouth.
"Do not dwell on it for now."
"The answers you seek will reveal themselves soon enough."
The voice fell silent for a brief moment before continuing; "Anyway, it's time for your next trial. Two more remain before I can properly explain everything to you."
Stan opened his mouth to protest, but before he could utter a single word, the space around him folded in on itself.
He materialized standing on the edge of a vast arena.
The arena was enormous. Thousands of floating stone platforms hung suspended in the air around him at varying altitudes, arranged in a lattice that stretched away into a distant central point he could barely see. The platforms rotated slowly. Some drifted sideways. Some rose. Some sank.
The entire structure moved with the quiet, ongoing rhythm of a giant machine whose gears were made of falling stone.
