Lucy stops in front of the sharp drop at the cliff's edge and looks at me pointedly.

“You know what this is.” He said lazily. It was more of a statement than a question.

“It seems vaguely familiar….” I remember that first day I brought Lucy as a dog but that’s not what I’m remembering at this moment. As I stare off into the distance, looking beyond the gaping chasm just off the horizon, and that same glint that caught my eyes that first time here does so once again. I slightly turn my head and in an instant, as though looking at a hologram. Here, I see an elaborate almost two-dimensional circular gateway elegantly accent one moment, and if I turn my head even slightly from that position, it disappears.

I rub my eyes just to make sure I wasn’t just seeing things or daydreaming all of a sudden but when I find that familiar glint once again. The faint glimmer of the entryway is visible once again and I stop my movements to get a better look at what I am seeing. The intricate designs surrounding the entrance seems to be almost alive, moving and swirling visible energy, growing and curling around with thin, wispy vines that interlocking around this port.  I'm transfixed; my gaze and interest solely on the fact that something this extraordinary is, not just floating in the middle of nowhere, but it’s out in plain sight where anyone can see!

“...an Egress.” I whisper to myself also in response to Lucy’s daring invite. I don’t know where the word 'egress' came from. When I look to him for confirmation, he isn’t by my side anymore but at the edge of the cliff extending a leg out over it.

“Lucretius, DON’T!” I yell using his given name hoping to get his attention and fearing for the worst as I spring up from my crouching position and in a few large strides I'm at his side. I quickly grab and pull on his hand with both of mine just as he is completing his footfall. Expecting to be pulled along side him as he falls down the steep edge, however, I am surprised to see his foot land and stabilize solidly on what seems like thin air. 

Lucy tows me behind him as though my efforts to stop him didn’t even make him blink. I gasp loudly not sure if he’s able to support me with his strength if I end up falling but interestingly enough, I was able to step on solid ground just as he did. The shocking part of this whole ordeal happens when I set both feet on the platform, a hologram or iridescent sheen appeared beneath our feet. An equally visible clear, opalescent wall rapidly built up towards the sky and around the cliffside until it was solidly fortified and flashed brightly before settling to an almost misty barricade before us.

I can’t believe what is happening all around me! When I look at the barrier, I see a huge hologram-like wall standing there as boldly. I notice a bird approaching the huge impenetrable wall and start to worry for the poor thing. My grip on Lucy’s hand tightens as I tense thinking about what will happen to the bird once it hits the barrier at full speed. I get his attention because he pauses mid-step and turns to me, squeezing my hand in reassurance. Right when I think the bird is going to collide with the semi-invisible wall, I couldn’t look away. Suddenly, the bird isn’t there; almost like it is absorbed into the wall.

Wait, where is it?

I look around me frantically and Lucy squeezes my hand, pointing to the other side of the gateway. The opalescent sheen of the barrier activates for a split second and the bird flies out the backside of the glowing entryway. It is as though it is transported instantly past our median section where we are standing and reappears a bit of a distance behind the Egress none the wiser of what is happening. I don’t recall holding my breath until I exhale loudly with relief.

That is really, trippy to say the least and I'm glad I didn’t have to watch a bird smack full speed against an invisible structure. Lucy forges forward and tows me behind him once again as we head to the brightly, glowing doorway and stop just a few feet away. Something about the pulsing, twinning light around the radiant fissure in the middle of our path calls to me, almost whispering intimately for me to, 'come closer.' 

I tentatively reach out towards it when I fell a firm grip on my extended hand and looked in question at Lucy.

“Are you sure that’s wise?” Lucy asks warily, arching one platinum eyebrow primly. "We do not even know if this Egress is cursed or has defenses against intruders."

I look at him like he suddenly grows an extra head and smirk. "You mean to tell you risk stepping over a steep cliffside to your death or possibly a life as a cripple, pull me to this glowing...thing-"

"-Egress."

"Whatever - after just watching a bird fly through it like it's thin air, and now you have doubts." I have my hands on my hips and continue my argument. "We've come this far and beyond this Ingress-"

"Egress."

"Egress, may be the answers we are looking for." I extend my hand for Lucy to take, looking at him earnestly. "Trust me.” I don’t know where this sudden surety I am feeling is coming from but it’s the only thing I’ve been absolutely positive about since I woke up all those months ago. Lucy reaches for my hand and I grip his tightly, looking at him with askance, 'Please.' He sighs heavily and nods his head up as if it say, 'Lead on.' I give him yet another squeeze and turn towards the Egress. I extend my other hand, palms facing the glowing surface and I delicately touch the center with my middle finger tip.

Standing before the pulsating portal, our eyes widen as my touch seems to have activated something. It starts to pulsate and radiates brighter with each second, slowly enlarging until waves of lights flares outward and around engulfing the area around us. We walk through the portal for a split second but time seems to slow from the sensation of being encapsulated feels like a vacuum pulling us forward. Cool air rushes in around us, tingly for that moment before it spits you out to the other side of that wall, the area the Egress occupies closing at an alarmingly fast rate.

“I guess that confirms my speculations about you being a Toran.”

“A what?” I ask Lucy not even sure what is coming out of his mouth anymore. “Wait, how is it you suddenly know about these things when we were both very much in the dark about all this,” gesturing where the door was and our new surrounds, “and us?”

“I do not know. Well, not in the sense you would think, but I’m getting bits and pieces of information as I experience these new encounters. Like you, I am lost in our current situation but traces of things are starting to seem familiar. Plus, I think Toran is an antiquated term only used by highbrow uppercrust individuals, if I am not mistaken.”

“‘Highbrow, uppercrust, you say.” I slowly scrutinize him from head to toe and I try to picture Lucy, not in jeans and plain t-shirt, and platinum hair tied at the nape of his neck but Lucretius Fahgren, titled noble. He would look sharp in a three piece suit. I suppose my memory of a seemingly unreal world coming back to me in dreams is just as likely as him stumbling upon a random place or item and finding the clues he needs to piece his old life together is just as plausible. I just sigh in resignation and look ahead for the first time since we arrive on the other side.

We’re in a dark tunnel or underground path that seems to have only one way in or out as the way we came is now completely sealed. We head towards a source of light that seems to be waiting for us. With each step, a smattering of lights activates like an arch of fireflies all around us waking up suddenly only to go back to sleep as we walked away; so it went with each step onwards. As we hit the end of the tunnel, the light blinds us from what lies beyond our underground pass. 

Once at its edge, there is a flight of stairs that we need to climb to get to the next level. At the top of the stairs, we both stare dumbly as the stairs open up to a wide cavern filled with people hustling and bustling about in the wide space enclosed space of an cavern.

It’s like walking on to the biggest transfer station of every mode of transport in the world all in one hub. The sheer size and number of people walking and at times running past is a bit overwhelming. I squeeze Lucy’s hand in amazement and fear that I am going to lose him in the crowd. We walk further out of the archway of the stairs and I just about jump out of my skin as I feel the ground around me move and the stony stairway we exit sinks into the ground with a rumble. Once it’s fully submerged beneath the ground level, the cobblestone on the floor form around the gaping hole as though it is healing itself like a wound. It seals completely with no trace of a secret tunnel the impacts the ground from another world.

Lucy tugs my sleeve to break me from my daze and points towards a large hall with ornate buttresses and various crystals and prisms lining the area. Not sure if it's nature or fake, each crystal shines a light as though it is stained glass hit perfectly with a strong beam of light. I nod my acknowledgement as we walk in that general direction, which luckily, the flow of the masses is heading to as well. To my surprise, people are pouring out of various elaborate tunnels and gateways from the ground and around walls. Each distinctly different from the last with a unique design from swirls, curls, vines, waves, made of various colors and materials, both soft and hard, tangible and intangible; you name it, a portal has it. Unlike our entryway, these ones are stationary. When I look down the huge transportation platform, I realize that there are dozens if not hundreds of ports that span on behind us almost endlessly. 

There seems to be a thoroughfare that everyone walked within the boundaries on, yet just when I open my mouth to question, ‘why?’, a section just outside of the main walkway, a large stationary portal begins to glow. It starts as a small manhole sized circle and then grew longer and wider until it seemingly melts into itself. A large jet of air escapes, pushing a man out, small in stature and height somersaulting out of the stream of air and land in perfect form at the side of the wide opening. Almost immediately after he lands, an opposite reaction of the air sucks everything back in until the debris and dust from the new entrance cover the hole. The smooth stone started to build itself back into place as though it were never there.

The most amazing part of walking through here is seeing not just the sheer amount of people but the varieties of people that commute through here. There are just too many to pin point and distinguish in such a short period of time and when I try to get a closer look, I feel a sudden tug at my wrist as Lucy pulls me along, towing behind him.

“Do try not to dawdle.” Lucy drawls almost exasperated at my actions. “We have not the time and I rather we settle somewhere and make sense of everything around us in this new place.”

“Where are we going?” I ask, taking my hand back. Maybe he knows where we are now that we’re here...wherever here is.

“I have no idea.”

“Then why are we in a rush if we have no clue where we’re heading. Maybe standing here will spark another memory.”

“I doubt that and as I said, I rather find a less conspicuous place to get an epiphany than out here in the open waiting to become targets.” 

Deja vu.

We had this same talk not too long ago and I'm proud that something stuck. As if to emphasize the point, Lucy takes my hand within his once again and continues towards the exit like a man on a mission. We keep our heads down as we weave in and around the throng of people. I have no idea where he is steering me as he whips me around corners and halls that seem to all look the same. 

I look towards our destination and see we have a ways to go to reach the vent-like cavern at the top. After climbing an inordinate amount of marble stairs lined with pillars and various art pieces of unframed canvases  and in relief. The interesting thing about the display of art around us is how dynamic it is. Not only is the stage for each piece different but it seems to change and slowly morph with each passing second, giving the piece itself a different tone every few moments. What was once bright midday lighting on one canvas or relief slowly turns into warm tones of the mid-afternoon then darken to hues of reds and changing to sunset lighting. It is as though someone takes a hold of the lighting dimmer dial and start off with white opaque lights and darkens it pitch black. The rate at which a piece lit as well as how the light is disperse vary per piece from beginning to end.

Another very amazing change that influenced the art is the stage around the art pieces morphing to resemble different climates and terrains. Though the canvas is left without a frame, the surrounding background around it almost melds with the scenery and changes the tone just as much as the lighting. Landscapes on the canvas almost bleeds into the background with rocky terrain slowly turning from 2D to 3D and with the added lighting, it looks as though wind is blowing right off the canvas. The whole effect make the landscape look like there is an invisible artist constantly painting within the canvas and sculpting the relief around it. When it starts to rain over the newly flatten plains, it seems wet slip or clay form as light tangible mist around the canvas, cumulating into fog and cloud. It then precipitates into large droplets of 3D almost gel like raindrops that slowly erode the canvas and surrounding background carving a new landscape similar to the Grand Canyon or Bryce Canyon in the span of minutes only to repeat itself again.

One single canvas that stands out the most for me is a relief of what looks to be a young nymph standing tall with both arms stretched, down behind her slightly as she looks up with a neutral expression. It’s almost reminiscent of the classic tarot card, ‘the Fool’ with the bright lighting, giving her a carefree air in her stance against her backdrop. The stage changes from a stony cliffside and then transitions into trees. Her carefree pose with soft green lighting makes her look as though she were galivanting through the trees. Then it morphs, darkens and the trees grow longer, pointier altering the scene to look sinister and menacing. The transition makes the nymph look small and overwhelmed by her environment, if not trapped by it. The ambiance alters its tone a few seconds later when a single ray of light breaks through and creates a stark contrast of the thorny entrapped scenery, giving a glimmer of hope in all that gloom; the thorns die back and collect as bushes at her feet. That single ray grows larger until it is back to the bright light of day and the bushes flourish and grow once again, forming into beautiful roses blooming magnificently.

I'm entranced by this scene before I am pulled away.