Chapter 119 - Voices Below

The hall did not so much empty as it seemed to fold inward upon itself, as though the air itself were drawing over the retreating figures like a shroud, sealing them away from existence. The sense of space contracted in slow, quiet waves, each one lapping at the edges of perception until it felt as if the world beyond the immediate circle of his presence had ceased to exist. What had been vast now felt close and suffocating, the great black expanse of stone narrowing into something that pressed on the lungs.