Following their reunion and the conversation that followed, Ayame led him through the building at an unhurried pace, less a tour than an orientation, the quiet offering of context without commentary.
The structure was larger from the inside than its cliff-face exterior suggested. Corridors of dark wood opened into chambers that looked out over the canyon below, each window framing the waterfall from a different angle, the light shifting between them as they moved deeper into the estate.
Outside, the world was even more otherworldly than it had appeared during the descent. The mountain range stretched in every direction to the horizon, its scale refusing to resolve into anything manageable, regardless of how long he looked at it.
The forest below moved with the particular slow deliberateness he'd noticed during the arrival, things that weren't wind and weren't animals, choosing their own schedule.
The estate itself was mostly empty.
