The endless hallway had neither stone nor metal walls, and golden light moved beneath their smooth white surface like blood beneath skin.
Far above, geometric patterns rearranged themselves whenever no eye watched them directly.
The polished floor returned flawless reflections, and pale pillars divided the corridor into intervals too exact for mortal builders.
No dust existed in this place. Dust required time, and time behaved politely here.
Vaela had walked this corridor nine hundred times, and it still measured her steps like an examiner.
Director Vaela Kurose, head of the Divine Monitoring Division, crossed that manufactured perfection in a tailored charcoal suit whose severe cut matched her profession.
Her silver hair ended against her jaw in a blunt line, while sleeplessness had bruised the skin beneath narrow amber eyes.
Endless lines of data moved across the translucent tablet in her right hand as she reread the same conclusion for the twelfth time.
