Liya slid open the heavy door just enough to shoulder through, emerging blinking into sunlight. She paused, startled.

"Whoa," she breathed, and stepped outside.

She was in a large courtyard under a cool blue sky, surrounded on three sides by an arched walkway that fell away into space beyond. The courtyard was grassy and full of trees and bushes; flowering vines wrapped around the stone pillars that ranged across the yard. In the shade of the trees stood a small open stone house, half-concealed by undyed curtains that fell across its entrance, showing a small mattress (neatly made up in bedsheets that were threaded in bronze). The breeze teased through the branches idly as Liya walked out into the grass, over broken pathway stones.

She didn't see anyone at all, not even the owner of the voice that had told her to come in; she passed into the shade of a large oak tree, studying it. Was it oak? It looked so reassuringly familiar.

"It's pretty," she said to herself.

"Thank you," a voice answered.