"Good shit," Vlad murmured, as the other three followed him into the next room.

This room was large and dark, lit only by globules of multicolored light that shifted around, dimly illuminating patterns on the stone floor and walls. In one corner the shapes of couches and cushions sat unoccupied. Open archways sat in each wall, but the hallways beyond them were pitch black. In the center of the room, three long tables were arranged together, and a collection of people--some spirits, some in different monster shapes--clustered. A seemingly pregnant spirit with light skin and a mass of kinked red hair greeted Vlad by name.

Liya looked about the room--the walls and floor were all plain, smooth stone, but for the shapes carved into them. The ceiling, however, she realized was moving. It looked for all the world like an expanse of dark water, suspended above their heads with what looked like no support at all. The floating lights caused its surface to glisten, and through it she could see a pinprick of cold bluish daylight, somewhere overhead.

"That is the fountain you fell into, up there, you know," Milou remarked, having seen Liya looking. "Under Cuppra and Suuhl's statue."

"Oh! What's holding the water up there??" Liya asked, surprised.

Milou gave her a strange sideways look, as though puzzled by the obviousness of the question. "Magic," they said.

"We were just beginning to talk about the hearing today!" the pregnant spirit was saying, turning away from Vlad and addressing the group at large. "It was impressive. Cynn Numair was certainly in form."