Anders has been escorting Prad who has been rather passive until now, but he's not taking any chances.

If the Black Pearl is in Prad's possession, it seems to have led him here... for some reason. He's leery that it may suddenly prompt him to run off, especially through one of those doorways! If that happens, it might change and lead to somewhere else!

"Someone tap the glass with a hard item... just lightly... to see if it really is glass," he suggests. "I've heard of sorcery that can turn metal transparent, but also sorcery that can turn glass as hard as steel."

"Don't know if either of those things is true, but it seems like something sorcery would be capable of."

He'd seen a few grander foyers, but nothing quite as spectacular... or strange... as this one made of green glass.

Does the ceiling here in the foyer appear to be high enough to match the external dimensions they observed on the outside? Same for the walls. Is the foyer the full width of the building?

Valentino is about to go over to the stairs and tap them with the hilt of his dagger, as Anders suggested, when he realizes that he doesn't have to go that far! He glances down at his feet--is the floor also made of green glass? If so, can he see anything through the glass?

"I've never heard of any Syrne place made of green glass," Valentino comments. "Not from any of the Syrne. I can't remember what the others were called, though one was a lizard-like race... supposedly. Not sure how  you'd ever find that out, since they vanished several thousand years ago. Maybe a mummified body in an old tomb? Pictoglyphs on the walls? Statues? Not sure how conclusive any of those would be, though."

If the floor is glass, he'll just stoop down and lightly tap it with his dagger.

Vasily offhandedly remarks on the requested test; "If you wish to determine if it is actually glass you must do a hardness test; it involves attempting to scratch it with various materials until you find the softest one that will scratch it. In theory, such a test doesn't determine the composition with certainty, however, it is rare for different materials that look the same to also have the same hardness."

Too late he adds; "If it is more brittle than glass, tapping it, even lightly, could cause this whole place to shatter, possibly into dangerous shards."

Yes, the foyer's ceiling and width conform to the outside dimensions of the building, though it is clear now that the outside walls do not appear to be made of the 'same' green glass.

The floor of the foyer is green glass, and there appears to be a room below, but without any outside windows, the few things that can be seen in it are indistinct in the light that filters downward. There looks to be a table in the center, several chairs and sofas around the perimeter, and a cabinet against what would be the outer front wall.

Vasily's warning keeps Valentino from striking the glass, however lightly.

Vasily circles around one of the open doorways and examines it from the other side.

Vasily moves so that he can see the 'doorway' from what should have been the other side. It shows the same image on this side!

When Valentino does the same for the other portal, he sees the same thing--the image is identical from broth sides of the portal.

A green glass cathedral! Alessandra has never seen nor heard the like. ''Where is this place?'' she wonders.

"That is mysterious, indeed. It seems that volume has no meaning here, so it seems that, perhaps the concept of where may not either. after all, if something takes up no space, then is it truly somewhere at all?"

Vasily continues to look around a bit, then thinks to try to move on. "Shall we bring Prad near the doorways and such and see if he seems drawn to any particular direction?"

Anders, fascinated as he is by this strange place and the portals, still keeps a wary eye on Prad to make sure there's no change in expression.

"Not sure it's going to matter," Anders replies. "I think this place is the destination. BUT... if we do move him closer, I think we should tie a rope around him to keep him from suddenly darting away."

"His passage through one of these portals could cause it to change."

"Good thinking, Anders!" Valentino replies.

"Maybe it's time we relieve him of the Black Pearl. Is there any doubt now that he has it?"

"As to where this place is, Alessandra, I think it's right here on the moor. It's just... what? Out of phase? ...Somehow. We couldn't see it, and we couldn't touch it, until we went through that... crack in the air. Yet, Prad was being drawn here."

"It's certainly outside of my experiences. It looks like these inside portals are merely shortcuts to some other place in the cathedral. Maybe we should hold off in going through them until after we've explored a bit more. After all, we don't know there's another portal back to here. I'm not really in the mood to get lost."

"Indeed, tying a rope to him seems like a quite reasonable way to keep him nearby. Plus it would allow some freedom for him to roam as he likes, so he may lead us to... something."

Vasily moves to assist in tying the rope to Prad, so that Anders can tie the other end of the rope to himself.

"I'm no expert on these matters," Anders replies to Vasily, "but I don't think we should try to take the Pearl away from him just yet. After all, we don't know what that'll do to him, nor do we know what it'll do to us!"

"Okay, rope's secured. I suggest we start at the top and work our way down. Save these portals for last. That way, maybe we'll get a sense of how this place works by then."

He starts heading up the stairs. He has to tug on the rope a bit to get Prad to follow along, but it was clear that Prad was some sort of zombie now.

"Once again, an excellent plan from the North."

Vasily leads the way up the stairs.

"You may be right, Anders," Valentino concedes.

"The Pearl is supposed to be a powerful artifact, which is why governments are willing to pay so much for it. Although... it makes me wonder if they know more about it than we do? Our knowledge is based strictly on tales and rumors and wild speculation, but there might, in fact, be some truth behind them. So the rulers may know those truths."

Vasily continues marching up the stairs as he responds to Valentino's observation.
"Since they have the resources of a nation to hand, I suspect that the rulers probably do have more complete information. However, rulers are just people and they are no wiser, and, in fact, often less wise, than those with more worldly experience. We simply cannot trust them to do the right thing with the pearl, so we must forge on with the limited knowledge we have in hopes of finding enough knowledge before the lack of that knowledge becomes a critical problem."

"You got that right, Vasily!" Anders responds.

"On the other hand, I don't claim to be any wiser than the rulers. They want it for war. I don't really know what I'd do with it. I guess it depends on what it actually does!"

"If it could stop all the fighting, that's what I'd use it for. Well, maybe just the fighting between nations. A little barroom brawl now and then is okay."

"Now that I've seen the inside, somewhat at any rate, I'm beginning to wonder if this is really a cathedral. It looks like what we think of as a cathedral, but where did we get that impression to begin with?"

"Hoping for peace rather than war is already wiser than those who hope for the opposite.

But, of course, you are right; much of any decision we make regarding the Pearl depends on what it does. Perhaps it simply hums a fine tune and has no other capabilities.

As for the building looking like a cathedral versus cathedrals looking like it, either way suggests a similarity of purpose or custom. I was somewhat operating on the assumption that the similarity could simply be coincidental, and that this place may or may not hold any sort of ritualistic or religious purpose at all."

"Yes, we've repurposed buildings now and then... turn a warehouse into living quarters, a barn into a workshop, a root cellar into a dungeon," agrees Valentino, walking up the stairs behind Vasily.

"The design and layout of a cathedral may have lent itself to some other purpose as well."

In reply to Valentino Iocovelli (msg # 454):

"What purpose could the shape of a cathedral be of use for? " Alessandra wonders out loud.

"I know! It's a giant conservatory!" Anders suggests.

"The music hall kind. A place where orchestras give performances."

"Though it could just as easily be a place to conduct sorcerous experiments into the Ether."

"Let me ask you, Alessandra: what is the purpose of a cathedral?"

"It could be, Anders. Please, sing us a song of your ancestors, so we can test the acoustics out!"

Vasily smiles back at Anders as he continues to ascend the stairs.

"Remember, too, that the Syrne came before us, so it's probable that we got the idea of a cathedral from them," Valentino adds. "If we didn't know what they used it for, we could easily have thought it was grand enough to be a church."

"Anders could be right. Bandshells and opera houses are built in the shape they are to project the sound outward to the audience."

"Besides, the verdict is still out on whether the Syrne were Human or not. We've seen some indications that they probably were--statues and paintings and such, but they just might not have thought the same way we do."

"Maybe it's a celestial observatory. Or maybe it's an arena or a royal palace or a government building. Or even something we can't even conceive of."

You climb the stairs up to the balcony that doesn't run the full width of the building. There's a door at the far end to the right, another door in the front wall down near that door, and then there's the double doors in the middle of the back wall of the balcony. These were vaguely visible from down below.

The doors appear to be made of copper, but the edge is solid while the middle of the doors is transparent green glass (?) overlaid with a kind of a decorative copper filigree somewhat meant to look like vines and leaves.

You can see through the glass that there is a hallway that goes straight back to the rear of the building, probably stopping where it meets up with the grand gallery.

There are three doors visible along each side of the hallway, about equally spaced.

"This is a very beautiful structure. I'm not sure I'd totally care to live in a glass house, but this would make a magnificent mansion for someone so inclined. Shall we continue to sally forth? I think we shall."

Vasily heads to the door to the right and examines it a bit closer, partly in admiration of the workmanship and partly just to make sure there's no obvious signs of a trap or other mechanical interface.

"Dexter first, then, sinister later?" Vasily says as he examines the door itself.