Page 33 of A House of Gold
Not a literal wall. A door made of heavy black iron with no handle. Just a smooth metal surface and a sense of wrongness radiating from it like heat.
I reach out and press my palm against it.
The rejection is immediate and visceral. Something pushes back, not physically, but energetically, as if the door itself is saying no. Not for you. Never for you.
I pull my hand back, cradling it against my chest even though it’s not hurt. Just... cold. Like I had touched ice instead of iron.
“I wouldn’t try that if I were you.”
I don’t jump this time. I was half-expecting Auric to show up again. Is he following me around?
He’s standing a few feet behind me, hands in his pockets, looking at the door with an expression I can’t quite read. Wariness, maybe. Or respect.
“What is it?” I ask.
“The vault.” He doesn’t take his eyes off the door. “Where Lord Croesus keeps his most valuable acquisitions. Souls, mostly. Some artifacts. Things he doesn’t want anyone else touching.”
“Can you open it?”
“I can. You can’t.” He finally looks at me. “That’s one of the restricted sections. Try to enter without permission, and the house will discourage you. Violently.”
“How violently?”
“Depends on how persistent you are. Anywhere from extreme discomfort to actual bodily harm.” He tilts his head. “Want to test it?”
“I’m good.”
“Smart.” He turns away from the door, starts walking back the way we came. “Come on. Let me show you the actual boundaries before you get yourself killed testing them.”
I follow, filing away the information. The vault. Restricted. Guarded by the house itself.
What else is Croesus hiding?
We walk for what feels like hours. Auric shows me the library, which is massive, filled with books and ledgers and contracts. Open to me, he says, whenever I want.
The gallery is lined with paintings and sculptures and artifacts I can’t even begin to identify. Also open.
The gardens, and yes, apparently there are gardens in this place, even though we’re in a pocket dimension that doesn’t seem to have actual sunlight. Lush, green, impossibly beautiful. Open.
The bathing pools, of course, there are bathing pools. Ornate, Roman-style, the water steaming and scented with something floral. Open, though Auric suggests I use them when I can be sure I’m alone.
And then the restricted sections.
Another iron door. “Lord Croesus’s private quarters. Obviously off-limits.”
A staircase leading down into darkness. “The treasury. Where he keeps the physical gold. Don’t even think about it.”
By the time we finish the tour, my head is spinning. The house is massive, far bigger than it should be, far bigger than makes any kind of logical sense. Hundreds of rooms, multiple floors, sections that seem to exist in different planes of reality entirely.
And I’m free to explore all of it.
Except the parts that matter.
“Questions?” Auric asks as we end up back in the hallway outside what I’m pretty sure is my room. Or a room that looks identical to mine. Hard to tell.
“Yeah. How do I know which door is mine?”
He points to the door directly in front of me. “That one.”
