Chlorine Halos

Consequences

I wasn't certain which would return first: my breath, lost in the mesmerizing spectacle of what was before me; or my brain, overloaded in trying to process this impossible feat of engineering and architecture. Maestro and Donovan stood with me on the ground floor of a towering collection of broken rules in physics. Despite the preposterousness, I couldn't help but to marvel at its beauty.

Four walls made of the black spotted granite I had seen outside the city were set into a square with sleek, masterfully designed walkways running around the perimeter. For each of these wall lining walkways, another was placed at a higher level using a uniform interval, creating an upwards pattern which reached to a blurred point, far beyond my vision. Stairways connected each level, cascading and creating their own stunning geometric patterns. Walkways on opposite walls were connected by bridges. Some spanned straight across; Others, at an angle. A polished bronze railing protected the edge of all pathways, dotted with penrose orbs at the ends and in between, holding no particular spacing. The warm glow permeating from each penrose filled the entire space with light.

The absurdity lied with the people traveling around this gargantuan structure. A group of people on the third level, all wearing white short-sleeved dress shirts and solid black pants, walked up a wall, bodies completely parallel with what I knew as the ground, and entered a room which was, from my perspective, set into the floor above. A woman in a flowered sundress on the fifth level was walking down the stairs to the fourth, while a man in a dark polyester jumpsuit, beneath her on the other side, was walking up the stairs, appearing to me as upside-down. A couple wearing tan trenchcoats sat on a bench conversing underneath the second level and stopped to look up at me, looking up at them. They traded whispers, only one loud enough for me to hear.

"Who is Avian Douglas?" asked the man with a confused look. The woman slapped his leg, bringing a finger to her lips.

"Shhh!" she hushed. They continued to whisper inaudibly. I scrunched my bottom lip and eyebrows simultaneously, but became easily drawn, once again, to this unbelievable madness. The multitude of people moving all at once around this inexplicable tower bent my perception even further. So many entering through halls and exiting below arches. It was difficult to keep staring. Attempting to take it all in was causing a headache.

"This is the Escheron," Donovan explained. "The central hub of the city of Cartesia. Everyone here crosses this point quite often. It really does unite the city." He exhaled deeply.

"H-How is all this possible?" I stuttered, rubbing my temples.

"So good of you to ask," he said with a grin. "You can always find a penrose when and where you need one. Trust me, over time, it becomes second nature. Just look, they're everywhere: ends of banisters, beginnings of bridges, outside entryways, and inside hallways. Each one will make the appropriate shift so you can get where you need to go."

"Shift? As in, 'shift of gravity'?" I asked, not believing those words left my mouth.

"Exactly right! Top marks, Avian," Donovan said cheerfully. His glee came down slightly, seeing my puzzled expression. "Do you find that odd? Because I've been here a while. The prolonged exposure probably places predispositions, affecting my neural pathways so I don't perceive this as peculiar."

"It's just like the penrose at the point," Maestro clarified calmly. "Except less need to do a cannonball." He snickered, but stopped once he saw the blank look on my face. "This is a very basic concept. The more you use it, the more all this weirdness you're feeling will normalize. It's strange until it's not strange anymore." The redundant advice made sense to me somehow.

"Now, come, we have a schedule to keep," Donovan said. "You have a meeting with Jasper and I positively do not want to keep him waiting."

"Who's Jasper?" I whispered to Maestro.