[Under the boy's hand, the door swings open. It's a corridor, almost exactly like the hallway they were in before walking up the stairs. Almost, that is, save the tapestries on the wall, mostly burned away, the soot on the walls, the mold spreading from each corner.]
[There are footsteps, too, echoing off the stone. The hint of a hand, out of focus but there at the edge of vision, swiping itself across a large spiderweb blocking the way. The large spider who made it drops through range of vision and then out of it, and there's a familiar-sounding grunt, surprised and angry. The view swings down to a particular part of wall, a dark stain over it, very old blood. The footstep noise stops, replaced with a single shaking breath.]
[Then the corridor is new, and clean. The two of them are there again, themselves, in front of the same door they were before, except for the way the man-shaped shadow is moving down the hall without a word, away from it.]
no subject
Bragging? I wasn't-[Under the boy's hand, the door swings open. It's a corridor, almost exactly like the hallway they were in before walking up the stairs. Almost, that is, save the tapestries on the wall, mostly burned away, the soot on the walls, the mold spreading from each corner.]
[There are footsteps, too, echoing off the stone. The hint of a hand, out of focus but there at the edge of vision, swiping itself across a large spiderweb blocking the way. The large spider who made it drops through range of vision and then out of it, and there's a familiar-sounding grunt, surprised and angry. The view swings down to a particular part of wall, a dark stain over it, very old blood. The footstep noise stops, replaced with a single shaking breath.]
[Then the corridor is new, and clean. The two of them are there again, themselves, in front of the same door they were before, except for the way the man-shaped shadow is moving down the hall without a word, away from it.]