Space Core

POV: Albert Redil

Another touch here... and done! It was perfect; The painting showed precisely what he wanted, an old forest illuminated by the moonlight with a few fireflies roaming about. I had spent about a week on this one, and to find it looking so good made me confident that those nobles would buy it; The other artists won't know what hit them when my art gets chosen over theirs!

Letting out a content sigh, I packed up my tools and left the painting to fully dry; I reached out to my door, and was met with a rather strange sight when I opened it.

Right there, my door opened to what seemed like a large banquet hall inside what could only be called a grand castle. I didn't know what to do, what if someone was playing a trick on me, it certainly wouldn't be the first time another artist hired a Mage to slow down the competition. But, I was curious, I didn't know of any kind of magic that could create something so real-looking.

And so, I stepped through the door; As soon as my whole body was through it, the door slammed shut and locked itself with an audible 'click'. I didn't panic though, I couldn't, not when I had just realized just how incredible the place I found myself in was; The whole thing was the grandest and largest art piece I had ever gotten the pleasure to look at and examine. It might have been obvious to others, but I could see the intentional cracks and stains and the way everything fit together in just the right way to make one stare in wonder.

Then, all of a sudden, a shy voice made itself known, "H-Hi! W-Welcome to the castle, y-you've been brought h-here to h-help improve it!"

From the voice, I could assume that the speaker was female and probably quite young too. It felt as if the air itself was speaking too.

Deciding to play safe and respond, I took my chance to gather as much information as I could. "Hmm, may I ask how I am supposed to improve such a beautiful piece of art? I dare say that it all is perfect already!"

"O-Oh, I- Uh, W-Well... t-the castle isn't f-finished yet. I-I want to g-give it secrets and m-mysteries, and I am un-unable to think of a-any." This time, the voice sounded a bit more nervous; Probably not used to compliments then.

I took a few moments to think about the situation, the woman was clearly not confident enough to be the one to have taken me here so she must be working with someone else.

Letting no indication of my inner thoughts, I continued the conversation. "Alright then, is there anything I need to know other than what you just told me?"

The voice returned, clearly a bit more happy than before. "Y-Yeah! H-Here are the rules, d-don't break a-anything and d-don't take anything. O-Once you're d-done with helping me, y-you're going t-to be sent b-back to w-where you were b-before this. F-Feel free to walk around the c-castle, it m-might give you i-ideas! J-Just calls out t-to me w-when you w-want to give me y-your ideas."

I nodded and slowly started to walk around, examining everything in my field of view as if it were a simple drawing. I made my way out of the grand room I had been brought to and walked around the corridors. There were empty rooms after empty rooms all around, and it made me realize something about the place; Nobody had lived in it. Of course, there were some rooms with desks and parchments, but it was all too perfect, not lived in. It was as much of a painting as anything I had ever made; It may look like people might have lived in it before, but that was only surface level, nothing could truly recreate the random actions that people would normally do.

And so I continued exploring, and found neat little details all around; Armor suits being held up on stands to show them off to everyone passing by, torches with fire that didn't burn, walls built in such a way that one would unconsciously notice and use to more easily remember where everything was.

Little by little, I constructed a story within my head; One of great magic and wisdom, of a great castle accepting of everyone, a story that had no ending nor beginning. I found a room with some parchment and writing utensils and went to work writing everything I imagined onto them.

Then, I made my way back into the hall I had come from, and put everything onto one of the rather long tables. With that done, I asked for the voice to come as I had an idea in my head for what to add. "I am done here and have an idea for you."

"O-Oh, you already h-have an idea? W-What is it t-then?" The voice asked.

I put on a friendly smile and talked, "I had the idea of hundreds of secret passages, all of them leading to other places in the castle or maybe outside. But, they would all by the weirdest possible way of travel ever; For example, a passage to take someone from this room and into another one, the passage would require you to climb up a ladder and then dance for a few seconds before climbing back down the ladder where the door would open to the new room!"

"Y-Yes, t-that's perfect! Thank you! N-Now, you can go b-back to w-where you w-were before!" The door in the middle of the hall unlocked and opened on its own.

I smiled and nodded at that. I walked towards the door with the knowledge that I had just helped create the grandest piece of art ever made.

I stepped through the door and- Huh, I looked around the empty street and found the sun to be way further along its path than I thought it would be; I didn't spend that long of a time painting did I? Oh well, I guess I lost track of time.

The cold refreshing air hit me and I took a long, deep, breath. At that moment, for some reason, my mind came up with a painting that I just had to make, one of a castle's interior. That was strange, I usually didn't ever have such specific ideas about what to paint. I shook my head and decided to leave it for tomorrow after I had slept a bit.

Welcome dear reader, to a random character that just appeared in my mind. Will we see him again? Maybe, but only if my brain decides he's important enough to be more than just a mentioned painter from other characters. BTW, join the Discord. Here it is: https://discord.gg/5eTED7PVYH