The Violet Thread (Part One: Portal Rods)

Violet opened her eyes and found herself in the center of a barren field with crumbling masses surrounding her. Vast stone steps rose up and greeted the overcast sky. Directly in front of her, the remnants of an archway stood just before an altar, faded stones melding shades of gray. A black bird landed in the basin of a circular structure at the base of the altar and drank from the pooled rainwater. It took flight and disappeared into the dense forest beyond the clearing. There was a flicker and the forest was gone. Violet rubbed her eyes and blinked purposefully. Where the trees had stood were more ashen rocks and ruins. A gust of wind brought the smell of rain. A thickness hung in the air.

"They say the sun never shines here," came a croaked voice from behind her. "I'd say they're right." A wiry old man with thinned out gray hair and faded blue coveralls leaned against a wooden rake. "I've been working her for ten years or so and I can't seem to recall a single break in the clouds." He eyed her up and down. "Hm...what brings a pretty thing like you to an ugly place like this?"

"Business," she replied curtly and walked in the direction of the altar.

"Business," the man mumbled, returning to his rake. "Ain't nobody had business out here except me in...well, I just can't recall nobody having business out here."

Violet stopped and turned back to the man. "Who do you work for?" She called.

"Not sure I know," he said, scratching his head with his free hand. She crossed back to him. "I used to work in a cemetery next town over, but a series of, let's just call 'em unfortunate events led me to leave that position. Next day I get a call asking me if I want to work here as the caretaker and, as it happens, solo employee. Never signed nothing. Cash just arrives in the mail every month. Oh, I uh, probably shouldn't have mentioned that last part. I'm sure it's on the up and up, you know. I just, well..."

"I'm not interested in your finances, sir. I'm just trying to determine who owns this property."

"Hmm..hard to say," he replied with a shrug. "There's a plaque over near the remnants of what I think was the main hall to this building. I only say that 'cause it seems like it woulda been the largest room based on the layout. Ten years is a lot of time to look at the same old rocks. I figure this place was once a great big building. Lots of rooms and such. Anyway, the plaque's in some language I ain't never seen before. I tried to look it up one time, but I think it's made up or something 'cause I couldn't never find it.

"Can you show me?" she asked excitedly.

"Don't see why not," he said, heading in the opposite direction of where Violet had been going.

"Although, like I said, ya ain't gonna be able to read it. "

"You'd be surprised at what I can read," she mumbled.

He glanced back, briefly, over his shoulder but kept walking. He muttered something she couldn't hear and gave a low grunt. His long strides made it hard for her to keep up and she scrambled behind him. Before turning a corner, he leaned his rake against a tall, but crumbling pillar. He rounded and she followed. The man was nowhere to be seen. Violet looked around. He couldn't have gone that far in the time it took her to round the corner. She peered back around the corner and the rake was no longer there either.

She focused her attentions on a brass plaque on the side of what looked like what was once a massive doorway. The ruins were no longer in shambles, but rather shells of once colossal structures. A shrieking caw announced the presence of another black bird that perched atop the head of a broken gargoyle. It opened its mouth but no caw resounded. She blinked and the bird had turned to stone, beak open, its talons now melded into the head of the remnants of the creature below, now even more grotesque than before.