As you walk into the room, you instantly become aware of how cool the air is. However, you are soon surprised by the fact that the coolness is not accompanied by even the slightest measure of dampness. Instead, the air holds a refreshingly crisp feel.

Turning your attention from the air, you notice the walls of the room. Each wall is made up of large, black stone blocks which fit together so precisely that they appear to have been carved as one mass.

The furnishings of the room seem fairly sparse, yet quite elegant. Along the wall to your right stand two immense bookcases carved from deep mahogany and adorned along their sides and shelves with intricate siver etchings. Numerous volumes fill their shelves, all ancient, all reeking of powerful magic.

To your left, a beautiful siver-ringed mirror hangs from the wall. Wrapping around the mirror, the silver frame consists of several small carved snakes which intertwine. As you gaze into the mirror, your image ripples and fades to be replaced by the image of a beautiful woman dressed in a radiant white dress. The image seem to move, showing the woman laugh before fading back to your own image.

Turning from the mirror, you see farther to your left a large desk, made of the same mahogany etched with silver as the bookcases, but with a surface carved of the same black stone as the walls. Covering this desk are many more volumes, some open, other stacked. As you gaze at the unfamiliar writing on several of the pages, you are suddenly shocked by the room's brightness, despite the lack of any apparent source of illumination

You look up from the desk and notice a large stone doorway set into the back wall of the room. As you look through it, however, you do not see another room, but a dark star-field. Suddenly, a dark form appears in the star-field, and a man steps forward from the door. A dark cloak is wrapped about his shoulders, fastened at his throat by a silver clasp. Beneath his cloak, well-worn, but still fine, gray and black garments hang on him, obviously cutom-tailored. His medium-length black hair partially conceals his face. Though he appears to be little more than 20 years of age, his gray eyes betray an age far greater.