The moment they passed through the radiant doors, the bright light assaulted their vision and when they could open their eyes once again, the river vanished.
There was a little of it left of course. But it stopped by a shore, a shore that belonged to the rest of an eerily silent world beyond them.
Gone was the relentless roar of water, the wails of the Sea Ghosts, the tremors of the Stone Sentinels. Instead, there was a profound, almost unnatural stillness. The water itself was noiseless beneath their boats.
And there was land — real, solid ground. Most of them had thought they would never see land again, but it was there.
Soon after, the river they had battled against came to an abrupt end, spilling into a vast, breathtaking grassland. The stark contrast between the dark, merciless river and this place was almost blinding. Here, the grass was impossibly green, shimmering under the light of an unseen sun. The air smelled fresh, clean, untouched.
