As they approached, she revised her opinion. It wasn’t a building. It was a large—a giant—word, in shape and form similar to the marks on Kaylin’s arms. Long before Spike slowed to a stop, she could see the curve of line, the placement of the dots and strokes that implied meaning. Something—besides its existence and its height—felt off about it.

She slid off Spike’s back. Terrano did the same, but he hovered above the fog that obscured the ground. Kaylin, sadly, didn’t. Beneath her feet she could feel something with the give and consistency of flesh. It didn’t collapse beneath her weight, which was all she could really ask of ground—but she wished she could walk above it the way Terrano was.

Spike raised his head. His neck, extended, was longer than Hope’s in his full Draconic form. Here, Lord Kaylin.

Kaylin nodded. She reached out to touch what she assumed was a terminating stroke; it was cold and hard beneath her palm, and it had the consistency of rough stone. “Hope, do you have any idea what the word means?”

It does not, as you suspect, have innate meaning. It is not a True Word. It is not a name.

“I’m pretty sure it’s why Azoria isn’t technically dead.”

Terrano, never one to be unnecessarily cautious—or cautious at all—approached the area beyond this long stone line, where the mass of the characteristics that defined the marks Kaylin bore were gathered. “Hey—come here. Over here.”

Kaylin nodded. “Over here,” however, had to be reached the hard way: by climbing up onto the stone and walking across it until there wasn’t enough room between the flat, slight curve of its shape and the elements that rested above it.

This wouldn’t be the first time she had seen True Words as enormous, but again, this felt off. It felt wrong. Maybe because it was stone—and felt like stone—beneath her feet, and to her touch. “Does this look like stone to you?”

“Yes—badly quarried, badly finished stone,” Terrano replied. “But I want you to come here. Look at this part.”

“I’m trying,” she snarled. “Can you still hear the rest of your cohort?”

“No. Not easily.”

“I don’t care if it’s easy or not—is it possible?”

“Maybe? It’s a bit jumbled, but I recognize Sedarias’s voice; it just doesn’t resolve into words.”

Kaylin couldn’t hear Severn at all. Nor could she reach any of the Barrani whose names she held. She could—and did—manage to wedge herself between two levels of stone to finally reach a visibly impatient Terrano. “Is she worried?”

“She’s always worried. Don’t look at me like that—worry won’t solve anything. But figuring this out might.”

“I’m sorry I can’t walk through stone,” she snapped. “What are you looking at?”