It took me a moment to be sure, but looking at the three portraits again I realized that I was looking at a chronological display of the various evolutionary forms of a monster. First, was a mundane-looking ape, followed by one with higher strength attributes and more monstrous features, and ending with a monster who could cultivate Fire magic.

Beyond the third ape were a series of empty picture frames. It looked as though these were reserved for subsequent evolutionary stages of the same monster.

“The monster gallery is a testament to Kyrine’s vanity,” Belinda said.

“Did she paint these herself?” I asked.

“I guess you could say that,” Astrid muttered darkly, and there was something in her tone that sounded almost like fear.

I looked questioningly at her, but she looked away.

“Well, whatever else she might be, your Kyrine is a damn good artist,” I said as I walked away from the ape paintings.

I glanced down the length of the gallery and estimated that it stretched for at least fifty yards. How big exactly was this mansion? It had seemed pretty big from the outside, but inside it was enormous. Since it seemed so much larger from the inside, I figured there must be some kind of dimensional magic at play here. Subspaces, perhaps? That was the only way I knew of for a building to be bigger on the inside than it was on the outside.

I wandered around the gallery a little more, but there was not much else to see. The rest of the wall space was filled up with many gilded frames, but none of them contained any paintings.

“Come on, Jeremy,” called Belinda from the gallery entrance. She waved her smartwatch at me. “Time’s up.”

Back in the corridor, I followed Belinda and Astrid deeper into the mansion.

“Wow, look at this!” I said as I stepped into a vaulted foyer.

Here, the blaze of candles was even brighter, and showed me a big roomy foyer, complete with a massive carpeted staircase that climbed to the upper floors, supported by rows of corinthian style pillars.

Sweet scents that made me feel a little light-headed drifted from collections of bright, exotic flowers. These grew in lacquered vases and sat on rows of wooden tables along the cream-colored walls.

Above us, a stained glass dome marked the very top of the foyer, depicting images of Eosor’s greatest heroes in their most triumphant moments.

In the bright light from the candelabras, I recognized some familiar scenes; Ragnu slaying the Great Beast with his mighty trident, Vorix calling a tempest down upon the apostate citizens of Shamu, and some others which I wasn’t so familiar with.