Chapter 69 (2 of 2) The Painted Room. (Patreon)

Hargrave put the key away. “I gave Thriesen the key and told him to keep it safe from everyone, including anyone connected to the General in case I needed some funds independent from them. I expected him to use some of it for himself, but there is still more than half of the funds left.”

Lucille raised an eyebrow. “Hargrave, haven’t I given you practically unlimited access to the Founder’s vault, my finance?”

“You have, but the vault contains my collection of armour, weapons and magical items too,” he said. “Because Sedric doesn’t need anything in the way of money, I thought he might like to study all the items I have.”

“…this is because of Sedric?” Vincent asked with surprise.

“Well…” Hargrave frowned and scratched the back of his head. “I wanted to prevent the General from getting his hands on those resources. It may not be him exactly, but possibly one of his vassals, or…” He gave them a slight shrug. “I can’t remember off the top of my head what items are in there, so if I have anything useful like artifacts then I want to check it out.”

“Did you need to destroy a Guild to obtain that key?” Lucy asked dryly.

Hargrave hesitated. “…I only incited the guilders because they didn’t want to bring me to the Guildmaster. I thought defeating them all was just quicker.”

Lucille rolled her eyes as Vincent gazed strangely at him.

Scytale nodded sagely. “Violence is definitely the answer in that situation.”

“Leaving my disagreements on that topic aside,” Lucy replied, “It would’ve been best for you to inform me of your plans before doing something like that. Your manner of fighting, element and weapon are not exactly prone to anonymity and it would be better to rely on someone else to deal with your tracks.” She raised an eyebrow. “I don’t tend to ask many questions, Hargrave. And I also have Ravimoux purposely trying to hide your existence in the Commission.”

“I know, but…” He grimaced. “I’m not used to working with others.”

Lucy sighed and leaned against the side of the carriage. “I can tell. Well, we’re almost to the array, so let’s leave the topic of your politically volatile identity alone so we can return home.”

The others nodded as the coach pulled to a stop and they were let out. But just before the enormous glowing violet rings of mana took them back to the Gilded Dome plane, Vincent turned to stare at Lucy and Hargrave. “Wait, you still haven’t explained why Hargrave has a bounty on his head from an Eternal Duchy!”

…

“Hmm…”

Lucille and Scytale were in her living room. Lucy had her feet kicked up on the coffee table as she studied the scroll spread out in her hands. The image of the room painted on it, which now revealed itself to be an exquisitely decorated antique sitting room, was looking far more welcoming since the Heretic item had been expelled from it.

Scytale clicked his tongue and tried to reach for the scroll, but Lucille pulled it away.

“Come on, let me see it!” he complained. “You haven’t let me near it for the entire three hours we’ve been back!”

“Because you plan on jumping straight inside and doing who knows what without my permission,” she stated calmly. “If this artifact contained one Heretic item, it could possibly contain more.”

“Then I’ll just fight them,” her bond retorted.

She shot him a flat look. “Become the new world record for Host possessed by the most Heretic items more likely.” Lucy returned her gaze to the item in her hands. “This artifact is at most Ancient ranked, however, so I doubt there is room for more than one Heretic item in here. The lack of mana would starve it.”

Scytale reached for the scroll again. “So I can go in?”

She swatted his hand away. “No.”

“Did I hear someone mention an artifact?”

Lucy and Scytale looked back to see a ponytailed young man walk into the room. Sedric wasn’t wearing his gloves or apron as he sat down opposite them with his arms crossed.

“I finally get what you mean about artifacts having impossible-to-understand magic,” Sedric stated with a frown. “How does one single chair have the ability to grant you ten times your mana without even having storage for the mana? There aren’t any gemstones and the increase to your mana pool is dependent on the person, so it’s not just a simple infusion.”

“A chair?” Lucy asked with a raised eyebrow.

“One of the artifacts Hargrave had,” he explained. “If I sit on it I have access to ten times my mana pool for half an hour. But because my WIS doesn’t increase, I don’t have much control over the mana and it’s not that great for crafting.”

“Yes, well, in the instance of the chair, I doubt someone intended for it to grant someone that effect,” Lucille replied, spreading out her scroll on the coffee table. “It probably developed that ability over the long years of mana infusion interacting with residual spiritual energy stored in or near the item. And the cooldown makes it clear it doesn’t have an infinite source of mana.”

Sedric leaned forward to inspect the scroll. “Is this what you brought back from the Capital?”

She nodded as Scytale clicked his tongue. “Yeah, and she’s not letting me look inside it.”

“Look… inside? Inside what?” Sedric frowned and stood up to see the painting better. “The scroll is already open.”

“Inside the painting. It’s a dimensional artifact.” Scytale threw his hands up in a show of frustration. “And what’s the use of having a dimensional artifact if you’re not allowed to enter it? She just wants to ruin my fun!”

Lucille sighed. “I want to check that nothing dangerous is within. When we first found this artifact it housed a Heretic item,” she informed Sedric. “I’d prefer not to let my notably irresponsible bond in here before I’ve determined its contents.”

Sedric glanced at the grumpy humanoid snake and nodded. “Yeah, I can see that.” He sat back down. “Then what are you going to do?”

“Well…” Lucy tapped on her chin as she hummed, considering it. “Hargrave could be an option, but I want to give him some time after today…” She stood up to shrug off her suit jacket and straightened out her gloves. “I suppose I have no choice. I’ll enter it myself.”

Sedric gained a strange expression but Scytale jumped up and slammed his hands on the coffee table. “What?! That’s not fair! You said I couldn’t go!”

“It’s simple, really. I have the larger and more comprehensive spiritual perception, so I can obtain data far quicker than you.” She placed both her hands on the painting. “Time to see what this artifact contains.”

She pushed her hands into the artwork and felt the strange sensation of thick layers of oil paints brushing past her. Then she tumbled onto a hard wooden floor of a dimly lit room, her fall echoing loudly. Lucille shook her head and dusted herself off as she stood up and turned around to face her entrance.

She cocked an eyebrow when she saw her entrance because what was before her wasn’t another wall-mounted painting like she expected, but a window. It had a windowsill complete with pillows, and she could see Scytale and Sedric peering down at the scroll to see what she was doing.

Then something in her perception field caught her attention and she looked up.

Ah… this… might be a problem.

Above her and to her right, on the slanted wall was another room, with all the furniture upside down. But to her left, a second slanted wall existed with more furniture fixed to it. A third and fourth existed behind her too.

Dimensional items were made using plane sources, so when it came to a dimensional item that had naturally become an artifact… it frequently resulted in abstruse geometry bearing only a vague resemblance to the structure of the main realms.

The space within the scroll had five ‘rooms’ arranged in a five-faced pyramidal shape, and all of them had furniture on the walls as well as floors. Essentially, there was no ‘bottom’ or ‘top’ to this pyramid as it was a tetrahedron. The only thing this place had was a ‘centre’, the middle room. And Lucy decided she wanted to head there first.

Ignoring the scowling of her bond peering through the ‘window’ and enjoying the blissful silence that occurred due to noise being unable to enter the pocket dimension, she walked towards what appeared to be a large metal hatch in the wall that was out of frame for Sedric and Scytale. Lucille placed a hand on the hatch to infuse it with her mana and it slid open with the sound of rusted gears.

I’ll need to do something about that. Maybe Sedric would enjoy fixing this place up for me.

Now that it was open, she stepped inside to find herself in the central room of the pyramid. Four walkways directed to the centre extended from hatches on the other two walls. She turned around to observe the walls of the room as she slowly walked towards the centre.

It was vastly different in aesthetic to the room depicted on the scroll. Metal gears larger than herself linked with dimly glowing metal levers and mechanisms. The edges of the brass plates covering the walls dully glowed orange.

Sedric would certainly be interested in this place. A combination of mechanical constructs with incomprehensible dimensional phenomena. I’m curious to know where this artifact came from, as it’s clear from its geometry that it wasn’t purposely made this way. Someone had created the dimensional item with mechanical elements originally.

She turned to look at the bronze pyramid the size of her head levitating in the very centre of the room, sitting upside down. The walkway led her right to it, and she could see four rune-engraved discs placed in the centre of each of the pyramid’s faces.

I assumed the description for this item would be quite standard so I didn’t try to inspect its item sheet beforehand, but now I believe it would be better to do that as soon as I exit this place. But there is something I want to try first.

She placed her hands on the disc facing her and rotated it. The disc lit up, and the gears and cogs covering the wall directly behind her slowly began to rotate with the sound of clanking.

Lucy smiled when she saw what had happened in her spiritual perception.

So that rotates the room. But what if I…

She grabbed the levitating bronze pyramid and rotated it so a new disc was facing her. Once the runes on all sides of the pyramid began to glow, she heard the grinding of metal accompanied by the wind-like noise that indicated spatial energies were moving.

Then it all fell silent and the disc stopped emitting light. She turned around to walk back along the walkway she came from. When she exited the hatch, what was before her was an entirely different room. But the window showing the wide-eyed Sedric and Scytale was still there. Except this time, a ladder led up to it.

Humming contentedly, she walked to the ladder and climbed up. Once she was at the top, she got onto the windowsill. Then she jumped through the window.

Her vision spun and then she found herself standing between Sedric and Scytale, facing the couch instead of the scroll. She turned around to look at the painting, which now depicted the room she was in, except from the perspective of the window at the top of the ladder. She was sure it had been very confusing for Scytale and Sedric.

“Well, that was enlightening,” she stated.

“What was?!” Scytale exclaimed. “We just saw you disappear and then the entire room turned upside down! And then it became a new room altogether! We understand nothing.”

Lucy smirked and sat down on the couch. “Let me show you what is inside the artifact.”

With a wave of her hand, her Field of Transmutational Mastery summoned illusion mana around her. The manipulation of her mana allowed it to condense and create a model of the entire pocket dimension she had found herself in.

Scytale and Sedric squinted at the model, taking in the image of four pyramidal rooms on the base, one at the very top, and a reversed pyramid in the centre. Her illusion model left the walls translucent to give them a cross-section view of the internal elements.

“This is the space within,” she began. She pointed a white-gloved finger at the minuscule bronze pyramid replica hovering in the very centre of the model. “And this is the control for the space. When I rotated one of the discs on this central control structure…”

A room on one of the outermost corners of the base rotated itself so one of the sides became the new floor. “I control which face of the room becomes the new ‘floor’. And when I rotate the entire pyramid…”

The four outermost rooms disconnected from the central room and travelled in a circular motion around the upside pyramid in the centre. Once the process was complete, it was clear that all the rooms had travelled to connect to the hatch one room over.

“The room you see shown in the scroll now was the room only one hatch over from the original,” Lucy informed them. “I assume whichever way I rotate the central pyramid is whichever way the rooms rotate in position. In this way, you could say that this pocket dimension has a total of twenty-one independent ‘floors’, if you count one gravitational alignment as a single floor.”

Her bond glanced between the illusion and her. Then Scytale gave her a large nod. “Yup. We still know nothing.”

Sedric looked down at the scroll. “The new room is… a workshop? Or library? …storehouse?”

“All of those, essentially.” Lucille gestured to the illusion. “Whoever crafted the original dimensional item fused it with many mechanisms. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a Coalition-made item.” She propped her chin up with her elbow on the couch armrest. “I may employ your help to perform maintenance on some parts of this pocket dimension at a later date, Sedric.” Then she paused and raised a finger. “Actually, I’ll need to employ your help anyway. I want to change the frame of the item.”

“…frame? What do you- wait.” Sedric glanced at the painting and then stared at her with wide eyes. “Don’t tell me you want me to craft a new body for the dimensional artifact?!”

“Why not?” she said, raising an eyebrow. “The pocket dimensional is already formed and has had its artifact properties set. The only part of the artifact with magical ability…” She pointed at the painting section of the scroll. “Is the artwork itself. We can make as many alterations to the artifact as we want as long as the dimensional connection between the Mystical Realm and the pocket dimension is not interrupted.”

“No, no, no, no.” Sedric crossed his arms in the shape of an X and quickly shook his head. “No, I know exactly how risky it is to play around with dimensional items and artifacts. One wrong move and everything within the pocket dimension gets shredded into dust. Even the dimension disappears. I’m not going to be responsible for anything to do with this artifact!”

“Who cares if it gets destroyed? I can just find another dimensional artifact,” she replied with nonchalance. “And I never said I’d leave the dimensional part up to you. That will be my job.”

“Your job?” Sedric eyed her sceptically. “Aren’t you eighteen? What experience would you have with dimensional items?”

Lucy shot him a flat look. “Who is the person who teaches you magical engineering every week?”

He scratched the back of his head. “I know there’s that, but, well…” He fell silent with a frown on his face, watching the painting. “…you even know about dimensional items too? I feel like everything you know isn’t something an eighteen-year-old should know.”

“I can only say that if you doubt my abilities, then just watch,” she replied.

Sedric rolled his eyes. “Sure, whatever. That still doesn’t tell me why you know all this. Also, wasn’t this artifact important or something?” he asked with confusion. “You went all the way to the Capital to get this artifact, but you can just replace it with anything?”

“Oh.” Lucy blinked. “No, the artifact isn’t that important. It’s going to be used as little more than Scytale and my housing on our levelling trips. I needed to do something about the Heretic item within it before that got out of hand.”

And now that the Heretic item has been dealt with, ‘Durell Quicklash’ won’t become a Host of the item. The Hero no longer has the ability to place that powerful earth mage in his debt by saving him.

“But how did you know there was a Heretic item inside of it?” Sedric asked suspiciously. “Actually, how did you know that a dimensional artifact was in that store at all?”

“Luck,” she stated calmly. She stood up from the couch.

“Luck,” he repeated with incredulity.

“Mmhmm. But don’t you have a job to do? I thought my belt was almost finished,” she said to him.

“It is, but…” Sedric paused and scowled at her. “Hey, I asked a question here! Stop trying to side-track me. I want an explanation about your weird behaviour and knowledge!”

“Ha, Lucy will never answer you,” Scytale said with a smirk. “She thrives when she confuses everyone else.”

Sedric turned to stare at the golden-eyed snake. “You’re also weird. I found out from Hargrave that someone who’s been bonded for only six months shouldn’t even be able to send messages or see memories, yet you’ve claimed you can do both!”

Scytale avoided eye contact. “Uh… well, I’m just special-”

“Special? Yeah, you’re definitely special in the head. I can give you that.”

“Don’t twist my words! That wasn’t what I meant!”

The banter from Sedric and Scytale was interrupted when the door of the living room was opened to reveal Vincent. The silver-haired man was looking somewhat pale and a bit worried as he took a step forward and stopped before Lucy.

“Lucille, could I please have a word with you?” he asked anxiously. “It’s about Hargrave.”

She blinked and quickly checked her perception field, but Hargrave was fine. He was reading in his room.

“What’s wrong with Hargrave?” she said, raising an eyebrow.

“Nothing is wrong with him, it’s just…” He grimaced and ran a hand through his hair. “…I just read some reports I requested Ravimoux to send me. He’s… a lot more than you told me about.”

Lucy glanced back to check what the other two in the room were doing, but as soon as it was obvious Vincent only wanted to talk to Lucille, Sedric and Scytale began to bicker again. She turned back to her aide and nodded. “Let’s go to my study.”

…

“A wanted order placed by the Major Spear Discipline for Einar, the Spear-Fiend of Blood. In possession of a powerful demonic weapon and known to be extremely dangerous in close to medium-ranged combat,” Vincent read off the document in his hands. He placed it down and rifled through some others before picking up a second. “Single-handedly defeated all Dungeon Scions of the Ancient Southern Dearth Dungeon before obtaining his weapon as a Quest reward from the System. Destroyed a whole Guild overnight at the behest of the General of Blazing Iron. Among the casualties were several Rank-5s, while Einar himself is Rank-4.”

Vincent looked up to gaze at Lucy with slightly wide eyes. “Lucy, why is this man in the Aurelian Commission?! I’d understand if you wanted to build a party of competent individuals around you for when you’re levelling, but of all the people you chose, it had to be him. Although I can tell he’s a decent individual to be around, this person is-”

“Vincent.” Lucy raised a hand to pause him. “Stop panicking.”

“I…” Vincent trailed off and then coughed into his fist. “My apologies. I lost my composure.” He hesitated and then narrowed his eyes at her. “Maybe it’s because I saw the both of you covered from head to toe in blood only a few hours prior.”

She tilted her head. “You say that like it’s something strange, but for your information, that situation was quite common for me.”

He gazed at her with a mildly bemused look on his face before shaking his head. “…of course. You were a mercenary and Admiral in the past… or, well, future, I suppose, weren’t you?” Vincent sighed and looked down at the page in his hand again. “The one thing Ravimoux hasn’t been able to determine is why he has a bounty on his head.”

Lucy shrugged as she walked up to the armchair behind her desk and sat down. “Succession issues. Hargrave was valuable to the General because of his martial talent, but he lacked the backing to be considered a true potential candidate for the General’s inheriting Champion. He needed to have the approval of the other Spear Mythos too but because of his status as an orphan, he wasn’t accepted.”

“…and I suppose you know this because of… whatever you learnt about him in the ‘past’.” Vincent placed the page down and crossed his arms. “His appearance matches the bounty poster so I know it’s him, but why is he only referred to as ‘Einar’ in all these records?”

She twirled a pen and kicked her boots up onto her desk. “It’s possible he just never told them his first name.”

Vincent gave her a strange look. “How can someone be a successor of the General of Blazing Iron for sixteen years without ever telling anyone their first name? He… what, never had the right opportunity to bring it up in a conversation for over a decade?”

Lucy glanced briefly at the door to her study.

Should I tell him that Hargrave is standing right outside this study and can hear him?

…no, I won’t. It will be amusing to see both of their reactions.

“He likely didn’t think it was too important,” she replied to her aide. “In case you haven’t noticed, Hargrave isn’t someone you could consider especially extroverted, nor is he one to start a conversation first.”

“Yes, he hardly talks unless you speak directly to him,” Vincent muttered. “He assumes that if someone is speaking they’re referring to anyone else but him. How does someone last until their mid-twenties without learning to ask for anything?”

Vincent spread his arms. “Hargrave Einar, mighty slayer of men slayers and all that.” He rolled his eyes. “But I’ll take a bet that if the enemy challenged him to ask for a glass of water at a restaurant he’d surrender on the spot.”

“Pfft.”

The silver-haired aide blinked and cocked an eyebrow when he heard the small sound of laughter that managed to escape Lucy’s mouth as she attempted to muffle it. “Lucille?”

“It… it’s nothing.” She covered her mouth and gave him a dismissive wave. “Carry on, don’t mind me.”

“Carry on with what?” Vincent shook his head and turned to face her. “At least I know that if he ever does turn against you or the Commission, I only need to inform the General of Blazing Iron that he fears Annaliese Verdon more than anything else and that the General should just throw him to the Prophetess of Fate to get the man to give in in an instant-”

“…throw me to the Prophetess of Fate?”

Vincent flinched and spun around to be met with the amber stare of the Aurelian Commission’s resident ex-mercenary. Hargrave was right behind him, having snuck into the study when Lucy called for him with her spiritual transmission.

Lucille couldn’t help herself and burst out laughing when she saw the awkward stare-off between the two men.

Vincent whirled around to glare at her. “You knew he was there?!”

“You’d think you would’ve been more prepared for this kind of situation, considering the event when we met with your two secretaries for the first time,” she said with amusement.

Her aide’s scowl intensified. “Lucille Adrienne Goldcroft, sometimes you really get on my nerves.”

“Oooh, scary.” She placed a hand on her mouth and widened her eyes in mock shock. “You used my full name.”

Vincent buried his head in his hands in response, leaving Hargrave staring at them both. The scarlet-haired man’s face held a mix of confusion, bemusement, incredulity and outright wonder that let Lucille know he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to respond with or even if he should respond in the first place.

She gestured to Hargrave. “Come and sit down. It would be better for us to begin this conversation so we can forget about my aide’s slip of tongue.”

“…right.” Hargrave gave Vincent one last perplexed look before sitting in an armchair opposite her desk and next to Vincent’s. “Also…” He frowned at her. “What was that about being a mercenary and Admiral?”

“Metaphorical mercenary and metaphorical Admiral,” she dutifully informed him.

Hargrave stared at her. “How can you be a metaphorical Adm-”

“Well then!” Lucy began cheerily, clasping her hands together. “Due to the volatile nature of your political identity, Hargrave, I assumed it would be best for you to take the stage and explain yourself to my aide instead of me. You don’t have to, but we have…” She opened her pocket watch to check the time and snapped it shut with a click. “…approximately two hours before dinner during which we are able to stay seated here. But don’t worry, Vincent and I are prepared to stay here for as long as needed for you to work up the courage to discuss your motives.”

Vincent narrowed his eyes at her. “When did I say I was prepared to stay here for two hours straight?”

“Just then,” Lucy replied calmly. “You said it in your question.”

Her aide scowled as she took her feet off her desk and propped her chin up instead. Lucille tilted her head at the ex-mercenary opposite her. “Your response, Hargrave?”

“I… what? Wait…” Hargrave held up a hand to pause her and rubbed his face. “Are you asking me to… explain why I have a bounty on my head?”

“No, not quite.” She spread her arms and shrugged. “More accurately, I want you to explain to my particularly nosey aide what exactly your plans for the future are and why you need my help to achieve them.”

Hargrave fell silent and crossed his arms. He frowned in thought.

“Honestly Lucy, this isn’t necessary,” Vincent said with exasperation. “I let my fears get the better of me, yes, but you don’t need to purposely bring him here just to answer my questions. A vague explanation would be all that’s needed.”

“You mean a vague explanation like he intends to become a living dragon vastly more powerful than the General’s new dragon-blooded noble successor and kill the General in an act of twisted irony and poetic justice?” she asked innocently.

“Uh…” Vincent gained a strange expression. “I beg your pardon, what?”

Hargrave stared at her. “What…”

Lucy blinked. “Hm? Did I say something?”

Hargrave continued to stare incredulously at her as Vincent’s expression changed multiple times. The aide tried to absorb the information from her statement and when he finally registered it he changed his stare from his superior to the man next to her. “I’m sorry, but did you say that Hargrave wants to kill the General?”

She shook her head. “You forgot the twisted irony and poetic justice part.”

Vincent ran a hand down his face. “I thought you said you wanted to lead the Commission to success, not get it eradicated by an Eternal Duchy.”

“Not to worry, we’ve already agreed that we’ll break off ties once it gets to the stage that he’s ready to complete his revenge,” Lucille replied casually. “And because the bloodline and source purifier allows him to gain draconic bloodlines without slaying True Dragons, he won’t have a public bounty on his head for a long while. The current wanted poster for him has only been issued through underworld groups as he has yet to commit any crime worth a wanted poster.”

Lucy paused and pointed a finger at Hargrave. “Don’t go committing any crimes and collecting wanted posters, please. That will make my life even more difficult than it already is.”

“No, this isn’t-” Hargrave stood up and slammed his hands on her desk. “Didn’t you tell me to come here so I could reveal what I wanted myself?!” he asked, looking slightly agitated.

“Hmm… well, almost. I lied slightly at the start.” Lucille leaned her chin on her hands and narrowed her eyes at the mercenary. “Hargrave. Don’t try something like what happened with the Guild today again without discussing it with me first. Otherwise, I’ll reveal information about you without discussing it with you first. Like now.”

Hargrave paused and frowned. “…is this… a punishment for earlier?” he asked hesitantly.

“No. I wouldn’t dare try to ‘punish’ the Blood Patriarch,” she said with mild amusement. “But I am warning you. Because the more you act out like that, the more you inadvertently reveal. And like today with Vincent, I can’t hide everything.”

“…I see.” Hargrave slowly lowered himself back into the seat. “That… makes sense. Sorry.”

“What’s done is done. This can just be a learning lesson for both you and my aide,” Lucy replied.

“Wait, why is it a learning lesson for me too?” Vincent asked with confusion.

She spared him a brief glance and proceeded to ignore him, to his irritation. “Anyway, I have a dimensional artifact to continue analysing, so I’ll take my leave. You can discuss your motives between yourselves, or come look at the artifact with me.”

Vincent rubbed his temples and looked at Hargrave. “Hargrave, would you be willing to answer some of my questions?”

Hargrave considered it and slowly nodded. “I am.”

“Very good.” Lucille stood up and walked towards the door. “And just so you know, I never do things without being certain in my decision. So Hargrave? Vincent?” She looked over her shoulder. “I never believed either of your identities would be a problem.”

And with that, she left the study.

…

-Eight days later-

Lucy thought about what to do about the situation before her. Then hesitantly, and with a fair amount of nervousness, she moved a white-gloved finger to tap the cheek of the individual on the couch. She swiftly withdrew her hand.

The incognito Demon Emperor opened his neon-blue eyes with a frown. He paused when he instantly detected someone else was nearby and turned his gaze to her. He gazed unblinkingly at her. “Did you just poke me?”

“It was the wind,” she answered reflexively.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, belatedly (read: two hours ago) I realised that like the situation with Apophis and Ouroboros, it will be incredibly hard to visualize the pocket dimension space without an image for comparison. Here's a rough sketch of the space. 

Note: furniture is not what is actually contained inside. It's just to show placement. 

Also, working on veeery rough sketches for custom discord reactions. 

Example A: Lucy Loading 

And Example B: A proud Snek