A gurgling sound came from somewhere.
Ruger snapped back to his senses, steadied himself, drew a shallow breath, and lingered no longer.
Putting on a cheerful smile, he stepped onto that unremarkable, timeworn corridor again. The high-rank wizard was already gone.
Along this corridor, neither particularly long nor short, Ruger was once again the only figure to be seen, apart from all those doors.
Ruger walked at leisure, turning his gaze toward the side he had not touched, where eleven doors stood much closer together. As he strolled along, his eyes unconsciously passed over the second door counting from this end, the one the high-rank wizard had been about to open last time.
The old wizard had not been present then, just as he was absent now, having disappeared off somewhere again. Yet his warning had still reached them.
The warning that had sounded beside the two of them that time had been brief, its tone almost unvarying, but Ruger had still detected a trace of the old wizard's anger. That unhurried delivery had been different from usual. Speaking half a beat more slowly did not mean someone was more indolent; that unusual slowing might well have expressed helplessness, or an effort to suppress the anger within.
Ruger was intensely curious about what lay behind that door that could anger the old wizard so much.
Could it have something to do with experiments? But the Laboratory at the end of the corridor was already large enough, and far more complex than he could have imagined.
Ruger's gaze swept over one door handle after another. Only after passing several doors did he reach the entrance to the Flower Room on the opposite side.
This place was like a treasure trove that could be mined without end.
Ruger pushed the door open