They ended up at a square room with only the edges paved; looking over the side, they could see up and down the floors. Looking up wasn’t much help- everything was so inverted and distorted, it wasn’t much different to looking down, even when it came to seeing stairs in the strangest of places, not leading anywhere, or coming the wrong direction out of the wall.

For the first time, the man with long hair and tanned skin spoke to Yunho. “We need to get to the main mechanical centre. The least environment changes happen there, as it is the stable heart which moves the rest of its limbs.” His voice was deep and stoic. Yunho wondered how he had the stamina for it.

In fact, Yunho wondered why he was wearing a tunic. He hadn’t really questioned it until now, seeing as the ticking house seemed to want to kill them. That other guy had a strange getup too- a mixture of chain mail and splinted armour adorned his torso, shoulders padded with hardened leather, high boots and leather pieces strapped over his trousers protecting his thighs. His hair was tied with a piece of black silk into a knot on top of his head.

In fact, the only thing the two shared was the same determined look in their eyes.

“We can talk there- but we don’t have much time.” He cast his gaze upwards, Yunho hesitantly following. He couldn’t figure out what the other was looking at.

“Come.”

He followed without question. Whoever they were, they seemed to know where they were going and worked as a team. It’s not like he had much choice in the matter. “Wait- what’s your name?” He asked, hurrying to keep up with the man’s long strides.

He was met with a brief silence before “It is of no matter now.”

Yunho kept quiet after that.

This man was less agile than the other, and paused more often to discern the best paths. They came to a point where it was unavoidable but to pursue climbing onto a staircase which descended into the wall above their heads. “Hoist me,” he said, turning to Yunho, who just stared back for a second before crouching a little and linking his fingers. Please don’t pull my arms out of their sockets, he said a silent prayer as the man used him as a step. Yunho held in a grunt at his heaviness.

He and the man looked each other in the eye. The man could tell he wasn’t going to be able to tell Yunho to jump up like he could his friend. He knelt awkwardly on the stairs and reached down his hands. “Use the wall to help lever you up. One, two-” Jump, bounce, Yunho makes it half way and feels himself hauled up the rest like a sack of potatoes, landing on his knees. The stairs start to dismantle and reinvent themselves with slides and ticks, urging them upwards.

The man jumped to the next ones above, but in his landing a foot went straight through a new shift. Yunho panicked, unable to make the move himself, slowly losing his own footing. Frantically looking around before he dropped several floors, he spotted some strange gargoyles which appeared to be made from some disfigured bicycles attached to the opposite wall. Without thinking twice he jumped, landing on their monstrous heads and catching piping in the walls, one of his feet slipping on the smooth metal. Just above him his leader had managed to climb onto what were now shafts instead of stairs, tunic billowing in the wind produced by the vent which had created itself. To their right, the wall was folding in horizontal, wood creating a frame and purple glass shifting in, making a new skylighted ceiling for the extended corridor below. He used the vent cover planks to climb across to Yunho. “Jump!” and they jumped, hearts hammering as they slammed on the fragile looking glass. It rattled dangerously, but nary cracked a bit. By the time they ran to the other side, a new wall had blocked them from reentering. They were once again stuck on the outside.

“We need to re-enter,” The tunic-clad man declared with urgency. Yunho felt a spark of frustration. There was only so long he could follow cluelessly. He frowned at the man and folded his arms as the other assessed the new structure layout, pacing to and fro across the shining glass.

When he noticed Yunho was not helping in the slightest, he paused for a moment and shot a questioning look his way.

“Where is the centre of this place anyway?” Yunho asked while the opportunity arose.

“That way.” He pointed across the complex beyond them.

“But that’s not even- you’re pointing several buildings away! Why don’t we just cross the courtyard?” Yunho asked incredulously. Fat load of good going back inside one of those death traps would do, he thought, casting a glower at the new window panes integrating into the wall next to them.

The other pursed his lips, though explained calmly. “Inside, we don’t have to contend with those.” He again pointed, however all Yunho ended up squinting at was a tree. No ordinary tree, he found- the roots which came together to make the trunk and then extended into branches were the very same silver he saw in the bench and doors. The bark looked like someone had melted silver and dripped it across the trunk. The leaves, rather than being organic, were leaf gold, and in many ways were more fragile and delicate, being wafer thin. At the end of branches were small light-bulbs, which intermittently flickered.

“What am I looking at?” Yunho asked. The tree, while unique, looked perfectly harmless.

“The birds,” He replied gravely.

Yunho squinted harder, spotting movement in amongst the branches. The birds were white, but there was something very off about them. Their eyes didn’t blink, and he couldn’t quite tell from afar, but when one cocked its head, it glinted red.

In the distance, he saw the first man he met in the armour sprint from one building to another, jumping and running up and across the wall.

“Gravity doesn’t seem to be a problem for him, does it?”

His comment fell on deaf ears. Now something was really irritating the other, Yunho knew not what. Giving in, although still unsatisfied, he began to help spot a way back in. The sooner they get there, the sooner he would get some answers.

Finally, the other muttered something.

“What’s gravity?”