The summit of the volcanic formation opened into something he had not anticipated from the exterior.
From below, the column of spiritual energy had looked like a single concentrated stream rising from a fixed point. From the summit's edge, the reality was considerably more complex.
The peak was not a peak in the conventional sense. It was a basin. An enormous circular depression in the top of the volcanic formation, wide enough that the far edge was visible but not close, the walls descending steeply inward from the rim to a floor that glowed with the specific deep orange of contained geothermal energy.
