The conversation and company was such a refreshing change for me that by the time that sun broke the horizon once more, I had only just begun to realize how much time had passed. I went to apologize for keeping him up all night when Vanier muttered under his breath. I feared it was me at first, but as we stepped onto stone too smooth to be natural and too overgrown to be civilized, I realized he was trying to prepare himself for what came next. I had never felt stone like this, or at least not here. It was clearly not naturally occurring to the area at all. As I checked the terrain for some kind of entrance, I was enthralled by the runes on the walls, not all of them entirely legible and some of them were entirely foreign to me. Their meanings were elusive and unknown. Some of the runes were even host to moss, overflowing from the grooves like miniature forests untouched by human hands. As we walked among the ruins, it was hard not to get lost in the history. It was only when we came to the stairs that had formed the namesake for these ruins that I could see the first sign of wear on my new companion. They were shallow steps, but many and the angle of the stairs was steep enough that one slip would be enough to ensure you tumbled to the bottom. If I had to guess I would say it was about five hundred yards of stairs before the doorway.

He seemed to be trying to figure out the best way to get up the stairs. I asked with a chuckle, "Do you want me to carry you?" He looked at me with annoyance until eventually he seemed willing to take me up on it. He motioned something odd I didn't quite understand. "What are you asking?" He changed his arm motions again, to my confusion. It was only the third time that I realized why I didn't know it. "You want to know if I can swim through the stone up the stairs? Yes, I'm sure I could do something similar to that. Why?"

Vanier shrugged but was honest, "Because being carried up traditionally would be embarrassing for both of us but a little speedy land swim would get us up there with no risk of me breaking my neck and we could make it look more dignified for everyone involved." After some consideration, I understood his point. He was still made of meat and bone. I was made of stone and even I was worried about the damage that falling from it would cause me. I was unsure of what he wanted, so I simply lay myself on the top of the stairs face down, glancing over my shoulder for him to get on. He sat with his entire body on my lower back, my stone form hardly noticing the pressure at all, as he grabbed my hair for a handle. Cutting himself on the glass filaments I chuckled a bit and bent my right arm behind my back for him to grab onto it. After pulling out a rag to clean off the cuts on his hands, he gripped my arm hard enough for me to notice and I began to use my knowledge of the stone and earth to shift it around me as delicately as I could, trying to travel up the staircase without causing lasting damage. What could have been a harrowing climb for a decent amount of time, it was a rather brisk journey, like a fish traveling upriver. Vanier looked so nervous and uncertain, but I didn't feel him shaking or shifting. He had put his whole trust that I would get him up safely and it was rather amazing.

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As we arrived in front of the door, he dismounted my back and I raised a pillar of earth to set me upright. I teased, "So, how did it feel to be the first man to ride me?" A simple tease with double meaning that I had collected from the taverns during my work. I thought it would be amusing to watch his swaggering demeanor vanish for even a moment.

I should have known better because his retort was snappy and prepared, "So smooth that it’s hard to believe I’m the first.” While I lacked blood for a blush, I was somewhat embarrassed by how quickly he produced that retort. He looked at the entryway carefully before calmly motioning me to follow. We couldn't have known at the time that there were no precautions. No traps or tricks. They had assumed at the time that their case was so persuasive that conversion was its own protection. And until we had arrived, that had held true. The promise of the Infinite was enough for the uneducated. As we walked down the stone tunnels in silence, Vanier kept muttering to himself, tracing his hands along the walls to trace the runes. As we finally rounded a corner and entered the antechamber, he froze as I walked into the large room. He analyzed the walls and the gathering of hundreds currently chiseling new symbols into the floor. As I moved to investigate, he seemed to be growing more and more agitated. As I tried to look at what they were carving he shouted, "What the hell do you think you are doing?!?" As his voice echoed in the halls, the residents smiled at his exclamation and as they did I recognized some of the runes. I didn't realize it in the moment, but they had been using some of the same runes that were used to make my current form. I didn't know it at the time, but I was seeing their attempt to climb what Vanier has come to call The Infinite Staircase.