Anest thought at first that he was seeing a mirrorlike pillar, but soon realised he was mistaken. Nor was it transparent . . . he couldn't see the forest beyond through it. The object seemed to bend or wrap light around itself . . . the actual artifact, if indeed there was one, was not visible at all.
"There is the answer to every riddle!" Anest whispered, faintly. "Yet I can think of no question equal to it!"
"I would never have believed . . ." Lily breathed. "We look upon the face of a living Power, old beyond imagining! It remembers the ancient trees, and the deeps of caves and oceans of ages long past. Can you feel it?"
As they approached, cautiously, the potency of the whirling pillar made the air about them feel charged, and their eyes stung and teared. Standing directly before it, they both felt disoriented and slightly nauseous as they tried to focus their eyes. Its energy roared like that of an immense waterfall of tidal proportions, though from a distance it made no sound. It seemed to swirl in and out of itself simultaneously.
"What should we do?" cried Anest, and realised shouting wasn't necessary; the roaring wasn't actually a sound at all.
"Its vision beyond the Black Wood is limited," she told him, taking the Summoning Stone from her robes. "It wonders at this, and waits upon us for news." She turned to Anest, an eyebrow raised. "Look for no overt ally here, my husband. If aid is given, it will be only an indirect consequence of this entity's self-preservation. I will ask sufferance for the presence of elves and men, but I cannot guarantee its full understanding."