The Ring

I stopped just inside the door. Staring in horror at the shining thing in the center of the room.

Glinting metal in the moon’s glow peering down from the skylight, which inexplicably allowed in moonlight from the sky. Despite that we buried in the core of the stronghold.

I stared at the device in the center of the room. A giant metal ring with flat pieces going from another smaller ring in the center. Padded with fur. The four flat pieces were all rising from the small ring straight upward.

Mathis walked to them and expertly began separating the flat plates and moving them apart. Letting two scrape down to the bottom and setting the other two at a forty five degree angles from the center.

“What is this?” I asked fearfully.

“Something new.” He said cheerfully. Adjusting those flat plates and then sliding over levers and setting them to hold the flat pieces in place. Pinched between the levers.

He went to a black corner and brought out a