It was an not a necessarily comfortable feeling, Illias would have thought he was dead had it not been for the fact he appeared in a group of other people mere moments later, however it was weirdly tranquil all the same - a short moment of nothingless, a complete absence of light and darkness, in a perpetual state of falling amongst the emptiness that embraced him. To him, it felt akin to his mothers embrace and reminded him of the ages that seemed to have passed since he had engaged in such a guilty pleasure. The only things coming in Dunlock Prison were prisoners, the guards were given bed at work. Illias felt an unnatural light on his face as he found himself in what he supposed was the inside of the curtain. Next to him, Ricky emptied what little his stomach contained after a night of digestion in doing so littering the glossy floor with a collage of whites, greens and oranges which seamlessly vanished into the ground within a blink.

The floor of the room that Illias found himself in reminded him of a cloudy sky, endlessly shifting grey smoke shifting with an imperceivable barrier between Illias's feet and a probably very long drop. The walls had none of the intricate grandiose of the floor design but a utilitarian blankness, Illias could tell that the room they were in was rather large and rectangular but it would've been impossible for him to make out the corners of the room had it not been for the contrast between floor and wall. In the room he stood accompanied by nine others, including a vomiting Ricky and one of the twins he'd met - Reko Swing, whom he could recognise by the glasses which helped differentiate between him and his elder sibling. Reko looked queasy, pale in the face and holding his body up by the knee , Illias could not feel any such symptoms on himself but he consciously associated it with the feeling of being brought here. Illias scrutinised the natives of the curtain up and down and found himself in awe at the discrepancy in the style of clothing and materials used. It made the clothes from the mortal world seem, well mortal. And their clothes had such variation even with just the seven specimens he had here to look over and he soon found himself thinking that it would be great if he had some real clothes as he was still donned in a tattered and worn sack.

Illias's prayers soon were soon found to be answered as a glorious white light descended from the ceiling above, once the radiance had less intensity he noticed that the ceiling simply followed the same design as the floor which, needless to say, was slightly disappointing. Illias felt the sack he was wearing disappear bit by bit, melting as the light touched it, and got replaced by a robe sporting which sported colour which the walls were made of. His body felt lighter, and the way his skin rubbed against the robe introduced him to sensitivity never thought possible. Surfacing himself from his thought Illias looked at the others who had faces of disturbance and shock, the curtain-dwellers and strangely Reko had pulled out a token which produced a glass-like barrier around them which shielded from the light. Illias felt his face redden quite heavily considering how everyone around him got to see the whole package but he was truly glad that he could finally wear clothes. Illias dared not to look at Ricky, who was - hopefully - at best just flexing his considerable muscles.

A subtle shift descended upon the room, in the direction that Illias was looking the wall simply slid backwards free of resistance revealing a much longer corridor and an open room at the end. The group ambled along the path in silence, Illias took the time to see that the corridors floor and ceiling was the same as it walls - so blank they almost taunted him as they walked to try ruin it's simplistic cleanliness but Illias could see further up that the floor returned to it's smokey goodness from before. Around halfway through the corridor a flash of green passed the group, rendering Illias with goosebumps and a chill that reached down to his bones in passing. It left one without secrets. After the green light passed one of the members of the group, a man rivalling in height to Illias with curly ash-blonde hair, stopped and let out an aged sigh before pulling a ruined black device - some sort of technology belonging to the curtain - from nowhere and throwing it to the ground in passing with a hefty grunt. The girl walking almost directly parallel to him did the same, instead discarding two devices - one black and one white - with one showing no damage. Illias pocketed it off the floor in passing, he didn't expect much due to his complete lack of knowledge but he wanted to try to accommodate himself to the new level of technologies. He would've taken the black device similarly but having to pick so many broken pieces from the ground would be tedious and make him fall behind. Fiddling with it in his palm, the white device was smooth like the pebble taken fresh from a river, it had a black glass screen and a singular concave button in a colour similar to the rest of the device - white.

Upon approaching the room at the end, noises of conversations became louder and much more pronounced, they found themselves between a flow of people at both sides. Of considerably more variety than one'd think, many of the people had peculiarities about them not seen outside. Groups of 10 trailing out one by one from their respective corridors which to Illias remain to be unseen. The hall was full of people but devoid of any objects like the rooms prior, people had already formed cliques of sorts discussing the goings on with people they seemed to already be familiar with. Reko ran off briskly, Illias looked at Ricky who had a cheshire grin plastered on his face who acknowledged him before similarly running off - without knowing where to go Illias followed him. Trying his best not to bump into people while following the massive Ricky, Illias found himself with the Called he'd met up with outside the portal; Ricky, Reko, Simon, Ysolda and Matri. Illias said his greetings and wanted to join in on the conversation but decided to listen for the meantime.

"It's just like gramps notes had written, Huh Reko?" Simon spoke excitedly, but a little too loud as it drew a few ireful looks, and Reko nodded to show his agreement. Simon continued, acknowledging Ysolda and Ricky this time instead: "The same for you guys as well?" he asked, a bit too casually. Ysolda nodded in agreement similarly to Reko.

"It's not much different" Ricky admitted, "Well the records I had for reference nearly only spoke about the second layer.", Ricky spoke in a much softer voice than Illias had expected from the hunk of a man.

"What's a layer?" Illias asked, gaining for himself more bewildered stares and rather than annoy them with asking more questions once being answered he asked again "And how did you guys find those records while in the outside?" As expected Ricky once again went into his stormy laughter, toned down in such a public environment, before explaining with a smug grin:

"The curtain is divided into layers" Ricky said, once again like it was the most simple thing ever but Illias had already intuited that from their conversation, "To pass most layers you must do a certain task. Some layers of course have no task, only requiring you to get to the exit point. Or some have completely been turned into cities. The first few layers are known as the layers of trials." taking a quick breath Ricky continued "And for how we know this, well some of the Called have returned from the curtain and left records for their descendants. Some like Ysolda's great great grandfather, Emperor Romanus Mazshi, left behind a crown from the curtain. It is thought that the crown is used somehow to increase the descendants chances of being called with the ratio of Mazshi Called far outstripping the others." Ysolda gave Ricky a withering look which he inched away from before speaking up for herself.

"From what I know the first layer is referred to as the Layer of the Soul, with the second being the Layer of Trials. And of the month long event called the Trainee Descent, most of the time is spent in the next two layers. Of those two, more time is spent in the Layer of Trials." She gave Illias a small smile after explaining and he couldn't help but smile back and thank her.Ysolda spoke up once more, "It is known that someone cannot really fail the first three layers, as once only every three years does the Trainee Descent happen. The reason the trials are so important is because of the insights into Vitae they give you." Illias raised his eyebrow up at this unfamiliar word but Ysolda gave him the same look she shot Ricky earlier before adding a final bit more, "Vitae is everything in the curtain, it is what you use to descend the curtain and ascend to greater strengths. While I am not sure to its actual uses as they are kept from someone who hasn't passed the first three layers I know that it has something to do with your soul."