At the center of the room was a void. Three feet long and one foot wide at its largest point, the void tapered off and sat silently- immovable. What was remarkable was just how normal it seemed. Floating six inches above the pedestal, all light and energy and color in the room drained away where it met The Rift. It wasn't black; not even ebony; those are colors, a place where something should have been. No, this was... Nothing. Strict procedures were in place to ensure that anyone or anything entering or leaving the room would not come into contact with the void.  

 Some of the elders knew that their ceremonial robes shielded their energy from becoming unglued, like radiation suits worn by the Ruby Engineering Guild's energy workers. What none of them knew is where the void had come from. Families that worked here before heard stories dating back at least two-thousand millennia about the object. "The Artifact" was it’s oldest name and it seemed to have stuck. Nothing else could describe something that you couldn't prove was there. 

 And today, The Artifact was growing.