The simple question did not receive a simple answer.
The open door in the black mountain began to breathe.
There was no other word to describe it. The immense luminous arch, formed between towers that rearranged themselves like the bones of a divine corpse, expanded and contracted in slow pulses. With each expansion, a layer of deep blue sky appeared beyond the passage. With each contraction, that blue was swallowed by white shadows, as though frozen clouds were trying to seal again what had been awakened. The sound produced was not wind, thunder, or stone breaking. It was something lower, more organic, like the heart of an ancient creature beating inside the mountain.
