ah the citadel, the spired cathedral, floating above the clouds, with some anti gravitational technology. silver jewelled  mirrored surfaces reflected blue skies and fluffy white clouds, the citadel city where everyone comes looking for beauty, looking for truth, looking for something in their final lifetime. azure marble, obsidian suit, i wandered the halls like a parallel ghost, being haunted by architecture, lines and angles, looking upwards at the curved crystal ceiling, no angels or signs, just majestic beauty.
at terminal seven i see a corridor, flanked by weeping statues of dead gods and a host of gargoyles that line the ceiling, each one unique, each changing in some strange weird trick of the light. i look at the one above, a small creature covering it's eyes, but when i look back it's poking it's long forked tongue out and it's eyes uncovered, and so it is with all of these structures. the walls shift and move, the corridor could crush but it expands into a huge hall, and i wander into it's centre. 
my footsteps ring, my breathing slows, each second slows time down, until it even feels like a thick soup and just as it comes to a stop i see the steps that lead downwards.
descent is fast time, i fathom that each direction has it's own time, forwards slows, downwards speeds, backwards makes time leap randomly but if i move upwards time streams backwards.
down down downwards we go, plunging into stygian depths where light has no place, they say light is fast but this darkness got here first, it's ancient darkness, it stinks of prehistory and light won't come here. the citadel contains its own contradiction, beauty and light leads to love and truth, yet down here, there's nothing worth seeking.
i feel the soft heat, it's on my face, hands, tiny sweat beads forming, each step downwards until the heat is uncomfortable, and i take my jacket off, i slip out of my shoes and socks.
i'm covered in sweat, it's unbearable but before me i see the radiating heat, the gleaming eyes of a fierce and intelligent beast. it's so very hot, my skin starts to blister as the huge face comes out of the darkness, the eyes large and filled with secrets, the snout long and crocodilian, strange creature stands majestically opening it's huge webbed wings, the dragon stretches it's neck upwards and snorts out flames into the black void. 
the dragon seems to constrict to a smaller size, i make out it's pointy tail floating above its head, a sharp arrow like ending points at me.
'are you prepared for fire to burn your flesh away?'
dragons don't talk, but they are astute and operate on psychic levels the thought enters my head.
i think i manage a smile, 'yeah dragon, i'm prepared as i will ever be.'
for there is no way out, no way back, like the invisible leap, no warning, no second thought for one must stand naked before the flame in the now that is eternal.
the fire engulfs, a cold fire, chilling my skin, it tears away in chunks and reveals the new flesh, a purple shimmering form, glistens and pulses with the liberation. my hair falls away, the heat penetrates into my body, my heart and bodily organs burn away, and something new pulses inside, the one heart, the dragons heart, we are kin now. i bow down and thank the beast and the voice speaks silently, deep and ancient, 'you will henceforth be known as captain mission and your duty will be to the water dragons, to the fire dragons, to the earth dragons and to the air dragons but i have chosen you for another task, the service of the ether dragons, they are part of you, they will guide and protect you, they will assist you where ever you roam.'
'i will honour the dragons and be loyal to them.'
i find my way back retracing my steps with enhanced vision, my eyes see everything now.