Gosseyn was aware of energies probing his nervous system, making adjustments. At one point, his eyesight dimmed and blurred, as something was being done to the visual centers of his brain; at another point, his eyesight suddenly sharpened, his vision clearer and more precise than before. It was not until a moment later that Gosseyn realized, with a shock, that his point of view was not dimmed by the transparent lid of the medical coffin but was hovering a few inches above it. The Crypt of the Sleeping God was as Gosseyn remembered it: The far wall curved into the chamber. From each corner arched a columned pylon. The four curved pilasters ended on a narrow buttress about twenty feet out from where the wall should have been. It could have been the head of a coffin: Gosseyn could see his own features beneath the surface, which was made in a set of overlapping, sliding plates. The inner wall was translucent and glowed with an all-pervading light. Steps, also made of sliding plates, led from the bottom to the top of the buttress.
