Solon's Castle

The Doctor arrives with Sarah at the castle’s heavy oaken doors, breathless from their flight across the jagged rocks. Beyond the grand entrance, the fortress rises dark and imposing, its obsidian walls drinking in the dim coastal light while mist curls around its foundations. The air carries the sharp tang of salt from the nearby Sea of Karn, mixed with the heavier scent of old stone and the faint metallic bite of Solon’s unseen experiments. Sarah’s sudden blindness sharpens every other sense—her fingers trace the rough-hewn balustrade of the grand staircase, her pulse hammering against the quiet weight of the castle’s centuries. The Doc’s urgency pushes them forward, though the floor’s hematite tiles echo with hollow menace underfoot, each step a testament to the violence Solon’s refined civility will soon attempt.