Ruthorn led me straight through the big hall, and up another stairway to the second floor. The building resembled an ascending mountain slope, with stairs leading from one level to the next. On the second floor, there were 100 small rooms all aligned in a large square shape which opened onto a small garden. It looked so pleasant and cosy, filled with trees and flowers, and even a fountain in a pond in which colourful fishes lazily swam.

“This part of the building used to be a school where the children learned and lived for nine years. And these rooms were their accommodation,” Ruthorn explained.

The area looked unoccupied and deserted, but it was still very clean and well-looked after. Every tree and every flower seemed so naturally bright and fresh and recently watered.

“It’s so quiet here,” I remarked, after having peeked into some of the closed rooms. “You must have had many students here in the past, judging by the number of rooms.”

“Yes, the last student we had here was …. I’ll let you guess who that was,” he said with a little smile.

“I don’t think I know who that could have been,” I replied.

“You know this person very well.”

“Let me guess; was it Koharu?”

“Correct! She was our last student, and there hasn’t been anyone else – until now. You know, I need to add the story of you and Koharu to my world history as the latest record,” Ruthorn said excitedly.

“Which record do you mean?”

“We record the birth of every new being received by parents who both came directly from planet Gaia, and, for this entry, the birth spans over two family generations too,” he explained.

“How is that?”

“Koharu was born to a father who came from Gaia and entered Tuengra through an interstellar portal. And the child, who will be delivered by Koharu, has you as the father who also came from Gaia via a special portal too. A unique case indeed, making your newborn the first child in Tuengra with roots from two family generations who originated from Gaia,” Ruthorn explained.

“So, you also know about this …?” For a moment I had forgotten that he also had the advanced mental ability and could read my thoughts instantly, of course.

“I have known it at the moment of fertilisation,” Ruthorn smiled.

“So, that means that you also know that … Uh … never mind ….” I stopped talking and wondered if he had seen everything that Koharu and I had done over the past few days.

“If it’s any consolation, I don’t know everything, and I haven’t seen everything that has happened between the two of you. If I would see every single picture of what everyone is doing on this planet, my brain would surely explode,” he replied with a laugh, as he had read my thoughts again.

“And also, I’d like to congratulate you for becoming the father of a new human being on Tuengra soon. It’s such wonderful news, especially in this time of crisis.”

“Thank you very much,” I replied.

We continued to walk up the stairs until we reached the third floor, which was the accommodation area. From there the stairs seemed to lead to at least another ten floors. The structure was made from many huge stones, neatly stacked one over another, like the ones that I had already seen in other parts of the building. It reminded me of how stones were set in ancient structures like the pyramids. The workmanship was so precise, that even though each cube had a different size and shape, there was hardly a gap between each cube for even a thin sheet of paper to be slipped through.

“This part serves as accommodation for our visitors. It includes 120 bedrooms on each floor over 12 stories, plus two floors allocated to the technicians, with 120 bedrooms each as well. So overall, there are 14 floors with a total of 1,680 bedrooms. If two visitors share a room, we can accommodate as many as 3,360 people at the same time.”

“Wow, this is huge. Has it ever been fully occupied?” I asked, visibly impressed.

“Of course!” Ruthorn replied. “This happened often as this place was formerly used as a conference centre. Also, since there are as many as 78 interstellar portals here, it’s also the meeting point for those departing for Gaia.”

“That includes the portal that I passed through, right?” I asked.

“No, actually that one isn’t included in the 360 portals. It’s an extra portal which sits in front of the main portal gate number four,” Ruthorn explained.

“What do you mean? I don’t understand it,” I replied.

“It means that the real portal is on the other side of the planet, where the pyramids stand, but you entered from the opposite side. If we were to draw a line through the core of the planet starting from the main portal, the location at the other end of the line would be marked by the pyramids. We have marked that point in that way so that it can be found easily.”

“For this reason, there are not only 360 portals spread over your planet, but there are an additional 360 secondary portals. So, if we count them all, we have 720 portals in total,” Ruthorn explained.

“Oh, that sounds complicated,” I confessed.

“It’s not that complicated, and in fact, there’s another interesting detail,” Ruthorn went on. “Among those 360 main portals, there is one that wasn’t built by us; this portal was designed by the Creator himself. It wasn’t built by man or by us, it existed even before the creation of this world. That portal was the one we used first before we built the other ones over time.”

“Why did you have to build more …?” I was going to ask, but Ruthorn cut me off by saying, “I’ll explain everything to you later.”

“Tonight, you will sleep on the fourteenth floor, which is the highest floor of the building,” he said as we continued to walk again.